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Joshua Gurto Arrested: Police Catch Ohio Man Accused Of Raping, Murdering His Girlfriend’s Infant Daughter

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 16:10 PST, Oct 27, 2017

Joshua Gurto is under arrest, with police in Pennsylvania saying they caught the Ohio man accused of raping and murdering his girlfriend’s infant daughter.

The 37-year-old Gurto had been on the run for three weeks after the death of the 13-month-old girl, the New York Daily News reported. But police were able to track him down in the Pittsburgh area on Friday and take him into custody.

The infant girl, Sereniti Jazzlynn-Sky Blankenship-Sutley, was found in the family’s apartment in Ohio on October 7 unresponsive and with serious injuries to her head and body. The girl was taken to a nearby hospital but died there. Investigators determined that the infant girl had also been raped, and leveled aggravated murder and rape charges against Joshua Gurto.

The report indicated that Joshua Gurto may have been planning to continue running from police when he was arrested. The New York Daily News noted that he had maps of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and was also in possession of a knife.

The suspect had maps of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and was in possession of a knife when he was arrested, authorities said Friday. Gurto was spotted by a Franklin Park police officer, who noticed that he was wearing camouflage and a backpack, fitting the description of the murder suspect.

“The officer had an idea who he was based on the description, he had a backpack yesterday,” Franklin Park Police Chief Walter Healy said (via CBS Pittsburgh).

Gurto was stopped by police and held at gunpoint as he was arrested, Healy added.

“A suspect like that, who, in his mind, might think that there’s everything to lose by being caught by the police, they’re very dangerous. You don’t know what they’re going to do,” said Chief Healy.

But Gurto went into custody without incident, and reportedly told officers he was done running.

There had been several sightings of Joshua Gurto in the area around Franklin Park in the days before his arrest, and before that he had been seen in Erie, Pennsylvania, CBS Pittsburgh noted.

A number of media outlets had been following the search for Gurto, giving updates of when and where he was spotted leading up to his arrest on Friday.

After his arrest, Joshua Gurto is being held in Pennsylvania and expected to be sent back to Ohio to face charges that he raped and murdered his girlfriend’s infant daughter.

[Featured Image by Conneaut Police Department]

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