The man who drowned in the Fox River Wednesday night has been identified as a 35-year-old Elgin resident, police said.
Eric Elam, the divorced father of two, lived in the 600 block of Walnut Avenue, said Officer Kristi Hilton, a spokeswoman for the Elgin Police Department.
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There were no signs of foul play in his death, Hilton said. In the 15 hours he was in the water — from about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday to 1:30 p.m. Thursday — he was not reported missing, she said.
Neither was a vehicle found at the scene, Hilton said. His Walnut Street home is about a mile from where his body was found in the river, near the National Street bridge. A backpack that he’s believed to have left on the river bank offered no information on his identity, officials said.
Witnesses said they saw Elam go into the river about 10:25 p.m., shortly after the Grand Victoria Casino fireworks show started from the National Street bridge, officials said. When he didn’t re-emerge, police were contacted and search to find him began.
Elgin resident La’Vaile Banner said he and Elam shared a bottle of liquor sitting together along the river earlier that night.
“He shared his bottle of Jameson (Irish Whiskey) with me,” Banner said in a message sent to The Courier-News. “I went to the bathroom and came back, and my girlfriend told me he went in the water. She went to get security but I lost sight of him.”
The Elgin Fire Department’s Dive Team, with aid from dive teams from several suburban towns and using sonar and robotic equipment, looked for Elam until about 3 a.m. Thursday. The search resumed at 9 a.m. the same day, and he was finally located about 1:30 p.m.
According to Kane County court records, Elam was divorced in 2012. His son graduated from St. John’s Lutheran School in Elgin this spring, according to a published report, and his daughter is a student there, friends of the family said.
A Facebook page said Elam attended Larkin High School in Elgin and Elgin Community College. The page says he was employed by Pretty Car Auto Detail in Schaumburg, but an employee of the business said he hadn’t worked there for about a year.
Chelsey Novak, of Elgin, said she went to high school with Elam. She remembered him as being nice and kind.
“My heart sank when I read his name in the article,” Novak said in an email note to the paper. “Terribly sad and frustrating. I hope the family can find closure and healing in this hard time. So sorry for everyone’s loss.”