Missing Mom Found Safe at South Side Home: Cops

A mom who vanished two days after Christmas was found Tuesday at a home on Chicago’s South Side.

Melissa Sue Ronczkowski, 27, was taken to Presence St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet for an evaluation, said Shorewood Deputy Police Jason Barten.

Ronczkowski’s mother, Carol May, lives in Shorewood and reported her missing to the police there. Barten said his department had been receiving information since taking the case Jan. 25 and a tip led them to the house where they located Ronczkowski.

Ronczkowski, a mother of two, was last seen leaving Palos Community Hospital on Dec. 27, police said. May said her daughter called her that day and told her she was in a drug rehabilitation program.

“I know she called me from the rehab because (the caller ID) had the hospital’s phone number on it,” said May, who recalled that her daughter spoke softly, as if she didn’t want others to hear her, that last time they talked.

“She said that she was back in in-patient and she was in group (therapy) and couldn’t talk,” May said.

“She sounded quiet,” she said, “because I thought she was in a meeting.”

After not hearing from her daughter again, May said she “texted her for weeks, and then the phone stopped working. I’m afraid something happened to her.”

Melissa Sue Ronczkowski | submitted photo