Lake County Coroner Howard Cooper said that an autopsy shows 17-year-old Abe Gonzalez, the missing Island Lake boy, died from drowning.
Toxicology results are pending and no signs of foul play were seen on Abe following an autopsy, Cooper said Saturday afternoon.
Abe, who lived in the 3200 block of Poplar Drive in Island Lake, went missing after attending a party at a home in the 26000 block of Morey Street in unincorporated Wauconda on November 1, police said.
The teen was described as being highly intoxicated when he left the party alone westbound on Maple Avenue from Morey Street shortly after midnight on November 2. Abe’s cellphone battery had died when he got to the party, witnesses told police.
Lake County Sheriff Spokesman Sgt. Christopher Covelli said that Abe’s body was found by sheriff’s detectives and auxiliary detectives conducting searches on foot around 10:45 a.m. Friday.
The body was a short distance southwest of Slocum Lake near West Meeker Court completely submerged in water and covered in ice, officials said. It was approximately a half-mile away from the location of the party Abe was last seen leaving.
“It’s been a tough week and to find out he is gone has left us distraught. We only hoped we would find him safe,” Abe’s cousin, Milagros Mendez, said
“Abe loved soccer, friends, and his family especially his siblings Giselle, Magdalena, and Anthony,” Mendez said.
Police spent hundreds of man-hours searching for Abe, Covelli said. Several police canines, police officers, sheriff’s deputies, auxiliary deputies and volunteers conducted searches for the teen over the past week.
Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg thanked the Wauconda Fire Protection District, McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, Gurnee Police Department, Buffalo Grove Police Department, Mundelein Police Department, Illinois Search and Rescue Council and all other volunteers who helped with the search.