Lavarius McFadden | Chicago police
CHICAGO - A 24-year-old man charged in the strangling death of a sex worker at a River North hotel was ordered held without bail Monday.
Lavarius McFadden was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Elizabeth Long, Cook County prosecutors said at a bond hearing.
He used a messaging app to set up a meeting with Long at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott on March 14, but claimed he was unaware that she was a prostitute, prosecutors said.
When McFadden arrived at Long’s room, she demanded $100 in payment, then later allowed McFadden to feel parts of her body while continually demanding payment, prosecutors said.
McFadden allegedly pushed Long several times and then strangled her, prosecutors said. McFadden told investigators that Long had been reaching for a knife, and that he killed her as he struggled to keep her from reaching the weapon.
McFadden left the room and hotel with Long’s knife and cellphone, which was tracked to a location on the West Side, then to McFadden’s girlfriend’s house in DuPage County, prosecutors said.
A friend of Long’s called the hotel, at 410 N. Dearborn St., and sent hotel employees to her room to check on her about an hour after McFadden left, prosecutors said.
They found Long’s body partially naked, bruised and turning blue, prosecutors said. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s ruling on the manner of Long’s death was delayed due to an influx of COVID-19 cases.
Police searched McFadden’s girlfriend’s house over the weekend and McFadden was arrested shortly after, prosecutors said. He’d been using the victim’s phone to collect “several hundred dollars” over the past month from those trying to contact her for prostitution services.
Security camera footage showed McFadden entering the SpringHill Suites at 4:37 p.m. and leaving at 5:07 p.m. the night Long was killed, prosecutors said.