Authorities identify girls killed in jet ski accident in Antioch area

Lake County authorities on Thursday identified the two girls who died in a boating accident this week as family friends who had been enjoying a sunny day at a lakeside cabin before their deaths.

According to the coroner’s office, 16-year-old Sarina Vootkur of Lake Forest, California, and 13-year-old Elle Kim of Long Grove died of blunt force injuries when the jet ski they were riding collided with a cabin cruiser on Lake Marie near Antioch.

Vootkur was piloting the jet ski, with Kim as a passenger, when they struck the 21-foot boat at the south end of Lake Marie, near the channel to Grass Lake on the Chain O Lakes.

Police said Thursday that Vootkur and Kim’s families are friends and that the California girl was visiting Illinois with an adult family member. Authorities said they had driven to another friend’s cabin on Tuesday to spend a day at the lake.

Witnesses reported that the jet ski carrying the girls was traveling north at high speed when it rammed the boat at around 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday.

Both girls were thrown into the lake after the accident. The girls were wearing life jackets and were pulled out of the water by the people on board the cabin boat, who immediately began to provide assistance.

Vootkur and Kim were taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where they were pronounced deceased from their injuries.

The jet ski belongs to the owners of the holiday home that the families were visiting, police said.

Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said investigators are still trying to determine what happened in the moments before the accident. Under boating regulations, the jet ski should have yielded the right of way to the cabin cruiser, police said.

There were four people on board the cabin cruiser, including its captain, a 55-year-old man from Antioch. No one on the boat was injured.