Illinois coroner releases new details about woman found dead on illegal immigrant’s property

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 released a statement Monday following its autopsy on Megan Bos, 37, saying a key finding contradicted media reports as well as a statement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that claimed she had been beheaded. 

Bos’ body was found by police in April in a container in a yard belonging to Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 52, a Mexican illegal immigrant who was arrested and charged in the case but released after his first court appearance, sparking outrage. Bos’ mother has slammed Illinois Gov. 

Immigration authorities in Chicago arrested him last week.

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“At no point was Megan decapitated before or after her death,” the office said, adding that no signs of trauma or struggle were found in the April 11 autopsy. Bos’s body was in an advanced state of decomposition and exposed to chemical substances, complicating cause-of-death analysis, the office said.

“This misinformation has caused unnecessary distress to the family and misrepresents the facts of this investigation.”

A DHS spokesperson told Digital that Bos’ body was found badly dismembered and in a bleach storage container, in response to the coroner’s statement. 

Bos’ cause of death remains undetermined, with toxicology showing fentanyl, cocaine and morphine in her system, the coroner’s office said. 

The coroner’s office said her death is suspicious, potentially drug-related or homicidal, but not conclusively one or the other. The office said that asphyxial death is possible but hard to confirm due to decomposition.

“These circumstances raise the suspicion of a homicidal death or possibly a drug–related death,” the coroner’s office said. “Asphyxial homicides may include no external or internal evidence of injury. Furthermore, the decomposition of the body at the time of discovery complicates interpretation of sometimes minute physical findings suggestive of asphyxia.”

ICE agents arrested Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez in Chicago on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of DHS)

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Bos’ body was found in a plastic garbage container in Mendoza-Gonzalez’s yard in Waukegan, Illinois. 

“Fentanyl, cocaine metabolites and morphine were identified in the liver tissue, indicating recent potentially lethal cocaine, fentanyl and probable heroin use,” the statement reads. “Making a distinction between an accidental drug intoxication and an asphyxial death based solely on the autopsy findings, both the absence of significant trauma and the presence of potentially lethal drugs in the decedent’s body, is not possible.”

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 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)

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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.”

‘ Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.