The body of Brissa Romero, the 17-year-old Carpentersville woman who has been missing since December 4, has been located in a retention pond in Vernon Hills, according to the Lake County Coroner’s Office.
Divers pulled the body from the water just before 12:30pm Tuesday.
Preliminary autopsy results show there were no significant injuries, and Romero’s death was consistent with drowning, the coroner’s office said.
In a press release, Vernon Hills and Carpentersville police said the body was recovered by divers early Tuesday afternoon in the same Vernon Hills retention pond where her vehicle, a 2008 Nissan Rogue, had been recovered late Monday.
Romero had been the subject of a regionwide missing persons hunt that included the Department of Homeland Security. She had been reported missing by her family after leaving for a holiday party.
Video from a nearby fast food restaurant taken shortly before the phone’s last communication with area cell towers suggests Romero, 17, was driving at the time, police said. Police believe that Romero accidentally drove into the pond near Lakeview Parkway and Executive Way after the she failed to navigate a nearby T-intersection.
Authorities are not pursuing any further leads at this point.
