Bodies of man, woman recovered from DuPage River

Emergency personnel renewed their search Monday morning for two people who went missing in the DuPage River on Sunday night and recovered the bodies of a 28-year-old man and 22-year-old woman.

About 6 p.m. Sunday, the two went missing near the dam in the DuPage River in Hammel Woods, Shorewood, said Allison J. Anderson, deputy director of the Will County Emergency Management Agency.

Crews, including the Troy Fire Protection District and Will County Forest Preserve police, searched for the pair until 9 p.m. before calling it off for the night because it was too dark, Anderson said.

Emergency personnel renewed the search Monday morning and found the body of the 28-year-old man about
10 a.m., Troy Fire Chief Andy Doyle said during a press conference Monday.

At a later press conference Monday afternoon, authorities said the woman’s body was also recovered about 2 p.m. The 22-year-old was from the Shorewood area.

Doyle said the woman’s body was found about a quarter of a mile south of the dam on the east side of the river. The man’s body was found about a quarter of a mile south of that.

Doyle said he doesn’t know what the man was doing at the time or why he fell into the river. He said the woman went into the water to help him. Emergency personnel later said the couple was dating.

In a forest preserve news release, Doyle cautioned visitors to stay away from the Hammel Woods dam, which he likened to a lake riptide. He said the dam may look calm at times, but it is extremely dangerous because of the turbulence at the structure’s base.

“It’s very hard to swim out of that,” Doyle said.

Swimming is prohibited in the forest preserve’s water bodies.

A portion of Hammel Woods in Shorewood was closed as a result of the incident, according to a post on the forest preserve website. Both the Route 59 and Crumby Recreation Area access points were closed.

Doyle said emergency crews were conducting their search along the river from the Hammel Woods dam to Mound Road in Shorewood. He added that when the Illinois Department of Natural Resources team used airboats on the water, it could have dislodged the woman’s body, which led to authorities finding her.

Shorewood police were warning motorists that roadways in the Des Plaines River area, near Route 52 and Route 59, would be congested because of the emergency vehicles and rescue apparatus.