Neighbor’s killing means man faces murder charge

Czarnecki allegedly used victim’s SUV in a Missouri assault.

A man accused of killing his neighbor in metro Atlanta, then using that same neighbor’s SUV in a violent kidnapping in Missouri has been charged with murder.

John Czarnecki, 53, faces aggravated assault and murder charges in the death of Abraham Rudolph Jacobs, Chamblee police said Monday.

Czarnecki and another man are also accused of kidnapping a woman at knifepoint from a Walmart parking lot Thursday in Cape Girardeau, Mo., about 115 miles southeast of St. Louis.

“I think their plan was to go west,” Chamblee Capt. Ernesto Ford said.

Investigators suspect Missouri was just a stop along the way, Ford said.

Chamblee police had no idea a man was dead in an apartment in the 2100 block of Dresden Drive when the FBI asked them to assist with an investigation into the kidnapping.

And they did not initially know Czarnecki was one of two suspects in the abduction.

Authorities connected him to the crime after he used the kidnapping victim’s credit cards. They also reviewed surveillance video and photos from the Walmart that allowed them to get the tag number of the SUV.

The SUV, authorities learned, was registered to Jacobs.

That led police to Jacobs’ apartment about 8:20 p.m. Thursday, Ford said.

When authorities could not find him, FBI “agents had reason to believe that Jacobs ... may be a victim as well,” according to Ford.

About the same time, the FBI learned Czarnecki — Jacobs’ neighbor — had been identified as one of the suspects in the kidnapping. A warrant was obtained to search his apartment when efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.

In the kitchen, officers found boxes, clothing and debris.

They also found “a large blood spatter on the cabinet under the sink and a hand and arm sticking out of the debris,” according to an incident report.

Jacobs’ body was among the debris, authorities said.

Police are investigating the death as a homicide with armed robbery as the motive, Ford said. It was not clear Monday afternoon how long Jacobs had been dead or how he died.

The Kansas Highway Patrol and U.S. Marshals Service captured Czarnecki along with 47-year-old Christopher G. Smith about 7:50 p.m. Friday in the western part of the state, Cape Girardeau police said.

They were charged with kidnapping, robbery and armed criminal action, according to the post. Smith has not been charged in connection with Jacobs’ death. — STAFF WRITER STEVE BURNS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS STORY.