Katie Kearns' Body Found With Help From Facebook: Prosecutors

JOLIET, IL — Less than a week after 24-year-old Joliet bartender Katie Kearns vanished in November 2017, the Will County Sheriff's Office announced that her body was found about 60 miles away in a remote stretch of Kankakee County. Shortly after the discovery, sheriff's investigators arrested Jeremy Boshears, a member of the Joliet Outlaws.

Boshears was charged with first-degree murder as well as concealing a homicide. Boshears, now 36, has lived in the Will County Jail since Nov. 18, 2017. And now that his case is just weeks away from going to trial, prosecutors have filed a court order asking that Facebook "authenticate the previously provided records received on Nov. 15, 2017."

According to court documents filed Sept. 16 by an assistant Will County State's Attorney, there was an email and Facebook account for Katie Kearns, who was found dead on Nov. 15, 2017 with a gunshot wound to her head at 3802 East 6000 South Road in St. Anne.

Around Nov. 14, 2017, Katie Kearns was reported missing by her father, who went to the Joliet Police Department to file the report. The young woman from Mokena worked in Joliet as a part-time bartender at Woody's Tavern on East Washington Avenue.

The missing person's investigation was turned over to the Will County Sheriff's Office, and on Nov. 15, 2017, sheriff's detective Vincenzo DiSalvo requested "an emergency legal process from Facebook's law enforcement portal for Facebook activity" involving Katie Kearns, last week's court documents show.

DiSalvo sought Facebook records involving Kearns from the time frame of Nov. 11, 2017 through Nov. 15, 2017 and Facebook provided the information, according to prosecutors. DiSalvo then discovered that the last Facebook activity involving Kearns' account took place on a mobile phone at 6:52 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2017, prosecutors outlined.

The Will County Sheriff's detective was able to learn the latitude and longitude of where her mobile device was used, a residential property in St. Anne, Illinois.

Next, the Will County Sheriff's Office and the Kankakee County Sheriff's Office went to the property in St. Anne with a search warrant, and the property owners gave permission to search a locked pole barn, court records reflect. Investigators found Kearns' Jeep inside the pole barn, with her body inside.

"Deputies located the body of deceased account user Kaitlyn Kearns wrapped in a tarp and mattress in the rear of the vehicle," court documents show. "Deputies noted and the Kankakee County Coroner confirmed that Kaitlyn Kearns suffered a fatal gunshot to the head. Kearns' phone was located in the rear of the same vehicle."

The court order involving Facebook states that deputies obtained an arrest warrant for Boshears, and his murder case is pending in Will County Circuit Court.

Last week's court order, presented to Will County Judge Vincent Cornelius, asked that Facebook provide the user records for Katie Kearns between Nov. 11, 2017 and Nov. 15, 2017, "no later than Oct. 1. The murder trial for Boshears is set to begin Oct. 25.

His attorneys, Chuck Bretz and Neil Patel, contend that Kearns fatally shot herself inside the clubhouse for the Joliet Outlaws, and that her body was moved away from the property on Joliet's east side and left about 60 miles away, in neighboring Kankakee County.

Bretz and Patel have pursued an alternative death scenario suggesting that Kearns, who had a history of severe depression and had been hospitalized for suicidal tendencies, took her own life at age 24.

In late August, Judge Cornelius ruled that Bretz and Patel can present expert witness testimony at the upcoming trial from a retired police investigator with Glen Ellyn-based Larsen Forensic & Associates. The expert witness concluded that Kearns died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound based on his analysis of Will County's investigation.