Search crews with the Coast Guard have found a body in their search for a teenager missing in Lake Michigan Friday morning.
Lexie Adu, 15, was with two of her friends in the waters off Loyola Beach Park Thursday around 6 p.m. when the girls began to struggle in the cold, choppy water. The body was found around 10:45 a.m. Friday.
Frank Adu fell to his knees Friday morning on Loyola Beach, thinking about his daughter. Emergency crews searched last night and again this morning as family members looked on.
Adu says his daughter is a straight-A student at St Scholastica and had been planning on being a doctor. Lexie never knew how to swim, so he's not sure why she was in the water. He thought she was having a well-deserved day of relaxation, laying on the beach.
"She is the first person I have seen that wanted to be a doctor, not just for the money but to do good. She devoted her life to be a doctor," said Frank Adu.
"She was a sweet little girl. She is like, I'm going to do that, and always smiling. Everybody loved Lexie," said Margaret Ennin, aunt.
Hours after darkness fell Thursday, the search continued for Lexie. A helicopter used its flood lights to search for signs of her.
The entire ordeal was too much for Lexie's mother. She collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital.
The high winds and waves made the search and rescue challenging for divers beneath the waves and the police marine unit and fire department boats on the water's surface.
The friends went swimming the day before Chicago beaches officially open again for the season. Lifeguards were back on duty for the summer at 11 a.m. Friday. They were not on duty Thursday.
