Twenty-year-old Jameson Meneou was simply playing catch with his father when a tragic accident led to their deaths in Lake Michigan over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, family members said.
“Playing catch with his dad was his favorite thing to do,” Meneou’s mother, Candace Keller Meneou, told NBC Chicago Monday of her son.
Keller Meneou, of Lockport, co-parented Jameson, who had autism, with her ex-husband David Meneou, a 65-year-old from Joliet. Jameson was the couple’s only child.
“David really loved his son,” Keller Meneou said.
David, a long-time boater, had gone with Jameson onto a boat Saturday in Lake Michigan, an activity the father-son duo loved to do because while Jameson wasn’t able to drive a car, he was able to drive a boat, Keller Meneou said.
The pair had traveled near the town of Dune Acres in Porter County, Indiana, adjacent to Indiana Dunes National Park.
As they were playing catch at one point, the ball was overthrown, Keller Meneou said.
Jameson, known to his family as Jamie, went into the water to get the ball, but began struggling.
According to authorities, David Meneou attempted to rescue his son but also began to struggle in the deep water, officials said.
Indiana Conservation officers and National Park Rangers were called to the scene for an active water rescue. According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, officers used off-road vehicles and a patrol boat to reach the area.
When officers arrived, the two men had been removed from the water by a Good Samaritan. Conservation officers and rangers boated the men to the Port of Indiana while performing CPR, authorities said.
The father and son were then transported to a nearby hospital where they were both pronounced deceased, the DNR and Porter County Coroner confirmed.
The incident remains under investigation.
The National Weather Service issued a warning Sunday of dangerously high waves at Lake Michigan beaches in the Chicago area, with “potentially life-threatening rip currents possible.”
“People have died in these types of quickly-changing conditions before,” the NWS said.
The warning was extended through 7 p.m. Monday, the NWS said, for all southern Lake Michigan beaches in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
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