Restaurant worker who vanished after Chicago rock concert found dead in river
The restaurant worker who mysteriously disappeared in Chicago after attending a concert with Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has been found dead in a river.
The body of Noah Enos, 29, who vanished June 12 after he attended the concert with a co-worker, was recovered from the North Branch of the Chicago River on Saturday, NBC Chicago reported.
He was found about 9:45 a.m. near the 1300 block of North Elston Avenue – not far from the Salt Shed, a popular venue in the old Morton Salt factory, officials said.
“Sadly, we have received the heartbreaking confirmation that Noah has passed away. Though the search for Noah is over, his family is still in need of financial support as they plan a funeral and manage other final expenses,” family member Kristen Zoller wrote on a GoFundMe page.
“The family is grateful for the many prayers, generous donations, and the outpouring of kindness and support you have shown during these exceptionally trying days,” she added.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said an autopsy was planned to determine the cause of death.
The family has said they suspected foul play after finding out from AT&T that his last messages and calls were sent about 5 p.m., even though his friends have texts from him stamped between 7 and 10 p.m., Fox News reported.
Enos’ girlfriend Nicole Wijs said he was last seen on surveillance video about 9:30 p.m. June 12 talking with some people at the show before he left and headed north on Elston Avenue, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
He also had sent been in touch with her via text and Snapchat from the concert before his phone died about 10 p.m., NBC Chicago reported.
“They did review some of the footage and they saw him and his co-worker walking around the venue at about 9:30 p.m. They said the show ended at 10 p.m. so there’s a 30- minute gap that they’re looking into to see maybe where he would have gone into the venue,” Wijs told the outlet.
She said the co-worker told her the two became separated as the show was ending.
The co-worker told the family that he went to the bathroom around 10 p.m. and then couldn’t find his friend, Enos’ mother Lee Anne Capin, told Fox News Digital.
“As soon as I saw he didn’t know where Noah was I completely collapsed,” Wijs told the Sun-Times. “That was absolute confirmation that something was terribly, terribly wrong.”
Family and friends posted his pictures and shared a missing person flyer on social media before authorities made the tragic discovery.
“There have been people who post and contacted me saying they saw him at the concert,” Wijs told NBC Chicago.
Police have said that Enos suffered from “depression and anxiety,” but Wijs has insisted that his disappearance was out of character.
Enos, who moved to the Windy City about a year ago, worked at a restaurant and did some graphic design work for a T-shirt company, his family said.
Wijs said she and Enos had been together for two years, but have known each other since middle school.
“Incredibly intelligent, charismatic, caring, wonderful person, wonderful boyfriend, wonderful dad to our two dogs,” she told NBC Chicago. “Not the type of person that would up and leave without question, without an reason.”
