A suspect with a history of violent crime was held without bond Tuesday in the killing of a 19-year-old Chicago woman in a parking garage on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus because she ignored him as he tried to get her attention.

At the bond hearing, prosecutors revealed Donald Thurman, 26, began following Ruth George after she ignored his attempts to catcall her. He allegedly choked George until she passed out and began sexually assaulting her in the back seat of her car, which was parked in the campus garage. A thumbprint matching Thurman and a condom found in the car were used as evidence to link him to the crime.

Police first turned their attention to Thurman when he was spotted on surveillance footage showing him enter the parking garage the night before George was found strangled to death. Thurman faces charges of aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder.

Thurman was arrested Sunday and reportedly confessed to the killing.

"Ruth lived out her deep faith in Jesus by loving and serving others, leaving a legacy of Christ-centered kindness and sacrifice,” George's family said in a statement. “She was the beloved baby of our family. We grieve with hope. We hold no hatred towards the perpetrator, but our hope is no other girl would be harmed in this way and for a mother to never experience this type of heartache."

Thurman was released from prison on parole in December 2018 after serving two years of a six-year sentence for armed robbery. Police report he lived near the UIC campus, where George was a student but had no connection to the school or his victim.

“Ruthie was an honors college student who focused on her studies, a young woman who dreamed of becoming a physical therapist to heal people and who was always there to lend a hand to her peers, many of whom would seek her out because of her compassion for others,” UIC Chancellor Michael Amirids said in a statement. “As a campus community we have shed many tears for her over the last three days, but our collective pain pales in comparison with the ordeal her family is and will be going through for days, months and years to come.”

Thurman's next court date is set for Dec. 16.

Crime Scene
Representation. Stacy Revere/Getty Images
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