UPDATES WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS
(WILMINGTON) A woman drowned Saturday in the Kanakee River at the Wilmington Dam.
Elizabeth R. Larson, 35, was with a 6-year-old girl in an inflatable boat shortly before 4:30 p.m. when the water craft went over the dam in the Kankakee River, near South Park Street and Barnes Drive in far southwest suburban Wilmington, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Will County coroner’s office.
Larson and the girl became trapped in the boil of the dam, authorities said. The girl was rescued from the water, taken to a hospital and released with no injuries.
The woman went under water and did not resurface, authorities said.
Larson, of Normal, was later recovered downstream and taken to Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, where she was pronounced dead, the coroner’s office said. Preliminary autopsy results Sunday revealed she drowned. A final cause and manner of death will be determined at a later date, pending police, autopsy and toxicological reports.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police is investigating the incident.