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The Kankakee County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to a local bar in rural Momence, near the Illinois-Indiana state line along Illinois Route 114, just before noon.
There, deputies found the body of 30-year-old Momence woman Courtney M. Drysdale. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Friends say Drysdale was the owner of that bar, called The Line, and she would have just opened the business at 11 a.m. on her own. Hailey Gershon, a longtime friend who also works at the bar, says she has no idea who would want to harm Drysdale.
"I mean it, she was probably the nicest person. I could always go to her for anything," Gershon said. "She would literally give up the whole world for somebody and would always be there for everybody, even though if she was upset or going through things. She would push those aside for others and, like, make sure they were happy."
Gershon says Drysdale leaves behind a fiancé and a school-age daughter. Drysdale was a longtime bartender at that bar before becoming the owner and is well known to the patrons there.
The bar The Line posted Monday that it will be closed until further notice.
Sheriff's detectives classified her death as a homicide investigation based on evidence they gathered during their preliminary investigation. Details about that evidence were not immediately available.
The investigation is ongoing, and the Kankakee County Sheriff's Office asked anyone with information to call them at (815) 802-7150 or, to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at (815) 93-CRIME.