Joliet Outlaw Jeremy Boshears Charged In Bartender's Death

COAL CITY, IL - Here in Coal City, a few things stand out about Jeremy Boshears, the 32-year-old hard-core biker now sitting in jail in connection with the cold-blooded murder of his recent girlfriend Katie Kearns. First off, Boshears throws at least one huge outdoor party every year in his yard. The bash typically attracts at least 100 people, neighbors say, mostly rough and tough motorcycle riders, like him. And here in this quiet, mostly older neighborhood where several senior citizens live, Boshears is best known for his flagpole. At the corner of 3rd and Shabbona Streets, Boshears proudly flies the Confederate Flag. That flag sports the message "Come and Take."

Above his Confederate flag, Boshears flies a black flag with a serpent that proclaims "DON'T TREAD ON ME." Before that flag showed up more recently, neighbors told Joliet Patch, Boshears apparently had been flying an odd-looking yellow flag, a flag that some suspected might serve as a code for drug activity. After all, Coal City, population 5,500, is off the beaten path. It's at least 25 miles from most parts of Joliet. It's a few miles down Route 113, off Interstate 55, past Diamond.

The Coal City resident, though, is not wanted by the cops for drug activity. The Will County Sheriff's Department suspects that Boshears murdered his new girlfriend, Katie Kearns. She died of a single bullet wound to her head. She was found dumped in the back of her Jeep that she had been driving. "This morning, sheriff’s detectives met with the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Kankakee County State’s Attorney’s Office in order to determine probable cause ... for the arrest of Boshears," the Will County Sheriff's announced Friday afternoon.

"You see a lot of Harleys from time to time," one long-time Coal City resident told Patch on Friday. "But I never saw any weirdness going on. Every year, he has a big party and give or take, there's a 100 people over there."

Neighbors believe that Boshears has lived at 495 3rd Street for about five years. "He kept up his yard work pretty well," the neighbor said. Boshears works for an overhead door company, according to neighbors, and they said he regularly drove his work van home and kept it outside in his driveway. The van had several ladders on it.

On social media, a Linkedin profile identifies a Jeremy Boshears as being employed in Joliet at Wunderlich Doors, Inc., in building materials. However, a person familiar with Boshears notified Patch that he has not worked at Wunderlich Doors in four years.

"The van that was seen at his house is the van for the company he has been working at since leaving Wunderlich. S&J Door located in Frankfort," the person said.

On Thursday, one neighbor said, he was in his bathroom and happened to peer out his window. And he was shocked by what he saw. "I thought, why are there so many police cars?" The vehicles from the Will County Sheriff's Department were parked along 3rd Street.

The murder investigation traces back to Joliet's industrial east-side, back to Woody's Bar on East Washington Street, where Kearns recently began tending bar. It's where she became acquainted with Boshears, according to Will County law enforcement. Sunday was her last night alive. She tended bar at Woody's, then she planned to visit the Joliet Outlaws Motorcycle clubhouse, which is just up the road, also on East Washington Street.

Sheriff's officials told Patch that Boshears is affiliated with the Joliet Outlaws. Like him, they too fly a large Confederate flag outside their clubhouse, a domicile that was raided on Thursday morning by the Will County Sheriff's Department SWAT team in connection with the murder investigation of Kearns. On Friday, the 32-year-old man from Coal City was charged with a felony offense of concealing a homicide. Boshears, 495 East 3rd St., was in Will County police custody for about a day in connection with the Kearns murder.

"I could see how some people might be a little suspicious of him because of the Harley stuff and he does have several tattoos," one neighbor told Patch on Friday.

During the summer time, Boshears liked to walk around his yard bare-chested, displaying his tattoos.

"He has quite a bit. He has a little bit of something all over the place," the neighbor remarked.

Boshears mostly kept to himself and did not go out of his way to mingle with his neighbors.

"In all the years, I've never had so much a reason to have a conversation with him," one man said.

As it stands, a $250,000 bond has been set for Boshears. He will remain in police detention until someone can post $25,000 cash, which is 10 percent, to bail him out of jail. The felony charge, however, is not being filed in Will County, but rather by the Kankakee County State's Attorney's Office.

One woman who grew up in the neighborhood said that Friday's arrest is stunning and will be the talk of town in Coal City for a while. "There was a man who killed his girlfriend in the apartments across the street here about 25 years ago," she said. "We don't really have murder around here."

The woman, whose parents still live near Boshears home, said he is definitely best known for throwing that regular big party. "There's a lot of motorcycles," she said. "I don't judge people."

Regarding the murder investigation raid that took place at Boshears home, the woman said, "We were clueless. We didn't know what was going on across the street."

Here's how Will County detectives tracked down the missing Joliet bartender and the 1996 Jeep she was driving.

"On (Thursday) sheriff's detectives were able to locate, through electronic means, Kaitlyn Kearns’ 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee in a pole barn located on private property in Aroma Park Township, Kankakee County. Kaitlyn’s body was discovered in the back of that vehicle," sheriff's police announced.

However, the property owner where the murder victim's body appears to have no involvement in the crime, Will County stressed.

"Sheriff’s detectives believe that Kaitlyn Kearns had met Jeremy Boshears four weeks ago while working at Woody’s bar. She had been in a dating relationship with Boshears for the past two weeks."

Boshears was then apprehended and driven down to Kankakee County, where he was booked into the Jerome Combs Detention Center.

Friday's charge against Boshears is hardly the end of the murder investigation.

"Sheriff’s detectives continue to work this case in order to obtain enhanced charges. Information will be provided when appropriate," Hoffmeyer said.

Late Sunday night, Kearns vanished after tending bar the Woody's Bar in the 1000 block of East Washington Street. Will County Sheriff's police told Joliet Patch on Thursday that at least four different people told them that Kearns said that she planned to visit the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse, just up the road, after tending bar on Sunday night on Joliet's east side.

Her body was found early Thursday about an hour southeast of Joliet, in rural St. Anne, in Kankakee County. She was dead inside the Jeep. She had suffered a single gunshot wound to her head.

Joliet Patch has previously reported that the Will County Sheriff's Department raided Boshears' house in Coal City and that several bags and boxes of potential evidence were taken into custody as part of the still-developing murder investigation. The Coal City resident was known to wear an Outlaws motorcycle club vest out in public, people who know him told Patch.

Patch will continue to bring you more information on this tragic, still-developing, story, as it becomes available.

RELATED: Suspect In Will County Custody In Joliet Bartender's Disappearance

Mugshot of Jeremy Boshears via Will County Sheriff's Department

Images from Coal City via John Ferak, Joliet Patch Editor

Image of Katie Kearns provided to Patch for permission to use

Image of Joliet Outlaws clubhouse provided to Patch for permission to use