Illinois Trial Looms for Self-Deporting Migrant Charged with Concealing Death

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A man who attempted to voluntarily return to Mexico from Illinois is now facing trial in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Jose Mendoza-Gonzalez has been charged with concealing the death of 37-year-old Megan Bos.

The case attracted significant attention earlier this year after authorities in Waukegan, Illinois, discovered Bos’s remains in a container located in Mendoza-Gonzalez’s backyard. The woman had been missing for several weeks and is suspected to have died of a fentanyl overdose at his residence. Mendoza-Gonzalez, who federal authorities claim is in the U.S. illegally, is accused of attempting to cover up her death and obstruct justice. He also faces charges of abuse of a corpse.

A judge initially released Mendoza-Gonzalez, who is 52, pending trial under Illinois’s “SAFE-T Act,” a recent reform that eliminated cash bail. This decision left Megan Bos’s mother, Jennifer Bos, shocked and dismayed.

“I was floored,” Jennifer Bos expressed. “I couldn’t believe they could release someone who kept a body in his yard in a container and destroyed all the evidence, allowing him to return home in less than 24 hours,” she shared with Mills Hayes.

Earlier this summer, Jennifer Bos attended an event in Washington organized by the Trump administration to address the dangers of fentanyl, where she managed to capture the president’s attention.

“In about 30 seconds I said, ‘This man did this to my daughter and he’s walking free because of the SAFE-T Act,’” she said.

Trump told her, “Watch what happens.”

Three days later, Mendoza-Gonzalez was picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But that raised the question about whether he would be deported and evade charges in the U.S.

Jose Mendoza-Gonzales ordered held in Lake County, Illinois

At a detention hearing in Lake County last week, Jennifer Bos said, a judge ruled Mendoza-Gonzalez was a flight risk, based on recent requests he made to be allowed to return to Mexico. ICE transferred custody to local authorities, and now he’ll sit in jail until his trial in January the result that Jennifer Bos had hoped for.

She said the case demonstrates why the SAFE-T Act needs reassessing. Illinois lawmakers abolished cash bail with the idea that it adversely affects poor people who don’t pose a public safety risk. Under the new law, judges can still order potentially dangerous people held before trial.

“There are good aspects of the SAFE-T Act itself, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask … for it to be reviewed and pulled back and changed, so that it does benefit victims as much as it benefits the criminals,” Jennifer Bos said.

Megan Bos’s death is still under investigation.