Dead 911 Dispatcher Dated Crest Hill Cop (2024)

A Patch reader saw authorities removing the victim's body and take her away by ambulance on Tuesday morning.

Posted Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 3:43 pm CT|Updated Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 10:08 am CT

A Channahon Patch reader who lives in the apartment complex had indicated that "I was in the laundry room which shares a wall with her apartment at about midnight last night (Monday, Feb. 12) and heard nothing," the reader told Patch. "Her black Jeep had not moved in a while and it was there then. Everything was quiet.

"I saw them wheel her out of the apartment right before 8:30 a.m. this morning (Tuesday, Feb. 13) as I was walking down to switch my laundry from last night. From my apartment it looked like she was covered and had already passed. I wasn't close enough to say for sure though."

The press statement put out by the Channahon Police Department on Tuesday did not mention that the young woman who died from a gunshot wound was employed as a 911 dispatcher in Will County. The press statement put out around 7:15 p.m. also did not mention she was involved in an intimate romantic relationship and that her boyfriend works as an officer with the Crest Hill Police Department.

Late on Tuesday night, AM-1340 WJOL Morning Show Host Scott Slocum, a Channahon resident, reported from the scene that Harer was not alone at the time of her death. She had a boyfriend, and he is a member of the Crest Hill Police Department, Slocum reported. However, Harer's death "is being investigated as a suicide," Slocum reported. A video of Slocum's live report is at the bottom of this story.

When the Joliet Herald-News updated their story on Tuesday night, the newspaper mentioned how Channahon police said Harer was not alone when she was found, but the paper reported that Bogart "declined to say more about who was with her or to classify their relationship."

Tuesday night in Channahon

According to Channahon Police, officers were summoned to Harer's apartment at 8:17 a.m. Tuesday for a reported gunshot wound. At the apartment, police found the 911 dispatcher had suffered a gunshot wound to her head. Harer was rushed by ambulance to St. Joe's hospital in Joliet where she was pronounced dead.

"A firearm was recovered at the scene," Bogart stated in his press release Tuesday night.

An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday at the Will County Morgue.

"There was no threat to public safety at any time and the incident was isolated to the apartment," Bogart said in his Tuesday night statement.

Police officers as well as the Will County mobile crime lab were still at the Bridge Street apartments as of 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Harer's Facebook page notes that she is a 911 dispatcher at Western Will County Communications Center (WESCOM). It lists her as a Channahon resident who studied criminal and social justice at the University of St. Francis in Joliet.

Harer, a former intern at the Channahon Police Department, according to Slocum, was very active on social media in the days leading up to her death. She was particularly active on Twitter. Here's a small sampling on her tweets.

Main image provided to Joliet Patch with permission to use, secondary image taken by John Ferak, Patch Editor for Channahon-Minooka