CHICAGO (AP/CBS 2) - Cook County sheriff's police say authorities haven't determined if they will seek civil damages against a married suburban Chicago woman whose disappearance to be with another man prompted a costly search.
Sheriff's police spokeswoman Penny Mateck says prosecutors and sheriff's police concluded Monday that criminal charges were not appropriate against either 24-year-old Anu Solanki of Wheeling or the man she fled with.
Solanki seemingly vanished near the Des Plaines River only to be found days later with another man across the country. Her husband said he thought his wife was abducted or swept into the suburban Chicago river trying to dispose of a broken Hindu religious statue on Christmas Eve.
Solanki's disappearance to escape a dissatisfying marriage sparked a $250,000 search. She will not face criminal charges, authorities said Monday, because she never filed a false police report.
But prosecutors may try to recoup the $250,000 spent on a four-day search of the Des Plaines River after she was reported missing on Christmas Eve.
The Cook County State's Attorney's Office also confirmed no criminal charges will be filed against Karan C. Jani, the man she fled with.
"They both maintained they are close friends and it's not a romantic relationship," said sheriff's office spokesman Bill Cunningham. "The investigators told her she's basically free to go, but we might get in touch in the future."
Solanki, 24, was the subject of a four-day search after she vanished on Christmas Eve. Her car was found empty with some of her belongings in a Wheeling forest preserve after she finished work at a nearby Westin Hotel, according to Cunningham.
According to Solanki's husband, Dignesh Solanki, she had told him she planned to stop at the riverside forest preserve to properly dispose of a broken Hindu religious statue that had been used at their May wedding.
She told investigators that she did, in fact, dispose of the statue, then got into Karan Jani's car, Solanki's friend, and began heading west toward California, Cunningham said. They ended up in Los Angeles, where Jani was trying to help Solanki find a roommate, Cunningham said.
But no one heard from her after that, sending family and investigators on a massive search of the area.
It wasn't meant to look like there was foul play or tragedy involved in her disappearance, Cunningham said on Saturday.
Solanki left the car behind with the doors open and engine running because "she wanted a clean break from her husband (Dignesh Solanki) and her marriage and didn't want to have any of his possessions," Cunningham said.
"She told us that she, in no way, meant to concoct some sort of hoax or leave the impression she fell in the water," Cunningham said. "She expressed regret and embarrassment about the reaction."
After seeing a report about Solanki on the Internet and telling her, she decided to return to Chicago. She reached out to one of her brothers and flew back late Thursday or early Friday, Cunningham said.
The four-day search for Solanki involved several police departments. Chief Richard Waszak of the Cook County Forest Preserves said they had a minimum of 40 people working around the clock during the investigation.
The cost of the search was estimated conservatively at $250,000, Waszak said.
Saturday, Solanki's older brother Dhiren Patel wouldn't say if his sister explained why she decided to leave without telling her husband or family.
Patel thanked authorities for working round the clock to try to find his sister when it wasn't clear what had happened and he said he'll be working now to try and lift his sister from the troubled place that caused her to cause so much heartache.
Police say Jani and Solanki had met about a year earlier and had been corresponding on the phone and Internet ever since. But Solanki's husband didn't know of his wife's contact with Jani.
Solanki's husband spoke out on Monday, saying he was worried sick when his wife disappeared one week ago. Now, he only wants to ask her "why?"
"If she really wants to be with that guy why did she come into my life?" Solanki said.
Over the weekend, sheriff's investigators said Solanki's husband and family were unaware of the relationship with Jani, a recent graduate of the University of Southern California. Jani was introduced to Solanki by a mutual friend about a year ago, Cunningham said.
But Monday, Dignesh Solanki says he's happy his wife is safe, but bitter over the pain she caused by fleeing with another man, Karan Jani, to California.
"She is saying that she was really unhappy in our marriage," Solanki said. "For me it was the same thing, but I was just trying to work on it and we were still happy too. I never would do this kind of stuff, and just go like this -- at least she could tell me something."
Solanki added, he would have been willing to send his wife home for a little while, if she needed a break from him.
Dignesh Solanki told the Sun-Times he expects Jani to face God's punishment.
"She was talking to him before, even six months before we got married," Solanki said. "So I don't know why she used me and for what purpose."
When asked if he would take her back, Dignesh Solanki said, "Right now I don't know anything. I really want to talk to her first about this thing."
Dignesh Solanki says he never hit his wife or spoke harshly to her.
"I completely trusted her. I would never have run away with another girl," Dignesh Solanki, 27, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "I would have tried to work it out."
The young couple were born in India's Gujarat state, and were married Oct. 6, 2006, after Dignesh Solanki's mother introduced the two. They held a second Hindu wedding on May 6 in New Jersey.
Dignesh Solanki acknowledged the couple's marriage was strained and the two squabbled over finances and housekeeping.
Still, he said he was in love. And during the past year the couple traveled to Las Vegas, the Wisconsin Dells and the Indiana Dunes.
"I have to go on with my own life," he said. "If she had to run away, she could have told me she needed a break from me."
Anu Solanki has been in seclusion since she returned to the area and told her story to Cook County Sheriff's Police.
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
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