Dakota Petrey

A Central Illinois man is being held in Cook County Jail in connection with the 2020 slaying of a 22-year-old Harvey woman.

Dakota Petrey of Lewistown has been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault in the death of Vanessa Ceja Ramirez. Her body was found in the Midlothian Meadows Forest Preserve on Nov. 4, 2020, two days after she had disappeared while on a walk there.

Ceja Ramirez had been strangled and her body had been partially burned. There was also evidence that she had been sexually assaulted.

Cook County Sheriff’s Police launched an investigation, executing dozens of search warrants and submitting multiple pieces of evidence for DNA comparisons. Police said Petrey was identified as the offender.

Detectives said they learned that at the time of Ceja Ramirez’s disappearance, Petrey lived at an apartment building in Oak Forest, where the victim’s cell phone pinged shortly after family members reported her missing.

Investigators said they connected Petrey’s DNA and DNA recovered at the crime scene. Petrey was known to frequent Midlothian Meadows, according to investigators.

There is no indication that Petrey and Ceja Ramirez knew each other.

“This heinous crime is every parent’s worst nightmare,” Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said. “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.”

An arrest warrant was issued for Petrey on Thursday and Sheriff’s Police took him into custody on Saturday after he was released from Fulton County Jail in Lewistown, where he had been held since Oct. 7 on unrelated charges.

Petrey had his initial appearance Sunday at the George Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago.