An arrest has been made in the death of 13-year-old Robert Bee, whose skeletal remains were discovered in a rural Illinois area months after he disappeared nearly 10 years ago, according to authorities.
Keith A. Brackett, who was known to have spent time with Bee before he went missing, is accused of strangling the boy to death and concealing his body in the woods near a property in Tazewell County, authorities said, WMBD-TV reported.
Brackett, 46, was arrested Wednesday, April 8, on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicide in relation to Bee’s death, officials announced at a news conference that same day, according to WCBU.
Pekin Police Chief Seth Ranney said that Brackett used to live in Pekin and indicated he was currently detained at the Tazewell County Jail, the radio station reported.
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It was not immediately clear whether Brackett had an attorney or had entered a plea.
At the news conference, Ranney said investigators “showed great tenacity through the last decade to make sure that no stone was unturned, and that every investigative technique that we had available to us at the time and since then was investigated.”
According to a probable cause statement obtained by WMBD-TV, Bee and Brackett were considered friends. Bee was said to visit Brackett’s home when he would skip school.
On November 18, 2026, Bee’s mother reported her son was missing, according to court filings viewed by the Peoria Journal Star.
Months later, in July 2017, Bee’s remains were discovered behind a home located on a property that Brackett had been maintaining, according to authorities, the newspaper reported.
During an investigation, detectives discovered rope at a residence where Brackett had been living that had a similar appearance to ropes located near the site of Bee’s remains, court documents say, according to the Peoria Journal Star.
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Google account data linked to Brackett’s phone revealed Brackett had repeatedly been in the same area of where Bee was found dead in the months that the boy was considered missing, according to authorities, the newspaper reported.
When police interviewed Brackett days after Bee’s disappearance, Brackett claimed that the last time he saw Bee was on November 15 or 16 of 2016, according to the probable cause statement, WMBD-TV reported.
Brackett claimed that Bee and others were “partying” at his residence on November 16, 2016, when he said he was not home, authorities said, according to the TV station.
Ahead of Brackett’s arrest, Brackett was reportedly in Maine and had intended to leave the U.S., WEEK-TV reported. He was detained in Maine ahead of his extradition to Illinois.
