Around 1:45 a.m. on a snowy Saturday night, a deputy in rural Illinois found a car crashed against a utility pole on the Grand Ridge Mazon Blacktop road. The driver, 41-year-old Dale Shannon, was dead.
His wife Tanya had vanished, leaving only a set of footprints leading away from the car. More than two days later, she is still gone without a trace, baffling authorities in rural Brookfield Township.
Fifty people, two dogs, several All-Terrain vehicles, a fixed-wing airplane and high-tech thermal imaging devices scoured the surrounding area for any sign of Tanya Shannon throughout the day Monday, but found nothing. The search has resumed again Tuesday morning, with additional volunteers.
The Shannons, parents of four, were last seen leaving a holiday party arm-in-arm. "They were dancing together, really cutting up a rug," said Dale's sister Donna Baker to the Chicago Tribune.
Tanya was wearing a floor-length red gown and a hooded fleece. No coats were found in the car, but still, conditions in LaSalle County have been harsh. The area received around seven inches of snowfall over the weekend, and windchill temperatures were hovering around zero degrees Monday night.
"To be out in the elements as they were that night, dressed only as she was, it's very doubtful that you can survive terribly long," Sheriff Tom Templeton told the Tribune.
That being said, authorities are astonished at their inability to locate Shannon in a vast expanse of flat farmland. NBC Chicago describes the dilemma facing police:
Investigators said they have only two working theories: that she was injured and disoriented as she went for help on the bitter cold, wind-swept road and collapsed somewhere in the snow, or that someone picked her up under the guise of offering assistance.
With repeated searches, they have all but disproved their first theory and have no leads on the second.
Shannon is a dedicated mother who would have contacted her family if she could, Sheriff Templeton said. Her four daughters are 3, 7, 10 and 13 years old.
An AP report describes Shannon as five-foot-two, 125-pounds, with shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair and green eyes.