PORTAGE PARK — The former owner of Regulus Coffee House in Portage Park was sentenced Monday to life in prison for murdering his wife, the co-owner of the popular cafe in the Irving Austin Business District, her family said.
Brent Bogseth, who moved to Grand Junction, Mich., with his family after the cafe at 6032 W. Irving Park Road closed in 2014, will spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole, which is the automatic sentence for anyone convicted of first-degree murder in Michigan.
A jury convicted Bogseth of the crime in September.
"This is the outcome we all hoped for," Kimberly Allison Bogseth's family posted on their Facebook page Monday.
After Kimberly Bogseth's body was discovered in a rural area in Michigan, Brent Bogseth was arrested in Chicago and charged with using a hammer to kill her, police said.
Brent and Kimberly Bogseth, who were high school sweethearts at Taft High School, had a young son, Gage.
Brent Bogseth's trial lasted a week, according to media reports.
Kimberly Bogseth was reported missing Sept. 1, 2015, after Brent Bogseth told family members and friends that she left him and their son to move to California.
The search for Kimberly Bogseth went viral via social media after a series of Facebook posts by Brent Bogseth and other friends were posted on Reddit.
Posts were made on Kimberly Bogseth's Facebook page after she was reported missing, sparking an attempt by Internet sleuths to determine whether she had left her family willingly or been harmed.
Ellen Sullivan, who attended Taft with Brent and Kimberly Bogseth and remained close with the couple, said she never believed Kimberly Bogseth left her son.
"Kim was a free spirit with the mouth of a sailor," Sullivan said, laughing. "She loved her son. That's how we want her to be remembered. She was a great mother."
Ald. Tim Cullerton (38th), who knew Brent Bogseth's parents for decades, said last year he mourned for the entire family.
"This is a terrible chain of events," Cullerton said. "I'm so sad for that little guy."
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