Tanya Shannon Missing: Illinois Woman Who Survived Crash That Killed Husband Still Missing
CHICAGO (CBS/WBBM/AP) Wearing a long red dress on a freezing night, Tanya Shannon vanished after a car crash killed her husband.
The northern Illinois mother of four was last seen leaving a friend's holiday party and was believed to be riding with her husband when their car crashed a short time later as it snowed. A deputy found the wreck along a well-traveled stretch of highway early Sunday - 41-year-old Dale Shannon was dead behind the wheel and footprints led away from the car.
Other than a slipper found a short distance away from the crash site, there has been no other sign of Tanya Shannon. She had apparently changed out of her heels for the ride home.
"It's just one of those weird situations," said Sergeant Jeff Whalen of the LaSalle County Sheriff's office. "We have no idea what happened."
Dozens of searchers braved frigid temperatures for a third day Tuesday to scour an area just miles from the couple's home in Ransom. They probed snow banks with poles, operated metal detectors in ditches and even used a helicopter over the flat, snow-covered landscape about 70 miles southwest of Chicago.
Authorities say Shannon, a part-time waitress, may be dead and her body may be buried in the snow, but they also haven't ruled out the possibility that she's still alive. Authorities believe Shannon may have tried going for help and could have been picked up along the road.
"We just want her home," said Shannon's sister Corinne Johnson of Ottawa. "I just want to find her."
More than 35 searchers carefully scanned the area near the crash site. With temperatures hovering around 20 degrees, searchers on foot went out for only an hour at a time, coming back to a command center to warm up and get their blood pressure checked.
The couple's four children - who range in age from 4 to 15 years old - are in the care of family.
"The kids are doing as well as expected," Johnson said.
Anyone with information on Tanya Shannon's whereabouts is urged to call the LaSalle County Sheriff's office at 815-433-2161.