PEKIN — A review hearing for a person accused of killing a 13-year-old boy in 2016 has been pushed to September after both prosecutors and her attorneys agreed to continue the hearing.
Keith Brackett, identified as a woman in court and jail records, was charged with first-degree murder in April for the killing of Robert Bee, a 13-year-old boy who went missing in November 2016 and was found dead on a property owned by Brackett’s aunt in July 2017. A hearing had been set for Thursday to review Brackett’s case, but both parties agreed to push the hearing back until September 17 at 9 a.m.
According to an affidavit from the Tazewell County Circuit Clerk’s office, Robert was reported missing by his mother, Lisa, on Nov. 18, 2016. Investigators learned that Robert was friends with Brackett, despite an age difference of 25 years.
Robert would frequently spend time at Brackett’s house when he skipped school and would spend the night there on occasion. Brackett was interviewed multiple times in 2016 by police regarding the case.
Robert’s skeletal remains were found on July 24, 2017, in a wooded area behind a home in the 14000 block of Illinois Route 29. Officers with the Pekin Police Department, along with Tazewell County sheriff’s deputies and Illinois State Police, found two different colors of rope, a wad of duct tape and black electrical tape with human hair on it at the scene.
An investigation showed that a woman named Mary Baize owned the property, with Baize telling police that Brackett, her nephew, maintained it. She said that Brackett had mowed the lawn outside the home as recently as two weeks before Robert was found.
Baize also told police that Brackett had been living at a home she owned in the 200 block of Cooper Street in Pekin. When deputies searched the home, they found rope consistent with what was found at the scene, according to court records.
A search warrant was eventually issued for the home, with detectives discovering more rope, duct tape, electrical tape and other restraints commonly used in sex acts.
A forensic pathologist confirmed the remains belong to Robert one day after he was found. An autopsy revealed that his death came from homicidal violence brought on by likely asphyxia means. Later that day, detectives interviewed Brackett and asked her what the best place would be to hide a dead body on the property.
On May 23, 2018, Pekin police were investigating a burglary where Brackett was a suspect when a confidential informant told them that they had spoken with Brackett two weeks before. Brackett had told them that she was going to take a train to New York in order to obtain asylum from the British embassy.
One week later, the informant again contacted Pekin police, that Brackett had contacted them from Maine. An investigation began into her whereabouts, which revealed that she had traveled from Chicago to Washington, D.C., with a search warrant issued for the phone number that Brackett had called the informant from.
GPS tracking revealed that Brackett was in Bangor, Maine, prompting local police and the FBI to get involved in the search. Brackett was found in Bangor living in a homeless encampment. She was apprehended and detained there, where she told police that she sought to leave Illinois in order to escape theft charges.
Brackett pleaded guilty to burglary and served seven years in prison before being released in 2025.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Court hearing in Robert Bee murder case pushed back until September
Reporting by Zach Roth, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Zach Roth, Peoria Journal Star | USA TODAY Network
