Relative of missing swimmer calls for more intensive lake search

Tanya Lozano says authorities need to step up the search for a man who was reported missing Tuesday morning in Lake Michigan.

Lozano identified the man as 38-year-old Bryan Jackson, the father of her two children — Bryan Jr., 6, and Apollonia, 10.

The missing person, whom authorities haven’t identified, jumped off a boat about a mile offshore near the 31st Street Harbor on Tuesday morning, according to Chicago fire and police officials.

Lozano, a community leader and activist who often works with radio station WBEZ, said Jackson was on a boat with another man and two women. She said Jackson and one of the women jumped overboard for a swim around 7 a.m., while the other two were in the boat’s cabin.

When the two emerged from the cabin, Jackson and the woman weren’t there, Lozano said.

The boat owner found the woman about 15 minutes later, but they never found Jackson, who Lozano said played college and semi-pro football and trains pro athletes.

Officials responded to the area about 9 a.m. and began a rescue effort. About 10:30 a.m., the Chicago Fire Department said the status of the search was changed to a recovery effort. Fire officials also said the effort was being turned over to police and the U.S. Coast Guard, which suspended its effort by Tuesday afternoon.

Chicago police said the department’s Marine Unit “continues their search” as of Wednesday afternoon and that no other information was available.

“I just think it’s necessary to know that there’s a chance that this man survived, and he needs urgent care and needs to be found,” Lozano said. “It’s been less than 48 hours and the search is just not really a search, and they’ve already considered him drowned, dead.”