(WILMINGTON) A 13-year-old girl has died and efforts to find her 12-year-old brother will resume at 8 a.m. Tuesday after the children went into the water in the Kankakee River in downstate Wilmington about 14 hours earlier.
Abigail Arroyo and her brother were reported to be in the distress in the river shortly before 6 p.m. Monday, according to Wilmington police and the Will County coroner’s office.
Officials said the two children went into the water near the base of a dam near South Island Park at 147 N. Park St. in Wilmington.
Two people who initially called police were able to pull the girl from the water, Wilmington Deputy Fire Chief Tom Friddle told reporters.
Abigail, who lives in Joliet, was taken to Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, where she was pronounced dead at 7:14 p.m., the coroner’s office said.
An autopsy was completed Tuesday, but the girl’s cause and manner of death would be determined at a later date, according to the coroner’s office.
One of the people who pulled the girl from the water was also taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, Wilmington Deputy Fire Chief Tom Friddle told reporters.
Rising waters from heavy rains made the river more difficult to search Tuesday, Friddle said Tuesday.