A Central Illinois man is being held after being charged with murder in the 2020 death of a Harvey woman whose partially burned body was found in a forest preserve near Midlothian.
Cook County sheriff’s police said Tuesday that 30-year-old Dakota Petrey, of Lewistown, was taken into custody Saturday and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault in the death of 22-year-old Vanessa Ceja-Ramirez.
Her body was found Nov. 4, 2020, in the Midlothian Meadows Forest Preserve, near 15300 S. Pulaski Road, two days after she disappeared while on a walk there.
Ceja-Ramirez was strangled and her body partially burned, according to police, who said there was also evidence she had been sexually assaulted.
She went missing following a walk with her mother and friend in the forest preserve, authorities said at the time. The 22-year-old decided to split with them at some point, but when her mother and friend returned to the car, Ceja-Ramirez was not there.
A missing person flyer stated she was last seen at Bremen Grove, near 159th Street and Oak Park Avenue, roughly 4 miles west of where her body was found.
Police from the Cook County Forest Preserve District, the sheriff’s office and other agencies searched that forest preserve before Ceja-Ramirez was later found at Midlothian Meadows.
Sheriff’s police said Tges. Lewistown is southwest of Peoria.
According to sheriff’s policuesday that Petrey was arrested after he was released from the Fulton County Jail in Lewistown, where he had been held since early last October on unrelated chare in that county, Petrey turned himself in after being wanted for unlawful possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
He was ordered held following an initial court appearance Sunday at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California in Chicago.
Sheriff’s police said their investigation included the execution of dozens of search warrants and multiple pieces of evidence for DNA comparison.
Investigators learned that, at the time of the woman’s disappearance, Petrey lived at an apartment building in Oak Forest where the victim’s cellphone pinged shortly after she was reported missing by family members.
Police said they were able to connect Petrey’s DNA and DNA recovered from the victim and the crime scene. Investigators were also able to determine that he was known to frequent Midlothian Meadows.
Police said there is no indication that Petrey and Ceja-Ramirez knew each other.
“This heinous crime is every parent’s worst nightmare,” Sheriff Tom Dart said in a news release announcing Petrey’s arrest. “It took years of tireless work by our police detectives to investigate this case, but we never gave up on finding
Vanessa’s killer and seeking justice for her and her family.”
