Samantha Harer, Kathleen Savio Similarities: Ferak Column 1

CHANNAHON, IL — It's amazing how many parallels you can find when you compare the Feb. 13, 2018, death of 23-year-old WESCOM dispatcher Samantha Harer of Channahon and the March 1, 2004, death of 40-year-old Kathleen Savio of Bolingbrook.

This week at the Will County Courthouse, I scrutinized the court transcripts of the May 2004 Will County Coroner's inquest surrounding Savio's death. As everyone knows, Savio was the ex-wife of Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson.

Harer was the estranged girlfriend of troubled Crest Hill Police Officer Felipe "Phil" Flores.

Fifteen years ago, Bolingbrook's Police Department, together with the Illinois State Police District 5 in Lockport, were willing to give Drew Peterson the benefit of the doubt and not treat him as a bona fide murder suspect when his ex-wife died under highly suspicious circumstances, right here in Will County.

Last year, also in Will County, Channahon's Police Department, together with the Crest Hill Police Department, were willing to give Flores the benefit of the doubt when his girlfriend died of a gunshot wound to her head while he was in her Channahon apartment on a Tuesday morning.

Both agencies made sure Flores was not classified as a murder suspect, either.

In Flores' case, the city of Crest Hill was willing to shell out more than $90,000 to pay a guy who had been accused of forcible rape in 2016 and is now suspected by prominent Brooklyn, New York, civil rights attorney Jennifer Bonjean of killing Harer while she was completely naked, then staging her homicide to appear as a suicide.

But Crest Hill was not willing to give Flores back his badge, handcuffs or service gun and let him climb back into a patrol car. Last week, Patch reported that Flores was forced to resign. He never worked a single day as a Crest Hill cop after Samantha died of a gunshot.

In 2004, Drew Peterson staged his ex-wife's death to appear as an accident, and Drew was successful at it. Then, his fourth wife, Stacy, turned up missing in October 2007.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is an inquest into the manner of death of the late Kathleen Savio, a 40-year-old female, who, on Monday, March 1, 2004, was found to be deceased," current Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil declared, 15 years ago.

O'Neil summoned Susan Savio of Carol Stream to testify in May 2004. Here's the key moments from that questioning:

"Was your sister in good health?"

"Yes."

"Was she seeing a doctor for any condition that you're aware of?"

"No."

"Taking any medications that you may have been aware of?

"No … I actually talked to her Thursday. She called me Saturday and left a message. I believe her boyfriend spoke to her at midnight."

"She was found on Monday, March 1, in her residence, in her bathtub, is that what you were told?"

"Yes … I was told that my sister was dead. I asked if her ex-husband killed her, and she told me she didn't know. And the reason I ask that is because of, they haven't settled, they were divorced, but they did not settle anything, and that actually was coming up. And she was terrified of that, him and him threatening her."

"And what was his occupation?"

"A police officer."

"In that same town?"

"Yes."

"Have you been to the residence since your sister's death?"

"Yes."

"Anything unusual, find anything unusual?"

"Yes, everything was cleaned out. Before my sister was even put in the grave everything was cleaned out of the house, everything, pictures, everything."

"And her and her ex-husband were legally divorced?"

"Yes."

"He had since remarried?"

"Yes, to an 18-year-old."

O'Neil then asked Savio's sister if she had any comments to make at that time.

"It's very difficult for my family because of my sister telling us all the time … that if she would die, it may look like an accident, but it wasn't. She just told me last week, and she was just terrified of him. He always threatened her. He had her in the basement one time. He did many, many things to her. He wished only for her to go away.

"And it's just very hard for me to accept that, what had happened. His reactions after this were a laughing matter. Cleaning everything out, ready to get rid of the house … Actually he requested the divorce because he wanted to marry this young girl … And the settlement actually was coming up in April."

Samantha Harer death investigation

In February 2018, I interviewed Harer's parents, Kevin and Heather Harer, regarding the violent and shocking death of their only child. The 23-year-old full-time WESCOM dispatcher had died in the presence of off-duty Crest Hill Officer Flores, who was inside her tiny Channahon apartment, and claimed she shot herself during an argument while she was telling him to leave.

Two days later, Channahon Police Chief Shane Casey and Detective Andrew McClellan showed up at the Harer home to inform the parents that their investigation was basically over.

The following information is from my interview with Harer's parents, some 14 months ago:

Heather Harer: "They said based on the 911 call and the text messages between Samantha and Phil, they had determined that her death was a suicide. It was Chief Casey who said that. It's burned into my brain."

The parents also told me they were positive Samantha didn't realize Officer Flores had been accused of raping a sleeping woman just one year prior to their dating.

That year, 2016, Samantha was graduating with a criminal justice degree from the University of St. Francis in Joliet.

"She was only 23 but not a lot of dating experience," her mother said. "I think she thought that he cared about her ... My daughter is no dummy, but she would have ran for the hills if she would have known that he was accused of something as heinous as a rape."

In September 2017, Flores and Samantha flew to Arizona for vacation. In the middle of that vacation, Samantha contacted her parents about getting a one-way flight home. She had locked herself in the bathroom at the condo they were staying at near Phoenix, her parents told me in 2018.

"I got the impression that he was being manipulative, and he had scared her and demeaned her. My daughter was crying when she told me this," her mother said.

Not long after that conversation, Samantha informed her parents everything was fine.

They said Flores was manipulative and constantly went through their daughter's phone and iPad to read her messages and contacts; he knew their daughter's passwords to her electronic devices.

One time, for example, Samantha grew visibly upset and informed her parents that Flores told her she was a "bad daughter" because she had asked her dad to borrow $20. Flores only learned this by reading her phone messages, the parents said.

In late February of this year, I published an exclusive story revealing that the last two internet searches — retrieved from her smartphone — around the time of her death helped convince the Channahon Police Department it made the right call in treating her death as a suicide.

One internet search used the following phrase: "I Shot Myself in the Head and Survived" and the other read: "best place to shoot your head."

"These last two searches are shown as having been conducted on February 13, 2018 at 8:02 a.m. this was approximately 17 minutes before Flores called in the shooting," Channahon's civil lawyer Jim Murphy's federal filing states.

Another time, the parents said Flores got mad after discovering she and her mother made plans to get their nails done. He reminded Samantha he planned to spend the day with her at the zoo, her mother told Patch, and also expressed reservations about one of Samantha's best friends.

"This guy was trying to isolate her," Heather Harer said. "Why was he constantly in her phone and her iPad all the time?"

She characterized their relationship as "stormy."

"It was like a bad Lifetime movie," she added.

On Feb. 13, 2018, a Tuesday morning around 8 a.m., Flores claimed Samantha had locked herself in her Channahon apartment bedroom, and he was not able to bust open the door in time to prevent her from killing herself.

In 2004, Kathleen Savio turned up dead inside her Bolingbrook bathtub; her house was later found to be locked.

Herbert Hardy, of the Illinois State Police investigative team, testified at Savio's 2004 Will County Coroner's inquest that, "Well, in this particular case, it involved a young lady and her husband was a sergeant on the Bolingbrook Police Department, her ex-husband … I was never present at the death scene."

Hardy was then asked by Coroner O'Neil to relate the circumstances of her discovery.

"Her ex-husband was trying to locate her in order to return the children after his visitations. He had talked to the neighbors and asked have they seen her, and he was trying to locate her without being able to do so. Finally, her ex-husband and the neighbors went to the house. Her ex-husband called a locksmith who opened the home, and at which time a couple of neighbors entered the home while the ex-husband and locksmith stayed outside.

"They entered the home, went upstairs, they found Kathleen in the master bedroom in the bathtub …. The one lady screamed and at that time the ex-husband entered the home."

"Was there any water in the tub?"

"No, there was not."

"Was the, I guess you call it a plunger, was that?"

"Yes, it was down."

"Closed?"

"Closed."

From page 26 of the inquest transcripts, Coroner O'Neil revealed the toxicology results for Savio were all negative. Then he highlighted the report from the forensic pathologist who worked on his staff. "It's his opinion that the immediate cause of death on her death certificate be listed as drowning … he says on the left occipital scalp there is a one-inch blunt laceration associated with that wound, there is no skull fracture. It's not a life-threatening blow that was to her head. It could possibly, though, have rendered her unconscious.

"There are six or there are seven other bruises noted to the decedent, all of which are old. There are no new bruises noted … In consideration of the circumstances surrounding her death, the available medical history and autopsy findings, the death of this 40-year-old white female, Kathleen Savio, is ascribed to drowning. The laceration could have been related to a fall."

In a given year, Coroner O'Neil normally issues one — yes, one — press release. That's it.

On Dec. 28, 2018, O'Neil issued his one press release for 2018, proclaiming "The Will County Coroner’s Office announces that it is classifying the manner of death of the late Samantha Harer, 23, of Channahon, as a suicide. The Coroner’s office made this determination based upon a detailed review of all available evidence in the case. This included a review of autopsy and toxicology reports, police reports, DNA analysis, blood spatter analysis, medical records, and cell phone records …"

In 2012 — eight years after Kathleen Savio's death — there was a Lifetime movie made about Drew Peterson.

Will the day come when there's a Lifetime movie about another Will County law enforcement romance that had soured, the one involving Phil Flores and Samantha Harer?

It's still too early to say with certainty, but the answer could be yes.

Jayme Closs Subject Of New 90-Minute Lifetime Documentary

Joliet Patch Editor John Ferak has had five true-crime books published, including his latest by WildBluePress: Wrecking Crew: Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery. In 2014, the Wisconsin Association of Homicide Investigators gave Ferak their coveted Public Service Award for spearheading a several week series called Tracking Wisconsin's Cold Cases.