CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) -
The body of a Southern Illinois University senior who went missing after going swimming Wednesday was discovered in the water off a South Side beach Thursday morning.
Mahlik J. Harris, a 2008 graduate of Kenwood High School and senior at SIU in Carbondale, had just come to Chicago from Carbondale on Wednesday for a reunion with his family, his great-uncle Brian Harris said.
His father was also in town for the reunion and Mahlik wanted to see his father, as well, Bryan Harris said.
He went out swimming about 9 p.m. with his step-sisters and was unable to get back to shore.
"He was popular and well-liked," his great-uncle said. "He had a passion for music and was an excellent role model" for his 11-year-old brother. "He was a very, very popular guy. He was a good kid, going in the right direction."
He was majoring in advertising at SIU, where he was on the water polo team. He was working this summer at a Carbondale nursing home and pursuing a career as a hip-hop producer, his uncle, Reggie Banks, said.
"He just wanted to excel. He was caring, aspiring and giving. We'd talked a lot lately about how to succeed even when people said he couldn't do it," Banks said.
In his senior year at Kenwood, Mahlik was MVP of the Public League All-Star football game, his great uncle said.
On Wednesday night a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was searching along Lake Michigan and spotted a suspicious object in the water off 31st Street, police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan said.
Chicago police were alerted and at 7:25 a.m. Thursday, the police Marine Unit recovered Mahlik's body off the 31st Street beach, Sullivan said.
The family believes Harris was caught in a rip current, and there isn't adequate warning to swimmers at 31st Street beach about the danger of riptides, according to Banks' fiance, Tamara Fair.
"He played water polo, so he was a very sound swimmer. If he'd have had those kinds of warnings, clearly he would have abided by them," she said.
Lake Michigan has the most rip current-related fatalities of all the Great Lakes, according to the National Weather Service.
"The main thing now is preventing this tragedy from happening to the next family," Banks said.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Park District was not immediately available for comment, but the Park District website said beaches are closed to swimming at 7 p.m.
