Sept. 08--Police plan to drain the west side of the Garfield Park Lagoon on Tuesday as they continue their search for the dismembered remains of a child, authorities said.
City crews will pump the water into sewers on Hamlin Boulevard, which will be closed from Lake Street to Washington Boulevard.
The east side of the lagoon will be dammed off at Central Park Avenue. Once the draining work and police investigation are complete, the temporary dam will be removed to allow water to flow to the west side of the lagoon, police said.
Since Saturday afternoon, police have recovered the head, hands and feet of a child from the lagoon off the 200 block of McCrea Drive in Garfield Park, authorities said.
Police hope that by emptying the lagoon, they will be able to find the rest of the toddler's remains. Investigators do believe the toddler's body was dismembered, police said.
The Cook County medical examiner's said the remains belong to an African-American child 2 to 3 years old, investigators said Monday. The cause and manner of the child's death are pending the results of additional tests and the ongoing police investigation, according to Frank Shuftan, a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office.
Police investigators are still trying to determine for certain the race and gender of the toddler as of Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Saturday afternoon, someone called 911 to report a foot floating in the lagoon. It turned out to be the left foot of the toddler, according to authorities.
Police later found the child's other foot and both hands toward the north end of the lagoon about 25 yards away. A 20-pound weight was found nearby, authorities said.
The limbs were in an advanced state of decomposition and not clothed, authorities said.
Chicago police detectives, the marine unit and K-9 officers returned to the lagoon Sunday morning. Investigators searched the edges of the waist-deep, mucky water, lifting logs and fallen branches. A police dog sniffed the shoreline, at one point plunging into the water.
During the day Sunday, police hauled several items from the water, but they appeared to be machinery or tools. Other officers gathered evidence from the shore.
Late in the day, the child's head was discovered near where other body parts were found the previous afternoon.
