Body found in car pulled from Hodgkins pond

A dive team that discovered 99 vehicles last week in the Chicago River made another discovery over the weekend in Hodgkins. 

Chaos Divers discovered a 1998 Lincoln Town Car Saturday morning in a retention pond just north of the Target parking lot at 9250 W. Joliet Road.

And the vehicle wasn’t even one the search and recovery team was looking for. They came across the retention pond near Joliet Road and East Avenue while working on another cold case. 

“We weren’t even searching for that vehicle,” said Chaos Divers Manager Lindsay Bussick. ”We were working on the case of Hief Luu from Berwyn. We were searching ponds along his route from his home in Berwyn to his job in Woodridge to see if we could find anything and came upon this vehicle. 

“We located it (via sonar) on Friday. On Saturday we dove in. We couldn’t see inside as the windows were up. We contacted the Hodgkins Police Department who have been fantastic to work with. They came and got it out and remains were found in the vehicle. We are waiting on the identification process. From my understanding, that should be out soon, but no work as of now.”

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday said a cause and manner of death are pending at this time.

Hodgkins police were dispatched to the pond at 10:45 a.m. Saturday and the car was fully submerged in about 5 feet of water. The 1998 Town Car was towed out of the pond and human remains were discovered inside.

Police said the car was connected to a missing person’s report filed in 2001, but was not connected to the search for Hief Luu.

Police are conducting a death investigation and have not released the name of the missing person.

“We are a sonar search and recovery team,” Bussick said. “We do dive work on cold cases involving vehicles. Over the last four years, we have been able to solve 21 cases. We are located in Harrisburg, Illinois, and travel all over. We have even gone to Canada. We have solved cases from Texas on east, including six in Illinois.

“Sometimes it’s family members that reach out, sometimes law enforcement. Back in March, law enforcement in Elgin reached out to us to look into the case of Karen Schepers, who was a missing woman since 1983. Her remains and vehicle were recovered from the Fox River by us as we assisted the Elgin Police Department’s Cold Case Unit.

“We are in the Chicago area as we are looking at 10 missing person cases now. We located 99 vehicles in the Chicago River recently. We wanted to take a break from the river and look at other cases when we came across this in Hodgkins.

“While it’s sad to make the recoveries, there are families and loved ones that can be provided answers.”

Jacob Grubbs is the owner and founder of Chaos Divers.

Darick Langos from Chicago has been helping them with the dives while they are here in the Chicago River and in Hodgkins.

Chaos Divers funds their dives through donations and by selling merchandise. Their website is chaosdivers.com.

Staff writer Carol McGowan contributed to this report