911 Dispatcher's Death Still Unsolved, 12 Weeks Later

CHANNAHON, IL - It's been 12 weeks since an officer from the Crest Hill Police Department called 911 on a Tuesday morning from the apartment of his 23-year-old steady girlfriend. Officer Felipe "Phil" Flores relayed to dispatchers that Samantha Harer just shot herself, a fatal gunshot wound. As part of the death investigation, Flores furnished fellow Will County law enforcement investigators with several text messages supposedly sent to him from his girlfriend prior to her putting a gun to her head and pulling the trigger.

Feb. 13, 2018. The same day the Crest Hill Police Department chose to take Flores off the street from his six-year position as an overnight patrol officer.

"While on administrative leave, you will not have any police authority and should not take any action on behalf of the Crest Hill Police Department," Chief of Police Ed Clark stated in his letter to Flores on the date of the Will County 911 dispatcher's untimely death. "You are required to turn in your Police Department credentials."

Flores has remained on paid leave from Crest Hill ever since. Flores also spent considerable time on paid suspension in 2016. That spring, a 30-year-old Crest Hill woman, accompanied to the police station by a Joliet Police sergeant for moral support, filed a formal police report accusing Flores of having raped her about a month earlier, after she was already asleep in her bed at her house.

Flores ultimately drew a one-month unpaid suspension after the rape allegation. In December 2016, the Will County State's Attorney's Office informed the Illinois State Police they had decided not to file charges. "As I indicated verbally, charges will not be filed as to the Felipe Flores investigation," Assistant State's Attorney James Long wrote to State Police special agent Brian Lewis in an email obtained by Patch as part of a public records request.

"If anything in the investigation should change or additional evidence be developed that information should be brought to my attention or if I am not available to Felony Chief Michael Fitzgerald or Criminal Chief Kathy Patton to reconsider the current decision not to charge the suspect," Long wrote Lewis. "If for any reason you do not agree with the decision not to file any charges at this time please respond back to this email indicating as much."

Now, two years later, the Harer family waits and wonders whether Flores will face criminal charges in the death of their daughter.

"It leaves us in limbo without a lot of her final things, but the impression I'm getting is that they're not throwing away the investigation," Heather Harer said of the Channahon Police Department. "I think it's going to be a long time for us."

As of this week, 84 days later, Samantha Harer's death remains undetermined. There has been no official cause and manner of death. The family still does not have a copy of their loved one's death certificate.

"We are praying," Heather Harer told Patch. "My mother is praying. My husband is praying that they figure this out, and that's all we can do at this point. We have to. We have no choice. It's been twelve weeks today."

Earlier Tuesday, Patch conducted a phone interview with Adam Bogart, deputy chief at Channahon. He said the case is awaiting additional laboratory tests in Chicago at the Illinois State Police crime lab.

Unfortunately, he acknowledged, there are roughly two dozen other cases awaiting testing as well, so it may be a while before the testing is completed, Bogart said. It is his understanding the Chicago crime lab knows the case is a top priority for Channahon.

"We are held to the lab's time frame," Bogart explained. "We recognize the time that it takes to close this investigation is difficult for everybody."

Without discussing specifics, Bogart said the scientific test results will be important to helping investigators determine the former Channahon Police Department intern's cause and manner of death.

"The test results will assist in moving the case forward," Bogart said.

Heather Harer said she is regaining some confidence in Channahon's Police Department.

The day after her daughter's death, Channahon's police chief and one of his detectives showed up at the Harer home to explain that Samantha's death was being treated as a suicide. He said it was based on the 911 call made by her boyfriend as well as several text messages Flores supposedly got from her.

Looking back on things, the idea of Harer sending text messages to her live-in boyfriend inside her tiny apartment rather than talking to him face to face is another puzzling aspect of the death investigation, her parents said.

The small apartment was less than 400 square feet, they said. Aside from the front door, she had one door for a bathroom and one door for a bedroom.

"I don't think they're letting it go," Heather Harer said of Channahon police. "I really don't, and I think they're dotting their Is and crossing their Ts; that's all we're praying for."

Samantha's mother said she still finds it troubling that Flores, who had met them in person at least a dozen times, has made no attempt to visit them at any point since their daughter died. He was previously divorced and was 10 years older than Samantha when they started dating last May.

Harer's parents have previously told Patch that they believe Flores was manipulative, that he had access to the passwords for her electronic devices, including her phone, and that he regularly read her text messages between her and her friends and her and parents.

"It frustrates me because there were only two people in that little tiny (apartment) space. Only one walked away," Heather Harer remarked Tuesday afternoon. "And he was a police officer. He was 911 if this (suicide threat) supposedly was going on, but he could not prevent it?"

Heather Harer emphasized she does not believe her 23-year-old daughter took her own life, let alone with a handgun to her head and no prior history of depression or suicidal tendencies.

"I'm getting the impression they're doing everything they can ... I don't think they're wasting taxpayer money," she said of Channahon Police. "If they were just going to throw it away, I don't think they would be going to this amount of detail. But there is no death certificate, so we're kind of in limbo. I just want a death certificate to get over that. It would be a little part of her life to tuck away ... the limbo part of it is not helping in any shape or form."

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Images of Samantha Harer provided to Patch with permission to use