@missinglinq
I actually tried that with no success. I've even resorted to using the following code which also fails; it seems like the form is visible on my desktop but Access doesn't even recognize the form is loaded/visible - you can't interact with it and oddly enough if you click on the Search button on the primary form another instance opens and will close but the ghost of the original form remains; the only recourse is to end the process via task manager.
DoCmd.Close acForm, "frmSearch", acSaveNo
If CurrentProject.AllForms("frmSearch").IsLoaded Then
MsgBox ("frmSearch is still loaded, need to close it")
DoCmd.Close acForm, "frmSearch", acSaveNo
End If