An autopsy performed Tuesday determined that Linda Brown, the Chicago Public Schools teacher whose body was pulled from Lake Michigan after going missing earlier this month, drowned in a suicide.
“I wish she knew how much of an impact she had,” Brown’s niece, Jen Rivera, told the Tribune in a call Tuesday afternoon, “and how much she was loved.”
Brown, a special education teacher at Robert Healy Elementary School in the Bridgeport neighborhood, was reported missing on Jan. 3. But after days spent searching for her, Brown’s family, in a written statement Monday night, said her body had been found in the 31st Street Harbor.
Body of missing CPS teacher recovered from Lake Michigan: ‘She was an amazing person’
“This is not the outcome we were hoping or praying for,” the statement read, “but we are grateful that she has been found and can now be brought home to our family.”
Since her disappearance, family and friends had been putting out public pleas for her safe return and had launched their own search.
Police, in their initial missing-persons report for Brown, said she was last seen around the 4500 block of South King Drive in the Bronzeville neighborhood. Days later, police updated the alert saying Brown was seen in the 3500 block of South Lake Park Avenue — about half a mile from where her body was recovered Monday.
Police stated that Brown may have required immediate medical attention.
Brown had grappled with her mental health throughout her life, Rivera said. But her struggles, Rivera continued, had been mounting leading up to her disappearance, giving way to near-daily panic attacks. Still, Brown had sought help and was receiving treatment, Rivera said.
Rivera recalled the last time she saw her aunt. It was Christmas Day and the two had a “heart to heart” about how Brown was doing, Rivera said, remembering that Brown shared she was “really struggling.” Rivera said she and her family were trying to be there for her.
Rivera said her aunt was “a light that burned out too soon.”
“She was an amazing person,” she said. “She had such an incredible personality … and the most fun laugh you probably would ever hear.”
Police recovered the body of a woman from the water in the 3100 block of South Lake Shore Drive on the city’s South Side just before noon Monday. She was pronounced dead on the scene and identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as 53-year-old Brown. The medical examiner’s office, after performing an autopsy, ruled her death a suicide.
In the wake of Brown’s death, Rivera said she and her family will be spreading awareness about the importance of mental health.
“Letting loved ones know if they are struggling, they have someone safe to talk to,” she said. “They don’t have to feel embarrassed or ashamed. … Even if they are receiving help and it’s not enough.”