Body Found In Shorewood Subdivision Continues To Be Investigated: Deputy Chief

SHOREWOOD, IL - The Shorewood Police Department says it continues to probe the circumstances leading up to the death of a young man from the village whose body was found in a subdivision parkway three weeks ago. Shortly before 5 a.m. on June 23, officers responded to the 800 block of Diamond Head Drive West. A motorist had noticed somebody down in the parkway, thinking the person perhaps fell off a bicycle.

From the case's outset, Shorewood's police administration, which is led by Police Chief Aaron Klima, was reluctant to publicize the incident. Klima's agency waited six days to first issue a news release acknowledging the incident and that a death investigation was taking place. Shorewood police chose to withhold resident Christopher W. Shanine's identity from their news release of the incident, instead referring to him as being a "man in his 20s."

By then, Patch has since learned, Shanine's obituary had already appeared in the Peoria newspaper. Shanine and his family previously lived in Peoria.

This week, Patch met up with Deputy Police Chief Jason Barten at the Shorewood Police Station for an update on the case.

"It's still a death investigation right now," Barten said. "A passerby made the initial call. We're still trying to put a timeline together."

As far as the parkway where the body was found, "It's not our belief that he was placed there," Barten said.

"We're developing some leads from stuff found at the scene. It's still very active," Barten said, adding that his agency is still awaiting results of the toxicology laboratory tests.

Previous Patch articles show that Shanine had numerous arrests around Will County since 2015, often on felony charges of retail theft or DUI. Shanine had four separate jail booking mugshots taken by the Will County Sheriff's Department since July 2015, the agency's files show.

Christopher Shanine

Mugshot via the Will County Sheriff's Department