Decatur Park District searching for missing 9/11 artifact
DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — Police from the Decatur Park District are seeking the location of an artifact that was taken from the 9/11 Memorial by Lake Decatur.
Surveillance imagery suggests that part of a metal filing cabinet, which was donated from the World Trade Center site, was removed from the Memorial near 9 p.m. on February 15. Authorities were not alerted until March 29.
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The Park District’s “Park Watch” Facebook page posted a couple surveillance images:
Based on the evidence, police believed there was a strong chance that the artifact was thrown into Lake Decatur. Officials spent the next week diving, “magnet fishing,” and conducting sonar sweeps to try locating and recovering the artifact. Unfortunately, these attempts were unsuccessful.
“The Decatur Park Police would like to thank the City of Decatur Lake Services employees, the Decatur Fire Department, and Perry Twins Outdoors (Doug and Darrell Perry, and Andy Harper) for their interest, willingness, and efforts in conducting the search for this artifact,” Park District officials said in the social media post.
Now, the Decatur Park District and Park Police Department are urging anyone with any information on this incident — including the artifact’s location and the involved suspects — to contact the Decatur Park District offices at 217-422-5911 during business hours.
After hours, you may instead call the Central Illinois Regional Dispatch Center at 217-424-2711.
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