Waukegan man charged with concealing death of missing Antioch woman, authorities say
A Waukegan man was charged with concealing the death of a missing woman from Antioch, last seen in February.
The Lake County States Attorney's Office charged 52-year-old Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez with two counts of concealment of a death, abuse of a corpse, and obstructing justice.
Waukegan police said on March 9, 37-year-old Megan Bos was reported missing to the Antioch Police Department. Megan also spent time in Waukegan.
Antioch police worked with multiple agencies, including the Waukegan Police Department, to find her.
On Thursday, April 10, Antioch detectives went to a Waukegan business to question a person of interest [Mendoza-Gonzalez] who had frequent contact with Megan.
During that conversation, which had to be translated into Spanish, the person of interest talked about Bos going to his house on Feb. 19 but initially said she left after her visit. After further conversation about her whereabouts and whether she was still alive, he said that he did not want to be arrested at the store but did not say why, police said.
The conversation moved to the Waukegan Police Department, where he told detectives that Bos was in a container in his yard in the 700 block of Yeoman Street in Waukegan. He went on to say that Bos had come over to his residence on Feb. 19, and at some point, she snorted some drugs, but he did not know what type of drug it was.
He then told detectives that she asked if she could hang out in his basement, which he let her do. He went to another part of the house, tending to a leaky pipe, but when he returned, he found her. He believed she had overdosed and was already dead.
Mendoza-Gonzalez said he was scared that he was going to be in trouble, so he left her in the basement for a few days before moving her to a container in his yard, where she remained until she was found by police.
He also confessed that on that night, he broke her phone and threw it in the regular trash. When asked what he planned on doing with her, he told detectives he didn't know.
An autopsy conducted on Friday showed no signs of any trauma or a struggle to her body. The investigation is still ongoing, pending further results from the lab, including toxicology.
Mendoza-Gonzalez appeared in court on Saturday. Court information was not available.
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