Joliet Bar Isn't Looking For Missing Bartender Katie Kearns

JOLIET, IL - Hundreds of worried friends and relatives of missing Joliet bartender Katie Kearns, a former Lincoln-Way Central graduate, have taken to social media to spread awareness about her suspicious disappearance last weekend. Several hit the pavement Wednesday attempting to retrace the route she may have driven home from Joliet and past New Lenox. The 24-year-old unincorporated Mokena woman was last seen at the Woody's Bar, 1008 East Washington Street. It's a couple blocks down the road from Elmhurst Cemetery and roughly a mile down the road from Briggs Street.

Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday.

Not one person has reported seeing or communicating with her this week. Her cell phone goes straight to voicemail. She's been a dormant on social media, even though she is always on social media. Her vehicle is missing. She was a no-show, no-call into work for both of her jobs, Monday and Tuesday.

After barely a month on the job of tending bar, Kearns vanished, and her disappearance happened under highly suspicious circumstances. Yet despite her disappearance, Wednesday was business as usual inside Woody's Bar. An afternoon bartender was busy pouring draft beers for his regular patrons. The manager was holed up inside a separate office room, behind a closed wooden door.

A spokesman for the family of Katie Kearns told Joliet Patch that his family also received cold shoulder treatment from the establishment that attracts members of the Joliet Outlaws motorcycle gang. On Wednesday afternoon, the Joliet Patch Editor went into the bar and identified his purpose for being there, looking for information surrounding their employee's disappearance. The bartender went into a back room and got a middle-aged woman, the manager. She quickly escorted Patch outside.

"She was last seen headed east on Washington," the woman snapped. Here in the parking lot, Joliet Patch sought to ask more questions. The woman confirmed Kearns had only worked "four shifts."

Before quickly retreating back inside Woody's, the woman remarked, "We wish for her safe return."

On Thursday morning, a representative of Woody's Bar alerted Patch that the bar did receive missing persons posters for Kearns on Wednesday evening and they are now being displayed at the establishment.

The area around Woody's Bar, and Woody's itself, is hardly a safe area late at night.

• In June 2015, Joliet Patch published this story about Woody's Bar: Man Grievously Wounded In Walk-Up Shooting Outside Joliet Bar

• The 20-mile Old Plank Road Trail is a block or so up the street from Woody's. In September, Joliet Patch reported on the arrest of homeless Joliet sex predator, Joseph Brace, for loitering here late at night.

• Woody's abuts the Joliet U-Pull-It Scrap Metal Yard. Last month, Patch reported that a Frankfort man and a Joliet man showed up with burglary tools to commit an early morning burglary at U-Pull-It.

Wednesday night, a spokesman for Katie Kearns' family told Joliet Patch it's his understanding that police have interviewed at least one member of the Joliet Outlaws who frequents Woody's, and that man was cooperative.

"They're interviewing people who may have had dealings with (her)," the family spokesman said.

Also Wednesday, the Will County Sheriff's Department took over the investigation from the Joliet Police Department. The city agency initially fielded the missing report. Joliet's Deputy Chief of Police Al Roechner said that because Kearns lives in unincorporated Mokena, the sheriff's department should have jurisdiction on the case.

The family spokesman said the investigation needs to remain focused and not get off on tangents.

"Where's the Jeep?" he asked. "You got to get eyes on the Jeep. Is it off a road? If that car is not visible somewhere, where is it then? The police need to find the car."

He said that several people who helped the family try to retrace Katie Kearns' possible route home from Woody's Bar had no success locating signs of the Jeep. He said it's imperative that other police agencies all across Will County including New Lenox, Tinley Park, Joliet and elsewhere are out actively checking their local gas stations, business strip malls and retail store parking lots in hopes of finding the 1996 Jeep.

"It was reported to the Joliet Police Department that she was last seen tending bar at Woody's Bar ... at approximately 12:30 a.m. (Monday). She was driving a dark colored 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Illinois license plate ZX33462," Will County Sheriff's Department announced Wednesday night.

Katie Kearns is one of five children. Her brothers and sisters are all in their 30s and 20s. She lives with her father and another sibling and has a tight relationship with her family. She also has a dog she adores, the relative told Patch. "She treats the dog like a human being."

The spokesman said the family did walk away with a great vibe about the Will County Sheriff's investigator being assigned to lead the case. They said he has substantial experience and they found that reassuring.

"At this point, everyone in the family has hit this wall. OK, it's been a couple days. Now frustration is setting in," the spokesman explained. "I'm trying to be the calm one, but obviously, you've got to find the Jeep. (And) we really want to know where was that last (cell tower) ping on her phone, just to have a starting point at some level."

RELATED: Joliet Bartender Is Missing

The family spokesman raised a number of questions that turn the attention back to the very last place that Kearns was known to be, Woody's Bar. First off, why did Woody's choose to hire her in October, given that she has no previous experience as a bartender? Where was the job advertised and by whom? How did she land the job?

"This bar, for a couple reasons, just sets off alarm bells," the person told Patch. "The answers may still lie within that bar. She has no bartending experience. It's over in Joliet. And why this place? There needs to be a little pressure put on that bar establishment (by people) who frequent that place. I'm not saying they're all criminals; those people know the gossip. The only people who really know are people who seen her Sunday night. It will be the people who are in that bar. Find the Jeep and interview the people who frequent that bar. They need to speak up. They need to be cooperative with the police, very cooperative."

Images via Joliet Patch editor John Ferak except image of Katie Kearns via Will County Sheriff's Department