The Chicago Police Department's marine unit retrieved a body from the chilly waters of Lake Michigan near 31st Street Beach on Sunday, an incident that comes in the wake of a tragic weekend on the lake, reported The Chicago Tribune. Around 12:45 p.m., the recovery was made along the shore of the 3100 block of South DuSable Lake Shore Drive, police said the body which could not yet be identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office by Sunday evening may be that of a man missing since Friday when a boat he was on capsized carrying 16 passengers.
While not yet confirming the identity of the man retrieved, Chicago police brought Thursday to shore Lorenzo Tobin, 40, of Country Club Hills who was announced dead at the scene according to the Tribune but the Cook County medical examiner’s office had not yet scheduled an autopsy for Tobin. Early Saturday, another victim, 37-year-old Woodland resident Eric C. Johnson, was rescued from the same waters near Dock E at 31st Street Harbor, and later pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center, NBC Chicago reported.
In an effort to combat the area's recent fatal incidents, which extend beyond aquatic tragedies, Ald. Lamont Robinson had closed the Douglas neighborhood beach earlier during Independence Day weekend after shootings, and added harbor security from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., he mentioned to The Chicago Tribune that an evaluation of the early closures' effectiveness would be post-holiday.
