Tanya Shannon Still Missing: Officials Suspend Search For Mom Who Disappeared Following Fatal Crash

RANSOM, Ill. -- Authorities in northern Illinois have suspended their search for a 40-year-old mother of four who disappeared after a weekend car crash that killed her husband.

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 Shannon had vanished, leaving a set of footprints leading away from the car. A slipper was also found near the vehicle. More than three 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 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.

Authorities suspended the ground search for Shannon Tuesday evening. Sheriff Tom Templeton says the investigation will continue as a missing person case until the weather warms up.

"I like to never give up until I'm proven otherwise," Templeton told the Tribune. But, he added, "There's just too much going against it."

An AP report describes Shannon as five-foot-two, 125-pounds, with shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair and green eyes. Police believe she would have contacted her family if she could.