Chicago police say they are talking to a “person of interest” in the murder of a 19-year-old pregnant woman whose body was found in Lake Michigan near Waukegan last month.
The Chicago Sun-Times, citing a Chicago Police Department spokesperson, reported Friday morning that a person of interest was being interviewed by Chicago police in connection with the death of Yarianna G. Wheeler, 19, of Chicago.
Wheeler’s body was spotted by a fisherman on August 15 floating in Lake Michigan three miles southeast of the Waukegan Harbor, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman was six to seven months pregnant. Detectives believe she had been in the water for one or two weeks.
An autopsy showed Wheeler had been stabbed. She had “several sharp force injuries” on her body, according to Lake County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Christopher Covelli.
Covelli told Lake and McHenry County Scanner on Friday that sheriff’s detectives “worked this case extremely thoroughly.”
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office has collaborated very closely with the Chicago Police Department on the case, Covelli said.
He confirmed that the sheriff’s office identified a person of interest and detectives recovered evidence in Chicago.
“They’ve collaborated very closely with Chicago homicide detectives and they continue working with Chicago police to hold the person who did this to Wheeler accountable,” Covelli said.
No charges have been filed against the person of interest yet.
Wheeler was living in Chicago but is originally from the 3200 block of West Wilcox Street in Bellwood, the sheriff’s office previously said.
When her body was initially recovered, police and the coroner’s office were unable to identify the woman and asked the public for help.
A sketch of the woman was created by Mount Prospect Police Detective Dirk Ollech and released on August 20.
Covelli said one of the tips received from the public assisted in identifying Wheeler.