CHICAGO — The young college student was walking to her car. The man catcalled her. She ignored him.

What happened next could have been lifted from any woman’s most vivid nightmare: The man, Donald Thurman, followed the 19-year-old student, Ruth George, as she entered a parking garage, prosecutors said on Tuesday. He followed her from behind and put her in a chokehold, they said.

“The defendant was angry that he was being ignored,” prosecutors said in a statement.

Ms. George’s family became worried when she did not return home on Friday night, and on Saturday morning, the police tracked the pings of her cellphone to the parking garage, where her body was discovered, face down in the back seat of her car.

Mr. Thurman, 26, was identified by the police from surveillance video at the scene, on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. They arrested him when he was spotted again in the area on Sunday; he was charged with first-degree murder and criminal sexual assault.

Mr. Thurman’s lawyer, a public defender, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Mr. Thurman had previously been convicted of armed robbery and was released on parole in 2018 after serving two years for the crime.