Samantha Harer Cover-Up? YouTube Video Nears 20,000 Views

CHANNAHON, IL - Over the past several months, leaders of Channahon's Police Department have declined to answer questions about the February 2018 suspicious death of Samantha Harer, whose death they treated as a suicide, rather than a homicide involving a fellow local police officer, possibly hoping that people around Will County and elsewhere would forget about her case.

But Channahon's strategy has backfired and now the village is entangled in a federal civil rights lawsuit brought forward by Samantha Harer's parents, Kevin and Heather Harer and Brooklyn, N.Y. civil rights lawyer Jennifer Bonjean.

Over the weekend, Patch was alerted to a 25-minute-long YouTube video posted by Rachel Shannon, who has 10,500 subscribers on her YouTube channel. Her June YouTube true-crime video called, The Case Of Samantha Harer// Police Cover-up? has nearly 20,000 YouTube views and climbing.

Shannon spends most of her video presenting information from both sides: information suggesting that Crest Hill Officer Felipe "Phil" Flores was probable the killer and information suggesting that Harer, 23, took her own life. Flores, the estranged boyfriend, was in Harer's Channahon apartment, but unable to stop her from shooting herself, he claimed.

"This case actually took place close to where I used to live and went to high school. This is probably one of the cases that hits home to me the most ... she went to high school with my sister ... because this case happened in such a small town in Illinois, this case just hasn't gotten the exposure that it deserves so I decided to go ahead and share with you her story," Rachel Shannon informs everyone at the beginning of her YouTube video, which you can watch in its entirety at the bottom of this article.

After 23 minutes of presenting arguments from both sides, Rachel Shannon informed her YouTube followers: "This case is absolutely ridiculous and is a very glaringly obvious example of a police cover up in my opinion. There is just an overwhelming plethora of evidence pointing to Flores lying and even more evidence showing that police botched this investigation.This case is absolutely infuriating ...."

The YouTube video already has 180 comments - hardly any are supportive of Channahon's Police Department, which is led by Police Chief Shane Casey and Deputy Chief Adam Bogart, the two men suspected of orchestrating the Samantha Harer cover-up, along with fellow Channahon Detective Andrew McClellan.

Here's just a small sampling of the YouTube comments that have been posted online since Rachel Shannon aired her long video in June:

• "90% of the time cops cover for cops and i'm pretty sure this guy knew how to plant evidence and get rid of evidence and knew exactly what to say to investigators to make it look like she killed herself instead of what it really was which was cold blooded murder."
• "I’m sorry but anytime I hear about a partner or family member of law enforcement involved in these open and shut cases it makes me so suspicious."
• "Obvious cover up, the gun residue evidence in itself is more than enough for me to think he killed her."
• "I live in Illinois and this case is open and shut in my opinion. He's guilty. Period."
• "Why do they protect their own if they have committed a crime? It reminds me of the case of Jessica Boynton. She didn't pass away from a supposedly self inflicted gunshot but it screamed cover up because her husband was a police officer."
• "Unfortunately when a cop is involved, all too often other cops will cover for them. See Sherri Rasmussen. That appears to be the case here."
• "This was such a cover up and it’s so obvious that it makes me furious! I can’t for a second buy it was suicide. I totally think that note on her phone was written by him!! The gun shot residue is enough to prove it was him - it’s ridiculous."
• "They literally let a killer go."