43-year-old from Joliet identified as man who died trying to save girl in Chain O’Lakes

The McHenry County Coroner’s Office identified Michael Jacobs, 43, of Joliet, as the man who drowned trying to help a girl struggling to swim in the Chain O’Lakes Friday.

Jacobs was on a boat in Columbia Bay near the Fox Lake at about 3:40 p.m. Friday with his girlfriend and her three daughters when one began having trouble swimming, police said in a news release at the time. He jumped in to help the girl, but went under the water and did not come back up.

Other boaters pulled Jacobs from the water after he was submerged for about 15 minutes before officers from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit respond to the 38700 block of North Broadway Drive in Antioch, according to police.

Jacobs was brought to Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital where he later died.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.