Police: Missing teen's SUV recovered from Vernon Hills pond
One week after a Carpentersville teen went missing, authorities pulled her SUV out of a large retention pond in Vernon Hills Monday but continue to search the area for the 17-year-old in what police described as a "recovery operation."
Based on the condition of the gray Nissan Rogue, police believe that Brissa Romero was in the vehicle when it drove into the pond. The SUV traveled as much as 60 feet into the pond near a T-shaped intersection.
"From the preliminary review of what happened, it really appears like this is a case where a driver unfamiliar with the area failed to navigate a turn and went through the intersection, down an embankment into the pond," Vernon Hills Police Chief Patrick Kreis said at a joint news conference with Carpentersville police.
According to family, Romero last spoke with her mother at 6:55 p.m. on Dec. 4 and told her she was en route to a work holiday party at Bowlero in Vernon Hills. The pond where her SUV was recovered is about a four-minute drive, or one mile, from the bowling alley.
Kreis said police noticed "some matting," potentially from car tires, in the grassy embankment. The rear hatch of the SUV was open, police said.
The pond, which takes up about one to two acres near Executive Way and Lakeview Parkway, is under 20 feet at its deepest.
"At this point, we have not recovered Brissa, but we're going to continue every effort to do that," Kreis said late Monday afternoon.
Recovery efforts came to a close Monday afternoon and will resume at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Carpentersville Police Deputy Chief Kevin Stankowitz said. He said police do not suspect foul play and believe the incident was accidental.
An electronic device belonging to the teen last pinged around 7:40 p.m. Dec. 4 in the vicinity of the Bowlero bowling alley in Vernon Hills, where co-workers from the Crystal Lake Raising Cane's restaurant had gathered for a work party.
On Monday, police said video from a restaurant located near the pond showed Romero parking her vehicle, entering the restaurant, and then driving out of the parking lot alone about 15 minutes before the last recorded ping on her phone.
As the investigation continued Monday, a police officer met with a resident who had been walking around the bank of the pond and pointed out a backpack that seemed to have floated on the edge of the water. The police officer found that the backpack appeared to belong to Brissa.
"It's our belief that we need to continue to search this pond, and that is really the sole efforts of our searching at this point," Kreis said.
Several family members attended Monday's news conference and gathered with police after the news briefing.
"In my heart, I still believe that she's out there," the teen's older sister, Dulce Romero, told reporters Monday.
In the last several days, the teen's immediate and extended family passed out flyers, contacted area businesses for video footage and spoke to the teen's friends to figure out what happened to the Carpentersville girl.
Romero graduated from Barrington High School in 2023, a year early, and enrolled at Harper College in Palatine to become an ultrasound technician.
Romero and her sister, Dulce, last talked about the coming holiday.
"She was excited and was bragging about what I was going to get for Christmas," Dulce Romero said last week as her family scoured a wooded area behind the bowling alley.
• Daily Herald staff writer Katlyn Smith contributed to this report.