Assisted living center strangulation suspect a convicted child rapist

Trenneth Axel Pace, 60, was charged Friday with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Eudy. He remains in the Edgecombe County jail without bond.

Pace was convicted in Boston in 1982 of strong-arm rape and two counts of a child under 14, according to the North Carolina sex offender registry.

First responders were called to Open Fields Assisted Living, at 3210 Western Blvd., on April 5 about an unresponsive resident and found 75-year-old Eudy dead.

According to her death certificate, Eudy had been asphyxiated and suffered traumatic injuries to her neck from manual strangulation.

Pace also is charged with raping another Open Fields resident in April. The 72-year-old woman suffered a medical emergency after the assault, police said.

Court records show Pace has schizophrenia and that he has spent time at Cherry Hospital, a state psychiatric hospital in Goldsboro.

Open Fields is an adult care facility, so it houses not only the elderly but also people with disabilities, including severe and persistent mental illness.

There is no state law restricting sex offenders from living in an assisted living facility, nor are there any regulations that the elderly and mental ill be separated in a facility, authorities said.

Open Fields administrators knew that Pace was a registered sex offender, authorities said. Edgecombe County deputies would check in on him during on-site visits every three months.

Administrators couldn't be reached for comment Monday.