Missing U.S. Navy Sailor Found Dead, Body Pulled from Lake Michigan

21-year-old U.S. Navy sailor Seamus Gray
Waukegan Police
Alana Mastrangelo

Missing 21-year-old U.S. Navy sailor Seamus Gray was found dead on Wednesday. His body was pulled from Lake Michigan in Waukegan, Illinois, the Lake County Coroner’s Office and police said.

The coroner’s office confirmed on Wednesday evening that the body pulled from the lake is Gray, who went missing last month, according to a report by WGN9. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.

Waukegan Police Department (WPD) Chief Edgardo Navarro said employees of the electric utility company ComEd were doing routine work around 7 p.m. near the harbor when they found the body and notified authorities.

An officer went into the water and brought the body to shore.

Gray was last seen on March 18 — the day after St. Patrick’s Day — leaving Ibiza, a bar in downtown Waukegan, about a mile from Waukegan Harbor. Police said the sailor and his friends had been escorted out of the bar, because they were intoxicated.

Video footage showed Gray walking by himself in the area, and walking along the marina near the Metra station. The sailor never made it back to the base before his 2:00 p.m. curfew.

The investigation into Gray’s death is still being conducted by Waukegan police, U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the coroner’s office.

Anyone who might know what happened is encouraged to send information through the WPD tip app, call the Tip-Line at 847-360-9001, or text keyword WPDTIP and message/tip to 847411.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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