Cops: Missing Woman Likely Took Off With Friend

Dec. 28, 2007— -- Authorities say that a married Illinois woman whose car was found Monday by the side of a river after she reputedly went there to perform a traditional Hindu ceremony is likely alive and on the run with a male friend.

Investigators discovered cell phone records that indicate that 24-year-old Anu Solanki took off on her own accord, according to Steve Mayberry, a spokesman for the Cook County Forest Preserve District.

Specifically, phone records showed that while Solanki was calling a friend Monday to say that she was being followed by four men as she drove to a local river, she actually was driving through DeKalb, Ill., on the interstate about 60 miles away, according to a press release from Cook County authorities.

Police believe she may have met a friend, 23-year-old Karan Jani at the river and left with him voluntarily. Jani placed "several cell phone calls" to Solanki when she was at work the day of her disappearance.

Authorities now are searching for Solanki and Jani, a recent graduate of the University of Southern California who may still be living on the West Coast. Earlier this year, the man also lived in Pennsylvania, according to authorities.

The announcement by law enforcement this afternoon follows more than three days of searching by police and sheriff's officers on the ground, from the air and in the Des Plaines River, the suburban Chicago waterway near where Solanki's Honda Civic was found on Christmas Eve. The door of the car had been left open and the engine was running. Solanki's laptop and purse were reportedly missing.

The search for Solanki had resumed this morning with cadaver-sniffing dogs working the area but was suspended at 11 a.m.

Solanki was last seen leaving her job at the gift shop in a Westin Hotel in Wheeling, Ill. Earlier this week, her husband, Dignesh Solanki, told ABC News' Chicago affiliate WLS that she had planned to stop by the river after a religious idol of the Hindu deity Ganesh kept at their Des Plaines home broke.

The family's priest, citing a tradition of the religion, had instructed the family not to keep the broken statue in the house but instead to either bury it or bring it to a body of water. The statue had been used in the couple's 2006 wedding ceremony.

Authorities, however, found no signs of foul play, according to Mayberry, and initial ground searches turned up nothing.

Dignesh Solanki originally told WLS that he believed his wife may have been the victim of a crime. After Solanki left her hotel job around 2 p.m. Monday, her husband said she telephoned a friend to say she thought that four men were following her as she drove to the forest preserve. Five minutes later, she called the friend back to say that the men appeared to be gone. It was the last time her family and friends heard from her. Her abandoned car was found at 4:30 p.m.