Searchers find missing Hoffman Estates woman, another mystery

The missing 88-year-old Alzheimer's patient who was last seen Sunday night walking her dog near Hoffman Estates High School has been found, safe and sound.

However, there's a new mystery. A helicopter assisting in the search found something else - an abandoned car in a Schaumburg pond near the area where the woman disappeared.

The woman, Astrid Nordgren, was confused but in good health when she was discovered around 2 p.m. Monday at an unoccupied home on the 1500 block of Glen Lake Road. After her walk she apparently entered the unlocked home by mistake - it's a little more than 1,200 feet south of her home on the 1500 block of Fairfield Lane, said Hoffman Estates police Sgt. Greg Poulos said.

Nordgren's son last saw her at 6:30 p.m. Sunday before she went for her regular walk up the block with her black poodle Tootsie, Poulos said. A woman called police to say her husband may have seen Nordgren enter the house on Glen Lake, Poulos said.

Paramedics took her to St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates as a precaution.

Tootsie was also recovered Monday and taken home, police added.

Nordgren has gone missing before, but people in the neighborhood have always found her and returned her home, Poulos added.

Officers from multiple police departments used dogs, and civilians went door-to-door with fliers.

Meanwhile, a helicopter crew looking for Nordgren discovered a submerged car in a pond behind a shopping center at Remington and Basswood roads in Schaumburg, Schaumburg police Sgt. John Nebl said.

When the older model vehicle was dragged out of 8 or 9 feet of water, no one was inside and the license plates and vehicle identification number had been removed, Nebl added.

Police currently believe it could have been a stolen car abandoned in the pond some time ago.

• Daily Herald Staff Writer Eric Peterson contributed to this report.