Search ends for teen missing in Lake Michigan near Illinois Beach State Park
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The search for a 14-year-old boy who went missing in Lake Michigan near Illinois Beach State Park is over.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office, Coast Guard and Illinois Department of Natural Resources all joined the effort to search for the teen, who went under the water around 5 p.m. Tuesday. The teen is believed to be from Wisconsin. His name has not been released.
Dive teams and rescue boats spent several hours searching Tuesday, before they had to stop as the sun went down.
"We were in the water within two minutes of arriving on scene, and they had a good last-seen point of him from the family and bystanders," said Beach Park Fire Chief Tom Stahl. "We just couldn't find him then."
The search resumed Wednesday. Crews searched south of the state park, pinpointing an area where they believe the 14-year-old boy could be.
"We've searched up and down this numerous times with sonar, still were unable to find him," said Stahl. "We have rescue swimmers, again searching the rock areas. We had drones flying both days trying to find him."
On Wednesday afternoon, shortly after 1:30 p.m., officials said they were ending their search for good, unable to find the teen's body. They do not believe they will be able to locate it.
It is believed the teen may have been caught in a rip current.
"It's dangerous. People have to be aware of it otherwise we're going to keep having accidents happen," said resident Ken Japuntich.
Fire officials said it was difficult to break the news to the family that they were unable to find their son.
"I don't think the people yesterday had any intention of what's going to happen to them like that. It's shallow water. Still, something bad happened to him," Stahl said.
In June, a 20-year-old man died after being pulled from the water at Illinois Beach State Park. Fire officials said they're not sufficiently equipped for some rescues, and said they need lifeguards.
David Benjamin with the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project believes the break walls, also called rock walls, in the water at Illinois Beach State Park can create rip currents.
"These rock walls were installed, $73 million, and nothing went toward supporting water rescue or lifeguards. This beach really must have lifeguards," he said.
Large signs stating, "no lifeguards on duty" and "swim at your own risk" are posted before one enters the beach, but Dave Benjamin with Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project says that's not enough.
"This is going to continue year after year," Benjamin said. "We're going to have preventable tragedies as long as we don't have lifeguards there."
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources said construction began on the break walls in 2023 and they were completed last year.
"They've been working on them for a while," Japuntich said. "They got them in there to protect the beaches, but I guess obviously they forgot about the safety of the people."
Benjamin said lifeguards should have been included in the budget when the break walls were installed.
"If someone is actively drowning, they're going to submerge in less than a minute. So can you call 911 and pinpoint your location, and then they dispatch, and they arrive?" Benjamin said. "They're arriving 10, 15 minutes after the point of submersion, which is now a body recovery."
First responders have decided to wait for the teenage boy's body to resurface rather than searching more.
