Woman from Normal dies in weekend boating accident on Kankakee River

Posted on July 31, 2017
police car
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is investigating the death of Liz Larson, who was killed in a boating accident on Saturday. (Photo by DavidsonScott/flickr)

By Eric Stock

WILMINGTON – The Bloomington-Normal community is mourning the death of a woman who died in a weekend boating accident on the Kankakee River in Wilmington.

The Will County Coroner reports Liz Larson, 36, of Normal died after the inflatable boat she was in went over a dam on the Kankakee River on Saturday. She was pronounced dead at a hospital in Joliet. Preliminary results of an autopsy indicate Larson died from drowning.

The death occurred in the same spot where two children drowned over Memorial Day weekend last year.

The Joliet Herald-News reports a six-year-old girl on the watercraft survived.

Larson had recently taken a job with the Hile Group after working in several capacities at Illinois State University. She had also been involved in the McLean County Chamber of Commerce’s NEXT Professionals program.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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