Pava LaPere, 26, who co-founded EcoMap Technologies and was on this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list for social impact, was found dead in her Baltimore apartment about 11:30 a.m. Monday, police said. Officers, responding to a missing-person call made shortly beforehand, found that LaPere had suffered severe head injuries, police said at a news conference Tuesday.

City officials said Tuesday that an arrest warrant had been issued for Billingsley, 32, who is charged with first-degree murder in LaPere’s death. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) said Billingsley, a registered sex offender, was released from prison last fall.

Police said Wednesday that Billingsley was also wanted in connection with a case of attempted murder, arson and rape in a different part of the city on Sept. 19, and announced a cash reward for information leading to his arrest.

“We implore residents to be aware of your surroundings at all times,” acting Baltimore police commissioner Richard Worley said at the Tuesday news conference. “This individual will kill, and he will rape. He will do anything he can to cause harm.”

The suspect’s mother, Scarlett Billingsley, told NBC News on Wednesday that she had spoken to her son by text message Tuesday and had urged him to surrender.

“I told him to turn himself in because they’re going to kill him,” she said. She did not immediately respond to a request from The Washington Post for comment.

Police said they believe LaPere and Billingsley did not know each other, but it’s unclear how authorities were able to determine that Billingsley is a suspect. Worley said LaPere’s apartment complex had security measures that would have required someone to “allow the [suspect] in the building.”

Billingsley, who also faces charges such as assault and reckless endangerment in the LaPere killing, was convicted of violent crimes in 2009, 2011 and 2015, including a sex offense, city officials said. After pleading guilty to a first-degree sex offense in 2015, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison with all but 14 years suspended, records show. But Billingsley was released from prison last October.

A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning. The agency told the New York Times that Billingsley was released “on mandatory supervision as required by statute” and not on parole.

The mayor told reporters Tuesday that Billingsley should never have been released.

“The conviction should be the conviction,” Scott said.

LaPere’s death was met with “profound sadness and shock” by EcoMap Technologies, the Baltimore start-up she co-founded to improve accessibility of information by mapping it and putting it on an accessible platform.

“The circumstances surrounding Pava’s death are deeply distressing, and our deepest condolences are with her family, friends, and loved ones during this incredibly devastating time,” the company wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “Pava was not only the visionary force behind EcoMap but was also a deeply compassionate and dedicated leader.”

A vigil was planned for Wednesday in memory of LaPere. Her father, Frank LaPere, remembered her as “an inspiration to so many people.”

“She was driven, creative, hard-working and relentless in her efforts, with her wonderful team at EcoMap Technologies,” he wrote on Facebook. “Pava made an impact in every endeavor she undertook and on every life she touched. She will be forever missed as a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin and loyal friend.”

LaPere was considered an innovative leader. She founded EcoMap with chief operating officer Sherrod Davis when she was only 21 and still in school at Johns Hopkins University, according to the company’s website. In a 2018 interview with the university, LaPere, who grew up in Tucson, emphasized how excited she was to centralize resources for entrepreneurs.

“If you love the problem you are solving, none of it feels like work,” she said. “I know it’s cliché, but it’s the truth. If you love the problem, you can throw your heart and energy into your venture without a second thought, and that’s what makes the ordeal of entrepreneurship worth it.”

Forbes wrote of LaPere in its 30 Under 30 list that her company had raised more than $4 million and had clients such as the Aspen Institute, Meta, the WXR Fund and the T. Rowe Price Foundation. After the company closed on a successful funding round in June, LaPere said she was “particularly proud of the number of investors from our hometown of Baltimore.”

“We are passionately committed to making an impact on the city, and we are proud to be part of its growing tech ecosystem,” she said in a news release.

Baltimore police are asking anyone with information on Billingsley’s whereabouts to call 911. Anyone with a tip leading to his arrest is eligible for an award up to $6,000, police said.

Mayor Scott told reporters he was proud to get to know LaPere, whom he described as “a very young, talented, devoted Baltimorean … who would help anybody that she would see.”

“To have that light cut short by someone who has no care about anything other than harming people is something that should sit deep in the stomachs of all Baltimoreans,” the mayor said.