Police in central Illinois are confronting a new reality that Robert Bee, Jr., will most likely not be found safely, and appear resigned to the strong possibility that it was the missing 13-year-old boy’s remains found on a property near a wooded area in Pekin earlier this week.
Peking Police Detective Seth Ranney told the Journal Star that investigators had been holding on to the possibility that Bee, also known as “Bonsai,” had run away from home and was alive somewhere.
As of this week, Ranney said, “Obviously, we can rule those scenarios out (now), and focus on what caused this boy’s death.”
Robert Bee, Jr. went missing in mid-November after running away from truancy officers who approached him in his yard. Detective Ranney told CrimeOnline in March that the behavior of Robert’s mother, Lisa Bee, following her son’s disappearance had been “highly unusual.” CrimeOnline also spoke to the mother via Facebook messenger, and Lisa Bee ignored any questions about her son while telling us that she had spent some time in a mental health facility and had moved about an hour away since Robert disappeared.
Lisa Bee’s Facebook page has been occasionally updated since her son’s disappearance, but she has not posted since the remains were found on Monday. Her profile photo is a missing persons flyer about her son. In May, she posted a photo of a gift her son had given her on a previous Mother’s Day.
Police have not named any suspects or many any arrest, but Ranney told the Journal Star that a man involved in the investigation has a connection to the property where the remains were found on Monday.
The woods behind the man’s property are owned by another person who has a nephew whom police have identified as a person involved in the investigation, Ranney said. The man who discovered the skull while mowing his lawn is not involved in the case, Ranney said.
Ranney’s statement to the Journal Star appears to partially corroborate some unverified information from sources who spoke to CrimeOnline, believing that a man with ties to Pekin and the property is directly involved in the boy’s disappearance. When asked on Wednesday afternoon if police had questioned this individual, a Pekin police detective said they could not publicly reveal any investigative information at this time.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, a coroner determined that the remains found on the property are consistent with a 13-year-old boy, and that the dental records matched Robert Bee, Jr.’s, but a positive identification is pending the result of DNA testing which is expected to be completed next week.
Feature photo: Police handout
