Murder brings back unwanted memories for Lansing mother

LANSING, Ill. (WLS) -- A murder this week in the south suburbs is bringing back unwanted memories for a mother in Lansing whose daughter was killed by the same man nearly two decades ago.

Nineteen years ago, Ora Ellis's daughter was killed by her then-boyfriend. He went to prison, but was released last year after serving only half his sentence.

He is now back in prison and charged with the exact same crime.

A pre-recorded phone message is how Ellis found out her daughter's killer, released from prison just last year, was once again behind bars, charged with stabbing his girlfriend to death. It's the same way he killed 23-year-old Sumi Smith in November of 1996.

Smith was a divorced mother of three and an operator at Ameritech, where she met a Owen Stephney, then 24-years-old. They dated for five months before he stabbed her to death when she tried to break up with him.

This latest crime took place Tuesday morning in south suburban Lansing under eerily similar circumstances. Rochelle Rebb, 49, was found dead inside her apartment. She had been stabbed several times. A short time later, police arrested Stephney, who is now 42-years-old. Stephney was paroled in May of last year after serving 19 years of a 35-year murder sentence.

"He has been out a little over a year, a year and four months and he's taken another life," Ellis said. "Had they not let him out, this woman would be alive."

Charged with two counts of first degree murder in this latest incident, Stephney is back in Statesville Prison while Ellis is forced to re-live her daughter's death through another family's pain.

"I can honestly say, 'I know what you're going through,'" she said.

While Ellis does not know Rebb's family, she says she plans to be in court every step of the way.