Body of Missing Elk Grove Village Man Found in Retention Pond After Crash

The search for Alexis Ramirez ended in a retention pond near Higgins and Innovation Drive, where police recovered the body of the 26-year-old Elk Grove Village man after weeks of uncertainty following a crash and disappearance.

Elk Grove Village police identified the body on April 9 and said Ramirez had been missing since March 10. Officers and firefighters were called to the 700 block of Innovation Drive at about 3:20 p.m. after reports of a person in the water. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office also responded, and autopsy results were pending.

Investigators believe Ramirez was the sole occupant of a single-vehicle crash near Higgins Road and Brennan Boulevard. They said no other vehicle was involved, and they believe Ramirez walked or fled away from the crash scene before officers arrived. That sequence has become the central mystery in the case: a traffic crash that turned into a missing-person search, then into a body recovery from water close to where he vanished.

CBS Chicago reported that Ramirez’s body was fully clothed. Earlier searches of the area had already drawn a major emergency response, including a police K-9, a drone and sonar equipment. Authorities conducted at least two extensive searches before finding him in the pond, including an earlier search that had not turned him up.

Police said at the time of the recovery that there was no evidence of foul play. That leaves investigators still trying to reconstruct the last hours of Ramirez’s life and determine whether the crash itself, injuries from the wreck, disorientation, exposure or some other factor led him into the retention pond.

For Ramirez’s family, the identification ended the monthlong search but did not ease the loss. A fundraiser organized by his father, Benito Ramirez, said Alexis Ramirez left behind children, underscoring how quickly a routine drive turned into a case with a missing father at its center and a still-unfinished timeline.