WLS Radio Discusses Samantha Harer Case

About six weeks ago, on Dec. 28, Channahon's Police Department closed its investigation into the death of 23-year-old WESCOM emergency dispatcher Samantha Harer, ruling her case as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But the police department's press release has not brought an end to the discussion about the circumstances of the former Channahon Police Department intern's death.

This past Saturday night, WLS-AM 890's weekly radio show, The POPO REPORT, devoted several minutes of airtime to discussing the questionable circumstances of Harer's Feb. 13, 2018 death at her apartment complex where she lived alone. Her boyfriend was present at the time of her death, and he called 911.

According to its Facebook page, "The POPO REPORT is a weekly show hosted by well known private investigator, Paul Ciolino, and Lupe Aguirre, a Chicago Police Officer and private attorney."

First off, Ciolino explained to WLS radio listeners that Harer was a 2016 criminal justice graduate from the University of St. Francis in Joliet who later found work as a full-time emergency dispatcher for Will County's 911 system.

Here's a rundown from Saturday night's discussion:

Ciolino: "Last February, 2018, she allegedly commits suicide."

Aguirre: "At least that's the narrative ..."

Ciolino: "That was the narrative that was presented to her parents about two hours after her body was found. And she had a boyfriend, and he was a Crest Hill Police officer. And this relationship was not going well, at all."

Aguirre: "Right."

Ciolino: "And he's the one that, he's present when she allegedly shoots herself."

Aguirre: "Wait? Was he in the next room?"

Ciolino: "It's a little sketchy. He's not quite clear. He claims to be on the other side of whatever door she's was on the other side of, OK? We're not sure if this is an interior door or the exterior door because this is a very small studio apartment out in Channahon. I mean, we're talking like five hundred square feet, right? Tiny. And the walls are paper thin out there. It more or less looks like a hotel more than anything else, those one-story hotels that you see out in the country ... But it's been converted into apartments. And this is her first apartment ever outside of living at home.

"And this is a world-class kid. Never a problem. No issues, none whatsoever. Was working her dream job. By the way, 911 dispatchers in Will County make about $65,000 a year to start. Their psychologically screened, there's usual backgrounds and they're very careful ..."

Aguirre: "At 23 and you're making $65,000 a year."

Ciolino: "That's big dough for your first job out of college, most kids would jump on that. It's more money than the beginning state's attorneys make in Cook and Will County. So that's a nice hit. But she gets involved with a guy who's 10 years her senior. He's a Crest Hill officer. His name is Phil Flores. And Flores, she wants to get rid of Flores. Flores apparently doesn't want to go. That will all wash out later, but Samantha is found with a gunshot wound to the head. And the authorities aren't forthcoming, let's say. In fact, they don't report on this thing, of any type, until December 2018. Ten months later. Which makes it very suspicious, right out of the box. There's the problem. It don't take ten months to investigate a suicide."

Aguirre: "It took a FOIA request for some of this information to come out."

Ciolino: "Well, listen, it took a lot of beefing and complaining by some local media. There's a reporter with the Joliet Patch, a guy named John Ferak, absolutely incredibly talented reporter who's really been dogging this thing. And chasing it. And he's done a lot of work nationally. Ferak's a good reporter. He's out there in Joliet, but let me tell you, he's good, and he has been writing some devastating articles of the shenanigans in this case. I think we're going to follow it. Maybe even get John on the show have him talk about it. I'm looking at it closely with some other experts so, Samantha Harer, you're going to be hearing more about this.

"By the way, just as a tease, the gun shot residue case comes back ... from the Illinois State Police lab. And Samantha, who allegedly shot herself in the head, was clean. No gunshot residue on her, none. Zero. But her estranged boyfriend, the cop, he's loaded with gunshot residue."

RELATED PATCH COVERAGE: Samantha Harer Gunshot Residue Tests Revealed

Aguirre: "And he wasn't supposed to be near the general area."

Ciolino: "He wasn't supposed to be near any guns that were fired, shot or anything else, so there's a problem, and no one's talking about it yet, but we're gonna talk about it. You can believe we're going to talk about it. Because I'm not going to let this 23-year-old kid, I'm not going to walk away from this one ... She better have committed suicide, that's all I got to say. Because it looks like her family is getting no justice right now. And this is a sad, sad story."

Aguirre: "Definitely more to come."

To listen to the entire one-hour episode, or other recent podcast episodes, visit the WLS-AM 890 website for the POPO REPORT here.

Main image of Phil Flores and Samantha Harer provided to Patch with permission to use