COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Prosecutors have charged a 27-year-old man with murdering a sex worker in an Edgewater alley in 2012.
Victim Denise Ayers, 34, was standing with a witness near Winthrop and Bryn Mawr avenues about 3 a.m. May 5, 2012, when Joshua Holt approached and said, "What's up?", according to prosecutors.
The witness had known Ayers for more than a decade, and knew her to be a sex worker in the area, Assistant State's Attorney Jamie Santini said during a bond hearing Friday.
Ayers and Holt walked north on Winthrop toward Hollywood Avenue and turned a corner, prosecutors said. That was the last time Ayers was seen alive.
Her body was found four hours later in an alley near the 5600 block of North Broadway, Santini said. Ayers was partially undressed; an unused condom lay on her stomach. Police found an empty condom wrapper nearby.
Authorities collected multiple semen and DNA samples from Ayers' body, Santini said. State police soon determined that all of the samples belonged to one male.
In 2014, those DNA samples were positively linked to Joshua Holt, who had recently been imprisoned for two burglary convictions. As of Friday, Holt was still an inmate with the Illinois Department of Corrections. His projected parole date was June 16, 2017.
In an interview with police, Holt claimed that Ayers propositioned him the day she died — but that he turned her down and walked away, prosecutors said. A witness identified Holt as the man who left with Ayers about 3 a.m. May 5, 2012.
Holt was charged this week with first-degree murder. Authorities did not address the delay in filing charges.
During a bond hearing Friday, Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Holt held in lieu of $900,000 bail.
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