An autopsy was set for Thursday for an unidentified body found near the Thornton Composite Reservoir in south suburban Thornton, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The body was found Wednesday morning and was pronounced dead at 11:41 a.m. at the scene near 17200 block of State Street in Thornton, the medical examiner’s stated. The office did not provide a suspected age, race or gender of the victim and it was unclear how long the body had been there or its condition.
A part of the long-term Deep Tunnel stormwater project, the composite reservoir significantly reduces flooding and the backflow of untreated sewage into Lake Michigan by storing combined sewer overflow during floods before release to the Calumet wastewater treatment plant, according to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. The reservoir is also the largest combined sewer overflow facility in the world, according to Wastewater Digest.
Thornton police and officials from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago weren’t immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
