CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A body found this week on the North Shore of Lake Michigan has been identified as a man who disappeared after swimming on the South Side of Chicago.
He was identified as 49-year-old Martin Mendoza of Waukesha, Wisconsin, according to the Lake County coroner’s office. He died of drowning, a preliminary autopsy ruled.
Mendoza disappeared Aug. 8 after swimming from a boat in Lake Michigan near the 63rd Street Harbor, Chicago police have said.
His body was spotted Sunday afternoon by the crew of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter conducting a training exercise three miles east of the Lake Forest shoreline, according to the Lake County sheriff’s office.
About an hour earlier, a fisherman spotted the body of another person, a still-unidentified woman, floating in the water three miles southeast of the Waukegan Harbor. Authorities haven’t said if that case was connected with Mendoza’s.
At least 24 people have drowned in Lake Michigan so far in 2021, according to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project. Last year, 56 had drowned in Lake Michigan.
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(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2021. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)