Real Life Mystery In My Old Hometown Area: Strange Case Of Tanya Shannon

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Still no news, as per this Ottawa (Illinois) Daily News article:

Search resumes for Ransom woman
12/11/2010

With a slight temperature warmup Friday, the search for Tanya Shannon of Ransom, who’s been missing since Sunday, resumed on the ground, in the air, and by additional K-9 units from as far away as Wisconsin.

More than 40 people — 10 from the La Salle County Ground Search and Rescue team returned to retrace their snowy steps over the area near the Exelon Nuclear facility in Brookfield Township Friday. The area was previously examined Sunday, Monday and Tuesday by a total of more than 170 trained volunteers and professionals. Shannon, the mother of four daughters, has been missing since a Sunday morning single-car crash that killed her husband, Dale.

As of press time Friday night, no trace of Tanya had been discovered.

Sheriff Tom Templeton confirmed to The Times Dale Shannon was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, in which a county deputy found him dead behind the wheel of a 2001 Dodge Neon at 1:45 a.m. Sunday. Templeton said the vehicle’s airbags did not deploy despite a hard rear end collision with an electrical pole.

Dale, 41, died instantly in the accident from a severe neck injury, according to the coroner’s office.

Templeton said the passenger side door was ajar, but snow piled up against it prevented it opening much further and so, it is presumed by authorities that Tanya crawled out of the Neon over the stick shift, her deceased husband and out the driver’s side door before she disappeared into the dark frozen farmlands. Her working cell phone was found in the car. Dale’s cell phone has not been recovered.

La Salle County Ground Search and Rescue Chief Steve Smith said seven K-9 units from various North Central Illinois locations were on the targeted scene in Brookfield Township Friday, including one unit from Wisconsin.

Smith confirmed some of the canines were cadaver dogs trained to seek out decomposing bodies opposed to search dogs, which are skilled in following a scent taken from personal items (clothes, etc.) of a person living or dead.

Templeton said he appreciated the numerous offers during the last few days by local residents wanting to volunteer for the massive search, but he insisted it was best to leave the efforts to the trained people on the scene who have experience in such operations.

It was not revealed if the search will continue through the weekend, as a blast of cold weather is predicted to descend on the area.

22

That gives me the shivers. She obviously wasn’t thinking well. Unless, Qwisp: Do you know how good the cell reception is in that area? Maybe she thought his phone was more likely to get a signal and walked toward the street to call for help?

23

According to my cousin, reception in that area is a bit iffy. He said that with his cell phone he was only getting a very weak (one bar) signal.

24

Sadly, I agree that she was dazed and confused, in no fit state to rescue herself, and that her body will be found when the weather improves. Or possibly never. I think it’s safe to assume that she is dead.

I keep telling myself, in the hopes of drilling it into my brain to the point that I can remember it even concussed, “STAY WITH THE CAR!” The car will be found a lot faster than I will be, injured, lost, and wandering in horrible weather.

25

It does sound like someone picked her up and drove her somewhere. That would be one heck of a coincidence that a sicko came by just as she’s leaving a wrecked car. Stranger things have happened.

26

It doesn’t really sound like that at all. As you say, it would be one heck of a coincidence; it’s far more likely that she was dazed and wandered off.

27

Well, it does, in the sense that the footprints stop at the road and the search parties and dogs haven’t found any trace … I think people who aren’t familiar with that area might not have a visceral feel for just how empty those roads can be. I’m pretty sure that, if I wrecked out on a road like that, I might well try to hike to the next farmhouse, especially if another occupant of the car was in urgent need of medical attention. (I know it says the husband was killed instantly–I’m presuming that she was not a medical professional capable of definitively verifying that.) That might take half an hour, and if someone’s home, they could call 911 on a landline. Waiting for a passerby might take hours. Waiting for a bar to show on your cellphone might take years. :slight_smile:

(I’ve never driven in that township, but I grew up around twenty miles from there, and I’ve driven late at night on the roads around Minooka. You don’t see another set of headlights very often if you’re not on a main drag …)

28

Right, unless the sicko caused the accident. :frowning:

I have this horrible idea that she is badly injured and being held by someone. Horrors.

The first article I read (which I now can’t find for some reason) said that they had hit the pole hard enough to break the backs of both front seats. That’s a really bad hit.

29

The cops might know if another car was involved by looking for tire tracks, skid marks, etc. Also by looking at the damage to the car. They have not mentioned another car have they?

30

Do recall that the road is a traveled surface. Even if snow-covered, the snow will be compressed and footprints won’t show. If light snow fell on the surface, the very first car to pass would wipe way much of the evidence. And if the roads are dry, or at least clear, well, there will be NO footprints.

An injured dazed person can walk quite a ways on those roads at night before the next car comes along, and if she turned off to try to reach a building or light in the distance, you can have one heckuva seperation from one set of prints at roadside and the next.

31

A few years back a local jogger disappeared and was found days later in the trunk of a car. It turned out the driver was a gang member collecting a victim for a pack rape, he’d deliberately run her over. The jogger’s injuries were so bad she couldn’t attempt to escape but not serious enough to provide her a quick or remotely painless death.

I think the autopsy decided she’d died several days after being hit, and several days before being found. Apparently she was so bady injured they never bothered taking her out of the trunk.

Also - my cousin was on the jury for a rape trial (1990’s ?) where the two rapists had been cruising the city until they found a woman who’d just been assaulted and mugged - they told her they’d take her to the police, so she got into their car without a struggle.

It’s not common, but it can happen.

I’m not in any way suggesting that it’s what happened in this case.

32

Yes, and an injured person would probably follow the most obvious path which would be the furrow from car treads, if the snow is deep. Where I am, the only clean part of the road is where the cars travel, I could walk across town on the exposed pavement without leaving a single print.

She stepped out of a slipper and kept on walking. That really does not bode well.

33

My theory: she murdered her husband, staged a crash, met her lover who was waiting in another car, and is now on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean.

34

A NJ guy killed his wife and tried to make it look like a crash. He was probably free and clear until he decided to sue Ford over the airbag killing his wife. Ford investigated and tipped off the cops. The cops don’t have enough evidence to try him but they think it was a murder, not a car crash.

35

So really, he WAS in the clear.

36

The car was found at 1:45 am. That can’t be more than three or four hours after they left the party. Perhaps it’s the mountain driver or the Canadian driver in me, but I reiterate: STAY WITH THE CAR! An injured and dazed accident victim heading out to farmhouse lights that may or may not even exist is disaster.

37

I prefer that theory to the one that maggenpye did NOT advance.

How successful are dogs in those conditions, scenting for something in a freeze after several hours?

38

Speaking of which, my cousin told me that no one called in the accident, and that it was discovered by a State Patrol Officer who happened to be going down that road and saw the car. I am sure they have probably figured out the time frame by now (when they left the party), but at the time it was first discovered, nobody knew how long the car had been there.

39

I like your theory much better than mine. Not sure which one sucks worse for her children though.

40

Yeah, beyond the gruesome fascination, there are kids who have most likely lost both their parents just before Christmas. Whatever the cause, the outcome for them is awful.