Major Crimes Task Force Names New Leader

JOLIET, IL — The Will Grundy Major Crimes Task Force has announced that Will County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Dan Jungles will serve as the agency's new chairman. The task force consists of police detectives and crime scene evidence technicians from across the two counties. The task force is often summoned to investigate violent crimes or suspicious deaths in communities outside the city of Joliet such as Rockdale, Crest Hill and Channahon, for example.

"Will County Sheriff's Deputy Chief Dan Jungles has been assigned this duty and has begun his responsibilities in this role," Friday's news announcement read.

One of the Major Crimes Task Force's most high-profile cases in recent years was the death investigation of Channahon resident Samantha Harer, whose boyfriend was a Crest Hill police officer at the time, Felipe "Phil" Flores. The task force worked with the Channahon Police Department to rule her death a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No criminal charges were brought forward against Flores in connection with her death.

These days, the Crest Hill Police Department and Flores, who is no longer a police officer, remain as co-defendants in the Harer family's federal lawsuit. Some members of the Will County Sheriff's Office CSI unit also had a key role investigating Harer's gunshot death in her Channahon apartment on Feb. 13, 2018.