911 Dispatcher's Gun Death Still Open, 7 Weeks Later

CHANNAHON, IL - The investigation into the suspicious death of 23-year-old Channahon resident Samantha Harer, a young woman with a bright future in public safety, is now entering its seventh week. Harer was a full-time 911 dispatcher at WESCOM. She had interned at Channahon's Police Department while at Joliet's University of St. Francis. At the time of her death by a single gunshot, Harer was inside her apartment, as was her boyfriend, Felipe "Phil" Flores, a troubled police officer employed at the Crest Hill Police Department, according to court records and personnel files obtained by Patch.

Around 8 a.m. that Tuesday, Flores called the authorities, notifying them that his girlfriend allegedly shot herself. Samantha's parents, Kevin and Heather Harer, dispute that scenario. They suspect their daughter was shot many hours earlier and that Flores staged the shooting to appear as a suicide.

A Joliet resident, Flores, 33, has had no communication with Samantha's parents since her death two months ago, they told Patch. His Facebook page was taken down immediately after her death.

Even though several members of Channahon's Police Department, including Chief Shane Casey, showed up at the Fred C. Dames Funeral Home in Joliet to express their condolences to the family, Flores was a no-show at his girlfriend's funeral service.

Flores began dating Samantha Harer last May, and the couple flew to Arizona last September for a vacation. Some people from the Channahon apartment complex told Patch they were under the impression the couple was living together.

Samantha's parents have told Patch the relationship was "stormy." Flores was previously divorced, and he had been accused of raping a 30-year-old Crest Hill woman in 2016, a fact that Samantha's parents believe was unknown to their daughter, who had limited dating experience before meeting Flores, they said.

On Sunday night, Heather Harer told Patch that she remains hopeful the police officers and medical examiners at the Will County Coroner's Office of Patrick K. O'Neil are working hard in pursuit of the truth. The preliminary cause and manner of death from Samantha Harer's February autopsy were inconclusive.

Now, seven weeks later, Heather and Kevin Harer still don't have a death certificate. Their daughter's cause and manner of death remains unknown.

"We're kind of still in limbo," Heather Harer explained on Sunday night. "It will be seven weeks on Tuesday. We have nothing but questions."

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As for Phil Flores, Crest Hill Police Chief Ed Clark put him on indefinite paid suspension after his girlfriend's death. He was also put on indefinite paid suspension back in 2016.

In March of 2016, a woman from Crest Hill obtained a protection order against Flores, and she filed a police report at the Crest Hill Police Department accusing Flores, a former friend, of raping her in the middle of the night after she went to sleep in her bed at her house.

Ultimately, no criminal charges were filed against Flores. He was allowed to remain on the Crest Hill Police force but he was given a one-month unpaid suspension over the rape allegation incident.

Originally from Texas, Flores is a former U.S. Marine who served overseas. After eight years in the service, he came back to the Joliet area and worked several low-to-moderate paying jobs. Then, in 2012, he joined the Crest Hill Police Department as an overnight patrol officer, his personnel file indicated.

As Flores remains on paid leave from Crest Hill, Samantha Harer's family remains mostly isolated from their daughter's death investigation. However, the Harers said they did receive a call of reassurance from Cassandra Cales, the sister of murder victim Stacy Peterson.

"She's very determined ... I feel bad for her. I really do," Heather Harer said of Cales. "I think she's a good person."

Heather Harer hopes that her daughter's case does not turn out like the initial death investigation of Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, whose death in Bolingbrook was initially ruled to be an accidental bathtub drowning by the late Dr. Bryan Mitchell of the Will County Coroner's Office.

The official cause and manner of death were only changed, years later, after the Bolingbrook cop's fourth wife, Stacy, vanished. Stacy has never been found to this day.

RELATED: Drew Peterson To Be Charged Soon, Stacy's Sister Asserts

As for Heather Harer, she said she does not understand why several hours passed before anyone in law enforcement attempted to notify her of Samantha's death back in February, even though it was common knowledge in Channahon that she worked at the public library.

By the time she was alerted to the tragedy, Samantha had been moved twice, first out of her Channahon apartment to Presence Saint Joseph's hospital in Joliet, then to the Will County morgue, according to the mother.

"We were never notified until hours and hours later, and I'm right down the road," Heather Harer explained. "At 8 a.m., I was still at home (in Minooka). That's the part that makes me upset."

The 911 dispatcher's parents say they have retrieved their daughter's belongings from her apartment, and they were comforted by the fact that numerous colleagues from WESCOM came to her funeral. The ones who spoke with the family expressed disbelief that Samantha took her own life with a handgun, her mother said.

"This girl, she was not in any way, shape or form in despair," Heather Harer said. "I'm a girl that believes in the glass is half full rather than half empty. I want them to do everything they can do to bring justice. This is not something my daughter would have done to herself. That's all I can hope for ... them doing everything they can do. I've got nothing else. I have to be positive."

RELATED PATCH EXCLUSIVES:

Samantha Harer Was Murdered, Parents Believe

Minooka Parents Still Kept In The Dark

Dead 911 Dispatcher Dated Crest Hill Cop

Images via Samantha Harer's Facebook page used with permission from her family