Northwest Side woman killed, 6 injured after boat capsizes

A 20-year-old woman died after a boat capsized near Navy Pier early Friday morning.

The boat was returning to shore around 2:40 a.m. when it possibly struck a breakwater, injuring six people, all between 20 and 40 years of age.

Police and the Chicago Fire Department responded to the scene, where six people were rescued from the water. Four were transported to Northwestern Hospital and two others transported to Stroger Hospital. All are in good condition, police said.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office identified the woman who died as Briana Joy Burden, of the Dunning neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

An autopsy performed Saturday found that Burden died from multiple injuries and drowning related to the boat striking a fixed object and was ruled an accident, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Burden could not initially be located at the scene and search efforts were paused due to weather. Police and fire personnel faced waves up to a foot high while searching the water, Deputy District Fire Chief Jason Lach said at a Friday news briefing.

“It made rescue and recoveries a lot more difficult because of the conditions,” Lach said.

After search efforts resumed, police recovered Burden’s body around 10 a.m. on Friday.

Last August a woman lost her legs when she was sucked under a reversing boat’s propeller in Chicago’s “Playpen” — a heavily populated boating hot spot in downtown Chicago. Days earlier a man was found dead and another critically injured in a separate incident.

Police also recovered the body of a man of unknown age around 9 a.m. on Friday near Dime Pier.

The body is not believed to be related to the capsized boat based on the state of decomposition in which it was found, Lach said.