Hiker ‘sexually assaulted and murdered in woodland’ after she vanished on stroll

An Illinois man is accused of sexually assaulting and murdering a hiker who disappeared after changing into drained whereas on a stroll along with her mother.

Police have spent 4 years attempting to piece collectively the ultimate actions of Vanessa Ceja Ramirez, who was discovered partially burned and strangled in woodland at a nature protect.

The final recognized phrases of the 22-year-old had been a message indicating she had returned to the household automobile alone as a result of she was uninterested in the hike at Midlothian Meadows in Cook dinner County, Illinois.

However when her mother returned to the car after the day trip, Ramirez was nowhere to be seen.

This week, police introduced a serious breakthrough within the case as Dakota Petrey, 30, was charged in connection along with her dying.

Police say Petrey was recognized to go to the protect and lived in an condominium in close by Oak Forest, the place Ramirez’s cellular phone pinged for the final time.

He was behind bars on the time of his arrest on unrelated fees however detectives pinpointed him because the prime suspect after a DNA check.

“This heinous crime is each guardian’s worst nightmare,” Cook dinner County Sheriff Tom Dart stated in an announcement. “It took years of tireless work by our police detectives to research this case, however we by no means gave up on discovering Vanessa’s killer and searching for justice for her and her household.”

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Petrey is charged with first-degree homicide and aggravated sexual assault.

Talking after Ramirez’s disappearance in 2020, her uncle Alejandro Villegas advised CBS Chicago: “She’s simply anyone that we believed in, that had our future in her fingers, identical to most of our children right here. She was a candy youngster that was humble, smiled, shy. She was a very good individual. And she or he simply did not deserve something of this.”