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Whatever
Happened...
Question: What ever happened to the Illinois woman who abandoned her family while vacationing here in 1996? Vacationing Illinois
mom’s fantasy
didn’t lastAnswer: Hawaii police and worried relatives searched for Connie Lindburg for two weeks in February 1996 after she failed to board the plane that would have taken her home to her two sons in Elmhurst, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.
Lindburg, then 33, was vacationing on Maui with her husband, Russell, when she cut short the trip because of a family emergency in Illinois. Connie Lindburg was supposed to go home to the couple's two sons, Grant, then 4, and Adam, then 15 months. Russell Lindburg was to stay on Maui a few extra days for business, then rejoin his wife.
But Connie Lindburg never made the plane. For two weeks, police searched while family and friends worried that she'd had an accident, been abducted or worse.
It turned out she had been hiding from them, living out a fantasy of sailing, surfing and horseback riding. After being found, Connie Lindburg said she loved her children and husband of six years, whom she described as a good man.
But life as a stay-at-home mom was stifling, and she wanted to follow her dream of living in Hawaii and maybe singing in a nightclub.
Well, if marriages don't always last, neither do fantasies. Connie Lindburg did not stay in Hawaii long, returning to Elmhurst after "a few months at most. She didn't do all the things she said she'd do," according to a family member who asked not to be identified. "She wanted to see her children."
Connie and Russell Lindburg later divorced. Their sons are doing well and spend time with both parents. Russell Lindburg eventually remarried, had another child and now "is very happy," said the family member.
Connie Lindburg is doing well, too, he said. "It's a weird, sad chapter in the family, but life moves on."
Russell Lindburg refused to be interviewed for this update. Connie Lindburg did not return a fax or phone message requesting comment.
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