A Coal City man has been charged with the shooting death of a 24-year-old New Lenox Township woman whom he had been dating recently, officials said.

Will County authorities Saturday charged Jeremy Boshears, 32, with three counts of first-degree murder in the death of Kaitlyn Kearns. An arrest warrant signed Saturday set bail at $10 million.

Boshears was taken into custody Friday and held on $250,000 bail after being charged by the Kankakee County State’s Attorney’s Office with concealment of a homicide. Kearns’ body was discovered last week in her vehicle in a rural part of the county.

Will County authorities continued to work on the case following the initial charges being filed, giving investigators time to develop additional information that led to the murder charges, said Charles Pelkie, a spokesman for the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe has agreed to dismiss the concealment of a homicide charge so a similar charge can be filed in Will County and all of the charges can be tried together, Pelkie said in a news release.

Jeremy Boshears, an alleged member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, is being charged with concealing the death of his girlfriend Kaitlyn Kearns, officials said. Jeremy Boshears, an alleged member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, is being charged with concealing the death of his girlfriend Kaitlyn Kearns, officials said.

Authorities said Boshears and Kearns had been dating for two weeks. They met about four weeks ago at the Joliet bar where Kearns was working.

Attorney Neil Patel, who said he is representing Boshears, said he expects his client, who is being held in the Kankakee County jail, will be transferred to Will County. No court date has yet been scheduled.

Will County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer said Boshears is a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Will County sheriff’s SWAT officers executed a search warrant Thursday morning at the group’s clubhouse, which is near the bar where Kearns worked. Officers seized Boshears’ white Dodge Charger from the clubhouse parking lot after the search, Hoffmeyer said.

Patel said any possible connection his client might have to the Outlaws “is potentially remote and irrelevant to this case.”

“A person who stands accused for a crime stands accused for his actions, not who he associates with,” he said.

No one else has been charged in Kearns’ death.

Kearns, who had been missing since early Monday after tending bar, was found dead in a rural part of Kankakee County during an overnight search, Will County sheriff’s police said Thursday. Kearns had been shot once in the head, the Kankakee County coroner’s office determined.

Authorities said sheriff’s detectives used “electronic means” to locate Kearns’ 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee in a pole barn on private property in Kankakee Township, about 50 miles from Joliet. The woman’s body was discovered in the back of the vehicle, authorities said.

Kearns’ father had reported her missing Tuesday, police said. She was last seen early Monday after working at Woody’s Bar, 1005 E. Washington St., according to a news release.

News of the charges were met with “relief” from family members, Kearns’ brother, Matt, said.

“We’re feeling like we’re getting justice for Katie,” Matt Kearns said.

“It was nice to know that something was happening,” he said. “You’ll never have closure in a situation like this, it will always be in your life; but it gives you something.”

He also thanked investigators for their “swiftness” in making an arrest within days of family members reporting her missing.

The Outlaws Motorcycle Club website — which greets online visitors with its signature skull and crossed pistons logo — details a history that began in the 1930s, when it was established out of Matilda’s Bar on old Route 66 in southwest suburban McCook. The group expanded around the country over the next several decades, and in 1969 adopted its motto: “God forgives, Outlaws don’t.” In the Chicago area, the club’s name has surfaced in connection to a variety of crimes, including gun sales, drug dealing, the beating of a federal witness and a pipe-bombing.

Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter.

vortiz@chicagotribune.com

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