Party boat worker died ‘a hero’ saving others after yacht capsizes, Illinois family says
A yacht worker drowned in Lake Michigan after he helped rescue people from the party boat that had capsized, according to Illinois authorities and the victim’s family.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said the 37-foot-long boat with 16 people aboard capsized in Lake Michigan around 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 26. Fifteen of the boaters were rescued, including three who were taken to a hospital, the Coast Guard said.
But one of the boaters, identified by family as Lorenzo Tobin, went under water and did not resurface.
Lesley Jackson-Tobin, Lorenzo Tobin’s wife, said her husband had been hired as a deckhand for a birthday party on the boat, WLS reported.
One of the boat’s passengers described a “chaotic” scene as the boat began to sink off the Chicago coast.
“There was another boat that came in and tried to help some of us, and the boat almost hit me and my wife,” Lennie Williams told WGN. “So as I’m swimming, I’m kind of kicking the boat to get us to shore.”
Jackson-Tobin said rescued boaters told her that her husband had helped people who had fallen in the water, WBBM reported.
But hours after Tobin went under water, authorities were calling the search for Tobin a recovery mission.
“He’s a hero. And I feel like even if he had not been on that boat, would have just been walking by, he would have done the same thing,” his wife told WLS.
The Chicago Police Department said the body of the 40-year-old victim was recovered from the lake Sunday, July 28. Police are investigating the incident.
Steven Tobin, Lorenzo Tobin’s brother, told the Chicago Sun Times his brother was a strong swimmer. The family was attempting to “get a better understanding of what happened on that boat.”
“He would help you do anything, no matter the situation that you are in,” Steven Tobin said of his brother, the Sun Times reported. “Even if you’re on the side of the road trying to fix a tire, he’d get out and help you.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2024 at 10:56 AM with the headline "Party boat worker died ‘a hero’ saving others after yacht capsizes, Illinois family says."