FREEPORT — The Freeport man charged in Illinois with the murder of his Monroe ex-girlfriend pleaded guilty this week and will be sentenced in January.

Chad M. Blaser, 24, entered his guilty plea Wednesday, Nov. 20, for the fatal stabbing of 21-year-old Gabby Petsche.

He is scheduled for sentencing before Stephenson County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bald at 1:30 p.m. Friday Jan. 22.

According to Freeport police, Blaser was riding in a car with Petsche when he started stabbing her as she drove on West Avenue, causing her to crash into a snow pile at the intersection with Pleasant Street, and he continued stabbing her outside the vehicle before fleeing the scene.

Blaser and Petsche’s infant son, her only child, was in the backseat of the car.

Blaser was arrested nearby within minutes. Petsche died later that night in a hospital with stab wounds to her head, back and abdomen.

At the time of the attack, Blaser was out on bond for domestic abuse charges that he caused a disturbance and threw rocks at a vehicle outside Petsche’s home in Monroe.

Petsche was remembered in her obituary as a “passionate young woman who had an infinite love for her son, Daymien William,” who is now almost 2 years old. Petsche’s friends and family and her coworkers at Stoughton Trailers in Brodhead collected donations to help the boy in the wake of his mother’s murder.