The family of a man who died last year after being found underwater at Centennial Beach has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Naperville Park District.
Manuel Jose Rosales Yajure, 27, of Streamwood, went missing while swimming with a group of friends on July 10, 2025. He was eventually pulled from the water and pronounced dead later the same day. His cause of death was ruled as an accidental drowning by the DuPage County coroner’s office.
The lawsuit alleges the park district’s delayed emergency response and the “murky” water at Centennial Beach led to a man’s death.
“The family is pursuing this lawsuit because they believe Manuel’s death was preventable, and because they want justice for Manuel, his wife and his 8-year-old daughter. This case is about public safety,” said Yeferson Rosales, Manuel’s brother and a plaintiff in the case.
Rosales and his friends had been swimming towards a floating dock when he disappeared. Initially his friends thought he had returned to shore and looked for him there, according to police reports on the incident.
Rosales was last seen in the deep-water area of the beach about 5:20 p.m., the suit said. At least one lifeguard was notified of his disappearance about 5:25 p.m. and staff were informed that Rosales did not answer his cellphone when called about 5:27 p.m.
The facility was cleared about 5:43 p.m. for a search, police arrived about 5:45 p.m., and Rosales was located and removed from the water about 15 minutes later, the suit said. Unconscious and unresponsive, he was taken to Endeavor Health Edward Hospital in Naperville and later pronounced dead.
Park district staff are accused in the case of not immediately responding to Rosales’ disappearance as a “submerged-swimmer emergency” and opting to first conduct a land-based search, which included checking restrooms and parking lots and making announcements.
It was not until about 20 minutes after park district staff was told that Rosales was missing that the facility was cleared and an underwater search done, leaving Rosales “submerged for a prolonged and life-threatening period,” the suit said.
It also claims that the water conditions at Centennial Beach, which had been a limestone quarry until being converted into a swimming venue in 1932, contributed to Rosales’ death.
“Centennial Beach was not an ordinary swimming pool,” the lawsuit said. “It was a large, quarry-style municipal aquatic facility with deep water, rafts and platforms, submerged contours, murky or low-visibility water, and areas in which a submerged patron could be difficult or impossible to see from the surface.”
Edward Witas, the Rosales family’s attorney, said Rosales was from Venezuela, where he “grew up off the ocean.” Even for the strongest swimmer, the conditions at Centennial present “a very hazardous condition,” Witas said.
To reinforce their claims, the suit references a near-fatal drowning incident in 2018 during which a teenage boy who did not resurface after jumping off a diving board had to be pulled from the water.
In that incident, lifeguards initially did not believe the teen was under water and failed to treat it as an emergency situation, the suit said. He was eventually rescued and sustained long-term injury to his lungs, according to the suit.
After that incident, the park district “knew that a patron could disappear below the surface in Centennial Beach’s deep, murky water” and that “delayed recognition, delayed water clearing, delayed underwater search and delayed resuscitation could cause death or catastrophic injury,” the suit said.
Park district Executive Director Brad Wilson, speaking in an emailed statement, said the district is aware of the lawsuit and remains “deeply saddened” for Rosales’ family and loved ones.
“The police report for the July 10, 2025, incident confirms this was an unfortunate accident and the park district is incredibly supportive and proud of the rescue efforts taken by its lifeguards and other beach employees. The park district will not be issuing further comment at this time,” he wrote.
Rosales owned a barbershop in Addison and is survived by his wife and daughter. He is remembered as being “hardworking, kind, loyal and deeply committed to his family,” his brother said.
“He came to the United States from Venezuela to build a safer and better life, and he worked hard to do exactly that,” he said. “To his family and friends, he represented the best of someone pursuing the American dream: working, building a business, caring for his family and helping others around him.”
cstein@chicagotribune.com
