Robert Bee, 13, has been missing from his Pekin home since November 2016.

The skeletal remains found Monday at a south Pekin residence have been deemed by a forensic pathologist as consistent with those of a 13-year-old adolescent male, according to dental records and photographs of the remains.

According to Dr. James Baldi, the Tazewell County coroner, no positive identification may be made until DNA tests are complete. Until then, it cannot be concluded that the remains belong to that of Robert Bonsai Bee, Jr., 13,  who went missing last Nov. 17.

Tazewell County Sheriff’s department officers were called to 14316 Rte. 29 at approximately 2:15 p.m. Monday, after the property owner encountered human bones while grooming the lawn. Until recently, the property was mowed by the former boyfriend of Lisa Bee, Robert’s mother.

The dental records of a missing Pekin boy have been requested by police in connection to bones.

Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood has scheduled the preliminary autopsy for 8 a.m. Tuesday , and arranged for a dental expert to assist in that autop

sy. Robert was missing a portion of his left incisor, due to what appears to be decay.

Even if his mother had not taken the boy for regular dentist’s visits, she was required by the Illinois State Board of Education to provide dental exams for kindergarten and second and sixth grades, unless a waiver is given for a child on reduced or free lunches.
Robert Bee fled from his home at 233 Sapp St. after a Pekin Police Dept. truancy officer visited the home to issue a ticket. His mother reported the boy missing the next day, and he has been considered an endangered runaway since then.

A large group of volunteers, calling themselves “Team Bonsai”, have since searched for the boy nearly every weekend.

They recently enlisted the help of Trucks 4 Kidz, a charitable group from Missouri that has a successful record for finding missing children.

On Sunday, Trucks 4 Kidz volunteers discovered a sweatshirt thought to be Robert Bee’s in an area off of Interstate 474 by the Shade-Lohmann Bridge. Police investigated the area, but it was determined the article of clothing was not the boy’s.

Team Bonsai volunteer, Brooke Bailey, has actively engaged in searching for the teen, and has searched the area around the Rte. 29 location where the remains were found. She said she believes the remains may have been in an outbuilding located along the adjacent Woodford Drive, but the location of the bones has not been confirmed by investigators.

Since Robert Bee’s disappearance, Lisa Bee has had little involvement in searching for the boy. According to her own Facebook posts, she was evicted from the Sapp Street house in February and has since lived a transient lifestyle, often entering mental health wards and drug rehabilitation facilities

The Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office along with the Pekin Police Department, Tazewell County Coroner’s Office and Illinois State Police crime scene investigators are continuing the investigation.