Anu Solanki Missing in Illinois Since Christmas Eve … UPDATE: $250K for Search for Runaway Newlywed … Found Safe
24 year old Anu Solanki had been missing since Christmas Eve. Dignesh Solanki 
last saw his wife Monday when they both left for work. A call to a friend after she got off work was the last time anyone has heard from her. Her has been located Anu Solanki’s car in a forest preserve. Thus began the costly search for Anu Slolanki.
Cook County Forest Preserve police searched Tuesday for a missing northwest suburban woman and may ask a dive team to search the Des Plaines River Wednesday, a spokesman said.
Anu Solanki’s Honda Civic was found about 4 p.m. Monday in a forest preserve near Hintz Road and Milwaukee Avenue in Wheeling, Forest Preserve District spokesman Steve Mayberry said.
UPDATE I:Divers, copter search for missing northwest suburban woman
Divers were searching the Des Plaines River near Wheeling this morning as a Cook County sheriff’s helicopter combed the area for a northwest suburban woman whose abandoned car was found this week in a forest preserve.
Cook County Forest Preserve police are coordinating the river search and working with the Cook County sheriff’s police and the Wheeling police and fire departments.
The couple have been married for about seven months, Shah said. Solanki is originally from Virginia, and moved here after she wed. Several relatives drove overnight to arrive Christmas morning after hearing that she was missing.
Dignesh Solanki said his wife told him Sunday night that she was going to the forest preserve’s river to discard a broken religious statue. The Ganesh statue, which has an elephant head, was used in their marriage ceremony in New Jersey and was mailed to them recently, the husband said.
UPDATE II: Search For Missing Woman Concludes For Today
Most of the officers searched the six miles of shoreline on foot with two trained dogs. A third dog and police officers traveled up and down the river by boat.
Mayberry said that so far, there is no sign of Solanki or of her missing cell phone, purse and laptop computer. He refused to say whether police now consider this a recovery operation.
Sheriff’s detectives spoke again with several family members, including Solanki’s husband, Dignesh, at the Skokie courthouse.The family is aiding the search by distributing fliers, and Mayberry said the conversations were held “only for the purposes of gathering information for the missing persons investigation.”
UPDATE III: Missing woman Anu Solanki is alive, authorities say
UPDATE VI: Illinois woman back after $250K search
It appears that we have a “runaway newlywed”. So much for just leaving your husband and getting a divorce. Instead pretend that you have gone missing and waste tax payers money and the police’s time.
CHICAGO – Family members arranged a meeting at an undisclosed location between investigators and a married woman from Illinois whose disappearance on Christmas Eve prompted a costly search.
Anu Solanki, 24, met with law enforcement officials at an undisclosed location Friday, said Cook County sheriff’s police spokesman Steve Mayberry.
UPDATE V: Missing woman who ran: I was unhappy in marriage
Anu Solanki, the 24-year-old newlywed who appeared to go missing this week, has told Cook County Sheriff’s police she instead ran off with another man because she was unhappy in her marriage.
She and her friend Karan C. Jani, 23, drove on Monday from a forest preserve near Wheeling to Jani’s Los Angeles apartment, said Bill Cunningham, chief of staff for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
She and her friend Karan C. Jani, 23, drove on Monday from a forest preserve near Wheeling to Jani’s Los Angeles apartment, said Bill Cunningham, chief of staff for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
“She basically wanted out of her marriage,” Cunningham said. “She wanted to make a clean break.”
[...] 24 year old Anu Solanki from Illinois had been missing since this past Christmas Eve. After all the searches with dogs, after all the water searches with divers … Anu Solanki returned home safe. Looks like a case this time of a “Runaway Newlywed” … at the cost of $250K! [...]
Pingback by Missing Anu Solanki … Turns Out to be Runaway Newlywed … Returns Safe | Scared Monkeys | December 29, 2007
It is unfortunate that this search cost so much money. What is more unfortunate is that so many women have to fake their own disappearance to get out of abusive, unhappy marriages. Let’s be a little compassionate towards this woman. It had to have been really bad for her to think that this was the best way out. I would venture to say that cultural expectations (and perhaps the way the marriage was arranged?), played a big role here.
Comment by Stephanie | January 7, 2008