Preliminary autopsy results for the 18-year-old West Aurora graduate found dead in his ex-girlfriend’s home Monday afternoon indicate his death was caused by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to a news release from Kane County coroner Rob Russell’s office.
However, the Jared Peters case remains an active death investigation as detectives continue to process evidence, said Kane County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Patrick Gengler.
“Detectives need to see if what they found matches up with the autopsy,” Gengler said. “Our end is not done.”
During the autopsy, performed Wednesday at the Kane County morgue, toxicology samples were collected and sent to a forensic lab, according to the coroner’s office.
Peters, 18, of the 700 block of Fordham Avenue, Aurora, was pronounced dead at the scene Monday at a home in the 600 block of South Gladstone in unincorporated Aurora Township, where sheriff’s deputies were called for a report that a person had been shot inside the house, officials said.
Peters graduated from West Aurora High School in May 2016, said district Assistant Superintendent of Operations Angie Smith.
Deputies were dispatched at about 1 p.m. Monday to the home, where only Peters and an 18-year-old woman who lived there were present at the time of the shooting, Gengler said.
Peters and the woman in the past had a long-term dating relationship, Gengler said.
The sheriff’s initial investigation indicated that Peters gained entry to the residence and had a confrontation with the woman, who had been home alone, and that at some point shots were fired inside, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
It appears that the front door had been unlocked, Gengler said.
Gengler said he did not know who owned a handgun that detectives recovered from inside the house.
Given the unusual nature of the situation, the sheriff’s office wants to make sure they know everything that really happened, Gengler said.
“I don’t want to say there is a typical suicide,” Gengler said. “But this — a lot of things just didn’t look right.”
Asked to elaborate on what didn’t look right, Gengler noted that the shooting wasn’t at Peters’ house, that there was a breakup, and that a neighbor called around the same time to say a suspicious person was outside the house.
The 18-year-old woman did not require any medical treatment, Gengler said.
The woman’s mother declined to speak with The Beacon-News, asking for respect for the privacy of both families.
Two days before Peters’ death, Aurora police arrested him on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act, said police spokesman Dan Ferrelli.
At 6:55 p.m. Saturday, Aurora police responded to a domestic disturbance call at a home on the 100 block of South Glenwood Place in which the victim was an 18-year-old woman, Ferrelli said in an email.
When police arrived, they were told Peters was allegedly hitting and kicking two of the home’s doors, demanding to be let in, Ferrelli said.
“Out of fear he would damage the door(s) at the property which did not belong to the 18-year-old, she let him in,” Ferrelli said.
The only other person in the home was another 18-year-old woman, Ferrelli said. The women were apparently caring for a home in that block while its owners were out of town, Ferrelli said.
A police report indicates that after Peters yelled at the woman, she finally convinced him to leave, Ferrelli said.
The reporting officer waited in the area and eventually saw Peters driving past the home on Glenwood and performed a traffic stop on his car, Ferrelli said.
“Peters was told the woman did not want him back at the house, did not want to speak with him, and was instructed to not go back to the residence nor was he to call the woman or any members of her family,” Ferrelli said.
Peters told the officer he was going back to his home, Ferrelli said.
Later that night, about 7:54 p.m., the woman called police saying Peters was driving past the home honking the car’s horn and eventually pulled into the driveway, Ferrelli said.
An Aurora police sergeant responded and found Peters sitting in his car in the area of Garfield and Glenwood, where police took him into custody without incident and charged him with disorderly conduct, Ferrelli said.
Ferrelli said he did not have bond information for Peters, who apparently was never booked in the county jail. Misdemeanors are typically bonded out after the alleged offender is booked, Ferrelli said.
The charge was Peters’ only adult arrest out of Aurora, Ferrelli said.
The Aurora Police Department, Kane County Coroner’s Office and Kane County Major Crimes Task Force are assisting in the ongoing death investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.
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