A 911 call about someone in the water off Northwestern University’s campus ended with a 19-year-old student dead.
Saba Hani Alkaabi, a 19-year-old Northwestern undergraduate, was pronounced dead at 8:05 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, at Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital, after rescuers pulled her unresponsive from Lake Michigan near the school’s Evanston, Ill., campus. The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified her and said she lived near campus.
The cause of her death has not been released. Evanston police said the death remains under investigation but poses no danger to Northwestern or the City of Evanston.
A Passerby’s 911 Call
It started with a 911 call about 7 a.m. The caller reported a person in the water near 70 Arts Circle Drive, a stretch of shoreline by the Ryan Center for the Musical Arts and just north of Clark Street Beach. Evanston police and fire personnel responded to the university.
“Water rescue personnel pulled an unresponsive woman from the water near the university’s southern lakefill area and performed CPR,” the Evanston Police Department said in a news release. First responders then took her aboard a Marine 21 rescue boat to the Church Street boat ramp and on to the hospital.
She had been in the water about 30 minutes, police said.
A Drone Over the Southern Lakefill
Later that morning, Evanston police launched a drone to search the southwest and southeast portions of the university’s property and lakefront as part of the investigation. Officers worked alongside Northwestern University police to identify the woman. She was a current student who was not from the Evanston area, police said.
A notice sent Oct. 21 to faculty and staff by Susan Davis, Northwestern’s vice president of student affairs, identified her as an undergraduate. Northwestern police also responded to the emergency on the lakefront, and the university said first responders attempted life-saving measures.
Eliza Larson, Northwestern’s associate director of communications, said the university’s thoughts were with the student’s family and friends, and that support services are being offered to community members affected by the death. The Evanston Police Department is handling the investigation, Larson said.
Why No Lifeguards Were on Duty
Evanston’s beaches have been closed since Labor Day, the traditional end of the swimming season on Lake Michigan. No lifeguards were on duty.
Hazard warnings and signs prohibiting swimming and fishing are posted along Northwestern’s lakefront property, police said. In their release, officers urged people to heed those warnings, to check lake conditions before going near the water, and to follow instructions from city or university officials to stay out of the lake and off break walls and rocks. “Lake Michigan can be dangerous,” they added.
Jackie Ovalles was taking her husband to work at Northwestern when she saw the commotion on the lakefront. Students come from all over the world, she said, and visitors from outside Illinois crowd the shoreline. “Lake Michigan can be dangerous, and a lot of people aren’t aware of how dangerous it can be,” she told CBS News.
