Two people drowned Sunday evening in the DuPage River near southwest suburban Shorewood.
After hours of searching, authorities pulled the body of a 28-year-old man from the river Monday morning near the Hamel Woods forest preserve, Troy Fire Protection District Chief Andy Doyle said. The man’s 22-year-old girlfriend was recovered hours later, Doyle said.
The couple were seen struggling in the water about 5:50 p.m. Sunday by a dam in the Hamel Woods forest preserve, Doyle said in a statement released by the Will County Forest Preserve.
A witness stated that the man went in the water first, and that the woman saw him in distress and entered the water to help him, Doyle said.
Emergency crews responded minutes later and saw the man in the dam but were unable to gram him, Doyle said. They eventually lost sight of him.
No one had been located when crews temporarily ended the search about four hours later, Doyle said. Authorities found the man the next morning at 10 a.m., Doyle said. The woman was recovered about 2 p.m. Monday.
Doyle said firefighters searched a 2.5 mile stretch of the DuPage River from the forest preserve’s dam to Mount Road. Authorities walked the shore and used boats.
The water near the dam acted like a lake riptide, Doyle said. The water near the dam looks calm at times, but underwater turbulence is extremely dangerous, he said.
“It’s very hard to swim out of that,” Doyle said. “…We really stress that people stay away from the dam.”
The Will County coroner’s office has not released the identities of the couple.
