15-year-old boy found dead after going missing while swimming in Chain O’ Lakes near Village of Fox Lake

Authorities announced a 15-year-old boy was found dead after he jumped into the water to swim but never resurfaced in the Chain O’ Lakes near the Village of Fox Lake Monday evening.

The Fox Lake Fire Protection District and Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded around 6 p.m. to Myers Bay, which is part of Pistakee Lake, for a report of a water rescue.

Emergency responders received a report of a 15-year-old boy who jumped off a recreational boat to go swimming in Myers Bay, but he went underwater and never resurfaced, according to Lake County Sheriff’s Office Chief Christopher Covelli.

Covelli said the boy did not have a life vest on when he jumped into the water.

The first rescue crews arrived on scene at around 6:07 p.m. and – along with the Lake County Sheriff’s Marine Unit and Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police – began rescue operations, Fox Lake Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Sam Santiago said.

“We put divers in the water initially, went through several rounds, making a search, and eventually had to switch over to what we call a side scan sonar, a technology where we can scan the water while the divers are outside of the water,” Santiago said.

One of the battalion fire chiefs who lived in the area quickly obtained a “last seen” point for the teen, allowing rescue crews to perform search patterns around that specific point, Santiago said.

At least one drone was also deployed for an aerial view of the water.

The Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) was activated early in the incident to bring additional fire department boats and specialized divers and sonar technicians.

“We wanted to get dive operations knowing that we confirmed somebody in the water,” Santiago said.

A box alarm through MABAS was requested to “get those additional resources to the scene as quickly as possible to support us for that rescue mode,” Santiago added.

A slew of rescue personnel and equipment from throughout Lake and McHenry counties responded and gathered at Ben Watts Marina, 116 Route 12 in Fox Lake.

Santiago said that Ben Watts Marina was chosen due to its accessibility.

“If we go anywhere else, a lot of times it gets bottlenecked or smaller roadway that we can’t necessarily get all of our boats and all of our equipment into,” Santiago said.

“Staging them here [Ben Watts Marina] and going via across the water expedites the process to get the resources to where they need to be in that forward position of operation,” Santiago added.

Despite the massive number of resources, Santiago said operational collaboration went smoothly because of a universal incident management structure.

“We delegate positions out, and we’ll have team leads for each discipline, and everybody reports back to command,” Santiago said.

“Everything is organized, the resources are vetted coming in, they’re allocated to positions where they need to be, and will backfill as needed to support the whole operation.”

At around 7:30 p.m. – approximately 90 minutes into the incident – crews switched from rescue operations to recovery operations.

The 90-minute mark is considered the “gold standard for when a rescue can be made,” Santiago said.

The initial divers were unable to find the teen, but sonar technicians were later able to find him and recover his body at around 7:50 p.m., Santiago said.

Santiago called it a “tragedy.” No other injuries were reported.

“This always hits home. These are members of our community. This is a great location to come bring your families, and that’s what they were just trying to do,” Santiago said.

“We’re very sorry for your loss, and we did everything that we could possible,” Santiago added.

Police officers and firefighters were seen consoling the boy’s family members and relatives.

The Lake County Coroner’s Office responded to the scene to take possession of the boy.

Lake County Chief Deputy Coroner Steve Newton said his office worked with the family to positively identify the recovered body as the missing child. The boy was a resident of Round Lake.

An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday morning. The child’s identity has not been released yet.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police is investigating the incident.