Body identified as man missing after vehicle crashes into Calumet River

Authorities have identified a body recovered from the Calumet River as one of two men reported missing after their vehicle went into the water three days earlier.

The body of 23-year-old Devontae Searcy was recovered at 10:25 a.m. Wednesday in the river near the 13600 block of South Calhoun, close to where the crash occurred, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Authorities continued their search for the second missing man on Thursday and planned to search again on Friday morning if a body was not found.

About 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, a “wet and confused” 26-year-old man was found walking on Torrence Avenue, police said. Hours after he was taken to Trinity Hospital in an unknown condition, the man told investigators he was a passenger in a vehicle that crashed into the Calumet River.

Surveillance footage confirmed the vehicle went into the river in the 13600 block of South Calhoun, police said. The man told investigators he thought his two friends — Searcy and a 26-year-old man — were still in the submerged vehicle.

On Sunday afternoon, the vehicle was found unoccupied in the river, police said. Chicago Police Department Marine Unit boats and divers have searched the river since then with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard, which joined the search on Monday.

An autopsy Thursday did not immediately rule on the cause and manner of Searcy’s death pending further investigation, authorities said. He lived in the Galewood neighborhood on the North Side.