A 24-year-old man is accused of fatally strangling a Forest View woman he’d met on social media and leaving her body in the back seat of her car in South Austin last month, prosecutors said Saturday.
Judge Susana Ortiz on Saturday ordered Richard Chavez held without bail on a first-degree murder charge during a bond hearing Saturday afternoon.
Charisma Ehresman, 20, was found dead in the back seat of her vehicle in the 5900 block of West Iowa Street in the South Austin neighborhood on Jan. 28, three days after she was reported missing and five days after she was last seen leaving her Forest View home, Cook County prosecutors said during the hearing.
After the two communicated on social media, they decided to meet in person and she left her home Jan. 23 in her red Ford Fiesta and went to Chavez’s home, parking her car in the 600 block of South Maple Avenue in Oak Park, prosecutors said.
Doorbell surveillance from a nearby home shows Chavez walked out of his home and walked back in with Ehresman around 10:38 p.m. Jan. 23, prosecutors said.
Around 7:30 a.m. the next day, surveillance video shows Chavez getting into Ehresman’s car and driving it to the 5900 block of West Iowa Street, parking it there and walking east, prosecutors said. No one else exited the car, prosecutors said.
Chavez walked around the area for about an hour then called his brother to pick him up, prosecutors said. His brother picked him up around 9:37 a.m. less than a mile from where he parked the car, prosecutors said.
Ehresman is never seen leaving Chavez’s home and Ehresman’s last phone call was to Chavez’s phone, prosecutors said.
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Cell phone records show Chavez’s phone was pinged in the area where he was seen walking after he parked the car, prosecutors said. Surveillance video shows he was wearing a mask when he drove the car to South Austin, prosecutors said.
On Jan. 25, when Chavez was placed in custody for an outstanding DUI warrant, police spotted lacerations on his hands and he appeared to have cut his hair, prosecutors said.
While in custody, Chavez called his parents and asked them to “get his passport ready,” prosecutors said. He told police he’d gone to sleep by 8 p.m. after the two “hooked up” on Jan. 23 and when he woke up after 10 a.m., Ehresman was gone.
On Jan. 28, Ehresman’s car was found and she was found in the back seat with a jacket covering her face, prosecutors said.
Ehresman died of asphyxiation caused by strangulation and being smothered, prosecutors said. Her death was ruled a homicide.
After getting a search warrant on Jan. 31, police searched Chavez’s home and found a partially packed suitcase, the mask he’s seen wearing in surveillance video and hair clippings in his garbage, prosecutors said.
Alfredo Acosta, Chavez’s attorney, said he is a United States citizen and his relatives, including his father, were in court. Acosta questioned how he “really is” a threat or danger to anyone in the public because he does not have any violence in his background.
Chavez is due back in court Feb. 24.