Private Investigator Says Human Remains Found In Palos Park May Be Man Missing Since October: Report

Caption: Gated community where the human remains of a male were recovered in Palos Park on Jan. 18.

The human remains of a male recovered from a retention pond in Palos Park on Sunday afternoon could be those of John Cunningham Jr. who was reported missing in October.

Palos Park Police Chief Joe Miller said that his officers were called to the Misty Harbor subdivision, an upscale gated community located at 127th Street and Wolf Road.

Cunningham Jr. was visiting his parents at 200 block of Timber Edge Lane in Palos Park when he went missing on Oct. 30, 2014.

Miller said that the human remains were found a mile southwest from where Cunningham Jr. was last seen near 104th Street and McCarthy Road.

A private investigator told WGN News that Cook County Sheriff’s Police informed Cunningham Jr.’s parents that the remains most likely those of their son’s.

The 27-year-old Chicago man, who spent part of his boyhood in the south suburbs and graduated from Marist High School, had left his parents home in a distraught state after quitting his job with a New York finance company over the phone.

Cunningham Jr. was living in Chicago’s North Side Lake View neighborhood when he was reported missing. He had been staying with his parents.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Police and other law enforcement agencies conducted a massive air and ground search of the nearby Palos forest preserves in the days following Cunningham Jr.’s disappearance.

Cunningham Jr.’s parents had offered a $10,000 reward for their son’s safe return.

The remains were recovered by the Palos Fire Protection District and turned over to the Cook County Medical Examiner.

Forensic testing will be conducted over the next several weeks to determine a possible cause of death and the identity of the remains found.