14 DAY TRIAL // Police have analyzed the scene of a gruesome killing on the Palos Park Forest Preserve. They have made two arrests in the case of two women found dead in a burning car.
The victims' bodies were hidden in an abandoned vehicle. They were recovered after the fire department responded to a call about a fire at 11:45 p.m. on Saturday.
The vehicle was stationed in the Cap Sauers Holdings Nature Preserve, at Ford Road block number 11600.
Their remains have been recovered from the trunk of a burning Chrysler PT Cruiser. CBS Chicago described that the fire department was first called in after someone reported the flames.
An inspection was carried on only when the blaze was contained. At that point, the bodies were discovered in the trunk and the police were alerted.
“There was no indication when the firemen were called in and when we were called in that there were bodies in that car,” Ben Briet of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office reports.
An autopsy was performed on Sunday and officials discovered that the women were strangled to death.
They have been identified as 71-year-old Theresa Urban and her daughter, 51-year-old Mary Ann Urban-Danno. They were both listed as residents of Chicago.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office has classified the deaths as homicides. Law enforcement teams responded by scouring the area for clues, using trained dogs and a helicopter.
Two Chicago residents have been charged after the investigation was completed on Sunday. 50-year-old Robert Danno and 24-year-old Jose Fernardo Martinez-Hernandez have been detained and charged with first-degree murder.
The Chicago Tribune writes that the victims are Danno's wife and mother-in-law. They believe that both men took part in their murder, then tried to dispose of the bodies, driving to a remote location on the suburban forest preserve and starting the blaze.