'Sick In The Head': Harvey Woman's Accused Killer Alluded To Murder, Prosecutors Say

COOK COUNTY — The family of a man now charged in the heinous 2020 rape and murder of a 22-year-old Harvey woman believed he might have had something to do with it from the beginning, court record show.

The body of Vanessa Ceja Ramirez was found in the Midlothian Meadows Forest Preserve on Nov. 4, 2020, two days after she disappeared while on a walk there with her mother and her mother's friend. Authorities say she had been sexually assaulted and strangled, her body then partially burned.

After years of compiling evidence including DNA testing, Dakota Petrey, 30, was arrested Jan. 18 just after he was released from the Fulton County Jail in Lewistown, Illinois, where he had been jailed on unrelated charges since Oct. 2024.

Cook County State's Attorneys earlier this week detailed what led police to Petrey's arrest, with witness statements and accounts dating back to the day of Ceja Ramirez's disappearance.

Prosecutors say Petrey knew police were looking for him the day she vanished, and paced around his apartment after cell phone pings led them there, where her phone sat inside.

Texts From Ceja Ramirez's Phone

Ceja Ramirez had been walking in the preserve with her mother and a friend around 3:30 p.m., when 15 minutes in, prosecutors say she "drifted back from the group to tie her shoes." It was the last time she was seen alive.

Text records show messages sent to her mother, saying she had turned back because it was too long of a walk. Minutes later, she texted again, asking where the other two women were. When her mother texted Ceja Ramirez that they were on their way back, prosecutors say she received a response not familiar to her: "ha verdad," loosely translated as "for real."

When they returned to the car, they could not find Ceja Ramirez. Police were called by 5 p.m. Calls to Ceja Ramirez's phone began going straight to voicemail, her mother told police. Midlothian Police, Forest Preserves of Cook County police, and Cook County Sheriff's police searched the woods on foot with K9 officers, and by air, with helicopters. Ceja Ramirez was not found.

As police searched, authorities said, her mother used the Find My iPhone app to track her phone, first to a school near 151st and Central, and then to an apartment complex at 147th and Central Avenue, where Petrey lived with his girlfriend.

Police canvassed the area in search of Ceja Ramirez and her phone. Petrey and his girlfriend, prosecutors allege, watched from their window. His girlfriend later told police he "paced back and forth between windows in their apartment, with the lights off" while police were at the scene. He told her not to answer the door if police approached, prosecutors say she later told investigators.

Two days later, Ceja Ramirez's body was found deep in the woods at Midlothian Meadows. She was without her coat, shoes and cell phone. She had burns to her torso and thighs. An autopsy concluded she had been bound at the wrists, strangled and sexually assaulted. Her death was ruled a homicide.

'Something her brother would do'

On Nov. 10, 2020, Petrey's nephew called a tip line to report that his mother—Petrey's sister—had said the crime "sounded like something her brother would do," and that he had asked for her help moving his van that had been parked just blocks from where Ceja Ramirez's body had been found, prosecutors said.

In December 2020, police learned that in late October, Petrey had received a notice that his apartment would be treated for bedbugs on Nov. 4 — two days after Ceja Ramirez went missing. Authorities said Petrey later sent his landlord a letter objecting to allowing exterminators into the apartment, giving excuses including online classes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Nov. 13, after refusing to allow entry into the apartment, Petrey received a notice of eviction, according to court documents. He and his girlfriend vacated the premises in mid-November 2020. Police in December 2020 then searched the apartment, which had been secured as-is by the landlord after they left. Inside, detectives found a zip tie, lighter fluid and a cell phone, which was later determined not to belong to Ceja Ramirez, court records show.

Prosecutors say around the same time, a visitor to the preserve found the shoes that had belonged to Ceja Ramirez in the woods, not far from where her body had been discovered.

In January 2021, the court filings say, detectives interviewed Petrey's sister, who told police he had moved to Tennessee, before later tearfully telling them she believed he'd had something to do with the murder. His sister said Petrey was familiar with the preserve, and frequented it as a teen.

Authorities in April 2021 surveilled Petrey at his workplace in Tennessee, obtaining a can from which he had been drinking and discarded, for DNA testing. DNA found on the can matched that found inside the shoes that had belonged to Ceja Ramirez, prosecutors said.

In messages exchanged between Petrey and his girlfriend around the same time, court documents say he told her "that something is wrong with him. ... and it’s just who he is, and he can’t help it, that he’s a psycho or something, and that he’s evil.

"He stated that he’s a horrible person and he can’t help himself for things," court records show. "He stated he is sick in the head and can’t say anything more. He stated that if he told her she would not love him, and things can be bad, but he doesn’t want things to get bad."

When pressed if he hurt someone, Petrey allegedly responded: "can't say."

During a police interview in September 2021, he denied having contact with Ceja Ramirez, or having had her phone, prosecutors said. He said he hadn't been at the preserve since the age of 10 or 11. He submitted to DNA testing via cheek swab.

By 2023, Petrey had moved to central Illinois, and had multiple run-ins with law enforcement in Lewistown, resulting in various charges including aggravated fleeing and eluding police, and multiple traffic offenses. While on pre-trial release on those charges, in October 2024, he was taken into custody in Fulton County in connection with allegations that he stole a motorcycle from the yard of a man selling it.

On Jan. 14, 2025, in another police interview at the Fulton County Jail, Petrey told police he didn't believe the DNA evidence, and that when he was out, he intended to move back to Chicago to live with his sister.

On the same day, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to concurrent terms of two years of conditional discharge and 120 days in the Fulton County jail, with credit for time already served.

He was released on Jan. 18, 2025, and was immediately taken into custody for the murder of Ceja Ramirez.

"... This terrible crime shocked the town of Midlothian and surrounding jurisdictions," Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney shared on social media. "While there is no making it better, we hope that the community can rest a little easier knowing this monster is off the streets."

Petrey was ordered detained pending trial during his initial appearance hearing on Sunday, Jan. 19 at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse. He appeared again in court on Jan. 22.