Person questioned in murder of pregnant woman dumped in Lake Michigan released without charges

A person who was being questioned by detectives in connection with the murder of a pregnant woman found in Lake Michigan last month has been released without charges.

No one else was in custody in the death of Yarianna Wheeler, 19, Chicago police said Sunday afternoon. The investigation is ongoing.

Wheeler was spotted by a fisherman Aug. 15 three miles southeast of Waukegan Harbor, police said.

She was six months pregnant, and had been stabbed several times before being dumped into the water, an autopsy found.

Wheeler, who was living in Chicago at the time, had likely been in the water for a week or two before she was found, according to the Lake County sheriff’s office. She was originally from west suburban Bellwood.

It wasn’t immediately clear where she was dumped into the water. She may have entered the water anywhere from the northern Indiana shoreline to the northern Illinois shoreline of Lake Michigan, the sheriff’s office has said.

Contributing: David Struett