Illinois man dies in crash; wife(Tanya Shannon) leaves car, vanishes(BODYFOUND)

[MuffyBee]

http://www.newstrib.com/articles/news/local/default.asp?article=24742&aname=BREAKING+NEWS%3A+Sheriff+releases+photos+of+missing+mom%2C+crash+scene
VIDEO
BREAKING NEWS: Sheriff releases photos of missing mom, crash scene
December 8, 2010


Submitted photo/La Salle County Sheriff's Office

OTTAWA — La Salle County Sheriff’s Office has released a number of photos regarding the disappearance of Tanya Shannon.
Some of the photos are of the early Sunday morning crash that left her husband, Dale Shannon, 41, of Ransom dead from spinal injuries he sustained when the car left the road and struck a utility pole, according to La Salle County Coroner’s Office. Other photos are of Tanya Shannon at various occasions.
Tanya Shannon, a 40-year-old mother of four, has been missing since Sunday. Authorities concluded a ground search for her yesterday after searching since Sunday.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Tanya Shannon should call the sheriff’s office at (815) 433-2161.

[Tolerance]

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/12/husband-of-woman-missing-after-crash-died-of-broken-neck.html

autopsy report for Dale Shannon.

Husband of woman missing after crash died of broken neck
December 8, 2010 12:38 PM | No Comments
A man who died in a crash in rural LaSalle County -- and whose wife apparently walked away and remains missing -- suffered a broken neck, according to preliminary autopsy results released today.

Dale Shannon, 41, of tiny Ransom, about 50 miles southwest of Joliet, was discovered at 1:45 a.m. Sunday behind the wheel of his car on the Grand Ridge Mazon Blacktop between East 26th and East 27th roads in Brookfield Township.
The car had spun out and hit a telephone poll about 20 feet off the road. Authorities found footprints in the snow near the car.

Shannon's wife, Tanya Shannon, apparently walked away from the crash in black Sketchers slippers. Police found one in footprints leading up to the road, LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton said.

Investigators called off the search for her Tuesday evening, and authorities say the cold and snow may keep them inside until next week.

Today, Templeton said authorities have picked up pings from Dale Shannon's cell phone. The pings are near the site of the crash.

"The thoughts are (the phone) could still be out in the snow somewhere and the battery isn't dead yet," Templeton said. "In this kind of weather it's astounding."

He also said it could be a false ping. Asked if Tanya Shannon took the phone with her to get help and that she could be buried in the snow with it, the sheriff said, "That's a definite possibility. We certainly can't rule anything out."

Police found Tanya Shannon's cell phone in the car, Templeton said.

[Fanny Mae]

I hope Tanya Shannon can be found soon. 

OT  Hi FannyMae!  Welcome back!   

Thanks Muffy!   

[KCJackie]

Small town rallies for missing mom's 4 girls Woman vanished after car crash that killed her husband 

By Kristen Schorsch, Tribune reporter
 
7:03 p.m. CST, December 8, 2010
Plastic jugs draped with a picture of four smiling Shannon daughters and messages about their plight rest along the bar at neighboring taverns in tiny Ransom.

The girls, ages 4 to 15, lost their father in a car crash Sunday in rural LaSalle County. Their mother apparently walked away and vanished, leaving behind only a slipper in a snowy footprint.

A three-day search for Tanya Shannon through miles of icy farm fields has yielded few clues. Police suspended the search Tuesday evening to wait for the ground to thaw, which might not happen until early next week, LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton said Wednesday.

The case continues to baffle authorities and relatives. They say Tanya Shannon never would have disappeared or not contacted her family. Police haven't ruled out that she might have been picked up.

Donations have been trickling in for the Shannon girls. Their tight-knit community of about 450 people is nearly 50 miles southwest of Joliet. A pile of bills sat Wednesday in the "jar on the bar" at Jerry's Tap, one of few stores on the town's lone downtown street. One couple also donated a box of canned goods, cereal and snacks, said Carl Watson, who manned the bar.

"It's starting to roll in," Watson said. "A lot of people are just becoming aware of what's going on. It'll pick up. I have faith."

The mystery began at 1:45 a.m. Sunday, when police found Dale Shannon, 41, dead behind the wheel in a one-vehicle crash on the Grand Ridge Mazon Blacktop between East 26th and East 27th roads in Brookfield Township.

The car had spun out, the rear hit a telephone pole and the vehicle veered about 20 feet off the road. Police found footprints in the snow. They apparently belong to Dale Shannon's wife, Tanya, last seen early Sunday wearing a ball gown and a hooded jacket as she and her husband left a holiday party in Streator, about 17 miles west of Ransom.

Dale Shannon died of a broken neck, according to preliminary autopsy results released Wednesday.

Police are treating Tanya Shannon's disappearance as a missing-person investigation, Templeton said. Authorities are monitoring her credit cards and cell phone, which police found in the car. They've also picked up pings near the crash site from Dale Shannon's cell phone, which is missing, Templeton said.

The phone could be with Tanya Shannon buried in the snow, or the pings could be false, Templeton said.

The Shannons' relatives declined to comment Wednesday. But residents said their thoughts are with the family.

"I'm kind of shocked that it happened at all," said Holly Armstrong, a bartender at Kats N Bags, which is collecting donations. "Just as long as we find (Tanya)."

Village President John Rzasa said Shannon's continued disappearance has residents worried.

"We're hoping for the best, but it doesn't look good," Rzasa said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-missing-tanya-shannon-20101208,0,7580441.story?track=rss

[MuffyBee]

http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=419605
Sheriff pledges Shannon will be found -- Disappearance remains a mystery
December 8, 2010







Photo: Provided
The damage to the rear end of Tanya Shannon's Dodge Neon appears extensive following a Sunday morning crash which killed Dale Shannon of Ransom and left her missing from the accident scene. Despite a three-day search — which has been suspended awaiting better weather — the mother of four has yet to be found. Information from a preliminary forensic report released Wednesday by the La Salle Coroner Office indicated Dale died as a result of trauma consistent with such an accident. This image was provided by the La Salle County Sheriff's Department.

La Salle County Sheriff Tom Templeton is as baffled as anyone by the disappearance of Tanya Shannon in rural Grand Ridge.

The sheriff insisted, however, his department would not give up on the case until Shannon is found.

"It is my sole focus right now," he said.

While news agencies across the nation report details on the local car crash that killed Tanya's husband, Dale Shannon of Ransom, and left a snow-covered mystery about her whereabouts, the investigation itself is stalled after a three-day search uncovered no clues.

"All the available evidence right now indicates that Tanya was in that car at the time when it crashed," Templeton told The Times Wednesday. He also confirmed the county deputy who found the accident 1:45 a.m. Sunday also discovered footprints in the snow that led away from the car and disappeared on the snow-packed road.

In one of those footprints, the deputy also found one of Tanya Shannon's slippers and later found her working cell phone in the car. The last person Tanya Shannon texted on the phone before she and husband left for a Streator holiday party Saturday night was her older sister, Corinne Johnson of Ottawa.

Dale Shannon's cell phone has not been located, but the sheriff said investigators told him "pings" from the unit were heard in the first few days following the crash, but attempts to triangulate an exact location were not possible because of tower limitations in the area, according to experts.

Templeton said pings are no longer being picked up.

Did Tanya Shannon walk into the darkness and lose her way in the cold or did someone pick her up? Templeton would not speculate and has seen few facts within rumors circulating across the county about the accident.

Preliminary autopsy results released Wednesday show Dale Shannon suffered a fatal neck injury as a result of the car crash impact.

La Salle County Coroner Jody Bernard said Wednesday morning Dale Shannon died from a broken neck, consistent with an accident of a vehicle hitting a utility pole with its back end. The middle rear of the Dodge Neon struck a wooden pole along the Grand Ridge-Mazon blacktop near the Exelon nuclear plant, crumpling the trunk.

Neither Bernard nor Templeton could say whether Dale Shannon was wearing a seat belt. Bernard added the preliminary autopsy was performed Monday and she is awaiting results of toxicology tests, which she expects sometime next week. There were no signs of alcohol consumption in the car.

Bernard said the car was going east when it spun and struck the pole. Dale's Shannon's death would have been immediate, she said.

More than a combined total of 170 volunteers and professionals searched in vain for miles around the crash site on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with aerial support and several K-9 units. The searching ended Tuesday to await better weather.

As for resuming the search, Templeton said he could not justify having searchers return to the scene in current conditions to look further when Tanya Shannon couldn't have walked very far that night in such brutal weather. He said more searches could be attempted once the weather warms up and the snow clears.

Meanwhile, the family of Dale and Tanya Shannon — who want the search to start again as soon as possible — wait for closure.
 

[KCJackie]

Tanya Shannon case: autopsy results on husband, crash scene photos released
December 8th, 2010 3:31 pm



LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton said late this afternoon investigators will not be able to find Tanya Shannon by following signals from her husband's cell phone.



He said the phone was giving out signals for a time on Monday, but authorities were unable to traingulate where those signals were coming from. He said the signals have now ceased, likely because of battery failure or the phone's exposure to the elements.

He denied published reports that said the phone was somewhere near the crash site.  He said there is no telling where the phone's signals were coming from.







EARLIER STORY:

The LaSalle County coroner says preliminary autopsy results released today show Dale Shannon of Ransom died of neck injuries when he lost control of the car he was driving and slammed into a utility road on Grand Ridge Mazon Blacktop early Sunday morning.

Specifically, a news release from Coroner Jody Bernard said autopsy results show he died of "cervical spinal injuries consistent with a rear end collision with a utility pole."

Results of toxicology tests are pending

Shannon's wife, Tanya, walked away from the accident but remains missing.

A three day air and land search failed to turn up any sign of Tanya and authorities have temporarily halted the search until weather conditions improve and the snow covering the farm fields near the crash site begins to melt. (See: Tanya SHannon search caled off until weather breaks, no sign of missing mom)

Tanya was dressed only in a floor length dress, fleece hoodie and slippers when she left the car.

Given the condition of the car and the fact her husband died of serious injuries injuries, authorities say it is possible Tanya herself was injured and disoriented when she exited the car.

Police came upon the accident scene at 1:45 a.m. Sunday morning and there was no sign of Tanya. Dale was found dead behind the wheel.

LaSalle County Sheriff's police released a series of photos from the accident scene and photos of Tanya in hopes that if she is alive somewhere, someone will see her and call authorities.

http://www.examiner.com/headlines-in-chicago/tanya-shannon-case-autopsy-results-on-husband-crash-scene-photos

[KCJackie]

  Oops!  Sorry Muffy I was busy re-sizing pics and didn't know you had already posted.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.pontiacdailyleader.com/features/x1714271774/Search-called-off
Search called off
By (AP)
Pontiac Daily Leader
Posted Dec 09, 2010 @ 06:30 AM
   Print Comment
Ransom, Ill. —

Preliminary autopsy results indicate a Dale Shannon, Ransom, found dead behind the wheel of his car over the weekend died of spinal injuries.

LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton said search and rescue teams suspended their search Tuesday afternoon for his wife, Tanya Shannon. He pointed out that the weather kept crews from searching Wednesday, and cold and snow may keep them inside until next week.

For the remainder of this story check out the E-edition or pick up a copy of The Daily Leader.
For the E-edition  just click on the E-edition link.

[MuffyBee]

Oops!  Sorry Muffy I was busy re-sizing pics and didn't know you had already posted.

It's okay.     We're all hoping Tanya Shannon will be found soon.  My heart goes out to her young children. 

[akmom]

This is just horrifying.  I feel so badly for this woman and her poor family.  I wish they would find her.  Is the weather really so bad??  I guess I am just used to harsh winter weather.  This reminds me of a case here that was just terrible.  A woman was due to check into prison for her part in the reckless death of another.  Her car was found wrecked on a very difficult road just days before.  They did not do their best in looking for her, I believe.  They thought she ran so that she would not have to go to prison....they found her when the snow melted in the spring.  Just awful.

[SuzieQ]

This is just horrifying.  I feel so badly for this woman and her poor family.  I wish they would find her.  Is the weather really so bad??  I guess I am just used to harsh winter weather.  This reminds me of a case here that was just terrible.  A woman was due to check into prison for her part in the reckless death of another.  Her car was found wrecked on a very difficult road just days before.  They did not do their best in looking for her, I believe.  They thought she ran so that she would not have to go to prison....they found her when the snow melted in the spring.  Just awful.

That is what I fear will happen here. With the car so badly damaged, Tanya had to be injured. They found one of her slippers. There is no way you lose one shoe and keep walking in the snow, if you are aware of what you are doing.

[ScareyCarrie]

This is just horrifying.  I feel so badly for this woman and her poor family.  I wish they would find her.  Is the weather really so bad??  I guess I am just used to harsh winter weather.  This reminds me of a case here that was just terrible.  A woman was due to check into prison for her part in the reckless death of another.  Her car was found wrecked on a very difficult road just days before.  They did not do their best in looking for her, I believe.  They thought she ran so that she would not have to go to prison....they found her when the snow melted in the spring.  Just awful.

That is what I fear will happen here. With the car so badly damaged, Tanya had to be injured. They found one of her slippers. There is no way you lose one shoe and keep walking in the snow, if you are aware of what you are doing.

This is exactly what i thought of when they first reported her slipper being found, at first i feared she was abducted, but when they started coming out with more info i think she may have hit her head and been disoriented, u couldnt walk long with no shoe in the snow if you werent disoriented or suffering from hypothermia, how they say you feel hot and disrobe type of thing...

i cant imagine, i wonder if she knew her husband was desceased  what a horrible ending to what i am sure was a lovely night...

i wonder has it just dumped snow since the accident?? i know when it snows then freezes it can make such a hard "shell" if you will over the snow that you  can litterally cut ur hand on it when trying to break it, i am thinking this may be one reason they have stopped searchign.

i just cant imagine she could have walked very far? especially with frozen toes

i feel so badly for her children, its one thing to lose both parents in a wreck and know they r both deceased, but to not know where ur mom is, how sad

[Terri]

My grandfather's financee was also found a day after a fatal accident that killed her loved one.  She died in a snow bank in town, not even rural.  It boggles the mind how people can be so close and yet so far.

Terri

[ScareyCarrie]

muffy, just wanted to say sorry if i seemed rude or in-sensitive earlier i was in no way laughing at her or the situation, i was merely laughing at my self and what i precieved to be a silly question. i dont want to offend you or anyone, i am sorry if i did.

this is a sad situation and i cant imagine being in anyones shoes related to this matter. i fear she is burried under a snow drift and deceased, that is why i was asking if dogs can smell thru snow, but i also remebered they can hit on things in the dirt, just was sure if it had to be above ground smells or if they could smell under layers of ground, be it snow, sand, mud or anything. i am sorry

[Leroy]

Search resumes for missing Ransom woman
Friday, December 10, 2010 Share With Friend
 
 
By Kevin Caufield
countyreporter@newstrib.com
 
 
RANSOM — La Salle County Sheriff’s Office officials resumed the search for missing Ransom woman Tanya Shannon after warm weather Friday caused a snow melt. However, the search Friday came up empty, according to the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Tom Templeton said county search and rescue personnel and cadaver search dogs were searching the area surrounding the site of the Sunday-morning car accident that 40-year-old Tanya Shannon is believed to have walked away from. Her husband, Dale E. Shannon, 41, was found dead in the driver’s seat from spinal injuries he sustained in the wreck.

Templeton said as of about 3 p.m. Friday that the search had failed to produce any results.
“Weather-permitting, we’ll go back out tomorrow,” he said. “All of the snow melting gives us an opportunity to search some areas more thoroughly.”
A sheriff’s deputy discovered the one-vehicle wreck around 1:45 a.m. Sunday. Footprints in the snow believed to be Tanya Shannon’s led away from the car and stopped at the roadway, Templeton said. One of Tanya Shannon’s slippers — she apparently had changed out of her heels for the ride home — was found by the road, indicating she might have been going for help, according to sheriff’s officials.
Sheriff’s officials are asking anyone with information regarding her whereabouts to call (815) 433-2161.

 
 
http://www.newstrib.com/articles/news/local/default.asp?article=24778&aname=Search+resumes+for+missing+Ransom+woman

[KCJackie]

Clues in Ill. mom's disappearance include slipper

By Associated Press ,

RANSOM, Ill. (AP) — The clues surrounding Tanya Shannon sound like the makings of a fairy tale: a red dress, a lone slipper, footprints in the snow. For friends and relatives of the northern Illinois mother of four, who vanished after a weekend car crash killed her husband, they're the makings of a nightmare.

Shannon was last seen leaving a friend's holiday party in her red dress 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 the slipper found a short ways away, 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."

Before the foot search was suspended Tuesday evening, dozens of people braved frigid temperatures for a third day 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.

The investigation will continue as a missing person case until the weather warms up, said LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton.

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."

Johnson said she last heard from Shannon through a text message around 9:45 p.m. Saturday when Shannon was apparently at the party. It read, "I can text ya 2morrow at dales xmas party all dressed up."

Johnson said she and her sister talked about the condition of the roads before the party, and that Shannon said she wasn't afraid to drive, especially since she had lived in Illinois for twenty years.

At first, Johnson said she thought the disappearance was due to "something silly." But she said she changed her mind as crews searched for a third day Tuesday without finding any clues.

"I wasn't thinking something drastic like this," Johns said. "She just wouldn't walk away from this, this is her life."

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.

Related Images:

                   


       
       
     Corrine (Shannon's sister)

http://topnews360.tmcnet.com/topics/associated-press/articles/2010/12/11/125757-clues-ill-moms-disappearance-include-slipper.htm

[KCJackie]

Please light a candle for Tanya - may she be found safe! 

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=tanya   

[MuffyBee]

Please light a candle for Tanya - may she be found safe! 

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=tanya   

Thank you, KCJackie.  I've set up a thread in the Gratefulness Candles Area for Tanya:
http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=9121.0
Tanya Shannon 40, Ransom, Illinois, last seen 12/04/10

[Bearlyhere]

Please light a candle for Tanya - may she be found safe! 

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=tanya   

Thank you, KCJackie.  I've set up a thread in the Gratefulness Candles Area for Tanya:
http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=9121.0
Tanya Shannon 40, Ransom, Illinois, last seen 12/04/10

Thanks, both of you!

 

[Tolerance]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/illinois&id=7848521

  
December 16, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Court records show that a missing LaSalle County woman had filed for divorce from her late husband, but officials say her husband was never served the divorce papers.


Tanya Shannon, 40, disappeared December 5. Investigators think she and her husband were driving home from a holiday party when their car crashed. Dale Shannon died.


Related Photos


Missing Ransom Mom: La Salle County Sheriff's Department releases photos

View all 6 photos
A downstate newspaper is reporting the Dale Shannon's blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit.

Police found footprints in the snow leading away from the car, but they have not located Tanya Shannon.

According to court documents, she had accused her husband of mental cruelty. The Shannons have four daughters. A paternal aunt and uncle have filed a petition for guardianship.

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Story: Search suspended for woman missing after crash

Edit to change color of full post from blue to black.  MB