Missing Navy Sailor’s Remains Recovered After Month-Long Search

Missing Navy Sailor's Remains Recovered After Month-Long Search

(UnitedVoice.com) – Last month, a US Navy sailor walked out of an Illinois bar and disappeared. Now the search for him has come to a tragic end. A body recovered from Lake Michigan has been confirmed to be the missing sailor.

Like many Americans, 21-year-old sailor Seamus Gray went out on March 17 to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes, he and his friends visited bars in nearby Waukegan, IL. Early next morning, around 1:30 a.m., he was refused entry to the Ibiza Bar after an “apparent altercation.” The last sighting of him was at 1:40 a.m., from a security camera near the harbor.

The next day, Gray was reported absent at the base’s 2 a.m. curfew, and a search began. A hundred of his fellow sailors helped local cops look for him along the shore of Lake Michigan, but no trace was found. His mother flew up from Florida to be close to the search, and along with Waukegan police and the Navy, she issued several appeals for any news of her missing son. Hopes of finding him alive seem to have quickly faded, however; by March 24, less than a week after he vanished, local police chief Scott Chastain was telling journalists the cold weather made it unlikely a body in the water would come back to the surface right away. He also warned that currents in the water could carry bodies as far as Chicago or Milwaukee.

However, it turns out that didn’t happen. On April 19, ConEd workers who had been working near Waukegan Marina spotted a body in the water at around 7 p.m. They called the police, who recovered it and realized the clothes it was wearing matched those Gray had on when he disappeared. The Lake County coroner has now confirmed that the body is Gray’s.

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