The family of a 21-year-old Polish man found dead in Lake Michigan at Chicago's popular Oak Street Beach following a holiday party released a statement to NBC 5 Thursday.
Krzysztof Szubert's sister, Ann Szubert, said in a statement that her brother was a "good, sensitive, intelligent child" and was her parents' "sun in their old age."
"He was a practicing Catholic praying several times a day, he was obliging, helpful to everyone, he couldn't lie," she wrote. "He loved photography, cycling, running, walking. As a child he practiced swimming, he didn't take drugs, he didn't smoke, he didn't have a girlfriend yet."
His sister said Szubert communicated with his family often and had been preparing to travel home later this month.
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"He counted the days," she said.
Krzysztof Szubert was a businessman and had been working in Chicago since November.
According to officials, he went missing around 9:45 p.m. Saturday during a holiday party at the River North bar Howl at the Moon.
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"I saw him standing there, then the next moment he wasn’t there,” friend Michal Wojasinski told NBC 5. “Nobody saw him leaving. The next day, on Sunday, I went to his room and knocked on door – it was empty – he was not there.”
Authorities say around 1:55 a.m. Wednesday, police responded to a call about a 21-year-old man who was found unresponsive in the water near the 1000 block of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
The man was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later, police said.
While officials have not released a cause of death, detectives have referred to the incident as a death investigation rather than a drowning.
"We at Howl at the Moon are saddened by what happened to the young man and our deepest condolences go out to his family," a spokesperson for the business told NBC Chicago in a statement.
