A man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for murdering a nursing student he met on Snapchat while AWOL from a pending felony DUI charge. Richard Chavez, 28, of Oak Park, has pled guilty to the murder of Charisma Ehresman, 20, three years ago, according to court records.
Ehresman’s body was discovered in the back seat of her car, which was parked in the 5900 block of West Iowa Street on January 28, 2022. The Cook County medical examiner determined that she died from strangulation and smothering in a homicide.
Prosecutors claim Ehresman never returned home after visiting Chavez’s home on the evening of January 23, shortly after meeting him online. Her family filed a missing persons report two days later.
According to investigators, Ehresman made her last phone call to Chavez on January 23 and sent her final Snapchat message to him about the same time. Surveillance video from a neighbor’s home purportedly showed Chavez walking outside to meet her at 10:30 p.m. that night. The two then entered his home, but she never left, according to prosecutors.
According to prosecutors, at 7:30 a.m., surveillance video captured Chavez entering Ehresman’s car and driving it to his garage. Additional video saw Chavez leave the automobile in the 5900 block of West Iowa Street and stroll around for approximately an hour before calling a relative to pick him up, according to prosecutors.
Police officers who interviewed Chavez at his house immediately after Ehresman was discovered detected lacerations on his hands. Chavez allegedly admitted to hooking up with Ehresman on January 23 but claimed he fell asleep at 8 p.m. and woke up at 10 a.m. Chavez was detained on an outstanding warrant after failing to appear in court for six months on a felony DUI charge.
While in detention on that warrant, officials taped a phone call between Chavez and his parents in which he instructed them to prepare his passport, according to prosecutors. Investigators who conducted a search warrant at his residence discovered hair clippings in the garbage and a partially packed suitcase in his bedroom, according to prosecutors.
After Chavez pled guilty to murder, Judge Timothy Joyce sentenced him to 27 years behind bars. Prosecutors withdrew the DUI case a few days later.
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