A frantic search for a missing 2-year-old South Elgin boy ended Thursday when his body was pulled from the Fox River about 180 feet from his home.
The boy was last seen by his mother playing alone in the back yard of the family’s home in the 100 block of Mavis Avenue, according to authorities, who said no one saw the child near the water.
“He could have been curious,” said Chief Joseph Cluchey of the South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District. “He could have been chasing a duck. We don’t know.”
Authorities identified the boy as Chase Rumachik but didn’t release his parents’ names.
The boy’s mother noticed that he was missing around 1:45 p.m., Cluchey said. She looked for him for about 50 minutes before calling police, which set off a search involving an Illinois State Police airplane and at least 60 police officers, firefighters and village employees from South Elgin and neighboring towns.
Authorities searched cars and yards in a neighborhood of streets that dead-end at the river before finding the boy floating about 25 feet from shore in about 4 feet of water, police said.
Attempts to resuscitate the child were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead shortly after 4 p.m. in Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin.
Police and neighbors said the parents may have delayed seeking help because the sandy-haired boy had been known to wander away from his home and often walked into homes in the neighborhood.
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Anne Culos, who lives across the street from the boy’s family, said the child recently appeared at her home.
“I heard the storm door going `slap, slap, slap,’ and there was Chase,” she said. “He was such a loving boy. He was so full of life. He seemed older than he was.”
When Culos raised concern over the boy’s running off on his own, she said his mother told her, “You know boys are different, and that’s how Chase is.”
“The one thing that parents can do is be vigilant about where their children are,” Cluchey said. “With this tragedy, especially in this hot weather, children are going to seek water, whether it’s a pool, a pond or a river.”
Linda Chapman, who lives on Ross Avenue behind the victim’s home, was red-eyed as she filled out a sympathy card.
“It’s just not right,” Chapman said. “A 2-year-old like that. That shouldn’t have happened.”
The boy was the sixth person to drown in the Fox River this summer.
Three men drowned May 27 near the Glen D. Palmer Dam in Yorkville: a Villa Park man whose kayak was swept over the dam and two brothers who died when they went into the river to try to rescue him.
The other victims were an 11-year-old Carpentersville boy who drowned June 8 near his home and a 47-year-old Melrose Park man whose body was found June 11 in the river in South Elgin.