Chicago man charged with first-degree murder in double homicide New Year’s Day in Calumet City

A Chicago man is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two people in Calumet City early on New Year’s Day in what police said was a domestic dispute.

Pedro Tovar, 58, is being held in Cook County Jail following his arrest Thursday, and was previously in a relationship with one of the victims, police said Friday.

Police said officers responded at about 1 a.m. Monday to a home in the 1200 block of Hirsch Avenue for reports of gunshots fired.

Responding officers found a 53-year-old woman who had been shot, and also located a 45-year-old man shot next door to the home.

Eduardo Chavez, 45, of the 1200 block of Hirsch, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at the scene at 3:52 a.m. Jan. 1, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, which ruled his death a homicide.

The female victim, with whom police said Tovar previously had a relationship, was identified as Corrine Mirelez, of Whiting, Indiana, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds as well as stab wounds, according to the office.

She was pronounced dead shortly after 2 a.m. Jan. 1 at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the office.

Police said Calumet City detectives and investigators from the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force identified Tovar as a suspect.

mnolan@tribpub.com