Waukegan, Illinois, police said a body pulled from Waukegan harbor matches “the description of the missing United States Navy Sailor Seamus Gray,” according to a CBS Chicago report. The 21-year-old sailor had been missing since March 18.
Police officers conducting a traffic stop near the harbor were flagged down by ComEd workers, the report noted. The utility workers were conducting routine work nearby when they saw what they believed to be a body in the water.
Fox News further reported:
The body of Seamus Gray, a 21-year-old U.S. Navy sailor who went missing last month, has been found in Waukegan, Illinois, along Lake Michigan, officials said.
Waukegan Police Department Chief Edgardo Navarro said a body matching Gray’s physical description was pulled from Waukegan Harbor Wednesday night, just after 7 p.m. The clothes on the body also matched a description of the missing sailor, WGN9 reported.
ComEd workers in the area initially discovered the body and alerted authorities, police said.
The Lake County coroner later confirmed the body as Gray’s, according to the outlet. An autopsy has been scheduled.
Gray was last seen leaving a bar in Waukegan on March 18, the day after St. Patricks Day. Police said he and his friends were intoxicated at the time.
He was then seen walking near the Metra station and later did not show up for his 2 p.m. curfew, according to WGN9.
Gray was assigned to the Great Lakes.
His mother took to social media to comment on the disappearance.
“The last 8 days have been grueling, nauseating, heartbreaking and quite honestly soul-crushing,” she wrote. “This boy is my heart, my world, my love of my life along with his little brother Deck.”
His mother added: “As I type this I’m trying not to throw up. I cannot sleep, and will not sleep until I have answers as to where my son is, and what happened to him.”
An investigation into the death remains ongoing. Waukegan police, the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Lake County Coroner’s Office are all assisting.
Anyone with info, send a tip through the WPD tip app, call the Tip-Line at 847-360-9001 or text keyword WPDTIP and message/tip to 847411.
