Authorities Seek To Identify Pregnant 'Lake Michigan Jane Doe'

LAKE FOREST, IL — Investigators have confirmed the identity of one of the two people whose body was found floating in Lake Michigan on Sunday.

Both bodies were recovered by the U.S. Coast Guard within two hours of each other, but the two deaths are not believed to be related, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

In the first instance, an unidentified woman's body was found floating in the water about 3 miles southeast of Waukegan Harbor.

The woman was six to seven months pregnant at the time of her death, according to the sheriff's office. She appears to have been between 18 and 40 years old, 5 feet, 4 inches tall, 150 to 170 pounds and Black.

The sheriff's office said she had brown eyes and black hair that was likely pulled back into a bun. Her fingernails and toenails were painted white, and she was wearing a pink summer dress.

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Authorities believe the woman's body was in the lake for up to seven to 12 days when she was found on Aug. 15. She may have entered Lake Michigan anywhere between northern Indiana to northern Illinois.

UPDATE: Pregnant Woman Was Stabbed Before She Was Found Floating In Lake

Later that day, the crew of a Coast Guard helicopter on a training exercise about 3 miles east of the Lake Forest shoreline spotted a body floating in the water, according to the sheriff's office.

Detectives worked with Chicago police to determine that the body was of a man who had been missing for the prior week.

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Martin Mendoza, 49, was last seen swimming in the lake from a boat near 63rd Street Harbor in Chicago, according to a missing person alert from Chicago police.

Mendoza, of Waukesha, likely died as a result of drowning, according to the preliminary results of an autopsy, according to the Lake County Coroner's Office. Toxicology results are pending, and detectives with the sheriff's office are continuing to investigate.

Sheriff's office representatives asked anyone with information about the woman's identity to call detectives at 847-377-4000.

According to the nonprofit Great Lakes Surf Rescue Projects, there had been 24 drownings in Lake Michigan in 2021 as of the start of this month.

The most recent drowning in Illinois was a 35-year-old Schaumburg man who was pronounced dead at Highland Park Hospital after being pulled from the water at Fort Sheridan Beach.