LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The investigation into the November 2023 death of a Lakeport teenager has led to the first Lake County case in which an individual has been charged with homicide for furnishing fentanyl.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Joe Nathan Boggs Jr., 27, of Lucerne, was arrested early Friday morning for second degree murder for the death of 17-year-old Illeanna Makena Frease.

He also was booked for possession of drugs for sale, transportation of a controlled substance for sale and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor.

Boggs’ bail is set at $1 million. He’s due to be arraigned in Lake County Superior Court on Monday.

Frease died Nov. 10, 2023. She was a member of the Elem Indian Colony.

The sheriff’s office released her name in connection with the case with the permission of her family.

“The Lake County Sheriff’s Office wants to extend its condolences to Illeanna’s family and friends,” Sheriff's spokesperson Lauren Berlinn wrote in her report on the case.

In a Friday afternoon Facebook post, Frease’s mother, Michaela John, remembered her daughter, known as “Illi,” as a bright young woman “loved fiercely by all who knew her — especially her siblings. She had her whole life ahead of her before she was tragically taken from us on November 10, 2023.”

John said her daughter graduated high school early at age 16, “despite experiencing the adversity and isolation that comes with growing up Native in Lake County, California. Her sweet, loving, determined spirit was her greatest strength. She was also a descendant of a long line of women who shared that strength, were survivors of genocide, and became back bones of their respective tribal nations.”

She said of Boggs, who also is Native American, “He trafficked my daughter and poisoned her to death. This drug trafficking, predatory murderer operated both on and off tribal lands openly, with no regard for the damage he was causing. Without accountability.”

The background of the case

Berlinn said the sheriff’s office was dispatched to a coroner’s case at Sutter Lakeside Hospital regarding Frease on the day of her death.

During the initial coroner’s investigation, it was believed Frease died from an overdose, Berlinn said.

Berlinn said an autopsy was conducted, and once toxicology reports were received in February, it was determined that Frease had overdosed from a combination of fentanyl and alcohol.

With the confirmation of the toxicology results, the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit initiated a criminal investigation to determine who provided the fentanyl to Frease, Berlinn said.

“Throughout the investigation, detectives interviewed witnesses, authored search warrants, and reviewed digital data from cell phones and social media,” Berlinn said in the statement.

Based on the evidence, Berlinn said investigators determined Boggs was responsible for providing the fentanyl to Frease, which ultimately led to her death.

The sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit held a briefing with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office and it was determined Boggs would be prosecuted for Frease’s murder, Berlinn said.

On Thursday, Berlinn said sheriff’s detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Boggs, which led to his arrest the following day.

Lake County Superior Court records show that Boggs has an extensive criminal record stretching back to 2017 that includes felony cases with charges involving drugs, vandalism, assault for a domestic violence case, grand theft and possession of a gun by a convicted felon.

Convictions in 2018 for drugs — which included Boggs and another man being arrested after attempting to sell drugs to an undercover detective — as well as in 2019 for assault, in 2022 for grand theft and 2023 for a felon in possession of a firearm led to state prison terms, according to court records.

Revocation of Boggs’ post release community supervision — which is provided to inmates released from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — led to county jail sentences in May of 2022 and January of 2023.

Court records also showed that two days before he was arrested in the Frease homicide case, Boggs was arraigned for a misdemeanor drug offense.

Berlinn encouraged anyone who believes they have any information regarding the Frease case to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit Tip Line at 707-262-4088 and either Sgt. Jeff Mora or Det. Michael Nakahara will contact them.

Berlinn said that, within the last few years, law enforcement agencies across California and the country have successfully investigated and prosecuted fentanyl homicide cases.

“Illeanna’s case is Lake County’s first arrest for a fentanyl homicide,” Berlinn wrote in her report on the case. “The Lake County Sheriff’s Office will continue to combat the fentanyl crisis in Lake County and hold fentanyl dealers accountable.”

A devastating epidemic

Over the past decade fentanyl has become a national public health crisis, impacting people of all ages, walks of life, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

The Drug Enforcement Administration established National Fentanyl Awareness Day in May to raise awareness on “the serious dangers of fentanyl poisoning from fake pills and other illicit drugs.”

Lake County has been hard-hit by the crisis.

Frease’s death in late 2023 came at a time when there were other deaths of young Lake County residents — some of them tribal members like Frease — which prompted local agencies and tribes to issue a December statement that noted that there were “multiple incidents of youth opioid overdose” that had happened in Lake County communities.

“Each is a tragic and stark reminder consumption of drugs, even once, can prove fatal. With the rise of fentanyl, xylazine and similar chemical compounds, events such as these have become far too common. Families, school cohorts and communities are rocked to the core, and we grieve with those most affected,” the statement said.

Officials also took that opportunity to urge parents to speak to their children about drug use.

Among youth and young adults aged 15 to 24, the average annual overdose death rate is 12.6 out of every 100,000, the county reported.

Officials also reported that in 2022, more than 100,000 people died due to overdose in the United States; of those, 79 were Lake County residents.

The California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard showed that in 2022, in California there were 6,473 deaths and 21,316 emergency room visits related to fentanyl overdose.

The dashboard’s report on Lake County showed that black and Native American populations have been hit particularly hard by the opioid-related overdose epidemic, and are the populations with the leading numbers of deaths.

The Northshore communities of Nice and Lucerne have the highest overdose rates, based on the dashboard’s statistics.

The Indian Health Service quoted a Centers for Disease Control report that said that the American Indian and Alaska Native population had the highest drug overdose death rates in both 2020 and 2021, at rates of 42.5 and 56.6 deaths per 100,000 persons. Those numbers include a 33% increase in drug overdose deaths from 2020 through 2021.

“Tribal communities are experiencing an increase in overdoses stemming from polysubstance use. This is primarily caused by unintentional polysubstance use, which is when a person who takes drugs mixed or cut with other substances, like fentanyl, without their knowledge,” the Indian Health Service reported.

In Frease’s case, “Illeanna lost her life to an ever growing form of genocide, she was poisoned by Fentanyl,” her mother said in the Friday Facebook post.

“Lake County will attempt to prosecute this monster but that is not enough,” John wrote. “Prosecuting an individual drug trafficker is a band aide. Many individuals, many different systems failed my daughter – and she suffered the ultimate consequence of our community’s inaction. Our Tribal nations and Tribal people must act now, before more children like Illeanna are lost. Justice for Illeanna’s murder, and other missing and murdered Tribal people statewide, requires a call to action and a call for resources for a tribal task force that not only holds predators accountable on and off tribal lands but actively pursues justice for our Tribal people and Native Nations. We are in a dire need. This is an epidemic. To save lives we need resources on the ground and warriors on the front lines. The same old approach, 8-5 advocacy, nepotism, and lateral violence felt and experienced throughout Indian Country must stop.”

She added, “Awareness is not enough. We’re at war for the lives of our youth, the future is in our hands. I pray and fight for justice for my daughter, and yours.”

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at https://988lifeline.org/.

To learn how to get support for mental health, drug or alcohol issues, visit https://www.lakecountyca.gov/173/Behavioral-Health-Services.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.