Search for Grayslake North High School teen missing in Lake Michigan concludes
The search for the Grayslake North High School student who went missing in Lake Michigan near Waukegan in January has concluded without the search team recovering the teen's body.
The Grayslake North High School student, who has not been identified by authorities, went missing about 4:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18, after jumping into the lake to help someone who had slipped off a pier at Stiner Pavilion.
Waukegan Fire Department Fire Marshall Steven Lenzi announced the decision to conclude their search Tuesday night after one final day of searching. Tuesday was the first day when conditions were safe for divers to search. The department's sonar team was able to safely perform boat-based sonar searches of the entire search area as well.
Before Tuesday, the team would conduct land based searches sometimes using search robots designed to crawl atop the rocks underwater to help find the missing teen.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of this missing young man,” Lenzi said in a statement. “Our personnel were hoping to be able to provide closure for the family, however, after extensive search of the area we were not able to locate him. Our personnel have worked hard in less than ideal conditions to attempt to recover this missing young man and we had really hoped to provide this closure for this family.”
No further searches are planned, according to the news release.