Kelly started driving south on 55. He hoped that Antonio was right and maybe she ran out of gas or something on the shoulder somewhere. He figured she had to be near a road since her Hyundai wasn't likely to go off-road.
He headed about 20 minutes outside of Chicago towards Willow Springs. The map Antonio gave him showed an area close to the Arie Crown Forest Preserve. He thought his best bet was to drive by gas stations or fast food places near that area. As he approached the interchange passed Hodgkins, he took the exit. He debated driving around the interchange but decided to continue straight toward the Preserve. It was late and dark and fortunately, the traffic was light. He drove the access road adjacent to a wooded area and he slowed down to scan the tree line on the right side of the road, thinking he might see her car in the grass on the side of the road. It wasn't easy without street lights but he thought he would be able to spot something as big as a car. As he was approaching a metal guardrail, he thought he saw something, something out of place, but he was driving too fast and the shoulder was too narrow for him to pull over. He would need to loop back around, but he was familiar enough with this stretch of road to know that would take him miles out of his way, so he hit the button for his hazard lights, slowed down to a stop and hoped for the best. He quickly got out of his car and opened the trunk where he kept a flashlight. He then started to walk back to end of the guardrail. He swept the beam from the flashlight over the ground, trying to find what he saw. As he walked beyond the guardrail, into the grass, he tripped. The guardrail was dividing the road from a steep embankment which then sloped upward towards the tree line. He wasn't prepared for the abrupt dip and lost his footing. As he got up, his light scanned over something. He found it and walked over. It was a piece of plastic…from a bumper. He couldn't tell the exact color but it was dark enough to maybe match Stella's car. He hoped he wasn't just "wishful thinking" and this wasn't just a piece of road trash that had been there for weeks.
Then he noticed the tire tracks. They looked fresh and led up towards the trees, which is where he started to walk.