A body found and pulled from the Chicago River Tuesday morning was that of a missing 22-year-old, family members said.
Chicago Police News Affairs confirmed the body of a man was located in the North Branch of the river at the Webster Bridge. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, but further identification wasn’t released.
The location is a little more than a half-mile from where a missing 22-year-old man was last seen on Friday.
Family members said they identified the body as Esteban Uriostigue.
Police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office did not immediately confirm an identification of the body. Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said an official identification had not been released from the medical examiner's office, "but its [sic] likely he was the body found in the water."
An alert from the Chicago Police Department Tuesday afternoon listed Uriostigue as "found" following a missing person notice.
Uriostigue was last seen on June 28, according to Chicago police, in a Jewel-Osco supermarket located at 2550 N. Clybourn Ave.
According to the family, Uriostigue's body was found with all of his belongings still on him. A cause of death was not immedaitely released.
"It's a shock," said Uriostigue's brother-in-law Ivan Perez.
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Perez said the family had been searching for answers and help for days before the latest development.
"We have no idea what happened," Perez said, adding that the family is pleading with authorities for answers on what happened.
The parents thanked the community for helping them find their son's body.
"My brother was a very hard working man, young man, he was very caring," said Uriostigue's older sister Michelle. "He always cared for his mother and his sister."
The family urged the community to help others searching for missing loved ones.
"My brother was just one of them," Michelle Uriostigue said. "Maybe they’ll have better luck than we did. Maybe things will be different for them. There’s more kids missing out there."
