Man Charged With Strangling Sister, Another Woman At NW Side Home
(STMW) -- Bond was denied Saturday for a 22-year-old man who authorities claim confessed to strangling his sister and another woman at a Northwest Side home before setting the house on fire last October.
Adam Ruiz, whose last address was in Denver, Colo., was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated arson while knowing someone was present, Chicago Police said.
Ruiz was arrested on Thursday in Denver after he called authorities and admitted to committing the murders, police said. Detectives went to Denver and interviewed him before arresting him and bringing him back to Chicago, a law enforcement source said.
The source added that detectives have identified one of the victims as Ruiz's sister.
On the night of the fire on Oct. 16, 2014, fire and police officials found the bodies of two women at a home in the 4500 block of West Parker Avenue, authorities said. They were identified as 22-year-old Celiacruz Reyes and 28-year-old Samantha Welch, but police said the women were both 18.
At the time, autopsies for both women came back pending further police and fire investigation. But on Saturday, police said authorities had determined the women were strangled, and a fire was set to cover up the murders.
It wasn't clear which woman was Ruiz's sister. Reyes lived in the 100 block of Birch Street in Carpentersville, the Cook County medical examiner's office said at the time. Welch's address wasn't known.
The source said Ruiz may have previously lived in Chicago since he was arrested for retail theft in 2007.
A judge on Saturday ordered Ruiz held without bond, according to the Cook County sheriff's office. He is next due in court Monday.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2015. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
