New Details Revealed In Disappearance, Death Of 32-Year-Old Aurora Woman: Aurora Police

AURORA, IL — Aurora police have shared new information with Patch about the timeline of the disappearance and death of 32-year-old Shafia Murad.

The Aurora Police Department shared an alert on social media Thursday, May 28, at the request of Murad's family, asking for the public's help finding the missing woman who was last seen around 1:30 p.m. near the Chicago Premium Outlets. On June 1, police pulled a body from a retention pond near North Farnsworth Avenue and Corporate Boulevard, and the following night, authorities confirmed it was that of Murad.

Family members had said Murad was a vulnerable adult in need of medication and may have appeared confused or disoriented, ABC Chicago reported.

Lack of surveillance video of Murad's last movements proved frustrating as police worked to find her.

In the days after her disappearance, detectives searched the area near the outlet mall for security cameras, hoping to determine Murad's direction of travel. They came up empty-handed, except for surveillance footage from a Pace bus on May 28, spokesperson Jim Levicki shared with Patch.

"We weren't able to really find anything," Levicki said. "She was either between the cracks … or there just wasn't any video footage of her."

When Murad was reported missing, police were told she had wanted to go to Chicago. But the video footage from the bus showed she didn't make it there. Instead, she got on the bus at 1:29 p.m. May 28, rode for about 25 minutes, and got off at 1:53 p.m. at Farnsworth Avenue and Corporate Boulevard, just south of where she boarded, Levicki said. The video showed her walking northbound and possibly crossing to the east side of Farnsworth Avenue.

"We thought that she might still be in the area at that point," Levicki said.

In canvassing the area in the evening of June 1, a detective noticed an anomaly in a retention pond, and drone operators confirmed it was a deceased person, police said.

"The only thing we could really determine at that point was that it was potentially a female, based on the clothing," Levicki said.

Due to the body's decomposition, police determined it was in the water "for a good period of time," which Levicki said posed a challenge with being able to identify her and determine her cause of death.

RELATED: Body Found In Pond Confirmed To Be Missing Woman, Cause Of Death Revealed: Aurora Police

Investigators identified Murad through fingerprints, and the Kane County Coroner's Office corroborated the identification using dental records. Coroner Monica Silva said the preliminary cause of death was determined to be drowning.

Without additional surveillance evidence, Levicki said it's not possible to determine exactly what happened, but he said there are no signs of foul play.

"We were not able to determine any signs of foul play, but at this point, there is no video … there's really nothing to say exactly what happened," Levicki told Patch. "Whether it's accidental, whether it's on purpose that she went in the water, we're not 100 percent sure. But there is no sign of anything nefarious that would have happened."