Woman’s car found, she’s missing

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Maria A. Carlsen

Updated: March 17, 2012 10:21AM

NORTH BARRINGTON — Authorities are asking for help in locating a woman whose abandoned vehicle was found at a restaurant near Wauconda after she wasn’t home for a limousine ride to the airport.

Lake County sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday went to the home of Maria Carlsen, 61, in the 0 to 100 block of Lakeside Lane in North Barrington after being called by family members to make a well-being check. The family had not heard from her since Monday around 2 p.m., according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Carlsen had been scheduled to take a limousine to O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday morning to fly to Boca Raton, Fla., to meet her husband. When the limo arrived, they found that her bags were packed, but she and her vehicle, a 2010 black BMW 5 Series, were missing.

Authorities later found the BMW in the parking lot of JD’s Restaurant at Route 12 and Old Rand Road in unincorporated Wauconda.

Sheriff’s deputies, reserve deputies and Lake County Forest Preserve rangers have searched the area around the restaurant without success in finding her.

Carlsen is described as 5-foot 4-inches tall, weighing 115 pounds, brown eyes and brown hair with a few red highlights. It is unknown what she was wearing when she disappeared.

Investigators have been working very closely with the Carlsen family and are asking for assistance from the public in locating her. Anyone with information should call the sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division at (847) 377-4250.