38: Who Killed Katie? | The Case That Left Me Completely Unsettled

Family and friends are concerned about a suburban woman who has not been seen since last weekend. Her family filed a missing persons report yesterday after she disappeared early Monday morning. I don't know what to think. I just keep waiting for the phone call. What kind of full monster are you? You could have done this to someone so sweet and so innocent. It was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful girl and something like that should have never happened. In the true crime world, it's pretty rare to come across a case that you haven't heard before. Especially when a case has so many different intricate layers to it. And I have to say, the case that we're talking about today, it is one of those cases. It is a wild ride and a lot to take in. Here's where it starts and let me just kind of give you the sneak preview of this. At the end of her shift, Katie Kerns did something that she didn't normally do. Instead of going straight home, she made a last minute decision to meet up with a couple of people that she had just been serving at the bar that she worked at. Now at the time, it didn't seem like a big deal. It felt like one of those, you know, small, harmless choices that you make at the end of a long night long shift. But that decision, it would end up being the last confirmed movement that anyone could trace. Because the place that Katie went after work that night, it wasn't just somewhere new. It was somewhere where people in her life already had a bad feeling about it. And after she walked through those doors, everything changed. Hey guys, my name is Annie Elise. This is 10 to life. Let's jump right in. Back in October of 2017, 24-year-old Katie Kerns started working as a bartender at Woody's bar in Illinois. Now this wasn't her only job. It actually was her third job. See, Katie had this insane work ethic. She worked extremely hard and she gave her all at every single one of those jobs. She didn't shy away from long hours or stacking shifts back to back. She embraced it. In fact, that was her normal routine. Now on a typical day, Katie would start early in the morning working the breakfast and the lunch shift at a local cafe near her home. Then when her day shift ended, she wouldn't go home to take a nap, to relax, to binge TV or do whatever. She would just go straight to her next job at Baracko's pizza for her evening shift. And that's where she worked until closing. Which I think we can all agree most people would probably hit a point where they say to themselves like, "Okay, I just need a break. I need to reset. I just need some time for me." But not Katie. If anything, whenever she did have extra time, she saw it as an opportunity to make extra money. Whether it was picking up an extra shift, putting in hours for a private party, taking on another gig, I mean whatever it was, Katie would take it. Because she really did her best whenever she was busy. She thrived around people and she loved meeting new people as well. She had an incredibly large circle of friends and many of them would come and visit her throughout her shifts at the cafe, at the pizza place, wherever it was. So for Katie, it really made perfect sense to blend both her work and her social life and now try bartending. Which if you've ever worked at a bar or a restaurant and, you know, whether it's a restaurant bar or an actual dive bar or whatever it is, you know that being a bartender can be pretty lucrative. Especially if you're trying to make quick money. And that's exactly what interested Katie at the time. She needed extra money. See, she was trying to cover some unexpected car repairs and she was currently borrowing a car from her ex-boyfriend Daniel so that she had reliable transportation to and from work. Daniel and Katie had dated for a very long time and, luckily, after they broke up, they did remain friends. They had been in each other's lives forever and he also really cared about her and he wanted to make sure that she succeeded. So when Katie's car had broken down, Daniel offered his old jeep until she saved up enough money to get her car repaired. It was a really good friend to her. Now the jeep wasn't in the most reliable or best condition, you know, not only cosmetically or otherwise, but the point is it ran and that's all that mattered to Katie. She was extremely grateful for Daniel's support. But at the same time, she also was fiercely independent. So she locked in on picking up a few extra bartending shifts, getting some of that extra cash at the end of the night so that she could have her own car repaired and she wouldn't need to rely on her friend. The only problem was that her current job didn't have any open bartending opportunities. So she began applying in other places. And it's really hard to get behind the bar without having experience. And that's true of any kind of bar restaurant, dive bar, whatever. So by the end of summer, Katie still had him in place and she was feeling pretty far from her goal. She felt a little bit defeated. She had basically applied to every bar in the area at that point, but still didn't have any bites. However, she didn't give up. She was determined. So she decided she was just going to expand her search a little bit. And that is when Woody's finally happened. They called her about an open position. So Katie went to her interview, they loved her, and they pretty much hired her right on the spot. It was for their Sunday night shift, which to Katie this really did feel like a step in the right direction. Because just that one shift, it was enough to get her foot in the door. She was really excited about it too. And with Sunday night football, she knew that there was some like real potential to make good money here to make the conversations happen, get good tips, socialize all of the things that come with that buzzy crowd. So Katie started working at Woody's in mid-October. And things picked up pretty quickly. She seemed to genuinely enjoy being there. And it showed her Sunday crowd, it began to grow and grow. And it seemed like things were finally going right for her. And for the first time in a while, she felt hopeful. Because there was now a real possibility that if things kept going well, she might not have to juggle three jobs anymore. She could maybe cut down to one or two jobs and actually breathe a little bit, finally have some financial stability, get her car repaired. Things were looking up. However, not everyone was excited about her new job as she was. Her friends and family were a little bit trepidacious and worried about her safety being at the bar, which to be honest, they had every right to be concerned. Because they weren't just being overly cautious or helicopter friends and family, they had valid reasons. One being that Katie was known for being extremely sweet. Like the kind of person who would do anything for anyone. Which those are, of course, amazing qualities that any family would be super proud of. And they're exactly the kind of qualities that make somebody a good friend. However, being a young adult in a big, big world and a bar scene with a big heart, it can sometimes put you in some vulnerable situations. Especially when you're in this brand new environment with strangers, strangers who have been drinking and sometimes flirty and things like that. And look, I don't want to say that they weren't happy for her. Her friends and family were happy for her. And I don't want to say that they were judging her. It's just that to them, the same independence and freedom that Katie was excited about and made them a bit uneasy. Now Katie's dad Kevin was a liquor distributor and he knew from just his experience that bartending can be kind of dangerous. So now to have his daughter working the night shift alone with alcohol, cash tips, late nights and being further away from home without the most reliable car, it definitely set off some alarms. But Katie was cautiously optimistic because she was already working late nights at the pizza place. However, deep down, even though she was optimistic, she knew that they were right. Because the environment, it was completely different at what ease than the pizza place. The pizza place that she had worked at was a successful family-owned place with locations all throughout Chicago and the nearby suburbs. They're really involved in the community as well and a lot of their regular customers are actually off-duty Chicago cops and firefighters. So she already felt a level of just protection, safety, community, plus she had an extra layer of protection because her brother Matt managed the location where she worked. So whether he was physically there or not, there was somebody always there looking out for her, someone who knew her, someone who had eyes on the situation. And Woody's just didn't have that same safety net. There were also some concerns about her safety because Woody's wasn't exactly located in the best area. And I want to pause here for just a second. Because when I first heard the city it was located in, Juliet, I had a moment kind of like, wait, why does that city sound familiar to me? Where do I know that city from? Which if you're thinking the same thing, there's actually a long history there. Juliet's true crime ties go all the way back to 1858 when the old Juliet prison opened. Over the years it's housed some pretty well-known names as well. Al Capone was one of their first notable inmates after being arrested by the local police department in 1927. Richard Speck served out his life sentence there after being found guilty of a mass murder that killed eight nurses. And so did James Earl Ray. after being arrested for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Then of course you also have the biggest creep of all time, John Wayne and Gacy. And if you watched our deep dive into Gacy, you know that during the 70s, Gacy would literally drive south of Chicago to dump bodies. And Juliet was one of those areas. After he was arrested, he was taken to the local prison there. And after the trial, he was transferred. But for the last few days of his life, he was transferred back to Juliet. And he was housed just down the street at the State'sville Correctional Center until his execution. Now nowadays, the city is still considered a prison town. But statistically, crime overall is relatively low. However, and this is important, there are pockets of the area that are more dangerous than others. And Woody's bar? Well, it was right in the middle of a pretty big pocket. It wasn't just the location of the bar either. It was also that they kind of had this reputation in the community and the regulars that hung out there. Even the owners acknowledged that some sketchy things had gone down in the recent years. For example, in 2015, a 52-year-old man was just shot and killed while sitting in his car in the parking lot. More importantly, in the summer of 2017, so right before Katie started working at Woody's, women were being attacked and assaulted along something called the Old Plank Road Trail. So this is really where things start to feel a little more unsettling when you look at what was going on in the background of this area. Now, the Old Plank Road Trail. That was an abandoned railroad track that had been paved over, which it started in a suburb. I believe in south of Chicago, and then it stretched over 20 miles before ending just one block away from Woody's. It's a public trail, but some parts of it feel more rural. And there's like these murky ponds, high grass, thick brush, heavy terrain in some areas. And anytime you get an environment like that, especially like trails and things like that, it's a hotspot for crime. That's just the truth of the matter. And that trail, it kind of mirrored Katie's path to work every day. Now, I don't know if I would want to be driving that way, personally, especially alone late at night with an unreliable car. But for whatever reason, it didn't bother Katie. In fact, nothing seemed to deter her from taking this job, not even when the bar was targeted in a burglary. And I think that this is the point where the people closest to her really started questioning things. Like, we're nervous. We don't feel good about it. Look at the history of the area. You don't have the best car. And it just, she was cautiously optimistic, but they were concerned. They knew Katie, and the Katie that they knew wouldn't normally put herself in a situation like this just for extra tip money. Things weren't fully adding up to them. So they started wondering, what is it about this place that's pulling her in? Why is she so set on staying there? Now, in Katie's defense, she was 24 years old. And she was meeting a lot of new people, making new friends, stepping into something new. And look, at that age, a lot of us feel like we're kind of untouchable, right? Like, nothing bad is actually going to happen to us. And Katie, in a lot of ways, was just living in the moment, just had that mentality. So on Sunday, November 12th, 2017, Katie said goodbye to her dad. And she started driving from her home all the way to Joliette, where she clocked in for her shift at Woody's. And she was really excited too, because the place was packed. Now, on that particular Sunday, everything lined up in a way that just made the bar busier than usual. Not only was it unusually warm for the Midwest in mid-November at that time, but people really wanted to get out. They wanted to enjoy things before the mass storms and weather really hit. The Chicago Bears were also playing the Green Bay Packers. The parking lot was full. There was tons of motorcycles. It was almost like they had their own little party going on, in the parking lot. But from everything that was described, the crowd itself, it was actually pretty tame. It wasn't wild, it wasn't unruly. It was just packed, good energy. People celebrating people being out before the winter cold hits and just enjoying the weekend. So Katie stayed busy throughout her shift, just doing what she always did. And eventually, as the sun went down and the football game started wrapping up, things started to slow down. In fact, by the end of the night, it was just one of the regulars that Katie had become friendly with, his friend Katie and her coworkers. So the manager wanted to close the bar an hour earlier than normal because it had slowed down so much. Katie told the guys at the bar that they were gonna be closing and they were ahead of schedule. So they'd be shutting down a little bit early. They seemed a bit annoyed by that. So she tried to smooth things over by pouring them a shot, including one for herself. And you, I mean, if you've ever been into situation like that, you get it. We're like, I know, guys, I know, but we're closing down. Here's a shot, like, you're just trying to appease them, make the situation lighter. So I call, take one with you, like, we're just slow, we're gonna close down. And so that's what happened. Now, I want you to remember this though. I want you to remember the little piece of information that I just shared because although it seems small, it will matter later. Now, still, even after all of this, the guys were not ready to call it a night. So instead, they invited Katie to meet up with them after her shift. Normally, Katie wouldn't have gone out without a group after a shift like that. Plus, she had to be up super early for her morning shift. So most nights, she would just go straight home and politely decline any invitations. But this time was a little bit different because this time, she actually had some extra time. And for once, she felt like she could just enjoy herself a little bit. The bar was closing up early. She was gonna have more time for herself. What's it gonna hurt to have a few drinks? So before she left, she asked her coworker to walk her out to her car. Just to be safe. And then she also let them know that she was planning to meet up with those guys. So Katie continued on with her night and at the time, nothing seemed unusual about it. Fast forward to the next morning. Katie's friends started waking up and realizing that she hadn't checked in with them after her shift. And she hadn't replied to the last message in the thread. So they assumed she was out late. She was probably still sleeping, possibly even a little bit hungover. Which honestly, that's all pretty normal. I mean, it happens all the time. You go out, you're having a good time, you aren't really paying attention to your phone, responding, things like that. So they figured that she would just check in later. Probably once she got to work at the cafe and maybe got some food in her, picked up her phone and we'll just catch back up. The point being, they weren't immediately alarmed. But then things started to shift pretty quickly. Like I said earlier, Katie was one of those people who just naturally built strong connections. Her coworkers weren't just coworkers. They were like an extended family to her. And one of them was a girl named Angela. They worked together all the time at the cafe and they really did consider each other really close friends. In fact, Katie considered her one of her best friends. So when Monday morning came and Katie didn't show up for her shift, Angela noticed. At first, it didn't feel like a huge deal. She knew that Katie had been working late. So she figured maybe she just overslept or maybe she was just running behind. She tried calling her a couple of times, but Katie didn't answer. And Angela wasn't too worried because although it was, yeah, unlike Katie to blow off a shift, she kind of expected that at any moment, Katie would just come rushing through the door, apologizing, maybe flustered, being like, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Let me take over the tables. Let me like catch up. So Angela didn't overly worry, but she also kept her eyes on the door during the morning rush. And Katie never showed up. So now she was starting to feel a little worried. At the same time, they were also in the middle of a very busy shift, already short a server. So she couldn't keep stepping away to call and check in on Katie, but still something wasn't sitting right. Then when the cafe shut down at lunch and Katie was officially a no call, no show for her shift, it was clear that something was seriously wrong because Katie would never do that. There was no chance that she would ever just blow off work. And there was also no way that she would have slept through an entire shift and not checked in at all because this wasn't Katie. She didn't just disappear. She didn't leave people wondering where she was. And as everyone started trying to figure out where she had gone after leaving Woody's, one detail would change the entire course and direction of this case. But what nobody realized yet, was that after leaving Woody's the night before, Katie hadn't just gone out with a few people for one more drink. She had gone to a clubhouse connected to one of the most notorious outlaw gangs in American history. And from that moment on, this case would spiral into something far darker than anyone expected. Once Katie had missed an entire day of work at the cafe, Angela started digging and she checked Katie's social media activity. However, there was nothing. So throughout the rest of the day, she just kept trying to get in contact with her. She was calling, texting, and she even started to ask around if their other friends had heard from her. Now interestingly enough, that particular Monday, Katie wasn't just scheduled at the cafe. She was also scheduled to work the night shift at Woody's, so even with the construction her in building throughout the day, there was also still this small part of everybody thinking that, you know, she'll still show up to her night bar tending shift. It's a relatively new job. She'll show up. She's probably sleeping. We're overreacting. But when it came time for her to clock in at Woody's, she didn't walk through the door. She didn't clock in. And that is when panic really started to set in. Now it wasn't just one missed shift. It was both. And that is when things really shifted for Angela. She knew that something was wrong. And she reached out to Katie's family to see if Katie was even at home. Now you might be wondering why she waited to contact Katie's family to check in on her. But it's important to understand that Katie was really close with her family, especially her dad, Kevin. And she was very close with her siblings. She lived with them. They were all super tight, super connected. All the way to the point where it kind of just blended together. Friends, family, everyone knew each other. They always would hang out at her family's house too and spend time together. It was just kind of that dynamic between everyone on Katie's side. They were all very close. So when something like this happens, I mean, hello, it kind of puts people in a strange position. Because Katie was, yes, technically an adult. She was single. She was working a lot. She was living her life. And when you're in that stage of your life, it's not unusual to come home late or not come home at all. And it's not always an automatic red flag. Maybe you just check in. You send a quick text being like, hey, I'm staying at so-and-so's house or whatever or something like that. But sometimes people forget. I mean, it does happen. So from Katie's dad's perspective, at least at first, there were reasonable explanations. Maybe she stayed out late. Maybe she had too much to drink. Maybe she crashed at a friend's place. Maybe her schedule changed. And she actually didn't have to be at the cafe that morning. So instead of coming all the way home, she just stayed out in Joliette and figured that she would come back later that night after her night shift. And from her friend's side, it was kind of the same hesitation. Because they were young, too. And you know, you don't immediately go to somebody's parents over something like this, being like, hey, your 24-year-old daughter, I haven't heard from her even though she's an adult, like, you know, where is she when there could be a perfectly normal explanation? I mean, what if she was seeing someone and just didn't want her family to know? And she was keeping it a secret. What if it was nothing and now you've made it into something unintentionally? I mean, there are a million reasons why they didn't go straight to Katie's dad right away. So instead, they waited. They waited to see if she would show up to work. They waited for her to respond. And when she didn't, they called her dad. Now that was the moment that things got real. Because Katie's dad thought that she was probably with them. But now, there was not a simple explanation anymore. He knew that she wasn't with them. She wasn't with friends. She wasn't at home. She hadn't checked in with anyone. So they knew that something major had to have happened. And at that point, there was no more waiting. They needed to get everyone together and go find Katie. Now Katie's dad, he did not waste any time. He called her siblings and almost immediately all of them jumped into action. They posted on social media. They were asking anyone if they had seen or heard from Katie. They were trying to get eyes on her and her last location as fast as possible. I mean, it was just like they assembled and they started looking at everything. And I know some of you might be wondering, you know, okay, well, why go to social media first? Why not go straight to the police? And this is something that really bothers me because for whatever reason, a lot of people believe that you have 48 hours before you can report someone as missing. But that is just not the truth. Time does matter in a situation like this. There is no mandatory wait time to report a missing person in the United States. So the whole idea that you have to wait 24 or 48 hours, it's all a myth. You can report someone missing immediately. In fact, police are advised to take those reports right away, especially if it involves children or seniors or anyone who is considered vulnerable. The first few hours in any investigation are critical. So waiting can actually make a huge difference in how things unfold. Also, anyone can file a missing person report. You don't have to be related to the person. You don't have to be their caregiver. Anyone can file. So if something feels off, you can make that call. And in Illinois, where Katie lived, the law is very clear because it's actually against state law for a law enforcement officer to refuse an in-person missing person report for any reason. It doesn't matter the person's age, their lifestyle, how long they've been missing, none of that. Others literally cannot tell you to wait and they cannot deny the report either, even if they believe that the person may have left voluntarily. But not everybody knows that information, which is why I thought it was very important to share it with you. So now that we've cleared that up, let's get back to Katie. Once that 48-hour mark hit on Tuesday, Katie's dad, Kevin, officially filed a missing persons report with the police department. He told officers that Katie was last seen at the bartending shift at Woody's bar located on Washington Street in Joliette. And he said that the time that she was last seen was at approximately 12.30 a.m. He also made sure to include that she was driving, you know, an unreliable, dark-colored 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Now from there, things moved fast and the media picked up Katie's case immediately. Well, Rob Will County Sheriff's Police are looking into what happened to Katie Kerns. Her family filed a missing's report, a missing persons report yesterday after she disappeared early Monday morning. Kevin Kerns has not seen or heard from his daughter Katie in three days. He says the 24-year-old always stays in touch with her family. And at this point, he's scared about what could have happened to her. Katie was last seen Sunday night at Woody's bar in Joliette where she was a bartender. Her shift ended at midnight. Monday morning, she was a no-show at her other job at Cafe Miel in Orland Park. By Monday evening, when she had not returned to the Mochina home she shares with her dad and sister, the tight-knit family knew something was wrong. News crews came to Joliette from Chicago and even from Springfield all to cover Katie's story. And her family didn't hesitate when it came to the media. They spoke to anyone and everyone that they could, just trying to get her face out there. They were hoping that someone somewhere had information. And sure enough, it worked. Because by Tuesday evening, everyone knew that Katie was missing. Her face was everywhere, social media, TV, billboards, flyers, posters. I mean, if you were in Illinois, you knew exactly what Katie looked like. And you also know who to contact if you came in to contact with her. People also came together to help her family and they started organizing searches, posting bulletins, sharing her photo around town, doing anything that they could. The community really showed up for Katie. But as the search started to grow, so did the rumors. Once people found out that Katie worked at Woody's, they started coming up with their own theories. And that's where things started to get complicated. People began making all sorts of assumptions based on the kind of place that Woody's was known to be, the reputation that it had and the people who hung out there. And it seemed like everyone kind of had their own idea of where to look for Katie. But for the most part, I will say there were three major theories that were floating around the town that stood out from the rest. So let me just break those down for you. Theory number one. I mentioned earlier that the last time that Katie was seen, it was an unusually warm day and that a lot of people were out, people were out riding their motorcycles, trying to get in one last ride before the winter, the bar was packed with people, and then it just slowed down to a handful of people. Now one of them happened to identify two guys that Katie closed with as members of this group called the Joliet Outlaws Motorcycle Club. He also told people that Katie mentioned going to meet them at the Biker Club House after work. So it seemed like a lot of people felt pretty confident about the information that was floating around too since it came from a witness, however others did have some doubts. The motorcycle clubs in the area were actually very present in the community as well. They weren't hiding underground, they weren't doing anything shady like that, and the Outlaw Club House was right on the main road. So I mean, how much could they really be hiding, especially knowing that other people were in Woody's bar that night. So some people were looking in a different direction, which then brings us to theory number two. That whoever was attacking women on that old Plank Road Trail was likely the same person who did something to Katie. And there had been an arrest related to the attacks, so the police did have a lead, which I'm going to refer to that suspect in this theory as Joe for now. But Joe was arrested by the Will County Forest Preserve Police Department after he had been found lurking in the forest preserve after dark. The police questioned him about the attacks and he denied being responsible for them, and the truth was they didn't really have any evidence, so because of that they couldn't charge him, but he was a suspect. So instead, the police decided to go ahead and charge him with being a sexual predator who was loitering in public or in a public park, because remember, he was there after dark. But apparently, there was some room for doubt with that. because those charges were misdemeanors and he was released just days after his arrest. Now, when Joe's arrest report was highlighted in the media and in, you know, the local police blotter, it would actually turn out that he lived just a block away from Woody's. So now, naturally, people were connecting all of it and kind of like, okay, this is someone that you would wanna look at in Katie's case, right? In involved possibly in her disappearance, he lives nearby, he's already been a suspect, he's been arrested for something else, but there was one big problem with this theory. Joe was actually very well known to the police. He was a part of an active burglary ring that targeted car parts and batteries and that same burglary ring just happened to be responsible for the burglary attempt in Woody's parking lot. So the police already knew all about him and more importantly, they knew that there's no way he could have been responsible for what happened to Katie because they were already actively investigating him. So he was never listed as an official suspect or official person of interest, but then that takes us to theory number three. And the last theory is very easy to understand. Some people thought that Katie may have fallen victim to a crime of opportunity that maybe her car broke down and somebody stopped to help her, but they had other intentions in mind. Maybe somebody followed her that night and robbed her for her tip money that she made at the bar or maybe it wasn't a crime at all. Maybe Katie was involved in a car accident and her car was hidden somewhere along the route that she took home. I mean, everybody was playing detective by this point, one theory or another, but a local journalist named John really wanted to get to the bottom of things. So he reached out to Katie's family. He was looking for any kind of official update and with the family spokesperson told him, he caught him completely off guard. He said that the family and friends believed the theory that the outlaws might be responsible for Katie's disappearance, that motorcycle club, and that the bar, Woody's, was likely covering up for them because not only was the bar not helping with the investigation, but the family wasn't getting any help from the miter. So to them, it felt like these people who ran Woody's couldn't care less about Katie or what happened to her. So John decided to follow up on that information and he went to Woody's to get to the bottom of things. He walked into the bar, identified himself as John from the local news station, and explained to the bartender that he was looking for information about their employee, Katie. And almost immediately, the bartender went into the back room and he grabbed the manager. Then the manager came out and she escorted John right back out to the parking lot of Woody's. And when John asked her about Katie, according to him, she snapped at him and said that she was last seen heading east on Washington Street, the road that Woody's was on. She kept things very short and when John tried to ask anything further, she just completely shut it down. Now the one thing that the manager did confirm was that Katie only had worked four shifts in total there. Which honestly, guys, this next part was so heartbreaking to research and read because according to John, when he looked around, it was just business as usual inside that bar. Regular customers, normal activity, nothing seemed different, nobody seemed to care. There were no posters, no flyers, nothing acknowledging that one of their employees was actively missing. It was like Katie never worked there at all. Like she didn't even exist to them. And that part, it really stuck with me. Needless to say, the bar didn't do themselves any favors, talking to a journalist like that. So they got exactly what they deserved. And John wrote an article and he ran with it. And the headline was, "July at bar isn't looking for missing bartender, Katie Kerns." In the piece, he didn't hold back either. And he included the theory that members of this outlaw group may have been involved in Katie's disappearance. Which I have to give him credit, because I don't know how many journalists would feel comfortable putting out a story about a missing person and directly pointing toward a local biker gang like that. But I mean, good on John. Maybe he had an inside source to back it up. I don't know. Maybe he felt safe to do so. Who knows? But what's interesting is that right after this article went live, the case took a very tragic turn. Not some sad breaking news to pass along. That missing bartender we told you about earlier in the newscast has been found dead. Sheriff's officials say the body of Caitlin Kerns was found in Kank Key County. Detective say she was the intended target of a homicide. But authorities are not saying yet if anyone is in custody, we will of course have the latest on the story coming up on our news at 5 and 6. That's one of those moments where everything just stops. Because now the case had taken a devastating turn. Katie was no longer just missing. She had been found dead. And witnesses were placing her at the outlaws clubhouse. But even with all of that, there were still huge gaps in the story. And before we can understand what may have happened to Katie that night, we need to understand exactly what kind of world she had stepped into. Now police didn't give too many details at first about what was going on. But they did take time to confirm that Katie was last seen at the outlaws clubhouse. They confirmed the information with four different witnesses who all said the same thing. That Katie told them that she was heading to the outlaws clubhouse after her shift. So the next morning around 10 AM, the Will County Sheriff's Department SWAT team served the Juliet outlaws clubhouse with a search warrant. And the investigators started to move in very quickly. A Confederate flag hangs outside along with a sign on the front door that reads, is there life after death? Trespass here and find out. Police say Katie Kerns told friends she was headed to outlaws' biker clubhouse early Monday morning after her bartending shift at a nearby bar. Today, police busted outlaws open in search of evidence related to Kerns murder. SWAT vehicle had a big long pole on the front of the vehicle and they had pushed the door down and ran in with guns drawn. And it was pretty neat. They towed away a white vehicle out of there this morning. And besides that, they've been in and out of there all day. The towed vehicle may belong to a possible suspect. So at this point, all that we really know is that Katie was last seen leaving the bar to go meet those two guys at the outlaws clubhouse. Her car and her body were then found in hour away from her last known location. And we know that the police searched the clubhouse and that somebody was brought in for questioning. And this is usually the point in a case where you start trying to connect those dots. But there are still some pretty big gaps. So I feel like this is actually a good place to just pause here for a second because I keep mentioning the outlaws, right? And this motorcycle clubhouse, this biker gang, which to be honest, I've been mentioning it without context. So it's a little hard to fully understand any of it. Now while I was doing my research, I couldn't find a ton about this specific local chapter. I didn't really have a clear understanding of how they operate day to day or how prominent they are. But when a group like this keeps coming up, you wanna understand what role they could be playing, right? Now the internet is obviously a full of information, but not all of it is helpful. So some of the information that I was finding about the outlaws, it felt a bit outdated or just extreme. On one hand though, there were people describing them as a full on criminal gang. I also kept seeing comparisons to that show's sons of Anarchy with some even saying that the show was based on them or that they were the ones who inspired the show. But then on the other side, you have people saying that those days are long gone, that that's not at all what it's like anymore. It's more about brotherhood, connection, community, more than anything else. So you're looking at two very different narratives. And honestly, it makes it harder to figure out what actually matters in this case and how Katie got pulled into any of it. One thing that caught my attention though was a journalist who seemed to know everything about motorcycle clubs in the Chicago land area, not just on a surface level either. This is someone who has spent the last 30 years investigating them. He's embedded himself with different clubs, different chapters, club members, undercover agents, and people who are connected to that entire world. So he's not just reporting from the outside looking in, he's been right there consistently for decades. And that kind of perspective is extremely rare. So I reached out to him to see if he could help fill in some of the gaps here and some of the things that there were still questions on. Maybe give us a clearer understanding of what we're actually dealing with here. And luckily for us, he replied, and he agreed to answer some of my questions. His name is Frank Mane. And Frank is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has been investigating crime at the Chicago Sun Times for more than 30 years. And over that time, he has seen a lot. He's reported from war zones. He's been inside governor's mansions, sat in mobsters living rooms, attended gang members funerals, and he has documented everything that he has uncovered along the way. And I say that he has experience in this world. I really mean it. But what stood out the most to me is that out of everything that he's covered over the years, some of his favorite cases are the ones involving motorcycle clubs. And that really caught my attention. And the outlaws are very prominent. And to me, they're honestly pretty terrifying. A lot of these motorcycle clubs are to me. So let me tell you a little bit about the Chicago outlaws, which is a motorcycle gang that was founded way back in 1935, just outside of Chicago, in a little suburb that's west of Midway Airport, if you know where that is. And when you talk about the outlaws, they're one of the biggest motorcycle gangs in the country. I mean, you think of the outlaws. You think of Hell's Angels. You might think of Mongols out on the west coast. And they're all considered 1%ers, meaning that the members all had been kind of patched in. They were these patches that showed that they had done something amazing in their opinion for the club in order to become a member. And usually that means they committed some sort of violence. It killed somebody, beat somebody up. Did something for the club that got them into this organization. So these particular clubs are full of violent guys. And they've battled each other over the years. In Chicago, where I am a reporter in the 1990s, they were really going after it. There were bombings in the city of Chicago involving the Hell's Angels in outlaws. And they were essentially outlaws were trying to keep the Hell's Angels from invading their turf. And the outlaw succeeded. They kept the Hell's Angels out of Chicago, meaning that the Hell's Angels were not able to establish a clubhouse in the city limits of Chicago. They were in the suburbs. And essentially in Chicago, you had a north side and a south side chapter. And so that's how things worked. They kind of lived by their motto. Their motto is God forgives, outlaws don't. And so they don't take anything from anybody. They'll, you know, if another gang, another outlaw gang, like Hell's Angels threatens another one of its members. It's a brotherhood. Everybody responds to that threat and it's on. And so over the years, these things have kind of waned a little bit. They've kind of-- there's been less and less violence among these crews, as I don't know, fewer people are in these particular biker gangs, but stuff still does happen. I mean, fairly recently, a couple of years ago, outlaws walked into a bar near Midway and shot it up. Mongols were in the bar and nobody died, but it was pretty wild situation. Of course, nobody talked to the police. Nobody was arrested. There's a code of silence, just like there is in the mafia. And interestingly, over the years, the outlaws have actually been involved with the mafia. They were kind of there, the muscle for the mafia in certain parts of the city. And we're involved in a bombing of a videopoker machine store because the mob didn't like the way that they were not getting the street tax from that particular place. And so there's been a connection between organized crime and the outlaws for years as well. But this one more thing before I kind of talk about the suburban element of the outlaws, we talked, the Chicago sometimes, talked to the longtime leader of the mother house, the mothership of the outlaws organization on the south side. That was a guy named Big Pete. And so Big Pete told us, Big Pete James, as it was his name, he's passed away now, told us that the influence and the power of the outlaws was diminishing and he was worried about it. And he thought that maybe the hell of angels were on the rise and might eventually get a foothold somehow in Chicago. And so that was kind of interesting to us because almost never does a 1% or talk to a reporter about internal business operations of a club. And so that was pretty significant story and showed us that even though these guys still exist all over the country, they're not what they once were. So now that I had a better understanding of who the outlaws were, I realized I still had questions, specifically about the clubhouse itself. Because what is it really? Is it an actual clubhouse or is it more like a bar that they all hang out in? I've watched "Suns of Anarchy." I know what their clubhouse was. Is it something like, I don't know, a VFW Hall or a move slot? I don't know. And here's what Frank had to say about it. Now what's interesting about the outlaws is they have clubhouses all over the country. And these are kind of secret societies where the patched members can come and you can't go into the house usually without a patched member inviting you into it. And these clubhouses serve a lot of different purposes. I mean, obviously there's like kind of a social angle to it. It's kind of a fraternity house. And guys will drink and do it ever in the house and play cards and play pool. And all that kind of stuff. There's some other business aspects to the clubhouse. I mean, a lot of clubs were involved in methamphetamine sales and other kind of drug sales. And so some of that business might be conducted behind the doors of the clubhouse. And these are kind of clubhouses that are in neighborhoods. And you might drive past some of these clubhouses, not even know that you're going past and outlaws clubhouse. There are exceptions. There's the one on the south side of Chicago, which is like a mother house of the outlaws. And you definitely know that you're going by a fearsome place because it has plate metal barrier in front of the door so that bullets can't get fired into the clubhouse and that kind of thing. And so in these clubhouses, these guys will park their bikes outside. And there are places in there for them to crash out and sleep so that they don't have to drive drunk and get busted by the cops. And so essentially, it's kind of like a fraternity house on steroids, I would say. It's a place where you party and socialize. And it's a secret society like a fraternity. But you know, add weapons and drugs. Personally, I feel like I have even more questions now than I did originally. Because if that's what is going on inside the clubhouse, why would Katie or honestly anyone want to go there? From the outside, you might assume it's a controlled environment. I mean, maybe even a safe space or safe environment since only certain people are allowed in. It's not open to the public in the same way as a regular bar. But what's the appeal? And so I did start wondering maybe if that played a little bit of a role, like do women go there because it feels exclusive or because they feel protected in some way? So I asked Frank directly, what role, if any, do women actually have inside the club? All motorcycle gangs, all 1% are gangs for that matter are kind of misogynistic. In a way, they don't treat women well, I would say these are guys that you don't want to take your 24-year-old daughter to go see at the clubhouse or the bar. And they have this kind of system where they call it old ladies. And your old lady is a girlfriend. And sometimes in some clubs, the girlfriend is shared among all the club members. And so that's kind of a strange thing. And why a woman would want to do that, I don't know. And they also do not treat women that well. And in addition to all that, these guys have affiliate organizations sometimes where they'll have women who ride with them. But they are never patched members of the club. You can never be a woman who's in one of these clubs, the hell's angels, the outlaws, the Mongols, whatever. They're just kind of arm candy for the one of the centers as they drive around and do their thing. So yeah, that's kind of my 30,000-foot explanation of what the outlaws are and what motorcycle gangs are these days in the United States and in Chicago. Now with everything that Frank just explained. You might still be wondering how Katie is connected to any of this. Well, the answer is actually pretty simple. Around the same time that Katie started bartending at Woody's, she also started dating 32-year-old Jeremy Bo Shares. Now, Jeremy wasn't just anyone. He was a patched member of the outlaws. And on top of that, he was also a regular at Woody's. Now, I have to say, when you look at Katie and her background, and you look at Jeremy, it's pretty clear that they were living very different lifestyles. And it seems that they wouldn't really seem to have a whole lot in common, either. At the same time, though, relationships, as we know, don't always follow logic like that. Sometimes it really is as simple as opposites attract, especially in the beginning when everything is new and exciting and fun and different. It's easy to get caught up in that. You're in that kind of bubble where things feel like super intense, fast-moving, and you're not necessarily stopping to question everything, or be like, "Uh, is this really going to work out the way I think it's going to work out?" And from what we know, their relationship did move quickly. So it's possible that Katie wasn't fully connecting all the dots when it came to Jeremy and his ties to the outlaws. At the time of her disappearance, there were some conflicting reports about how long they had been together. Some outlets said that it was only two to four weeks, but I also came across information suggesting that they may have known each other even longer. So the exact timeline, it isn't completely clear. But what does seem consistent is that in those two to four weeks, they spent a lot of time together. And they also both acknowledged that they were falling in love with one another, which when you look back at everything, knowing what we know now, things do start to make a little more sense. For example, why Katie liked working at Woody's? Why her friends didn't immediately reach out to her family? And maybe most importantly, why she didn't feel like she was in danger. She had Jeremy. She was in this relationship. He was there. She likely believed that he would protect her. Which honestly, that's the part of this that gets me the most out of this entire case. Because Katie thought that she would be safe, that he would keep her safe, that he was her person. But in reality, Jeremy was a monster. Information tonight about the man who's charged in the death of a volcano woman. Jeremy both shares is charged with concealing Katie Kern's death. He is not at this point charged with her murder, but investigators are saying those charges could come this weekend. Once Jeremy was officially identified as the man taken into custody, and once he was charged, the speculation in Katie's case, it didn't slow down. It picked up because now people were looking directly at Jeremy. In the media, Jeremy was being referred to as Katie's boyfriend. But anyone who knew Jeremy also knew that he was married. And not in a casual, recent way, he had been married to his wife Rachel for 10 years. And it did not take long for that information to go public. Within just a few days of his arrest, Jeremy ended up appearing before a judge for the very first time. And during that hearing, things escalated. His charges were upgraded to three counts of first degree murder. And he was given a $10 million bond by the judge. Immediately after the hearing, Jeremy's attorney Neil Patel spoke to the media for the first time. And for the most part, he downplayed Jeremy's connection to the outlaws, emphasized that Jeremy had no criminal background and maintained that Jeremy was not guilty. He was innocent. He also pointed out that people had shown up at the courthouse just to support Jeremy, including his wife. And that was no small detail, which it got people talking because once that came out, a whole new theory started circulating. If Jeremy was pleading not guilty, and considering the club's reputation and what people believe about, you know, a coat of silence, maybe he wasn't the only one involved in Katie's murder. There were some people who believed that maybe he didn't act alone, or that he didn't do it at all. Maybe it was bigger than that. Also, could his wife be involved, did she find out about the affair? And that Jeremy just kind of cleaned things up and took the fall for it because he felt guilty of the affair. Now personally, I don't think that there's a lot of weight behind that theory, because investigators clearly had enough evidence to charge him with three counts of murder. And that doesn't just happen because the investigators have a hunch. But still, it also shows you where people's minds were going, right? Now, maybe there was something more that may have happened inside the clubhouse that night. And I do want to say this because it's important when it comes to Jeremy being married. And Frank talked a little bit about this, too, about how relationships can work within the outlaws. And how, you know, it's not uncommon for members to have both wives and girlfriends. So whether Katie knew that he was married when they started dating, that doesn't matter. Because honestly, I don't think it's fair for anyone to judge her based on that. We have no idea what Jeremy was telling Katie behind closed doors, or what the reality of his marriage actually looked like, and what their arrangement was, and if she was okay with it, and if Katie knew, and she was okay, who really knows, right? Now, at this point, though, there was still a lot of speculation. Nobody really knew exactly what happened to Katie, or what the motive was behind her murder. For her family and anyone following this case, that uncertainty, it did not go away quickly either. It dragged on, and it took nearly five years to go to trial. So when April 2022 finally came around and the trial finally started, people were paying very close attention. The defense presented their opening statements, and they revealed a brand new theory, one that people did not see coming. They claimed that Katie had actually taken her own life, using an outlaw-owned gun. And they didn't just float that idea. They fully leaned into it. They brought in ballistic experts to support their argument. Jeremy himself took the stand, which, according to him, what happened inside the clubhouse that night, was anything but a murder. Jeremy testified that on the morning of November 11, 2017, tensions between him and Katie had already started to build. And then he said that things escalated, when he told Katie that his wife was on her way to the outlaws clubhouse to pick him up. Which Katie apparently did not take that very well. She snapped at him and implied that he was just using her, and she told him to leave her the hell alone. So then, Jeremy starts moving on to what happened on Sunday, November 12, 2017. He said that he went to see Katie during her shift at Woody's so that he could smooth things over, and he said he wasn't alone. He went with Colby O'Neill, another member of the outlaws. Then, when the bar closed around midnight, Jeremy met Katie out in the parking lot. They were hugging, they were kissing, and he said that she agreed to meet him back at the clubhouse. When he was questioned about what happened after Katie arrived at the clubhouse, Jeremy said that it was pretty laid back, that they had a couple of drinks, and they were just hanging out. Colby eventually left, leaving the two of them alone inside the clubhouse. And he said that they were just enjoying each other's company. Then, Jeremy said that after they finished their drinks, he was ready to call it a night, because he had to be up early the following morning for his uncle's funeral. Then he stated that when he told Katie his wife would not be going, Katie started insisting that she should go with him. And when he told her no and reminded her that he was married, he said that the situation turned into a heated argument, and he eventually told Katie, "You know, I think you should leave." When the arguing continued, Jeremy told the jury that he started shutting down the clubhouse, turning off all of the lights, and that that is when everything went quiet. And Katie suddenly emerged from another room, holding a gun. A gun that Colby had left behind. Now, this next part is where his account becomes very specific, because it was that moment when he started yelling, "What the fuck are you doing? What the fuck are you doing? Don't grab that!" And he testified that he was begging Katie to put the gun down, and that Katie just responded with "Fuck you" and pulled the trigger. Now, when his attorney asked him what he did next, Jeremy said that he panicked, that he stepped over Katie's body, ran behind the building, and was so overwhelmed that he started sweating and throwing up. From there, he said that he started making a series of phone calls to other outlaw members, the first call being to Colby, telling him to come and get his gun. But Colby told him that the gun didn't actually belong to him. It belonged to another outlaw named Corey. Now, at this point, according to Jeremy, things really started to spiral and felt out of control. So, he reached out to the outlaw's president, Jimmy McCoy, asking how to handle the situation. Because remember, Katie's body was still lying there, in the middle of the floor in this clubhouse. And his recall of the next events are once again pretty specific. Because according to Jeremy, he claimed that he insisted that they needed to call the police. However, the president shut it down immediately, referencing the club's code of silence. And he told Jeremy to call his brothers and help clean up the mess. So, Jeremy said he just followed the orders, and that that is how everything went down. Once Jeremy left the stand, the defense continued to try and strengthen this self-harm theory. They used prescription medication that had been found in Katie's purse to dive her into this battle with depression. And they didn't stop there. In fact, they even brought up Katie's dad, Kevin, to the stand to testify about his daughter's mental health. And Katie's dad was pretty up front about her battle with depression and that it began when her mom passed away back in 2007. According to Kevin, Katie had anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and bipolar disorder. But he also said that it was under treatment. For the last two years, she had been in treatment leading up to her death. But the defense kept pushing. They didn't stop there. They told the jury that just three weeks before her death, Katie had been taken to the emergency room after attempting to take her own life. And they said this wasn't just speculation, because the medical bracelet from Silver Cross Hospital was found in her purse at the crime scene. It ended up being listed as evidence. Which I have to be honest, this whole strategy is just diabolical to me, because they weren't just suggesting an alternative. They were fully trying to reframe what happened that night. But either way, once they rested their case, it was now up to the prosecution. And one of their first witnesses was a forensic expert, and they totally dismantled the self-harm theory pretty quickly. As it would turn out, to nobody's surprise, ballistic testing revealed that Katie's hands were completely free from gunshot residue. So from there, the prosecution continued building their case, calling a full lineup of witnesses, including fellow outlaw Colby. And piece by piece, they started poking holes in Jeremy's version of events, including what he said during his police interrogation and on the stand, then came closing arguments. And this is where the prosecution laid everything out start to finish. They argued that what actually happened inside that club house, it wasn't self-harm at all. They said that Jeremy shot Katie and then wrapped her body in a mattress and black plastic. Then placed that on the pool table. Then he made over 30 phone calls to other outlaw members so that they could come help him clean up the crime scene, have that coat of silence and help dispose of her body. Once two of the other members got there, they helped move her body into the Jeep and Jeremy drove it over 60 miles to the home of another outlaw named Ron. When they arrived, they pushed Katie's Jeep into the pole barn and left her body in the trunk. And the prosecution backed all of this up with evidence. When they presented the crime scene photos to the jury, they were incredibly difficult to look at. So much so that one juror became physically sick and the court had to actually pause before continuing. Then once court was back in session, the prosecutors continued to display the crime scene photos. They just went slide by slide and when they got to the image of Katie's body wrapped in black plastic, Jeremy broke down crying. After closing statements, it didn't take the jury very long at all to make a decision. They came back with a verdict after two days. And once the court announced that the jury found Jeremy guilty on all charges, he just sat there crying, repeating, "I didn't kill her over and over again until finally he was escorted out of the courtroom." Jeremy was originally sentenced to 45 years in prison, but in 2024 his legal team filed an appeal and his conviction was overturned. So even though Jeremy is still in custody, he's now been granted a new trial and he could potentially walk free. Which, that is giving me like Latisha stalk vibes all over again. It infuriates me because it's like, hello, he panicked. He called all of his outlaw buddies. They cleaned it up. There's so much evidence in my opinion that shows what he did. But what do you guys think? Did Jeremy do it? Could he just be the fall guy? Should we cover Jeremy's new trial? I mean, let me know what you think in the comments. I think it's pretty black and white, in my opinion, but let me know what you think and if you've heard about this case as well. I just hope that Katie and her family continue to get justice if and when this does go to a new trial. It's awful. She was so young, she just wanted to go with who she thought was safe and I don't know. What do you think? Do you think there's any truth to this self harm? It doesn't make sense to me. How do you self harm? And you don't have any gunshot residue on your hands. Which again, I'm not as detective. So what do I know? But curious to know what you guys think. So definitely let me know. Thank you for tuning into another episode of 10 to life. I will be back with a brand new episode next Tuesday. So make sure that you're following the podcast. You're subscribed on the YouTube channel so that you do not miss a thing. All right. Until the next one. Stay safe. Bye. [MUSIC]