The body of a missing Chicago pastor was recovered from a river in Illinois, according to a statement Tuesday from the Will County Coroner’s Office.

“It’s been a long day for all. We have positively identified the decedent as Warren Beard from Chicago, Illinois,” Coroner Laurie Summers said during a news conference, according to News Nation.

Beard, the 53-year-old assistant pastor at New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, was found in a vehicle pulled from the Des Plaines River. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. Tuesday, the coroner’s office said.

He was a married father of five who regularly taught Sunday school at the church, family members said at a press conference before the discovery.

Beard first went missing on July 2 in Joliet, according to a bulletin from the Chicago Police Department.

He was visiting with college friends in the town, family members said. He had played football at University of St. Francis.

The day he went missing, security footage captured a car heading toward a closed bridge over Des Plaines River, Rockdale Fire Protection District officials said at a press conference. The bridge is in Rockdale, a few miles southwest of Joliet.

The car went through a gap beneath the raised drawbridge and into the water around 11 p.m., officials said. Officials later identified the car as Beard’s black 2023 Honda HR-V.

“It was small enough, a small enough of a vehicle to make it under the bridge at the road in the bridge into the river,” Rockdale Police Department Chief Robert Bake said.

The bridge had been closed for more than a year and a half, officials added.

Officials were alerted about the security footage a week after July 2. They used divers, boats, and sonar to search the river for the car. The cloudy water and rain made the search difficult, Channahon Fire Chief John Petrakis said at the press conference.

“The Des Plaines River, unfortunately, is a very, very murky body of water here in the area. Just my experience in working with the local water rescue team, divers go into the water, you can put your hand in front of the water, you really can’t discern where your hands at because the water is that cloudy and muddy,” Petrakis said.

Beard was discovered in the front seat of his vehicle, 8 feet underwater, ABC 7 reported.

Beard’s autopsy is being performed on Wednesday, the coroner’s office indicated. The final cause of death could take weeks to determine and will be determined with the autopsy in conjunction with police and toxicological reports.

Illinois state police are continuing to investigate the case, the coroner’s office indicated.

Beard Was the ‘Epitome of a Family Man’

Beard was well loved, New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Chenier Alston said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“This is a devastating loss for us all, a devastating loss for his family, for our church,” Alston said. “We lost a man who loved his wife, loved his children, loved his family — a man who loved God with everything in him.”

Alston said he wants answers about what happened and who caused it.

“I don’t believe this, I may be jumping the gun, but . . . Warren was not, he was not suicidal,” Alston said. “And we know how passionate he was about his job, his wife, his children, so we just want answers. And whatever those answers are, we are going to get justice for him.”

He added, “He was the greatest person, one of the great men I ever met in my life, and this is painful.”

At a previous press conference, Alston described how Beard seemed normal just hours before he went missing. Alston spoke with Beard on the phone —nothing seemed out of the ordinary as Beard was happy and joking as usual.

Preaching the following Sunday without Beard there was incredibly difficult, Alston said.

“Sunday was the hardest day I had to preach here . . . because I had to walk from my office into this church without the man that always stood behind me or beside me,” Alston said. “Without the preacher who sat beside me in this pulpit who always encouraged all of us.”

Alston described how Beard was an amazing husband and leader.

“His spirit was kind; his spirit was welcoming. Everyone in this church loved him,” he said. “He was here every Sunday to . . . inspire people to have a closer walk with God.”

Beard’s son, Shane Beard, shared how his father was a man of God and the “epitome of a family man,” at the press conference.

“He was the patriarch of the family; he was the glue to the family,” Shane said.

Along with serving at the church, Beard also worked as the Midwest regional director of facilities for the Preservation of Affordable Housing.

On social media, many are mourning him.

Darnell Sharkey, who said he got ordained at the same time as Beard, described how the pastor was always there for him.

During a tough time in Sharkey’s life, Beard used to call him every night, he said.

“I’m gonna miss my brother in Christ,” Sharkey said in a Facebook post. “This one hurt bad man. R.I.P Rev. Warren Beard.”

Freelance journalist Liz Lykins writes for WORLD Magazine, Christianity Today, Ministry Watch, and other publications.