The 20-year-old St. Charles-area woman reported missing Sunday was found safe late this morning at a Chicago-area hospital, according to Kane County Sheriff's police.



Tanner Conroyd left around noon Sunday from her father's home on Route 31 in unincorporated Kane County, near St. Charles, police said.



Although family believed she was headed to Illinois State University in Normal, where she has an apartment and planned to re-enroll in classes, she made detours in Sugar Grove, Hinckley and eventually downtown Chicago, police said.



About 11:15 a.m. today, a hospital employee contacted Sheriff's police after reading media reports of Conroyd's disappearance, said Lt. Pat Gengler.



"The sheriff's office is not releasing the name of the facility or going into details of her condition," Gengler stated in a media release. "Based on the information that we have she was not the victim of foul play. Detectives were told by hospital staff that it was the media that led them to realizing who she was and led them to call the sheriff's office with the information."



Since news of Conroyd's disappearance, family, friends and volunteers had scoured the streets around Millennium Park – where she was spotted Sunday night – handing out flyers.



Searchers also started a website, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed to update information about the search. The sites reported sightings as recently as Wednesday, including information that Conroyd was acting strange and erratic.



"It gives you hope," Frank Conroyd said earlier Thursday before his daughter was found. "That's what you need to have."



Frank Conroyd said the behavior was out of character for his daughter, and that she had been upset the past couple weeks.



He said his daughter started the ignition on her car without having the keys and left Sunday afternoon.



Police said she stopped for gas, then at a bar on the way to ISU, but got a ride to the Aurora Transportation Center after he car broke down. She took the train to Union Station, police said.



Sunday night, a security guard saw her in Millennium Park and told her to leave because it was closing time, police said. He later called the cell phone number she had given him to make sure she got home OK, police said.



Because she had left the phone at home, her sister got the call, Frank Conroyd said.



That and other tips led police to believe she had been in Chicago.



kthayer@tribune.com