Friends start scholarship fund for late Channahon dispatcher

Friends of a Channahon woman who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound a year ago started a scholarship fund in her honor.

Samantha Harer, 23, died Feb. 13, 2018. It took until December for the Will County Coroner’s Office to determine her death was a suicide. Her boyfriend at the time, Crest Hill police officer Felipe “Phil” Flores, was the only one in the apartment at the time of her death. He was placed on paid administrative leave for the duration of the 10-month investigation but was cleared.

“Amidst the turmoil of the last year since her passing, we believe something good should come of this tragedy,” according to the GoFundMe page.

Harer was a member of Alpha Phi sorority at St. Francis University in Joliet and graduated with a degree in criminal justice in 2016. Some of her sorority sisters started the GoFundMe page with the goal of raising $25,000. This will ensure, according to the page, that one student will receive about $1,000 each year the scholarship is awarded. The recipient will be a USF sophomore, junior or senior member of the Iota Phi chapter of the Alpha Phi International Fraternity.

Harer also was a 2012 graduate of Minooka High School. She interned with the Channahon Police Department and went to work for the Western Will County Communication Center as a dispatcher, where she was employed at the time of her death.