File Photo – Waukegan Fire Department | Photo: Woo-Sung Shim / Lake and McHenry County Scanner

Firefighters and police officers searching for a missing woman found the woman alive in Lake Michigan near Waukegan over 24 hours after she went missing, authorities said.

The family of a 57-year-old woman filed a missing person report with the North Chicago Police Department on August 2.

Waukegan Deputy Police Chief Joe Florip told Lake and McHenry County Scanner the family reported that the woman was possibly having a mental health crisis.

The woman’s phone was pinging to the area of the Waukegan Harbor and Waukegan Police Officer Leonard Walker was sent to the area, Florip said.

“Didn’t really expect to find a whole lot I walked around and didn’t see anything that would reason me to believe that she was still down here,” Walker told WGN News.

“I had to make a decision I didn’t know what to do at that time and that’s when I reached out to the fire department,” Walker said.

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The Waukegan Fire Department was called with their rescue boat and began searching for the woman using sonar on August 3.

The woman had been missing for over 24 hours and crews searched Lake Michigan for several hours.

Firefighters spotted the woman under a buoy attached to a dock, Florip said. She was alive but unresponsive.

The woman was suffering from hypothermia and was transported to a local hospital for treatment.