Naperville police: No sign of foul play after man pulled from Centennial Beach
Naperville police are investigating the death of a 27-year-old man who was found unconscious in the water at Centennial Beach, though there is no indication of foul play, authorities said Friday.
Police were dispatched at about 5:43 p.m. on Thursday to the former quarry for a report of a missing person last seen in the deep end. At around 6:06 p.m., lifeguards recovered an unresponsive man from the water, police said. Naperville Fire Department personnel took him to an area hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
According to police, the initial investigation indicates that the man had entered the water with a group of friends to swim to a floating dock in the middle of the deep end.
Upon arriving at the dock, the group noticed he was no longer with them. After searching the immediate area, they returned to shore to continue their search. Lifeguards were “eventually notified and activated their missing person protocols,” police said.
“Just watching all the guards work together this way, and the preparedness, to see Jackson Avenue lined with all those safety vehicles, was just astonishing,” said Mary Lou Wehrli, who was on the Naperville Riverwalk walking her dog.
“It doesn’t go away from your thoughts,” she added.
She saw the Centennial Beach lifeguards systematically searching the water for the man. She witnessed not only their teamwork and coordination, but also their “care for each other.”
“When it was time to go down, it's like, ‘On my count, 3,2,1, go,’ and then they'd all, the team would dive down and then come back up. They had these commands that checked on each other,” Wehrli said.
The former quarry is a 6.2-million-gallon facility.
“It's not just … two people overlooking a blue pool in a subdivision,” Wehrli said. “This is a unified team that has trained together, has laughed together, has played together and has worked to deliver safety to public use of this beautiful stone quarry.”
The man was found in the northwest area of the deep end, she said.
The official cause of death remains under investigation by police and the DuPage County coroner’s office.
Wehrli, a former Naperville Park District commissioner, encouraged people to always swim with a buddy system and be aware of their surroundings.
“I would encourage them to realize that they're always part of the situation, even the spectators, whether your job is to get out of the water ... or is to notice someone in distress. I think we are becoming more aware how much our responsibilities toward each other matter,” she said.
“And that includes a situation like we had last night, all the way through to being troubled by it and reaching out to find someone to talk to about it — a professional. I absolutely encourage that.”
Centennial Beach remained closed on Friday. Park district officials said the facility will be closed again on Saturday and reopen on Sunday.
“Out of respect for the individual’s family and pending further investigation, the Park District will not be providing any further comment,” the agency said in a statement Thursday night.
The park district also offered its condolences to the man’s family. Officials added that the district is cooperating with the police investigation.