Arlington Heights woman ID'd as victim of Lake Michigan boating accident
An Arlington Heights woman who starred in two sports at St. Viator High School has been identified as the body pulled from Lake Michigan on June 28 east of Navy Pier.
Officials from the Cook County medical examiner's office confirmed that Megan Blenner, 27, drowned after a May 31 boating accident on the lake that killed at least one other person.
Authorities said Blenner was one of four people who had to jump from a 30-foot cabin cruiser that caught fire miles off the shore of Navy Pier. One man was pulled from the water alive the next morning, but a 26-year-old Chicago woman drowned and another man remains missing.
Blenner, who was born in Hoffman Estates, graduated from St. Viator in 2004. She was a member of the school's National Honor Society, basketball team and the 2003 state championship soccer team, according to her obituary.
She graduated from Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where she was an All-Academic and All-Conference selection for the basketball and soccer teams. She studied at Northwestern University to complete her CPA certification.
Blenner began her professional career in the associate program at Zurich North America in Schaumburg. Her most recent position was financial analyst with Zurich, her obituary states.
She was a member of the Junior League of Chicago, the Illinois CPA Society and Zurich's Women's Innovation Network, and served as a volunteer for PAWS in Lincoln Park and other charities.
Blenner is survived by her parents, Tom and Peggy Blenner; sisters, Kelly and Jamie Blenner; and several other aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. She was preceded in death by her grandparents, William and Lois Blenner of McHenry and Bernard and Arlene DeWane of Woodstock.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday, July 11, at Glueckert Funeral Home, 1520 N. Arlington Heights Road in Arlington Heights.
A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 12, at Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Church, 440 South Mitchell Ave. in Arlington Heights. Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the Megan Blenner Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Chase Bank, 1 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights, IL 60005.