Body found in creek was that of missing Mokena man

He is tentatively identified as Thomas McKay Jr., who was last seen by loved ones on Dec. 13 when he unexpectedly walked out of his father's Orland Park home just after 7 a.m., Orland Park police said in a news release. Positive identification is awaiting confirmation by the Cook County medical examiner's office.

A Tinley Park Park District employee discovered the fully-clothed body near 167th Street and 80th Avenue Tuesday afternoon while cleaning up debris along a creek in McCarthy Park, Tinley Park Police Cmdr. Pat McCain said Wednesday. He was lying face down.

Police said they are not sure how McKay ended up in the creek, but they do not suspect foul play. "He was in the water a long time," McCain said.

In the weeks leading up to his disappearance, McKay had been having increasingly severe emotional problems -- so bad that he was almost hospitalized, family members told the Tribune in February. And shortly before he went missing, he had sought solace in a priest and called for help from paramedics.

Since mid-December, his family and friends had passed out fliers, scoured homeless shelters and churches and logged onto Internet sites hoping to find some clue.

His mother, Cathy McKay told the Tribune last month his family was frustrated by their failed attempts to get him admitted to a mental health facility since a series of tragic events in high school damaged him emotionally.

Her son grew up and lived in Mokena on the 12000 block of Josephine Drive with her but was visiting his father, Thomas Sr., when he disappeared.

Thomas McKay began drawing away from friends and family when he was a junior in high school after two of his closest friends died in separate car accidents within six months of each other, family said. That same year he lost a 38-year-old uncle, also in an auto accident.

"Trying to cope with three tremendous losses is a heavy burden for any teenager to handle. It became too much for him to deal with by himself," his mother said in a February interview.

A 2001 graduate of Lincoln-Way East High School, McKay was quiet and shy, his mother said. He took classes at Joliet Junior College and worked retail jobs to earn money for school. An animal lover, he often looked after his 22-year-old sister's two boxers and had a cat named Xena: Warrior Princess.

Cathy McKay said that as he became more depressed and reclusive, his parents wanted to check him into a mental health facility, but he didn't have medical insurance and there didn't seem to be a place for him.

--Wendy Normandy and Dennis Sullivan