Missing West Chicago woman found alive and well in Chicago

A West Chicago woman who was missing for the past three days was found walking on Chicago's Canal Street by an advocacy group organizer, her husband said Sunday afternoon.

Found unharmed and a little disorientated, 48-year-old Marcie Schulien later admitted to her husband and police that the stress of day-to-day life had made her walk out the door of a friend's Chicago condominium three days before.

"She apologized, said she was sorry," her husband, Robert Schulien said. "I told her 'You're home. That's all I care about.'"

Andrew Holmes of No Guns for No Violence was set to run a Sunday morning press conference near the area where 48-year-old Marcie Schulien disappeared Wednesday afternoon.

Holmes, Robert Schulien said, had a flier of the missing woman in his hand when he spotted her, asking if she was Marcie.

"He said, 'Your mother's looking for you,'" Robert Schulien said. "And she told him, 'I want to go home.'"

Holmes then called police, who took Marcie Schulien into custody and called her family.

"It was a lot of crying, we were just elated," Robert Schulien said.

Marcie's mother, Willine Mahony, went first into the interrogation room to see her daughter.

"I didn't want everyone rushing her at once," Robert Schulien said.

Mahony and her husband, Len, live next door to the Schuliens in West Chicago., The past three days, Robert said, were a nightmare for them, too.

"I thought I was watching my in-laws age over the past three days," he said.

Schulien disappeared Wednesday afternoon from a friend's Hyde Park apartment that she and her husband had been helping paint and rehab, leaving behind her identification, credit cards and cell phone.

Robert Schulien said Saturday that he had been growing increasingly concerned and that his wife had been acting differently in the last week. "She always thinks before acting, but her behavior in the last week has been out of character," he said.

He said police told him Saturday that a mechanic at a nearby Hyde Park gas station spoke with his wife shortly after she left the condominium. Marcie Schulien asked for money so that she could go to Union Station, but the mechanic didn't give her anything, he said.

Schulien said times have been tough because he's been out of work for more than two years. His wife, a systems analyst at a Westchester company, has been the sole financial provider.

The couple have four dogs and no children.

Marcie Schulien told police that she'd been staying at Pacific Garden Mission, a shelter on Canal Street. She told police she was grateful for the hot meals, the change of clothes and the support that she was given.

"My wife wants to give back," Robert Schulien said. "She's a very giving person."

Sunday afternoon, Marcie was back at home in West Chicago, taking a long, hot bath and washing her hair.

The couple planned to "go and have a big meal" at the Mahony's house later that evening.

"We're going to go to the doctor tomorrow and have her checked out," he said. "Get our lives on track. I feel very fortunate."