The body of a Naperville man, who went missing during a Lake Michigan dive on Saturday, Sept. 5, was recovered by a nonprofit search and recovery team.
Naperville resident missing in Lake Michigan
Dr. Michael Jones, 54, went missing while he was on a technical deep-sea scuba dive to explore a shipwreck.
According to a report from the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan Command Center received a notification of a diver who had been exploring a wreckage 17 miles off the Navy Pier shoreline. The Coast Guard was told that the diver had 60 minutes of air supply but had been underwater for 90 minutes.
The Coast Guard began a search with the Chicago Fire Department on scene, but the search was suspended when the units’ assets were exhausted.
Bruce’s Legacy, a nonprofit volunteer organization in Wisconsin providing search and rescue operations for drowned victims, was brought in by a local dive charter to assist with the search for Jones.
Founder and director Keith Cormican said that he and volunteers Brad Chown and Jeff Haubrich went out the night of Sept. 5 to begin their search.
After communicating with the U.S. Coast Guard and Chicago Police Department Marine Units, Cormican’s team believed they had a plan in place to transport Jones’s body once he was found.
On Sunday, Sept. 6, Bruce’s Legacy was able to locate and recover Jones’s body, which was 160 feet underwater about 20 miles offshore from Evanston, Ill.
The Coast Guard had informed Cormican they would not be able to help transport the body. Cormican said the team was initially under the impression that they would be assisted by Chicago emergency units, but after recovering Jones, Bruce’s Legacy was told there were no available units to send out.
“After some back-and-forth conversations of getting them the information they needed, we were under the assumption that they were on their way. And as we’re sitting there for, I don’t know, what seemed like forever, we finally asked for an update, for an ETA, and that’s when we learned that nobody was coming out, and asked if we were available to transport the body in to shore,” Cormican said.
The Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cormican said they planned then to bring Jones’s body to Evanston, where the boat had left from for the search. On the way, the Evanston Fire Department redirected Bruce’s Legacy to the shores of Wilmette, Ill., to transport Jones’s remains to his waiting family.
A spokesperson from the Wilmette Police Department said that when the department received word that Bruce’s Legacy was looking to transport the body to their shores, they were willing to assist as needed.
“Our end was basically just, ‘Sure, come here, and we’ll stand by and make as many phone calls for you as we can, and see who we can get,’” the spokesperson said.
After being brought to shore, Wilmette police said Jones’s body was then turned over to the medical examiner’s office, and the Coast Guard is investigating the incident.
In a Facebook post, Cormican also thanked the Great Lakes Search and Rescue and Zach Sholz for their local assistance.
About Bruce’s Legacy
Bruce’s Legacy was founded by Keith Cormican in memory of his brother, Bruce Cormican, who died during a search for a drowning victim in 1995. Bruce was one of three firefighters who made the search, but Bruce was pulled underwater and did not survive.
Before Bruce’s death, the brothers had talked about opening a dive rescue unit for Jackson County in Wisconsin. After Bruce’s drowning, Cormican was moved to start the dive rescue on his own in 2013.
The organization has recovered more than 80 drowning victims in the last 13 years.
Remembering Michael Jones
According to his obituary, Jones was a Naperville resident and doctor who had his own practice, Fox River Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Center, in Crystal Lake, IL.
He was engaged to be married to Lisa Skarzynski and leaves behind a son, Nathan.
In lieu of flowers, Jones’s family encourages donations to be made to Bruce’s Legacy or one of the organizations his family says was important to him: A.D.O.P.T. Pet Rescue Naperville and Operation Smile.
Photo courtesy: Bruce’s Legacy
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