More Details Released On Cause Of Death For Megan Bos

LAKE COUNTY, IL — The Lake County Coroner's Office has released more information regarding a possible cause of death for Megan Bos, the 37-year-old Antioch woman who was first reported missing in February and later found dead in a plastic garbage container.

On Monday, Lake County Coroner Stephen Newton shared that Bos' cause of death is currently classified as undetermined. But the circumstances surrounding her death — as well as toxicology results — have led authorities to believe she died from accidental drug intoxication or asphyxial death, according to a news release from the coroner's office.

After she went missing in February, Bos' body was found in a bleach-filled garbage container on April 10 behind a home on Yeeman Street in Waukegan.

This led them to interview the home's owner, Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 52, who was in regular contact with Bos, according to media reports. Mendoza-Gonzalez told authorities Bos snorted a line of drugs while at his house on Feb. 19. He claimed he went to attend to a leaky pipe in the home and then came back to find her dead in his basement, according to media reports.

Mendoza-Gonzalez is accused of then breaking her phone, keeping her body in his house for two days and then putting it in the trash bin behind his house, according to authorities. He's been charged with abuse of a corpse, concealing death of a person and obstructing justice/destroying evidence, which are all Class 4 felonies and non-detainable offenses under the state's SAFE-T Act.

On Saturday, he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago.

In a press release from Homeland Security regarding Mendoza-Gonzalez's detainment by ICE, officials mentioned that Bos' body was decapitated, which is not true, Newton said Monday. The Homeland Security report of decapitation showed up in various media reports Monday.

"This misinformation has caused unnecessary distress to the family and misrepresents the facts of this investigation," Newton said in a statement.

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An autopsy performed on Aug. 11 on Bos' showed no signs of trauma or struggle, according to the coroner's office. Her body was "in an advanced state of decomposition and had been exposed to chemical substances," he said.

"The classification of cause of death in any case is based on a combination of autopsy findings and investigative information, including scene findings, circumstances, and medical history," he said.

Newton added that the body being found in a plastic garbage container raised the "suspicion of a homicidal death or possibly a drug related death."

Newton said fentanyl, cocaine metabolites and morphine were found in Bos' liver tissue, indicating a recent and "potentially lethal" combination of "cocaine, fentanyl and probable heroin use."

"Making a distinction between an accidental drug intoxication and an asphyxial death based solely on the autopsy findings, both the absence of significant trauma and the presence of potentially lethal drugs in the decedent’s body, is not possible," he said Monday.

The coroner's office has been working with police and the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office as they continue to investigate Bos' death.

Patch requested more information regarding whether further testing would be done to determine Bos' cause of death, but has not yet received a response.

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