A body matching the description of a missing Carpentersville teen was found in a Vernon Hills pond, NBC Chicago’s Regina Waldroup reports.
Editor's Note: The video in the player above is from a previous report.
Authorities have made a final determination of a cause of death for Brissa Romero, a missing Carpentersville teen whose body was found in a Vernon Hills pond last month.
Romero went missing on her way to a work holiday party Dec. 4, according to the Lake County Coroner's Office. Her body was later found in a retention pond in Vernon Hills.
Wednesday's update from the Lake County Coroner's Office confirmed that Romero's cause of death was drowning, with ethanol intoxication as a contributing factor.
According to a toxicology report, Romero had THC in her system at the time of her death, and her Blood Alcohol Content was 0.160.
In their preliminary finding, officials said that Romero sustained no significant injuries and that her death was consistent with drowning.
According a preliminary investigation, police said evidence suggests the car was "accidentally driven into the pond after the driver failed to navigate the T-intersection."
"Video from a nearby fast food restaurant taken shortly before the phone’s last communication with area cell towers suggests Brissa was driving at the time, and there is currently no indication of foul play," police said in a release.
The footage showed Romero parking her vehicle at the restaurant, entering the building and exiting alone before she got back into car and continued driving, authorities said.
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"The men and women of both the Carpentersville and Vernon Hills Police Departments worked diligently and with sincere hope for Brissa’s safe return since she was reported missing," the departments said in a release Tuesday. "The Departments thank Brissa’s family, friends, and members of the community who worked to bring awareness to Brissa’s case and offer their deepest condolences to the Romero family."
When Brissa Romero went missing
Romero was heading to a work holiday party at Bowlero in Vernon Hills when she went missing on Dec. 4.
No one at the party saw Romero the night she disappeared, police said. Police also noted that Romero's social media accounts showed no outgoing activity since last Monday.
According to authorities, new cell phone data analysis led officers investigating the disappearance of Romero to the pond located at Lakeview Parkway and Executive Way in Vernon Hills a few days after she went missing.
Once there, an officer was approached by a resident who had discovered a backpack floating in the water. Authorities said the backpack belonged to Romero and an intense search then began.
Hours later, a vehicle matching the one Romero was driving the night she went missing was pulled from the water. One day later, a female body was pulled from the water.
Family members had said the 17-year-old was last captured on traffic cameras in the same area where her vehicle was found — near Town Center Road and Milwaukee Avenue.
“One thing about our family, we all share our locations with our parents,” Jocelyn Rubi Romero told NBC Chicago last week. “She called my mom at 6:55 p.m. and said she was on the way over here, and my mom kept looking at her location, and she was heading over here, but around the time that she arrived, she did not call my mom.”
Prior to Monday's discovery, surveillance cameras captured one of the final images of Romero before her disappearance as she returned to work in Schaumburg to retrieve her iPad around 7 p.m. that evening.
Rubi Romero said they lost Brissa Romero's location after 8 p.m.
