The 52-year-old Waukegan man accused of hiding the body of 37-year old Megan Bos was captured by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday in Chicago. Her mother said she was happy to hear the news, but wants him tried in Lake County.
Courtesy of Antioch Police Department
The mother of Megan Bos said she was “absolutely thrilled” when she heard U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago took the man charged with concealing her daughter’s death into custody Saturday.
Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 52, of Waukegan, is accused of hiding the 37-year-old Antioch woman’s body in a basement before transferring it to a plastic garbage container. He was granted pretrial release in April, two days after his arrest.
Megan’s mother, Jennifer Bos, said she was “in absolute shock” when a friend sent her an online news article about the ICE arrest.
“I think people expected me to be upset that he was arrested by ICE,” Jennifer Bos said. “My intention the whole time is to bring attention to the fact that he was released after what he did to her.”
She speculated that a visit last week to Washington, D.C., to watch President Donald Trump sign the HALT Fentanyl Act may have played a role in Mendoza-Gonzalez’ capture. She said she passed a note to House Speaker Mike Johnson during the ceremony and briefly spoke to the president about her daughter’s case.
As he was leaving the room, Trump turned around and told her, “You watch what happens,” Bos said
Megan Bos was last seen by family members Feb. 17, authorities said. On April 10, Mendoza-Gonzalez met with Antioch detectives and said Bos visited his house Feb. 19 but left afterward.
However, under continued questioning, Mendoza-Gonzalez admitted her body was in a container in his yard on Yeoman Street in Waukegan, authorities said.
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.
The Lake County Coroner’s office classified her death as undetermined. Fentanyl, cocaine metabolites and morphine were identified in her liver tissue, indicating potentially lethal cocaine, fentanyl and probable heroin use not long before her death, the coroner’s office reported.
Initial autopsy reports showed no signs of trauma or a struggle, the coroner added.
Jennifer Bos said Monday she hopes ICE keeps Mendoza-Gonzalez in the country to be tried on charges that include 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.
“There is no consequence for him back in Mexico, so he would be free in Mexico,” she said. “We would like to see this through. We’d like him to stay here long enough to see it through, serve a sentence, if he is given one, and then be deported.”
Jennifer Bos does not blame the judge who presided over Mendoza-Gonzalez’s first court appearance. The charges are not detainable in most circumstances under Illinois law.
“There was no record on him,” she said. “They really had no way to prove that he was a flight risk.”
Bos said her daughter had been friends with Mendoza-Gonzalez. She came across a two-year-old message from him while looking for her missing daughter.
“He said that he was her best friend and that he missed her,” she said.
Jennifer Bos remembered Megan as a “happy, free spirit.”
“She is just a goofball. She loved to make people laugh and laugh. But she struggled with drugs for some time,” she added.
Bos is continuing to work with Illinois legislators to change the SAFE-T Act, including Republican state Rep. Patrick Sheehan of Homer Glen.
“Were it not for federal law enforcement, Mendoza-Gonzalez would be walking free right now,” Sheehan said. “This is more proof of how the SAFE-T Act and cashless bail have failed the family of Megan Bos and the people of Illinois. Megan and her family deserve justice, but Illinois law has stripped law enforcement of critical tools, tied the hands of officers and prioritized criminals over victims. Illinois families deserve better. Megan deserved better.”
Lake County prosecutors have said they also want Mendoza-Gonzalez tried locally, and intend to send ICE officials a letter asking that he remain in the country while his case is pending.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
