A man drowned in Lake Michigan Saturday night at Illinois Beach State Park, marking the second drowning in the same area of the Lake Michigan waterfront this month.
This weekend’s victim was pronounced dead Saturday night at Vista East Medical Center in Waukegan. Authorities said he was 26.
The Beach Park Fire Department was called at about 8:15 p.m. for reports of a swimmer in distress. Firefighters from Beach Park and Zion entered the lake and began searching at the spot where the man was last seen.
Other departments responded to aid in the search, including the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, and the man was located at around 10 p.m. by rescue divers.
Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said the man’s body was recovered about 30 feet from shore.
The victim and two friends, also men in their 20s, were attempting to swim from shore to a rock wall when the man went underwater, Covelli said.
The drowning was the second one this month at the state park. On July 12, Cesia Ketchum, a 15-year-old Zion girl, died after she went under the water. Her rescuers were able to re-establish a pulse after locating her, but she died later that night at a hospital.
