Brian Welzien, 21, and two friends, Nick Young and Mike Wittrup, drove to Chicago to attend a private New Year's Eve party where a former NIU student, Reid Cain, was the disc jockey. After returning back to their hotel, his friends went up to the room leaving Welzien behind near the hotel entrance. His body turned up in Lake Michigan two months later.Timeline
After checking into the Ambassador East Hotel (1301 N. State Pkwy), where the three were sharing a room with Cain and two of his friends, they went to Irish Eyes pub at 2519 N. Lincoln. Welzien, who according to Young, “wasn’t a big drinker,” had four or five Long Island Iced Teas. At closing time (2:00 am), Welzien was ready to go back to the hotel, so he rode back with Cain and his two friends. Young and Wittrup decided to go to another bar with a 4 a.m. closing. Cain stopped outside the hotel to let the men out before he went to park the car, and Welzien "just sat there, then he threw up twice," Cain said. The two other men were already into the hotel before Welzien recovered enough to climb out. Cain pulled away to find a parking spot two blocks away. When Cain returned, Welzien was gone, so he went up to the hotel room. "I never even thought about it. I had no clue till we woke up in the morning," Cain said.
While Cain and his friends were up in the hotel room, several people reported seeing Welzien getting sick near the hotel entrance: the doorman, a bartender, a man parked on Goethe waiting for his girlfriend (a waitress at the Pump Room). Welzien leaned on the man's car for support, police said. When Young and Wittrup got back to the hotel sometime after 4 a.m., Welzien still wasn't in their room, so they began to search the area around the hotel, but soon gave up and went to sleep. When they awoke around 1 pm on New Year’s Day, they saw that Welzien still hadn’t returned and called the police.
Recovery
On March 17, Welzien's body was found by someone strolling on a Gary beach some 25 miles from downtown Chicago. According to a written statement, the cause of death was listed as asphyxia due to drowning. However, police called the circumstances of Welzien's disappearance suspicious,'' and one investigator has said it is ”the most perplexing case'' he has ever handled.
Unlikely victim
Welzien was on the dean’s list, never used drugs, rarely drank, called mother a few times a week.
Perplexing Questions
Police also wonder whether he could he have wandered the few blocks east to Lake Michigan. Crossing eight lanes of traffic on Lake Shore Drive to get to Lake Michigan would be a formidable task even for a sober person, police say, though he might have found the tunnel underneath the drive at Division Street, which is more plausible. A few steps down, a short walk and a few steps up could have landed him on the banks of the lake. To his right, a spectacular skyline view; to his left, a treacherously icy, downward sloping concrete surface, leading to a 15-foot drop into cold water. It happened just two years before when a young man fell into the water off Navy Pier.*
* Note: I have received comments from people living in the downtown area that there is not a 15-foot drop off in this area as reported in some news stories at the time.
Robbery was always considered a strong possibility, especially given Welzien's drunken state, but he his wallet, with money in it, was still on his body. And there were no obvious signs of struggle or foul play, supporting the notion that he fell into the water rather than being pushed or dumped, police say.
Private investigator Don Johnson, who was hired by Welzien's mother and has worked closely with police on the case, wasn't ready to dismiss foul play. "Who's to say he didn't go down there and somebody didn't give him a shove? Did he go down and slip and fall? Who knows?" Johnson said. Brian’s mother said she hopes police will continue to investigate. "It would be nice to know what happened."
Facts of Interest in this Case
Name/age: Brian Welzien, 21
College: Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL), finance student
Physical description: athletic (soccer player)
Last seen: 01/01/00, Irish Eyes Pub, then Ambassador East Hotel, Chicago, IL, 2:00 a.m. Recovered: 03/17/00, Lake Michigan
Cause of death: asphyxia due to drowning
Injuries: no information
Blood Alcohol Content: no information
