River search Thursday produces nothing

MOUNT PROSPECT, IL (WLS) -- As police in boats searched further down the Des Plaines River, the family of a missing suburban woman distributed fliers in the area where she was last seen.

Anu Solanki, 24, was last seen leaving her job at a gift shop at a Wheeling hotel Monday. Her car, which was still running with its doors unlocked, was found in a forest preserve parking lot late Monday afternoon.

Forest preserve police used divers to search the river in the Wheeling Forest Preserve Wednesday but stayed inside the boats Thursday. They concluded the river search at 2 p.m. Thursday after nothing was found. The water search may continue Friday, weather permitting.

Police extended their search to an area six miles downstream from their original start point. They began Thursday morning at the Dam Number Two woods in Mount Prospect and slowly worked their way up the Des Plaines River back to Wheeling.

Solanki's husband said his wife may have gone to the river to place a broken statue of the Hindu deity Ganesh in the water, as they were told to do by a priest, to prevent bad luck. Authorities fear the woman slipped while placing the statue in the current.

"Everybody is sad right now. They are praying for her return. You know, we're going to get briefed by the police in their own way. I'm just, you know, just here to support my family. If anybody knows anything out there, they can call the police if they have seen anything," said Alkesh Patel, cousin.

Police are checking the validity of a report that Solanki called a relative and said she was being watched, but then called back minutes later to say she was fine.

"I remember when I was a kid, back in 1985, I went to India and I met her. And she was a little baby. She sucked her thumb a lot. She'd yank it out, and she would cry," Patel said.

He and two other relatives drove to nearby businesses to post and hand out fliers with Solanki's picture on them.

"What I'm going to do is hit the local areas where there is traffic and people, and maybe somebody will see something or maybe somebody knows something," Patel said.

"We don't know where Anu is right now, but we've been searching everywhere. So we don't know. We're scared right now," said her husband, Dignesh Solanki.

Solanki's husband was questioned by police Thursday. He said he was back home late Thursday afternoon and all that he wants is to find out what happened to his wife.

Investigators confirmed that they spoke to Solanki's husband and two other relatives, but it was for informational gathering purposes and as of right now, they have no suspects in her disappearance.

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