The body of a Navy sailor who disappeared last month after leaving a bar in Waukegan, Illinois, was found Wednesday in Lake Michigan near the city’s harbor, authorities said.
Seamus Gray, 21, who was last seen on March 18 when video showed him leaving a bar, was found in the lake by electrical utility workers near the Waukegan Harbor, according to a statement from the Lake County Coroner’s Office.
The workers spotted the body shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday and flagged down police who were conducting a nearby traffic stop.
“The utility workers were doing routine work near the Harbor and reported they saw what they believed to be a body in the water. An officer from the Waukegan Police Department was able to bring the deceased to shore,” the statement said.
An autopsy was completed Thursday, according to the coroner’s office.
“Preliminary results indicate that Mr. Gray died from Drowning. There is no evidence of significant injury which would have contributed to his death,” the statement said. “The incident remains under investigation by the Waukegan Police Department, the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the Lake County Coroner’s Office.”
Waukegan, on the shores of Lake Michigan, is about 42 miles north of Chicago.
Gray never reported back to the Navy when he was supposed to, police said. He was reported missing on March 21.
Gray was assigned to Naval Station Great Lakes, which is on the Lake Michigan coast south of Waukegan, police said.
Video showed Gray near Sheridan Road and Washington Street at 1:40 a.m. on the day he disappeared, police said.
Surveillance video from outside a bar appears to show some type of interaction Gray had with possibly two others.
Searchers last month focused on the lakefront, by land and in the air. Video showed Gray’s progression from the downtown area to the lakefront, police said.
NBC Chicago reported surveillance footage from outside the Ibiza nightclub on the morning of Gray’s disappearance shows him standing and talking to a group of people. The video also shows Gray on the ground. At another point, someone in the group appears to grab Gray’s wallet from his pocket, but then throws it back at him, the news outlet reported.
Later in the video, Gray is seen taking off in a nearby alley.
In a news conference, Ibiza manager Adrian Hernandez said Gray entered the nightclub twice last month, but was escorted out for being too intoxicated.
Gray got into at least two altercations outside the bar, Hernandez said, according to NBC Chicago.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
