Sheriff: Personal items from missing Springfield woman found in east side home

Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell said Monday that "some personal items" involving a missing Springfield woman were found at an east-side home over the weekend.

Sheriff's Deputies and Springfield Police were called to a home by its owners in the 2100 block of South Grand Avenue East Sunday afternoon.

Campbell confirmed the items belong to Michelle "Shelly" Bianco, who was last seen about 11 p.m. April 5, 2008, near South Grand and Wheeler avenues in the vicinity of the house.

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Campbell said he didn't know the correlation, if any, between Bianco and the house.

"We're seeing what ties we can make," he said.

Campbell didn't describe the evidence taken.

"As soon as (the homeowners) found it, they gave us a call," Lt. Phillip Danes of the sheriff's office told The State Journal-Register Sunday. "They brought it to our attention, and we came to collect it."

Campbell said the Illinois State Police has been brought into the case. Several county vehicles and two Springfield Police crime scene unit vans were back at the location Monday morning.

Danes said the homeowners indicated that the evidence in the house "wasn't readily accessible to where you could see it."

Campbell didn't elaborate where the items were found in the house.

Bianco, who would be 59 years old now, was walking in the area of the home with her cousin when a man driving a black Pontiac offered Bianco a ride home, according to a State Journal-Register story in 2018 marking the 10th anniversary of her disappearance.

Bianco had been trying to find a ride for hours, and the cousin told deputies that the man in the Pontiac called her by name.

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Bianco willingly got into the car and was never heard from again.

Bianco, who is white, had shoulder-length blond hair when she disappeared. She is 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighed 112 pounds and might have been wearing a blue jean jacket, blue sweater, blue jeans, black shoes and carrying a black purse when last seen.

The man driving the black Pontiac was described by the cousin as white, with short black hair covering his ears. His face was unshaven, and he had a small build. The cousin noted that the paint job on the Pontiac was going bad.

According to the SJ-R story, Bianco’s boyfriend of two years made a missing person’s report, authorities said, after he returned home from a hunting trip.

Sheriff's deputies have secured the scene, Campbell said. He cautioned the public to stay away from the scene.

Anyone with information about the case can call the sheriff's department's investigation division at 217-753-6840. The public also can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 217-788-8427.

Contact Steven Spearie: (217) 622-1788; [email protected]; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: New evidence taken from house tied to missing Springfield woman's case