An Illinois coroner has refuted claims that a woman found dead in a storage container at the home of an illegal immigrant was decapitated.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office issued a statement on Monday after conducting an autopsy on Megan Bos, 37. This statement challenged prior claims from media outlets and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which had suggested she was beheaded.
In April, police discovered Bos’ body in a container on the property of Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 52. He is a Mexican illegal immigrant who was apprehended and charged in connection with the case. However, his subsequent release after the initial court appearance led to public uproar. Bos’ mother criticized the governor of Illinois over this issue.
Immigration authorities in Chicago arrested him last week.
Megan Bos, 37, was reported missing and later found dead in Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez’s yard. (Photo courtesy of DHS)
Bos’ body was found in a plastic garbage container in Mendoza-Gonzalez’s yard in Waukegan, Illinois.
The statement revealed, “Fentanyl, cocaine metabolites, and morphine were found in the liver tissue, suggesting recent use of potentially lethal amounts of cocaine, fentanyl, and likely heroin.” It further noted, “Given the absence of significant trauma and the presence of these hazardous substances, it is challenging to differentiate between an accidental drug poisoning and asphyxial death based solely on autopsy results.”
Mendoza-Gonzalez was arrested in April and charged with concealing a corpse, abusing a corpse and obstruction of justice but was ordered released by Lake County Judge Randie Bruno after his first court appearance.
He was arrested again Saturday afternoon at a market in Chicago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and remains in ICE custody, according to DHS.
“It is absolutely repulsive [that] this monster walked free on Illinois’ streets after allegedly committing such a heinous crime,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News previously. “Megan Bos and her family will have justice.”
Bos was reported missing on March 9, but family members said she disappeared in February.
Mendoza-Gonzalez is accused of keeping Bos’ body in his yard for nearly two months and abusing her corpse.
Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez is charged in the death of a missing Illinois woman. (Photo courtesy of DHS)
Mendoza-Gonzalez allegedly told authorities Bos overdosed at his house and, instead of calling 911, he broke her phone and kept her body in the basement for two days before moving it outside, according to the report.
After Mendoza-Gonzalez’s release in April, Antioch Mayor Scott Gartner criticized laws that allowed the suspected criminal alien to be released, according to a report from affiliate FOX 32 Chicago.
“I was shocked to find out literally the next day that the person that they had arrested for this had been released from prison under the SAFE-T Act less than, detained less, I think, than 48 hours,” Gartner said. “There’s other extenuating circumstances in this case. Not only the type of crime, how long the crime was concealed, the fact that the person that was arrested for this is not a U.S. citizen, and, you know, can maybe [flee] the country.”
