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The Lake County Coroner's Office has determined the death of a 17-year-old girl who drowned after driving into a pond while on her way to a Christmas party last month was accidental.
ABC 7 Chicago is reporting that the cause of Brissa Romero's death was due to drowning, and toxicology tests revealed she had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC), of 0.16 when her sport utility vehicle (SUV) went into a retention pond in the area of Executive Way and Lakeview Parkway on Dec. 5. She also had the active ingredient in marijuana (THC), in her system.
Romero, 17, of Carpentersville was reported missing on Dec. 4 after she never showed up to a holiday party for the Crystal Lake Chick-fil-A, at a Bowlero in Vernon Hills. Her SUV was found in the retention a week later, and her body was later pulled from the pond.
Romero graduated from Barrington High School in 2023, a year early, and was attending Harper College, in Palatine, where she was studying to become an ultrasound technician, at the time of her death, according to Fox 32 Chicago.
