Police say woman wanted to end marriage

A Des Plaines woman has told police she just wanted a "clean and quick" break from her marriage when she abandoned her car in a forest preserve last week and hit the road for California with a friend -- sparking an intense search by family and police who deemed her missing.

Anu Solanki, 24, who returned to the Chicago area Friday to meet with investigators, insisted to them that she'd never meant to stage her disappearance, said Bill Cunningham, a Cook County sheriff's police spokesman.

"She said she did not intend to deceive anyone," he said, adding Solanki also expressed embarrassment and regret and never thought her hasty disappearance "would create this sort of reaction."

"She merely wanted to make a clean and quick break from her marriage, and leave town," Cunningham said.

Solanki was married to her husband, Dignesh, in May ceremony after the two had dated about two years.

The friend she left with, a 23-year-old man, is someone she'd met through a mutual friend about a year ago, Cunnigham said. The two told police they're close friends.

No charges have been filed. Police plan to meet with prosecutors, likely Monday, to determine whether a crime actually was committed, Cunningham said.

Authorities also will determine whether the county can demand reimbursement for the estimated $250,000 spent on the widespread search.

"If … legally we can recoup that money, we will," Cunningham said Saturday.

Divers and police spent two days last week searching the Des Plaines River and its banks near Dam No. 1 Woods in Wheeling, where Solanki's car was found Monday.

She'd last been seen leaving her job at the Westin Hotel gift shop in Wheeling at about 2 p.m. that day, and had told her husband she was on her way to the river to dispose of a broken Hindu deity.

She did, in fact, dispose of that statue, Cunningham said -- throwing it into the water, as advised by a priest. She then hopped into the car of her friend, who apparently had driven from Los Angeles that morning, and headed west.

Solanki told police she left her car behind because it belonged to her husband, Cunningham said.

Solanki and her friend later saw media reports about her disappearance. Once aware of the reaction it had stirred, she contacted her family, Cunningham said, then flew to Chicago to meet with police. Police also have talked to her friend by phone, he said.