Lockport Area State Rep. Sheehan Condemns SAFE-T Act, Demands Justice For Megan Bos

LOCKPORT, IL — State Representative Patrick Sheehan joined fellow Republican representatives Tom Weber and Patrick Windhorst on Thursday, alongside Megan Bos’ mother, to demand accountability and change in Illinois’ criminal justice system.

Bos was a 37-year-old Antioch woman who was found dead last month after she was reported missing in February. Her body was found in a "bleach-filled" trash can in April after she died in the home of a 52-year-old Waukegan man months earlier, according to authorities.

That man told police he left Bos' body in his basement for two days and then put it into the trash bin behind his house on Yeoman Street in Waukegan.

Police found Bos' body on April 10 while following up on a lead in the case.

This led them to interview the home's owner, Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 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 can 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.

Mendoza-Gonzalez is currently not in custody.

Bos' family is also searching for clarity into what caused the woman's death.

“We are still waiting for answers,” Jennifer Bos said during a news conference on Thursday. "I don’t know how my daughter died. I don’t know what will show up on the toxicology report. I don’t know what went on during my daughter's final moments on this earth.

"But what I do know is that under the umbrella of the Safe-T Act, the man who hid her body in a bleach-filled trash can for seven weeks still got out of jail free," Bos added. "We never got to see her, to hold her hand, or give her one last kiss goodbye... He robbed us of that. He very literally treated her like garbage and may have destroyed the very evidence that could explain her final moments to us."

On Thursday, Sheehan was among state politicians who decried the state's SAFE-T Act, which has eliminated cash bail in the state for several "non-detainable offenses," including the charges Mendoza-Gonzalez is currently free on.

“The SAFE-T Act has failed the people of Illinois,” Rep. Sheehan said. “It has stripped law enforcement of critical tools, tied the hands of officers, and prioritized criminals over victims. Who is this law protecting? Obviously not victims like Megan and her family.”

“Illinois families deserve better. Megan deserved better,” Sheehan said.