The body of a 38-year-old Chicago man was pulled from the water near Montrose Harbor early Thursday, hours after the second boating accident in a week in the party-friendly area of Lake Michigan known as the Playpen, which left one person in critical condition and another missing.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the man pulled from the water near the harbor at 12:22 a.m. was the same person who had been missing after two people fell from a boat in the Playpen around 7 p.m. Wednesday night — Chicago police said the agency was not able to confirm any connection between the two cases.

However, a police spokesman said officers from the marine unit resumed its search for the missing man Thursday morning.

A man’s body was located soon after emergency responders were called to the 200 block of West Montrose Drive for a report of a body in the water, according to Chicago police. The man had been “pulled from the water” by Chicago Fire Department personnel, police said, and he was taken to Weiss Hospital in Uptown where he was pronounced dead at 2:13 a.m., according to information from the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He later was identified as Francisco Gonzalez, 38, of the 6400 block of North Bell Avenue, according to Brittany Hill, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office.

The Montrose Harbor call came in a little more than five hours after two people reportedly fell from a boat in an area known as the Playpen — a party-friendly area north of Navy Pier where boats are often anchored and people swim in the lake — near the Jardine Water filtration plant. Just before 7 p.m., the Chicago Police Marine Unit responded to reports that two people fell into the water for an unknown reason; it did not seem as if the boat they had been on collided with another boat or stationary object and it was not clear what caused the two men to fall from the vessel.

One man quickly was located in the water and he was taken to shore and then to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition, according to a Chicago police media notification.

But the search for the second missing person had remained in progress at least as of 8:40 p.m. Wednesday. It was not clear if or when the search for that person had been called off before the Montrose Harbor call, with a police spokesman declining to answer questions about the marine unit’s Wednesday search for the missing boater. The spokesman also did not say at what time the search resumed Thursday morning.

Gonzalez was the second person in as many days to be pulled from the lake in Chicago and the third body pulled from Lake Michigan this week.

Luis Alberto Davila Vera, 43, of the 1000 block of West 15th Street, died Wednesday morning after being pulled from Lake Michigan near Diversey Harbor, authorities said. Chicago police classified the case as a death investigation. The Chicago Fire Department said it appeared he “slipped and fell into (the) harbor,” suggesting an accidental drowning, although his cause of death had not yet been determined by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. That agency was expected to perform an autopsy Thursday.

Vera had entered the water off the shore of the 2600 block of North Cannon Drive in Lincoln Park at 5:02 a.m. Wednesday — but he didn’t resurface, according to Chicago police. The Chicago Fire Department and officers from the police marine unit responded and pulled him out of the water sometime before 6 a.m.; he was taken via ambulance to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5:54 a.m., police said.

Also this week, a day before Vera’s death, officials in Whiting, Indiana, recovered the body of a Chicago man who had been missing two weeks after he and a friend went boating on Lake Michigan.

Dexter Trendell Sain, 36, was found about 200 yards offshore, near the Whiting Lakefront Park. Sain drowned, according to the Lake County (Indiana) coroner’s office, which performed a forensic autopsy Wednesday.

Sain and Curtis Herron, also 36, had been missing since the morning of July 27, when they took out a new boat on Lake Michigan. Family members said the pair likely wanted to give the 30-foot Bayliner, named Cindy Ann, a test run as the longtime friends from Chicago had very little boating experience.

Along with three apparent drowning cases in as many days, the 7 p.m. call about two people who had fallen off a boat was the second time in less than a week people were badly hurt in the Playpen.

Saturday night two women, including Lana Batochir, were severely injured in a boating accident. Batochir had been floating on an inflatable raft when a 37-foot yacht suddenly reversed, sucking her under. Batochir underwent a double leg amputation after her feet were severed by the boat’s propeller.

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Batochir has retained the Corboy & Demetrio law firm to represent her, with three attorneys — Thomas Demetrio, Francis Patrick Murphy and Michael Ditore — assigned to her case. The legal team plans to launch “an investigation as a preliminary step in potential litigation,” according to an emailed statement from Helen Lucaitis, who is an attorney and the spokeswoman for Corboy & Demetrio.

Batochir, 34 and a mother of two, “has completed a series of three surgeries, resulting in the amputation of her legs, 10 inches below her knees,” according to Lucaitis.

Ditore said: “Lana’s injuries are life-altering, and she has a long road ahead of her, but her family will be by her side every step of the way.”

Check back for updates.

Chicago Tribune reporters Jake Sheridan and Stephanie Casanova contributed.

kdouglas@chicagotribune.com

Twitter: @312BreakingNews



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