Lake County authorities Thursday identified the two girls killed this week in a boating accident as family friends who were enjoying a sunny day at a lake cottage before their deaths.
The coroner’s office said 16-year-old Sarina Vootkur of Lake Forest, California, and 13-year-old Elle Kim of Long Grove died from blunt force injuries when the jet ski they were riding collided with a cabin cruiser on Lake Marie near Antioch.
Vootkur was piloting the jet ski, with Kim as her passenger, when they hit the 21-foot-long boat on the south end of Lake Marie, near the channel to Grass Lake on the Chain O Lakes.
Police said Thursday that Vootkur and Kim’s families are friends, and that the California girl was visiting Illinois with an adult family member. They had gone to the cottage of another friend Tuesday to enjoy a day at the lake, according to authorities.
Witnesses reported that the jet ski carrying the girls was heading north at a high rate of speed when it struck the boat at about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Both girls were thrown into the lake after the crash. The girls were wearing life jackets, and the people aboard the cabin cruiser pulled them from the water and immediately began rendering aid.
Vootkur and Kim were brought to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where they were pronounced dead from their injuries.
The jet ski is owned by the owners of the cottage that the families were visiting, police said.
Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said investigators are still trying to piece together what happened in the moments before the crash. Based on boating regulations, the jet ski should have yielded the right of way to the cabin cruiser, police said.
The cabin cruiser carried four people, including its operator, a 55-year-old Antioch man. No one on the boat was injured.
