Springfield, IL : Family reflects on Wisconsin canoe accident that killed son, 3 others on Sunday, December 25th 2016

The McQuillens were eating Christmas dinner two years ago when Chris, the oldest of three children, glanced at his phone and declared he had to go.

He asked his dad to wrap up some roast he could take with him to DeKalb, where he said he'd learned one of his friends at Northern Illinois University was alone on the holiday.

Even as Joe McQuillen fixed the plate and ran to Walgreens for a quick gift for the student, he couldn't help but wonder about his son: "Is he hustling me? Is there a girl waiting? Is there a party I'm missing on Christmas night?"

The next Christmas proved nearly perfect. The McQuillens sat around the fire in their Winnetka home, presents piled beneath their 6-foot Fraser fir. They went bowling, played pool and laughed together.

A few days later, 21-year-old Chris vanished into the night.

He and a group of friends, many home from college on winter break, had met up at a lake house in southern Wisconsin to catch up and celebrate the new year. They watched basketball, ate hot dogs and brats, and drank beer, state and police records show.

But around 4 a.m. on Jan. 3, 2016, someone realized that Chris and three others were missing. Several hours later, footprints were discovered in the snow leading to Mill Pond, where a green, three-person canoe lay overturned.

Investigators found a canoe paddle first. Then a winter boot. Inside the house, some of the friends wept. Others stared blankly at each other.

Police, firefighters, neighbors, volunteers and dive teams searched in the icy waters.One by one, they recovered the bodies of the young men, all from Winnetka or Wilmette: Chris McQuillen, 21; Lanny Patrick Sack, 20; Mori Weinstein, 21. And finally, after five agonizing days, Patrick Wetzel, 21.

Their deaths shook the North Shore community where they lived and had attended New Trier Township High School. Among the four families, the McQuillens agreed to share what their loss has meant to them.

"It doesn't get easier," Joe McQuillen said recently as he sat in a folding lawn chair at his son's grave, a blanket of snow covering the ground. While Chicago Cubs flags dotted the cemetery, the Buffalo Bills keep Chris company. The logo of his dear football team is etched on his headstone and displayed on a golf ball that rests just above his name.

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Family reflects on Wisconsin canoe accident that killed son, 3 others