Man Found Dead After Falling From Boat In Lake Michigan
UPDATED 07/05/11 8:53 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police have found the body of a 29-year-old man who fell overboard from a boat near Navy Pier.
As CBS 2's Susanna Song reports, police, the Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard were notified around 10:15 p.m. Monday that the man had fallen from a boat around the locks and breakwall where Lake Michigan meets the Chicago River.
The search lasted four hours and was suspended at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, but resumed after daybreak. Search and rescue teams dropped a GPS unit into the water where the boater fell overboard during the earlier search, and when police returned in daylight, they found the body within 10 minutes.
"We had information from the previous search. They gave us coordinates, and those coordinates are where we went back to this morning," said police Marine Unit Sgt. Ray Mazzola. "A shirt was recovered last night from this area, so we went back to the same area, and we located the victim within 25 yards of the markers we had placed last night."
The man, identified as Christopher Szmajlo, 29, had been sailing with friends.
His body was found around 30 feet below the surface, about 100 feet southwest of the lighthouse south of Navy Pier.
Szmajlo, an Orland Park resident, had been hanging out and watching fireworks at Navy Pier earlier in the evening. Police have not said what caused the man to go overboard.
Police are conducting a death investigation in the case.
