Missing Chicago pastor found dead in Des Plaines River; colleague insists he was not suicidal
Rev. Warren Beard, a beloved father of five, Sunday school teacher and assistant pastor at New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois, who had been missing since July 2, was found dead Tuesday in the Des Plaines River. He was 53.
Authorities in Rockdale told ABC 7 that a week after Beard went missing, an alert from Chicago police led them to a license plate reader hit of his vehicle near a closed section of the Brandon Road Lock and Dam, which is located 27 miles southwest of Chicago and two miles southwest of Joliet, where he was last seen alive after a visit with friends.
Authorities said during a press conference that video surveillance first discovered on Tuesday morning by the lock master for the Army Corps of Engineers shows Pastor Beard's car plunging into the river very late on the night of July 2, according to Patch.com.
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Rockdale fire officials said the pastor's black 2023 Honda HR-V was seen traveling south on Brandon Road before driving into the water. It appears, they said that the vehicle was driven around a barricade and through a 5.5-foot gap beneath the raised draw bridge, which had been closed for more than a year.
"It was small enough, a small enough of a vehicle to make it under the bridge at the road in the bridge into the river," Rockdale Police Department Chief Robert Bake said.
When the vehicle was fished from the riverbed Tuesday, the pastor's body was alone in the driver's seat. The Will County coroner positively identified the pastor but said it could be weeks before the cause of death is determined. The Illinois State Police and the Chicago Police Department are investigating the pastor's death.
New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church's Senior Pastor Chenier A. Alston believes foul play may have been involved because Pastor Beard was not suicidal.
"What I want answered is, 'Who did this," Alston said at the press conference.
"I don't believe this. I may be jumping the gun, but ... Warren was not; he was not suicidal. The fact that his car launched off that bridge, [there] were barricades there that had to be driven around. And we know how passionate he was about his job, his wife, his children, so we just want answers. And whatever those answers are, we are going to get justice for him," he said. "He was the greatest person, one of the great men I ever met in my life, and this is painful."
Beard had served as assistant pastor of New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church located at 1625 W. 75th Place for the last six years. He also worked as a director at Preservation of Affordable Housing Communities.
Alston said that he spoke with him on the phone hours before Beard went missing on July 2. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"He was jovial. He was happy, joking as usual," he recalled before they would eventually end the conversation, the way they always did by telling each other, "I love you."
Alston told reporters that he wants Beard's death investigated because he was with someone in Joliet the night his car plunged into the river.
"I would hope that the police would passionately pursue every single lead. He was with a person, he was last seen with a particular person, and we pray that police would definitely investigate him and really just give us some answers," he said.
As news of the pastor's death continued to spread on social media Wednesday, many who knew him and the life he led publicly shared their condolences.
"Met Warren 12 years ago and we bonded from day one, we got ordained together and that was a tough period for me and he used to call me every night after our classes and would help me with what I was struggling with," wrote Darnell Sharkey in a Facebook post. "I'm gonna miss my brother in Christ but my big brother overall, this one hurt bad man R.I.P Rev. Warren Beard."
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