Crew members of a Chicago luxury yacht are being hailed as heroes after helping rescue passengers from a shipwreck, losing their lives in the process.
The body of Lorenzo Tobin, 40, was recovered from Lake Michigan on Sunday, two days after he tragically disappeared into the water.
Tobin had been working on the yacht for a birthday celebration when the boat mysteriously began to capsize around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, his wife, Leslie Jackson Tobin, said. ABC affiliate WLS-TV reported the news..
“Lorenzo didn’t know the birthday person,” Jackson Tobin said. “He was just there as a deckhand. Honestly, it makes me angry because this shouldn’t have happened. My husband was a strong swimmer.”
The yacht’s 16 passengers said they began to realise something was wrong on board just before chaos erupted. WGN Television.
“The boat just started tilting and I was like, ‘Oh my God,'” passenger Dongina Knight said. “And then I fell overboard.”
Tobin appears to have stayed in the water to help the captain and other passengers by helping them put on life jackets, ultimately endangering his own life in the process.
“He’s a hero,” Jackson Tobin said. “Even if he hadn’t been on that boat, if he’d just been passing through, I think he would have done the same thing. I’m outraged that he helped people and he was the only one who didn’t.”
Passengers on board said the capsize happened without warning and caused chaos.
“It was total chaos,” passenger Renee Williams said. “Another boat came and tried to help some people, but it nearly hit me and my wife, so I started swimming and kicking the boat away to get to shore.”
Jackson Tobin said she is working to uncover the full truth behind this tragic incident.
“Someone knows something,” said Tobin’s cousin, Charles Tibbs. “We just want someone to give us some kind of clue as to what happened.”
The U.S. Coast Guard said it was working with Chicago police and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to investigate what caused the yacht to capsize.
