Tanya Shannon

Authorities in Illinois are searching for a woman who disappeared after a car accident that killed her husband, WGNtv.com reports.
Police said 40-year-old Tanya Shannon and her husband, Dale, were in their car when it crashed Sunday near Seneca, Ill., about 80 miles from Chicago.
The accident left Dale Shannon dead. His wife, however, was missing from the vehicle and a check of area hospitals has yielded no clues, authorities said.
Police reportedly said that they believed Tanya Shannon survived the crash because they found footprints leading from the car to the road.
She is described as 5-feet-2 with strawberry blond hair and green eyes, according to the station.


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Wonder what happened to this woman. It reminded me of Faith's story.

I wonder if someone ran them off the road and took Tanya?  Someone from the party??  The accident took place only 10 minutes after they left the party.

Templeton said the accident took place when their car hit slick pavement and went off the right side of the road, then struck a power pole. The accident occurred 10 minutes after the couple left the gathering.

The missing woman is Tanya M. Shannon, 40, of 119 Wallace St., Ransom. She is 5-foot, 2-inches tall, weighs 125 pounds, has strawberry blond shoulder length hair, green eyes and glasses. She was last seen wearing a red dress and a grey fleece hooded jacket.

He said Tanya Shannon's high heeled shoes were found in the front seat of the car. She had apparently slipped them off while in the car, and donned a pair of slipper-type shoes with open backs, as tracks were leading from the driver's side door of the car on through the roadside ditch and up to the highway, where one slipper-shoe was found.

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A lot of similarities here between Tanya's case and Faith's, or is it just me?

Tanya and Dale Shannon at the party before her disappearance

Family members say a picture of the couple was taken last night - at a holiday party shortly before the accident.

Tanya Shannon is 40-years old, 5' 2" with shoulder length strawberry blonde hair and green eyes.

Donna Baker is the Dale's sister. She said the couple were at a Christmas party in Streator and left with everyone else shortly after midnight.

"They (Dale and Tanya) were having a great time--they were dancing together, really cutting up a rug," she said. "Both left the party arm in arm. I had no idea anything like this would happen."

"They had four daughters --15, 10, 7 and 4. Britanny (the 15-year old) is in shock, the younger ones don't know what to make of it. The family was very close. Tanya and Dale were married for 20 years. Right now I have the kids until we find Tanya"

"It's very mysterious what might of happened to Tanya. We checked the area hospitals and nothing, so we don't know if someone picked her up and took her somewhere. We just don't know," Dale said. "The Sheriff told us that the car spun around and the back end hit the pole. They told me it broke Dale's back."

She said Dale was a diesel mechanic and that Tanya is a part-time waitress at the Turtle Tap in Morris.

"It was her car they drove, but Dale drove it. He was sober at the party. He was very responsible and adamant about taking precautions when they went out. I know the accident wasn't a result of anything like that," she said. "Her family just wants her back."

Investigators ask anyone with information to call the LaSalle County Sheriff's office at 815-433-2161.

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This is horrible! I hope someone didn't take advantage of her needing help and doing who knows what with her!

I read this earlier today on WS and immediately thought of Faith! The similarities are erie.
I sure hope they find her and I feel so bad for her and the kids, losing the husband/Dad like that. Truly horrible.

Search Suspended For Illinois Mother Who Disappeared After Fatal Car Crash
Authorities have suspended their search for an Illinois woman who disappeared after a weekend car crash that killed her husband.
Tanya Shannon, 40, 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 Sgt. Jeff Whalen of the LaSalle County Sheriff's office. "We have no idea what happened."
Dozens of searchers braved frigid temperatures for a third day Tuesday 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.
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.
"It's just a continuing search; I wish we had more," Whalen said.
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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Why was the search suspended? Does this mean the weather interrupted the search and it will resume or have they given up searching the immediate area for some reason?

Dale Shannon, the Ransom man killed in a single-vehicle crash outside Grand Ridge Dec. 5, had a blood alcohol concentration of .266, more than three times the state's legal limit, according to a toxicology report released Thursday.

The BAC level contradicts earlier reports from family and friends that Dale was not drinking that night. Shannon's wife, Tanya, was believed to be in the vehicle with Dale Shannon at the time of the crash, but she has yet to be found.

The autopsy report, provided by the La Salle County Coroner's Office, also confirmed Dale Shannon's cause of death as "cervical spinal injuries due to a motor vehicle striking a fixed object." He was found dead behind the wheel of a 2001 Dodge Neon. The rear of the vehicle crumpled against an electrical pole, breaking his neck. Investigators have said Shannon, 41, was not wearing a seat belt.

The couple was reportedly coming from a company Christmas party at the Streator Knights of Columbus Hall and headed toward a family gathering in Seneca before the crash.

Authorities have said evidence found at the site indicates Tanya Shannon was in the car at the time of the crash and walked away under her own power. After days of searching last week with ground and air crews, no trace of the missing mother of four girls has been uncovered. No plans to resume the search have been announced.

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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.

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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The sister and brother of a Ransom man killed in a Dec. 5 accident — from which a passenger, the man’s wife, remains missing — have been awarded temporary custody of four children.
Donna M. Baker and Duane A. Shannon were granted co-guardianship of the daughters of Dale and Tanya Shannon in a Tuesday hearing in La Salle County Circuit Court, according to court records.
The order was entered with no opposition or objection from Tanya’s sister, Corrine Johnson, who also was present at the hearing.
Judge Eugene P. Daugherity awarded Baker and Duane Shannon custody of the girls, ages 4-15, and also gave them “the right to control the disposition” of Dale Shannon’s remains.
Dale and Tanya Shannon last were seen together at a Dec. 4 Christmas party in Streator, which they left between 11:30 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 5.
At 1:45 a.m., a La Salle County sheriff’s deputy discovered Tanya’s car in a snowy ditch, smashed rear-first into a utility pole six miles north of Ransom.
Dale Shannon, 41, was dead behind the wheel with a spinal injury. Toxicology results released later showed a blood-alcohol content more than three times the legal limit.
Tanya Shannon, 40, was nowhere to be found. Officers found one of her slippers outside the car and footprints in the snow. Extensive searches of the area have been fruitless and she remains missing.

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Search teams in LaSalle County were out Friday looking for a woman who has been missing since a car crash that killed her husband earlier this month.

Authorities hoped the warmer temperatures might help them find Tanya Shannon.

Following the crash that killed her husband, deputies found footprints in the snow leading away from the wrecked car. But there's been no sign of the 40-year-old woman.
Investigators searched a bit Friday, but the heavy rain forced them to temporarily suspend their efforts.

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Body of Missing Illinois Woman Tanya Shannon Found in Field
Published January 03, 2011
| FoxNews.com
Police in Illinois have found the body of a woman who disappeared from the scene of a December 5 car crash that killed her husband.
Tanya Shannon, 40, apparently wandered off after her husband Dale Shannon crashed their car on Dec. 5. Her body was discovered Monday in an open field in Brookfield Township approximately three-quarters of a mile from the crash site, police said.
An autopsy has been scheduled for later this week.
The LaSalle County Sheriff's Office had resumed its search Monday after suspending it until the recent snowmelt.
The search included people on the ground, about 15 people on horseback and a helicopter.
Shannon's family members told police they were very appreciative to everyone for their efforts to locate Tanya, and requested that their privacy be respected at this time.

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This crash was alcohol related and didn't have to happen. How sad for the children who have lost both of their parents.

I'm so sad for those poor children who lost both parents due to alcohol!
Shame on their parents for not being more responsible, we all know not to drive when we've been drinking and in that weather, oh heck no.
So sad for the kids and family.

raine,

Truthfully, I thought that since they were supposed to be getting a divorce, that someone else picked her up and she went on with her life. Guess my theory was wrong.

I am very sad for the children that lost their parents. It will not help them that it was alcohol related, something that easily could have been prevented.

Very sad! I am glad they continued to looked for her in the most likely spot instead of assuming all the other possibilities and giving up on the search. This case and the case of Kristi Cornwell, who was recently found by her brother after more than a year missing, remind me of another case of a woman who seems to have disappeared after a car accident. I have been hoping for a continued and dilligent search for Faith, although maybe the outcome of the search can be different.

She wandered for 3/4 of a mile before falling down and dying? Seems to me that all missing persons following an accident in which they are missing from the scene should be immediately and diligently searched for over a wide geographical area. If a person has a head injury and is confused and keeps walking aimlessly before losing conciousness, then there is time to save that person if found promptly. This is so sad that this mother was not located in time to save her for the sake of her children, adding to the sadness that those same children had lost their father earlier.

Autopsy: Woman found in field died from exposure

A rural LaSalle County mother of four whose body was found Monday after she disappeared nearly a month ago died from exposure to the cold, according to preliminary autopsy results today from the LaSalle County coroner's office.

Tanya Shannon, 40, of tiny Ransom, about 50 miles southwest of Joliet, did not have any signs of trauma, coroner Jody Bernard said. Results from toxicology tests are pending and likely won't be available for a few weeks.
Shannon disappeared on Dec. 5 after walking away from a crash that killed her husband, Dale Shannon, in rural Brookfield Township. Last seen in a ball gown and a hooded jacket, Shannon left behind a slipper in a snowy footprint, and her trail ended at the road.

Authorities combed snow-covered fields by air and by foot for Shannon for three days before suspending the search until the ground thawed.

Shannon's body was found Monday morning in a frozen soybean field, about three-quarters of a mile southeast of the crash site.

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How sad. I sure feel for their children, to lose both parents is bad enough but to lose both parents because of alcohol, my heart breaks for the four orphaned children.
I realize that toxicology tests are pending but I'm willing to bet she was drunk too. JMOO.
There's an interesting comment by 'whattheheck ', don't know if this really happens like they said thou'.

I don't understand why it would take so long to find her.

BJ♥OR wrote:

Is Tanya holding that cigarette up to her daughters mouth? In this day in age I am shocked to see an adult smoke while holding a child let alone so close to her face.

It certainly does look like she's holding that cigarette up to that child's mouth and she might as well be as it's right in her face! I'm not going to say that she doesn't care about her daughter's health but I don't think anyone can claim ignorance these days about smoke and children, and yet some still ignore it and still smoke in their faces. Shame on her and everyone who does this.

I thought the same thing about the cigarette when I first looked at the picture. It's a wonder the poor child is not coughing her head off.

with you raine and LM.

I thought the exact same thing but didn't say anything as my son calls me "The Smoking Nazi".

She looked like she liked to party.

I hope that poor little girl is with good people!

Toxicology test results for LaSalle County woman found in snow
LASALLE COUNTY, Ill. — Toxicology test results show a LaSalle County woman found dead earlier this month after walking away from a car crash that killed her husband was not legally drunk.

Tanya Shannon's blood alcohol level was 0.053, below the state's legal limit for driving of 0.08, according to LaSalle County Coroner Jody Bernard.

An autopsy showed Shannon died from cold exposure, Bernard said.

Searchers found the mother of four on Jan. 3. She'd disappeared from the scene of the single-car crash that killed her husband, Dale Shannon, leaving behind only a slipper and footprints in the snow on Dec. 5.

Dale Shannon was found dead behind the wheel of the car.

His blood-alcohol content was found to be 0.266.

The couple was returning home from a holiday party when their car left the road and struck a light pole.

Crews searched for days for Tanya Shannon but had to stop their search due to heavy snow and frigid temperatures.

Her body was found almost a month later in a field about a mile away.
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Soooooo sad, also avoidable.

It is sad, but it also makes me mad. Now, there is a little girl w/out her mother and father all for a night out of boozing it up and getting behind the wheel.