Nov 12, 20176 min read

Kaitlyn 'Katie' Kearns, 24, November 12, 2017, Joliet, Will County, Illinois

Updated: Dec 3, 2022

Katie Kearns, 24

November 12, 2017

Joliet, Illinois

Twenty-four year old Katie Kearns lived every day like it was her last. A bartender and working three different jobs, living with her dad and sister in Mokena, Illinois, single, and being with her friends as though they were her family too.

November 12, 2017 she was at work, at Woody’s Bar located at 1008 East Washington Street in Joliet, a place so small it’s easy to pass right by it without noticing. Her best friend came in to the bar about 10:00 P.M., had a drink and spoke about what they were doing at the bar. During this time, two men were also at the bar, one that Katie had her eye for the past two weeks. They had seen each other several times and getting to know each other. Her friends walked out of the bar knowing something just didn’t feel right.

The next day, Katie was gone. She never got home. Her car was nowhere to be found and no one heard from Katie since her friends at the bar about midnight Saturday night in to Sunday morning. Her car, a tan 1996 Grand Cherokee Laredo with a Cubs World Series sticker on the back window. Hours go by in silence. Her phone goes right to voicemail. No one had seen or heard from her. Katie’s social media is also silenced. Later, she doesn’t show up to both of her jobs, one at the Café Miele in Orland Park and again at Woody’s in Joliet. None of this is characteristic for Katie. She is missing and she is in real trouble. Her father made a missing person’s report with the Joliet Police Department.

It was at this time I met with one of her best friends Marie. While she was a little apprehensive at first, it would change the moment we met in person. This, let’s say, is not the safest part of Joliet, and a place (or street) I sure would not be at night. She showed me the locations out there, and there was just one thing that didn’t sit right with me. Woody’s. While I was waiting for Marie, I went in to the bar myself and asked for a beer. Katie had just started working at this bar about a month prior to her disappearance. It was as if the lady knew exactly why I was there. I just felt like the bar knew what happened to her. The bar itself and everyone in it. Like walls, they weren’t going to talk. There was a load of lit candles outside, on the side of the bar on a picnic bench with pictures on other little trinkets in hopes to bring awareness to Katie’s disappearance, and prayers to bring her home. They had already received word that there was a link to the biker bar about a block away, but Katie at this point was still missing. At Woody’s, it was clear. Business as usual. To be a little more detailed, I should express that turning my head at the bar, to the right, was a large TV screen mounted on the wall showing multiple camera surveillance throughout the inside and outside of the bar. All I remember thinking was that whatever happened to Katie, started right there at Woody’s, and these walls could talk. Thru surveillance.

The newspaper, The Patch to Katie’s story and ran it with updates by the minute. True reporting I must say is always the best thing that can happen in a missing persons case. A reporter that kept up with the story throughout it’s entire progression, even today.

By Wednesday, the Will County Sheriff’s Office took over the case. I learned by thru attempting to contact Joliet PD for a news update. The hunt was on for Katie, and find that Jeep would hopefully find Katie. She never went anywhere without her car, or her phone for that matter. Rumor also had it that the bar wasn’t cooperating. I apparently wasn’t the only one that felt that bar “was breathing on it’s own”. Some of those that knew Katie didn’t understand how she got the job at Woody’s as she had zero experience in bartending and there was no sign that they were hiring. Silence definitely struck a nerve with Katie’s loved ones.

Then, the news spread like wildfire. The next county over was Kankakee County, and the report came in that November 17, 2017 Katie’s body found had been located. I’m not sure what was reported publicly other than a gun shot wound to Katie’s head, and the car was found in a barn in Saint Anne, Illinois. So what happened to Katie?

Katie’s phone actually located her. Reportedly, Katie’s body was wrapped in the pool table tarp that was missing from the Joliet Outlaws bar just down the road from Woody’s. Then the mattress from the futon also missing at the bar was hiding Katie’s wrapped body in the back seat of her own vehicle. Her vehicle, was parked in a barn on someone’s property in Saint Anne. The property is large, quiet and beautiful, in the middle of nowhere.

Back in Will County, law enforcement stormed the Outlaw biker bar in Joliet. The Patch reported and showed pictures of the club being torn apart and swarmed with officers and SWAT. The front of the club house (walls) were torn off. A white Dodge Charger was taken in for evidence. This clubhouse was just blocks from Woody’s. Katie had told a few friends she was going to this club after she got off work.

Later that day, The Patch reported there was a suspect in custody but had not officially charged the man. Several search warrants were executed including the clubhouse and the suspects residence on the 400 block of East Third Street in Coal City where he lives with his wife. A member of the Outlaws they had lived at the residence for about two years. He lawyered up right away and detectives at that time could not question him, however, the search warrants did include things like property, bank and phone records and surveillance cameras.

The following day, November 18, 2018 the Chicago Tribune reported on Katie’s case. The suspects name now revealed as 32 year old Jeremy Boshears who was now charged with three counts of First Degree Murder in Katie’s death. Bail set at ten million dollars which went up at the Will County Courthouse after initial charges from Kankakee County charging him with concealing a homicide. Now that the case is transferred over, Will County roared on and murder charges were filed against him.

The Tribune reported that Katie and Boshears started seeing each other within the two weeks prior to her disappearance and had met at Woody’s four weeks prior to her murder. His lawyer immediately noted that any relation to the Outlaws is irrelevant to Katie’s death. Detectives stated they believe the owners of the barn where Katie and her vehicle were located were unaware of what had occurred on their property or had knowledge.

Katie had no idea he was married, nevertheless for ten years. Her toxicology report of the autopsy came back showing she had an alcohol BAC of 0.212. She also tested positive for Xanax, oxcarbazepine, Citalopram, cocaine and cocaine metabolites.

November 20, 2018 Kaitlyn Kearns was laid to rest at Saint John's United Church of Christ Cemetery located at 20201 Wolf Road Mokena, Will County, Katie never had the chance to fall head over heals in love, walk down the aisle and say I do, birth a child, or purchase a home.

He was charged with three counts of murder in the first degree and concealment of a homicide. Boshears later plead not guilty. The Patch reported that another fifty people may possibly be witnesses at the trial.

December 2019, The Chicago Tribune brings in a clearer picture out of the courtroom as to the last moments of Katie’s life. It was said that while Katie was bartending that night, the owner of the bar called Katie at the bar seeing it was “after hours” and told her to close the bar. During the call Boshears argued with Katie, then slammed the phone down and left. Boshears was “clearly enraged”. Boshears went to the Clubhouse and a few others followed. Katie closed up at Woody’s, left around 12;40 A.M. by herself, and also went to the Clubhouse. There was video of Katie entering the Clubhouse, but not leaving. However, it does show her car leaving about 4:00 A.M.

May 2019 the Defense claims that Katie “killed herself” and are trying to prove that the shot the killed Katie was one she took herself. The bullet “that killed her” was found in the ceiling rafters of the Clubhouse. Boshears attorney is theorizing that Katie put a gun to the side of her head, tilted her head back, and shot herself.

The Patch reported that Boshear’s attorney “has not committed to putting on a murder defense arguing that Kearns took her own life. If Patel pursues that scenario at his client's trial, the defense lawyer would need to explain how Kearns gained access to a gun, a loaded gun, why she shot herself inside the Outlaws clubhouse and who was responsible for loading her body into her Jeep and driving her Jeep to Kankakee County.”

COURT

April 2022, Boshears was found guilty. Sentencing has been delayed as of December 2022. We will continue updating.

OBITUARY

Kearns, Kaitlyn “Katie”

Visitation Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Funeral Monday 9:00 a.m. from the Robert J. Sheehy & Sons Funeral Home, 9000 W. 151st Street, Orland Park, to St. Mary Church, 19515 115th Avenue, Mokena, Mass 10:00 a.m. Interment St. John Cemetery, 203rd & Wolf Rd., Mokena.

In lieu of flowers, the family has set up a Go Fund Me page at www.gofundme.com/katie-kearns-fund where contributions would be appreciated.

www.sheehyfh.com 708-857-7878