How did Iñaki Bascaran die? Body of missing Chicago man, 23, found in river
Chicago police found the body of 23-year-old Iñaki Bascaran in the Chicago River after he went missing on the night before Halloween. Police discovered the body about 1 1/2 miles from the bar where Badcaran was last seen. The remains were discovered at 5 pm local time.
Bascaran was a native of Glenview, Illinois, and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He had moved to Chicago this year, where he was working in marketing, his friend Kayli Fradin said. Fradin described Bascaran as "the life of the party" who "is always trying to make people laugh."
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Bascaran went to a bar with friends in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on October 30, and later called an Uber to go to another bar, Celeste, in the River North neighborhood. At 11:39 pm, he left Celeste alone. Bascaran called his roommate on FaceTime at 12:04 am and informed him that he was going to begin walking home. Bascaran's roommate is also Fradin's boyfriend. "But he was also intoxicated enough at that point that he thought he was in Lincoln Park and we know now that he wasn't," Fradin said. "He didn't even really realize what part of town he was in."
When Bascaran did not return home even after 45 minutes, Fradin and her boyfriend attempted to track his phone location. However, they found that his phone was dead. His phone was dead even around noon the next day, and his bed was also made. Fradin claimed that she contacted the police immediately. Police recommended a list of hospitals and asked her to call and check, but none of the hospitals had seen the missing man. In what Fradin terms a "heartbreaking call", she informed about the developments to Bascaran's family.
Chicago police later released a missing person flyer. However, in the absence of any leads, Fradin created social media pages to spread the news. "Iñaki has so many friends from so many areas in his life," she said, adding that she "knew that we would get a really big group of people to care."
Last week, around 200 friends, family, and strangers conducted a search for Bascaran, "starting at Celeste and routing people different directions that Iñaki might have done," Fradin said. "It's amazing how quickly everyone has been able to mobilize." A private investigations firm was also hired by the family to assist in the case. "You cannot have enough resources in a missing persons case," private detective Sara Serritella said. Serritella said that they followed Bascaran's digital footprint, but "the answers are not in the phones and the cameras." It's shocking "to think that you can just disappear and go missing in spite of technology and cameras," she said.
The days leading up to the discovery of Bascaran's body were filled with both sadness and hope, Fradin said. "There's been times where we've been sobbing together and times where we've been laughing together, telling our favorite stories and memories with him. ... And how excited we are to make fun of him for putting us through all of this once he comes home," she said.