A body was recovered by about 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, December 12, 2023 in a pond at the corner of Lakeview Parkway and Executive Way in Vernon Hills.
Firefighters searched much of the day yesterday and recovered Brissa Romero’s gray Nissan Rogue Monday evening.
Firefighters and divers resumed the search for the body of Brissa Romero, age 17, at about 7:35 a.m. Tuesday morning. Firefighters, SONAR techs and divers began searching with SONAR equipment, and likely discovered a body just before 12:25 p.m. Dive command call for divers to respond to the scene at 12:25 p.m.
At 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, the Dive Box was struck out immediately after the body was recovered.
This is a developing report.
BACKGROUND
Analysis of cell phone data led to the pond as a location of the last cell phone ping for Brissa Romero’s cellphone.
A resident also found a backpack floating near the shoreline of the pond Monday morning.
Police investigators also discovered gouge marks in a walking path on the west side of the T-intersection of Lakeview Parkway and Executive Way (just east of the pond). The gouge marks indicated that a vehicle may have been westbound on Executive Way at high speed, and crossed Lakeview Parkway, up an embankment. The vehicle would then have likely proceeded or launched into the pond.
The vehicle was removed from the pond Monday evening around sunset. The vehicle was upside down, and uprighted by a tow truck crane. No body was discovered in the vehicle after it was removed from the pond.
MCAT investigators processed information along Executive Way east of the pond, at the gouge marks at the walking path west of Lakeview Parkway, and inside and outside Romero’s vehicle.
At a press conference, Vernon Hills Chief of Police Patrick Kreis, explained that Romero’s vehicle was found about 60 feet horizontal and 20 feet down into the pond.
Investigators discovered surveillance video from a fast food restaurant approximately a mile away from the pond that captured images of Romero parking her vehicle. Romero then walked in and out of the restaurant alone. Romero’s cellphone’s last ping was detected about 15 minutes after she left the fast food restaurant.
Recovery of Brissa Romero’s vehicle from a pond at Lakeview Parkway and Executive Way, Vernon Hills YouTube Tips ⓘ
COMPARING POND ENTRY POINT WITH GOOGLE MAPS STREET VIEW …
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Crews on Monday recovered a car from a retention pond in Vernon Hills as authorities search for a teenage girl from Carpentersville who has been missing for a week (Darious Johnson/CBS Chicago). YouTube Tips ⓘ