By Carol McGowan
The search for 20-year-old Charisma Ehresman of Forest View is over.
The body of the young woman was found Friday evening in her vehicle in Chicago’s South Austin neighborhood, on the city’s west side, which borders Oak Park. The car had apparently been there for several days.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Sunday that Ehresman died of strangulation and smothering. Her death was ruled a homicide.
A Chicago police spokesman said Area 4 detectives are investigating her death.
She was last seen by her family on Sunday, January 23, when she left her home in the 4600 block of Wisconsin in Forest View.
Video from a nearby business picked up footage of her vehicle, a 2014 red Ford Fiesta, turning north on Harlem Avenue from westbound 47th Street at 10:17 p.m.
Her family said it was unusual for her to not come home, or go to work or school, so family members had started posting the information of her disappearance on social media and reported her missing the following day.
The social media posts were shared multiple times and a missing persons alert was triggered throughout Illinois with her description along with her vehicle’s description.
Numerous local and state agencies, along with missing persons networks put the word out to look for her and/or her vehicle.
On Saturday afternoon, January 29, word started to go out through her father’s Facebook page that the girl’s body had been found.
“It is with great sadness, we announce the loss of our beautiful ANGEL Charisma Ehresman,” posted Jeffery Ehresman. “A life so beautifully lived deserves to be beautifully remembered! We ask that in this time of despair, that you respect our family’s wishes of privacy. We cannot release any further details at this time, please respect that. She was the sunshine in everyone who knew her lives.”
According to published reports, she was working two jobs and hoped to one day become a nurse and had recently enrolled at Triton College in River Grove. She didn’t tell anyone she was returning to school after taking a year off because of the pandemic until the first day of classes.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with funeral expenses. The family appreciates all of the help they have received.
The family warned that a false GoFundMe page was set up by a scammer. The link to their official and legitimate fundraising page is https://gofund.me/2ae5bb69.
As of Monday, the family had raised more than $16,000 toward a goal of $18,000.
Donations can also be made out to Kathy Ehresman, Charisma’s grandmother, and dropped off or mailed to Village of Forest View, 7000 W. 46th St., Forest View IL 60402.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.