Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez
A Waukegan man charged with hiding the body of an Antioch woman in a container at his home was detained Saturday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago, authorities said.
Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 52, is charged with concealing the death of 37-year-old Megan Bos. He was granted pretrial release in April, two days after his arrest.
Though he’s now in ICE custody, Lake County prosecutors want Mendoza-Gonzalez tried locally, warning that deportation could allow him to go free.
“We believe that a criminal trial and sentencing is more appropriate than deportation proceedings,” the Lake County state’s attorney’s office said in a statement Sunday.
“The defendant is charged with several felonies, which can result in potential consecutive prison sentences upon a conviction,” the statement reads. “As people know, deportation to another country does not lead to prison in that country. If he were to agree to deportation, he could be free in days.”
Bos was reported last seen by family members on Feb. 17. On April 10, Mendoza-Gonzalez met with Antioch detectives and said Bos visited his house Feb. 19 but left afterward, officials said.
When pressed on his statements, he admitted her body was in a container in his yard on Yeoman Street, authorities said.
Megan Bos
Courtesy of Antioch police
Mendoza-Gonzalez told police Bos used drugs then appeared to overdose in his basement, authorities said. He told investigators he was afraid of getting into trouble, so he kept her body in his basement for a few days before moving it to the container, according to police.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office later said an autopsy revealed no signs of struggle or trauma.
Mendoza-Gonzalez faces two counts of concealing a death, abuse of a corpse and obstructing justice. He is scheduled to appear in a Lake County courtroom Aug. 11.
County prosecutors said Sunday they are preparing an official request to ICE asking that he remain in the U.S. while awaiting trial.
Bos’ mother, Jennifer Bos, declined comment Sunday, but posted about the news Saturday on Facebook.
“ICE picked up the monster! Finally!” she wrote.
Antioch Mayor Scott Gartner said he was shocked by Mendoza-Gonzalez’s release, calling it “amazing that something involving a death and hiding a body is a non-detainable offense.”
He said he supports local prosecution “to the fullest extent of the law.”
In a news release, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said, “It is absolutely repulsive that a judge freed this monster and allowed him to walk free on Illinois’s streets after allegedly committing such a heinous crime.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
