‘She needs to come home’: Car of missing Illinois special ed teacher found as desperate husband pleads

On Friday night, Jan. 2, Antwon Brown saw his wife of 11 years, Linda Brown, 53, asleep in bed as he went upstairs in their Chicago home. It became the last time Antwon saw Linda. Antwon has no idea when she got out of bed and drove away from their home, and even now, as her car has finally been found, not much else has been uncovered.

People reports that Antwon was not initially worried about Linda’s whereabouts. The first sign that something could have gone wrong was when she missed an acupuncture appointment the very next day, on Jan. 3. According to Antwon, it is out of character for Linda to miss any scheduled appointments.

Linda is a teacher at Robert Healy Elementary School in Bridgeport. She had taken a leave of absence for a couple of months, according to Antwon, but was expected to officially return to work on Jan. 5. Antwon explained, “She has a little mental issues going on, and she took a leave of absence from her job to get help for that. As school was getting closer, it was kind of getting worse, like the anxiety, the panic attacks.”

Where is she?

All that the Chicago Police Department’s Special Victims Unit has to go on now is experience and calculated guesses about what could have happened. Mental health challenges have certainly played a role in some missing persons cases. But also, with missing persons cases, unfortunately, the longer they take to solve, the worse the news tends to be at the end. Time is of the essence.

Luckily, it didn’t take long for the police to find their first clue. In the original press release, Chicago police announced that Linda was last seen in the area of the 4500 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Police hypothesized that Linda might have been driving her blue Honda with Illinois license plate number CX57470. Police later reported that the car had been found.

Chicago has gone through a turbulent time lately, so most observers — especially in the comment sections of Facebook groups sharing the missing person alert — were outwardly hoping for a happy ending. But the car ultimately did not lead to more answers. The vehicle was found undamaged and was subsequently towed to the police station. As of now, neither police nor Antwon has announced where the car was found or whether it was being used by Linda on the night she went missing.

All that is currently known is that Linda left the house with her purse and credit cards. Police are likely monitoring when and where the credit cards may be used following her disappearance. As for her husband Antwon, he is distraught and just wants Linda to come back home.

Antwon said, “She is being missed a lot, especially by me. I am not eating, I am not really sleeping, so man, she needs to come home, come home.”