Found Deceased IL - Vanessa Ceja Ramirez, 22, murdered, Midlothian, 2 Nov 2020

[K9Enzo]

Respectfully snipped to address just this last part - If she walked basically all the way back to Midlothian Meadows before encountering her attacker, she would have been walking along regular streets for part of the way, not just park trails. She would have passed gas stations and medical facilities among other establishments in broad daylight. I'd hope that she might have been captured by cctv along that route to help cement the timeline of this crime.

Oh, that’s a big deal (IMO). It changes visibility of her walking alone to more bad guys, who could have business in the area, who just happened to see her.

 

[Userid]

Oh, that’s a big deal (IMO). It changes visibility of her walking alone to more bad guys, who could have business in the area, who just happened to see her.

Agreed. She basically would have been in and out of the forest preserve, as the trail is visible from the road for long stretches, not visible for other stretches. This jogger in the link below gives you an idea of how the trail goes in and out of the woods, this is what drivers on 159th would see. 159th is a busy, 4 lane road. Anybody could have seen her. I feel more like her abductor was driving as opposed to hiding in the woods, and saw her from 159th when she was alone.

خرائط ‪Google

Further east, after Central Avenue all the way up to Cicero, she would have been completely out of the forest preserve, out in the open. On the flip side of that though, it would have been hard for her to be abducted from such a busy and open sidewalk.‬‏‏

 

[Userid]

There was supposed to be a press conference today at 4. I didn't see it on ABC. Did anyone see it or have an update?

 

[Falling Down]

Latest:

Family, friends of woman found strangled in Midlothian forest preserve send message to killer: ‘We’re coming and we’re not going to stop’

$10K reward offered for information in Harvey woman's murder, disappearance in Midlothian forest preserve - Internewscast

 

[rinmcg]

I’ve been wondering, do you think the killer will act again? Is this what police are waiting for? I’m really scared for the fact that torture was involved and that there are no leads. I am scared this will end up being a serial killer and the reward keeps going up by the hour but not a single person has information.
I just hope Vanessa’s family can get closure in someway soon.

 

[Falling Down]

I’ve been wondering, do you think the killer will act again? Is this what police are waiting for? I’m really scared for the fact that torture was involved and that there are no leads. I am scared this will end up being a serial killer and the reward keeps going up by the hour but not a single person has information.
I just hope Vanessa’s family can get closure in someway soon.

Judging by Google maps, the park itself is not all that large, really. Obviously this individual knew the park well enough to be able to get her off the trail into a secluded spot.

There are quite a few ways to get into and out of there. Already this case is giving me the creeps, it's got similarities with some other murders along public access and public trails here in the Midwest in recent years.

 

[legman]

I guess the biggest question for me is figuring out where the murder took place. If somebody just lured her or forcibly took her off of the trail and committed the crime there, then that is confident, brash and risky. I would guess that that means this isn’t the first time the killer has done something like this.

And it seems like a random crime of opportunity, so even though she doesn’t fit the victim profile of the other stranglings in the Chicago area since 2001, I wouldn’t necessarily rule that angle out. The partially burned body is at least a potential link to some of those other cases too.

We know that even some of the most cruel serial killers have just seemed like normal guys or even family men to the people in their respective personal lives before they get caught. What if this seemingly normal guy was just out for a normal activity and saw an opportunity when she was alone and nobody was around and felt comfortable or confident in committing those horrible crimes because they had already done it multiple times without getting caught.

It also seems like a lot of serial killers escalate and end up taking more risks until they get caught. If this potential serial killer had become comfortable targeting the disadvantaged, then this would definitely be an escalation in my opinion. They could have acted out of character and committed an opportunistic crime outside of their MO, panicked when they saw the phone thinking she might have recorded something (not out of the question to think she was taking pictures or selfies while walking) and grabbed it, or maybe just stole it, and didn’t realize that it would ping towers until it was too late.

I would need to know for sure where she went missing and where her body was found and whether or not they have the cell phone. Also, aren’t cell phone pings kind of unreliable? At least sometimes? Like, even if it pinged from those apartments, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the phone was there? I don’t know.

Alright, that’s my rambling theory, but I understand people being skeptical of that potential link. Either way, I’m glad those cases were brought up, because I didn’t know about them and over 50 is quite a lot in around 20 years, even for an area with such a huge population.

 

[K9Enzo]

Her poor body being partially burned might be a result of the bad guy not knowing how hard it is to burn a body. Panic steps. Then it appears to me they took her phone but was not smart enough to know LE can ping it’s last/current location. Right now, I’m leaning more towards a young-ish male, probably their first murder. IMO

 

[BlkMtnGirl]

If her phone was off and then turned on to ping at the apartments, it’s possible the phone was planted there or even thrown inside a random car to throw off law enforcement. It’s hard for me to think someone would be smart enough to turn it off and then dumb enough to turn it back on in their apartment. But stranger things have happened.

 

[Yemelyan]

There was supposed to be a press conference today at 4. I didn't see it on ABC. Did anyone see it or have an update?

It wasn't a press conference so much as a vigil. It was organized by family but was very well attended by the public and the Midlothian mayor was also there. Multiple Chicago news stations covered it. The article linked by @Falling Down above that talks about the reward increasing again discussed it.

 

[Userid]

Her poor body being partially burned might be a result of the bad guy not knowing how hard it is to burn a body. Panic steps. Then it appears to me they took her phone but was not smart enough to know LE can ping it’s last/current location. Right now, I’m leaning more towards a young-ish male, probably their first murder. IMO

Either that or he wasn't necessarily trying to burn the entire body, but only parts of the body, perhaps to destroy his DNA evidence. I hate to even bring this up, but it could also could have been part of the "torture" that the neighborhood activist spoke about.

 

[Userid]

Latest:

Family, friends of woman found strangled in Midlothian forest preserve send message to killer: ‘We’re coming and we’re not going to stop’

$10K reward offered for information in Harvey woman's murder, disappearance in Midlothian forest preserve - Internewscast

Thank you for the actual links Falling Down, appreciate it.

In one of those articles, it mentions how the dogs picked up her scent at 151st and Pulaski -- I read this somewhere else also. This is odd because, some have said this is the area where the body was eventually found. My point is, if the dogs picked up her scent there, how didn't they find the body until Wednesday? I'm assuming the dogs were brought in before Wednesday.

 

[Userid]

Found this video, it made me quite sad at the end that the police have "no new leads."

Family, Friends Send a Message to Person Who Killed Vanessa Ramirez Last Week

 

[Rocky1]

It's been awhile since I read about the Vanessa Marcotte case, but the offender in her murder also tried to burn the parts of her body where he thought he left DNA? Maybe someone will correct me if I remembered that wrong. Possibly the perpetrator of VCR's murder also attempted to burn not her whole body, but parts. This might account for no one noticing the fire.

You're right...

Vanessa Marcotte was murdered and burned few hundred feet from the road in broad daylight on a 90+ degree Sunday afternoon in the woods, during a drought, and nobody noticed smoke, or the smell that I am aware of.
She had burns to her hands, face, and feet. A receipt for $5.00 of gas bought using Angelo Colon Ortiz's debit card (the perp) was discovered at a gas station about 5 miles away that he (allegedly) purchased 25 minutes after she was murdered. She had traces of gas on her body. That was Aug 7th 2016. Her trial should be starting soon.

 

[K9Enzo]

Regarding the search dogs. In my opinion only…. It’s very hard to interpret what the dogs used in the search for Vanessa did scent on, where and for how long, etc.

IMO, there are many variables that can impact/change odor such as subtle terrain differences, slight weather changes can cause odor to get stronger, weaker, fall, rise, etc. I’ve heard handlers joke – if only all searches for humans were in buildings with all the windows closed.

Depending on the training and skill of the dog (the handler matters big time), some dogs can stay in odor for a certain distance before they start to run into distractions, as an example. Some are just hardcharges, train often, and can pick up a broken scent trail again, maneuver from concrete, back to grass to a dirt trail without skipping a beat. For others it can be a challenge. Police K9's are excellent in doing hasty searches when they are deployed rapidly for someone (usually a fleeing bad guy but sometimes a missing person, especially small children) - in many missing person's cases for adults, this usually doesn't happen and searches can start hours later or days later.

My point, it’s just hard to say what happened in this case when the dogs were used without hearing directly from the handler and they usually, for good reason, don't speak to the press but you might get LE who says "Susie's scent was picked up and lost/stopped", that can mean so many things. IMO

 

[Falling Down]

Her poor body being partially burned might be a result of the bad guy not knowing how hard it is to burn a body. Panic steps. Then it appears to me they took her phone but was not smart enough to know LE can ping it’s last/current location. Right now, I’m leaning more towards a young-ish male, probably their first murder. IMO

Burned could mean different types of burns.

JMO

 

[K9Enzo]

Burned could mean different types of burns.

JMO

This is a good point. Someone else mentioned maybe they were not trying to burn the entire body but remove evidence. I guess we also don't know if she was burned while she was alive or if it was after she died. This case is stomach turning. IMO

 

[Falling Down]

This is a good point. Someone else mentioned maybe they were not trying to burn the entire body but remove evidence. I guess we also don't know if she was burned while she was alive or if it was after she died. This case is stomach turning. IMO

Yes. Kind of what I was driving at.

Fire buens? Chemical burns? ???
JMO

 

[Sheila Terranova]

Judging by Google maps, the park itself is not all that large, really. Obviously this individual knew the park well enough to be able to get her off the trail into a secluded spot.

There are quite a few ways to get into and out of there. Already this case is giving me the creeps, it's got similarities with some other murders along public access and public trails here in the Midwest in recent years.

Most unfortunately, many public pathways and jogging routes provide opportunity to seek unfortunate solo victims if the killer knows these routes are not patrolled by police .
Many are not patrolled by police.

 

[Yemelyan]

Most unfortunately, many public pathways and jogging routes provide opportunity for the unfortunate solo victims if the killer knows these routes are not patrolled by police .
Many are not patrolled by police.

Absolutely true.

The Tinley Creek park system as part of the Forest Preserves of Cook County, has its own law enforcement department but they also rely on "trail watch" volunteers to provide a presence on the paths. It doesn't sound like there was a heavy presence. See this page: Law Enforcement - Forest Preserves of Cook County.

The park police wouldn't be responsible for investigating crimes like this so the Cook County Sheriff is handling the homicide investigation.