'Worst Nightmare:' Mom's Plea To Find Son After Train Hits Teens

MOKENA, IL — A local mom is asking for help in searching for her son's body after he was hit and killed by a Metra train on Wednesday night. Bobbi Cooper shared her pleas on social media, asking for help from those with boats or canoes or anyone willing to walk the shoreline of Hickory Creek, to search for the remains of her 15-year-old son Charlie Cooper.

Cooper wrote on social media and said Charlie and three friends were walking the railroad tracks in Pilcher Park in Joliet on Wednesday night when a train came around the bend.

"...The kids were up on the bridge and hardly had a chance," she wrote.

Jacob Manka, 17, of Mokena was killed, while the other two teens were not struck by the train.

Metra spokesman Tom Miller said Friday that there were four people in the group of pedestrians who were trespassing near the train bridge Wednesday evening, but only three were on the tracks at the time of the collision. According to Metra, the three were trying to outrun the train as it sped along the tracks, and two of the teens were hit.

Metra officials told Joliet Patch Friday morning that police and firefighters are still searching for Cooper. Authorities tried finding the teen on Thursday without success. The search was suspended late in the afternoon because of dangerous conditions in the nearby Hickory Creek, Metra spokesman Tom Miller told Patch.

Cooper wrote on social media she believes the Metra Police Department gave up too soon.

"This is my worst nightmare and I am heartbroken that my only baby I have is laying somewhere alone," she wrote.

Cooper and other volunteers were planning on searching again on Friday. The bridge where the train struck the teens is just east of the Route 30 bridge. Water moves west down Hickory Creek and then dumps into the Des Plaines River.