Maybe There's Hope For Stepha Henry After All

I know what you're saying. This odd holiday disappearance from Chicago-land has few parallels with our missing sista, but think bigger.

Family members arranged a meeting at an undisclosed location between investigators and a married woman from Illinois whose disappearance on Christmas Eve prompted a costly search.

Anu Solanki, 24, met with law enforcement officials at an undisclosed location Friday, said Cook County sheriff's police spokesman Steve Mayberry.

"I don't care why she left," her brother, Dhiren Patel, told reporters. "Hey, she's alive. That's the most important thing."

Cell phone records indicated Solanki had left voluntarily with a 23-year-old male friend from California, authorities said earlier Friday. Mayberry did not know whether the friend, Karan C. Jani, had returned with Solanki.

"As far as I'm aware her physical condition is fine," Mayberry said. "At this time she hasn't been charged with anything."

Solanki's husband, who lived with his wife near suburban Des Plaines, was not aware of her friendship with Jani, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told reporters.

Anu Solanki's car was found Monday in a forest preserve parking lot, triggering the search by police and relatives, who distributed flyers with her picture. A sheriff's department helicopter was also used in the search.

Authorities spent about $250,000 on the search and in investigating Solanki's disappearance, Dart said.

Seriously, how would you like to be this woman's husband right about now? Your wife disappears on Christmas Eve, concocts some story about suspicious folks (wanna guess which race) following her to a park where she is to dispose of a religious statue, and it turns out that she just wanted to creep with her MySpace jumpoff the whole time.

Somebody got some s'plainin' to do.

Outside the completely triflin' nature of this story, I do see a silver lining. This woman's search was immediate, and very costly, darn near to the tune of a cool 1/4 mill, which she may or may not have to pay back based on prior examples (see The Runaway Bride). And lets not overlook the obvious, this is also a woman of color. The fact that law enforcement cared enough to throw those kinds of resources at looking for her (although I'm sure the suburban jurisdiction and timing had lots to do with the sense of urgency) is encouraging on some level.

Maybe there's hope for the recovery of Stepha Henry after all.

Ill. Woman Missing on Christmas Eve Fine [AP]

A Stepha Henry Update: Family Faces Christmas Without Daughter [AP]