A 19-year-old man, who was a member of the U.S. Navy, was found unresponsive and pronounced dead on the Naval Station Great Lakes base in Lake County, the first base death of the year.
The Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Fire & Emergency Services and Great Lakes Police Department responded around 12:15 p.m. Sunday to a medical call in a barracks at Naval Station Great Lakes in Great Lakes.
The subject, a 19-year-old man, was found unresponsive in a non-recruit barracks, according to Lake County Chief Deputy Coroner Steve Newton.
The man, who was a member of the U.S. Navy, was pronounced dead at the scene and did not have any obvious injuries, Newton said.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office was notified and responded to take possession of the man for an autopsy.
The autopsy was completed on Monday and no cause or manner of death has been determined.
Newton said the results of the autopsy are pending toxicology and cardiac pathology testing. The man’s identity has not been released by the coroner’s office yet.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is leading the investigation in accordance with base protocol.
“The Navy mourns the loss of our shipmate and sends condolences to the Sailor’s family, friends, and fellow Sailors during this difficult time,” a spokesperson for the naval base told Lake and McHenry County Scanner.
Grief counselling services and support are available through Surface Combat Systems Training Command Great Lakes and the base chaplain.
“We are cooperating with Naval Criminal Investigative Service in the investigation,” the spokesperson said.
The death was the first base death of 2026 but was not the first Naval member death of the year, according to the coroner’s office.
Hayden Jones, 22, who was from Oklahoma and was stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, died around 6:30 p.m. on January 26 in the 1100 block of South Lewis Avenue in Waukegan after a single-vehicle crash.
Paramedics found Jones, who was the sole occupant of the car, unresponsive after his car was traveling southbound on Lewis Avenue and left the roadway for unknown reasons.
Jones’ vehicle crashed through a fence and into trees. A fence pole penetrated the vehicle’s windshield, impaling Jones in the head and leaving him dead.