Prosecutors say nursing student found dead on West Side was strangled by man she met online
A 20-year-old nursing student found dead last month on the West Side was killed by a man she recently met online, Cook County prosecutors said in court Saturday.
Richard Chavez, 24, faces a first-degree murder charge in Charisma Ehresman’s death.
On Jan. 23, prosecutors said Ehresman drove to Chavez’s Oak Park home, where a private surveillance camera recorded Chavez walking on the sidewalk about 10:40 p.m. and going inside with Ehresman.
She was not seen leaving the home, prosecutors said.
The next morning, Chavez drove Ehresman’s car to the 5900 block of West Iowa Street and got out alone, prosecutors said. He then allegedly walked around for about an hour before calling his brother to pick him up less than a mile away.
Ehresman was reported missing by her family on Jan. 25. Her father told the Sun-Times it was uncharacteristic for his daughter not to let her family know where she was.
Police found Ehresman’s body three days later in the back seat of her car with a jacket covering her face, prosecutors said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office determined she died of strangulation and smothering and ruled her death a homicide.
Prosecutors said cell phone records showed the last call Ehresman made was to a number registered to Chavez and her phone’s location records showed it “pinged” at his address on Jan. 23.
Detectives spoke to Chavez at his home on the day she was reported missing and he was taken into custody on an outstanding arrest warrant in a pending DUI case out of North Riverside, according to court records.
Chavez told detectives the two “hooked up” and when he woke up the next morning, Ehresman had already gone, prosecutors said.
While in custody, Chavez made a call to his parents that was recorded in which he asked them to get his passport ready, prosecutors said.
Investigators searched Chavez’s house on Jan. 31 and found a suitcase that was partially packed in his bedroom and a mask he was seen wearing in surveillance footage after abandoning Ehresman’s car, prosecutors said.
Judge Susana Ortiz ordered Chavez held without bail. A private defense attorney for Chavez could not be reached Saturday.