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Car of missing teen from Carpentersville pulled from pond: police

Brissa Romero, a Crystal Lake restaurant employee, has not yet been recovered, authorities say

By Alicia Fabbre Daily Herald Media Group
Brissa Romero, Carpentersville 17-year-old reported missing on Dec. 5, 2023.

Brissa Romero, Carpentersville 17-year-old, was reported missing on Dec. 5, 2023. (Photo provided by Carpentersville Police Department)

One week after a Carpentersville teen went missing, authorities pulled her SUV out of a large retention pond in Vernon Hills Monday, but continue to search the area for the 17-year-old in what police described as a “recovery operation.”

Based on the condition of the gray Nissan Rogue, police believe that Brissa Romero was in the vehicle when it drove into the pond. The SUV traveled as much as 60 feet into the pond near a T-shaped intersection.

“From the preliminary review of what happened, it really appears like this is a case where a driver unfamiliar with the area failed to navigate a turn and went through the intersection, down an embankment into the pond,” Vernon Hills Police Chief Patrick Kreis said at a joint news conference with Carpentersville police.

The rear hatch of the SUV was open. The pond, near Executive Way and Lakeview Parkway, is under 20 feet at its deepest.

“At this point, we have not recovered Brissa, but we’re going to continue every effort to do that,” Kreis said Monday afternoon.

An electronic device belonging to the teen last pinged around 7:40 p.m. last Monday in the vicinity of the Bowlero bowling alley in Vernon Hills, where coworkers from the Crystal Lake Raising Cane’s restaurant had gathered for a work party.

The police investigation led authorities to the retention pond, about a mile and a half southeast of the bowling alley.

A police officer met with a resident who had been walking around the bank of the pond and pointed out a backpack that seemed to have floated on the edge of the water. The police officer found that the backpack appeared to belong to Brissa.

“It’s our belief that we need to continue to search this pond, and that is really the sole efforts of our searching at this point,” Kreis said.

The teen graduated from Barrington High School in 2023, a year early, and enrolled at Harper College in Palatine to become an ultrasound technician.

Romero, the youngest of five children, last spoke with her mother around 6:55 p.m. last Monday, oldest sister Dulce Romero said.

She and her sister last talked about the coming holiday.

“She was excited and was bragging about what I was going to get for Christmas,” Dulce Romero said last week as her family scoured a wooded area behind the bowling alley.

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20231211/police-missing-teens-suv-recovered-from-vernon-hills-pond