Stephanie Lopez Ramirez was a 17-year-old Hispanic girl described as sweet, happy, and devoted to her family. She had been in the United States about two years when, on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, police in Chicago responded to an apartment in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and found her unresponsive with a single gunshot wound to her left arm that penetrated her chest. She was pronounced dead at the scene and the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

Nineteen-year-old Juan David Ramirez-Olivo, a Colombian national who had been paroled into the United States, was in the apartment and was taken into custody. Police records show Ramirez-Olivo had prior encounters with law enforcement, including a March arrest for possession of a knife and an accusation in a prior stabbing. ICE lodged an immigration detainer on October 3, 2024, and Ramirez-Olivo was arrested for first-degree murder and held in Cook County Jail pending local charges. Stephanie’s family planned to return her body to Colombia for burial and a GoFundMe was set up to help with funeral expenses.

Does anyone in Humboldt Park or who knew Stephanie have information that could help clarify what happened that day?