https://chicago.suntimes.com/platfor...al-high-school
Man charged in murder, sex assault of UIC student Ruth George, who was remembered as ‘the light’ of her family
Donald Thurman allegedly sexually assaulted and killed the 19-year-old early Saturday in a campus parking garage on Taylor Street, police say.
November 25, 2019 9:02 pm
As hundreds of UIC students gathered Monday night to mourn
the death of 19-year-old Ruth George, officials announced a man had been charged with her weekend murder and sexual assault in a campus parking garage.
Donald D. Thurman, 26, was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault in connection with the strangulation death of George, University of Illinois at Chicago officials said.
Authorities said Thurman’s most recent home address is near the campus, but
he “has no affiliation with the University or the victim.”
After not hearing from her since Friday evening, family members — along with police — had tracked Ruth George’s cell phone to the garage late Saturday morning, where
she was found unresponsive in the back seat of her family’s car, authorities said.
Her death was later ruled a homicide. UIC Police Chief Kevin Booker said in a statement that after her body was found investigators reviewed security footage from a variety of cameras in the area and saw the suspect, later identified as Thurman, follow George as she walked south on the 700 block of South Halsted Street into the parking garage about 1:35 a.m.
Thurman was on parole at the time of the attack, according to university police. Illinois Department of Corrections records show he was sentenced to six years in prison for a 2015 armed robbery conviction, but was released on parole in December 2018 after serving just two years.