Questions Remain In 2009 Drowning Of Competitive Swimmer

SLEEPY HOLLOW, IL — Kane County Coroner Rob Russell says his office is close to determining the manner of death for a Sleepy Hollow teen who drowned in her family's pool on the Fourth of July in 2009. Anna Mary Schneider was a certified scuba diver who'd been swimming competitively since she was 5 years old, and while the Kane County Coroner's Office has determined her cause of death was drowning, Russell says his office has not been able to figure out the specific manner of Schneider's death — even after her body was exhumed last week.

"The cause of death is the specific injury or disease that leads to death, where the manner of death is the determination of how the injury or disease was inflicted," Russell said in a statement. "There are numerous causes of death but only five manners of death."

The five manners of death are homicide, suicide, accidental, natural and undetermined. The manner is currently listed as "undetermined," but Russell said his office is continuing to use updated forensic investigative tools to give "the Schneider family closure in how their beloved daughter died, and soon."

Paramedics were called to Schneider's home, which she shared with her parents in Sleepy Hollow, at about 5 a.m. on July 4, 2009, after Schneider's friend found her in the pool and pulled her out, the Daily Herald reported. She was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Sleepy Hollow Police Chief Jim Montalbano told the newspaper in 2009 that it was unclear how Schenider, who was 19 years old at the time, got into the pool.

The Kane County Major Crimes Task Force assisted the coroner's office with an exhumation on July 16. The coroner's office conducted an autopsy before Schneider's was buried again, according to a news release.

"The focus of this cold case from the beginning has been to obtain more information in an effort to finally determine the manner of death," Russell said. "We know that Anna drowned (cause), however the original investigation did not yield enough facts to close the manner. This is why it was appropriately ruled as an undetermined manner of death."

Russell says the Schneider family is in full support of the investigation into their daughter's death.

Schneider, a Dundee-Crown High School grad, was an accomplished competitive swimmer, a certified scuba diver and a passionate surfer, according to her obituary. She was among an elite group to be chosen to participate in the Shedd Aquarium's research program on a ship in the Bahamas and had just completed her freshman year at the University of Hawaii, where she was studying marine biology.

She also sang with the Chorale at Dundee-Crown and traveled to Europe with the Elgin Children's Chorus as a child and sang with the Vienna's boys choir, according to her obituary.