Woman Who Survived Crash That Killed Husband Still Missing
RANSOM, Ill. (CBS) - Wearing a long red dress on a freezing night, she vanished after a car crash killed her husband. The search for a missing mom has taken a new turn. CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports.
The search for Tanya Shannon was suspended Tuesday night. Crews have been searching for three and a half days. They say they will wait for warmer weather to melt some of the ice and snow, so that searchers can see more on the ground.
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In the meantime, neighbors are still anxious to hear more about what happened when the mother of four simply vanished.
"There's been no answers and that's frustrating a lot of people," said Bob Kelly.
That's what many were thinking as they gathered at Jerry's Tap, a bar in Ransom, Ill. -- the hometown of Tanya and Dale Shannon.
Tanya Shannon was wearing a red evening gown, unprepared for a car crash and freezing temperatures she would encounter.
She and her husband had just left a holiday party when police say he lost control of their car and slammed into a telephone pole early Sunday.
Dale Shannon died at the scene.
Earlier Tuesday, searchers pierced packed snow with broom handles near the crash scene looking for anything that might lead them to the missing woman.
They found footsteps leading away from the crash.
Police say there's no sign that Tanya Shannon may have wandered to safety. The sheriff says they are going under the assumption that someone in a passing vehicle may have seen her and picked her up.
Back in tiny downtown Ransom, neighbors are trying to help the Shannon family with donations collecting in a jar at the bar.
They're hoping investigators find Tanya Shannon alive. But they know the snow and the cold at the time would have been difficult to survive.
"The wind was blowing hard. Icy, snowy conditions," said Kelly. "That she didn't turn up at one of the close places; there's a house about half a mile away, a power plant is about a half a mile away, they have security there. It's just strange."
