An autopsy on the body of a 76-year-old woman recovered from a Gurnee retention pond revealed that she died of a heart attack before her car plunged into the water, Lake County Chief Deputy Coroner Jim Wipper said Thursday.
Mary Neal of Munster, Ind., who has family in Lindenhurst, died of a heart attack Wednesday morning, apparently as she drove her Ford Taurus along eastbound Illinois Highway 132 near Almond Road, authorities said.
Police reported that after Neal suffered the heart attack, her car traveled southeast for 400 to 500 feet over grass and some small shrubbery before entering the pond, Wipper said.
Firefighters arrived and tried to free Neal; but it wasn’t until the department’s divers arrived that they were able to pull her from the locked car, said Gurnee Fire Capt. Barry Henby.
Neal was pronounced dead at Provena-St. Therese Medical Center, a hospital representative said.