Crime & Safety

Lisa Stebic Missing 10 Years: Family 'Losing Faith' Case Will Ever Be Solved

Estranged husband Craig Stebic remains the only person of interest in the Plainfield mom's disappearance.

PLAINFIELD, IL — This time there won't be a candlelight vigil. No memorial walk, no balloon release, no fanfare. On Sunday, the family of Lisa Stebic will mark the 10th anniversary of the Plainfield mother's disappearance privately, family spokeswoman Melanie Greenberg said. A decade after Stebic vanished, "the family is losing faith that it will ever be solved," Greenberg said.

Stebic — or as her family calls her, Lisa Ruttenberg Stebic — was last seen the evening of April 30, 2007, at the home she shared with estranged husband Craig Stebic on Red Star Drive. At the time, Craig told police he heard Lisa leave for her regular workout at Plainfield North High School but didn't actually see her go. The next day, a neighbor reported her missing after she failed to show up for work in the cafeteria at Lincoln Elementary School. Her purse and cell phone were also missing, but her car remained in the driveway. There's been no activity on her credit cards or cell phone since she disappeared, police said. At the time of her disappearance, the Stebics' children, Lexi and Zac, were 12 and 10.

Plainfield police have said Craig Stebic remains the only person of interest in the case, but no charges have ever been filed.

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A decade on, Greenberg said the Ruttenberg family is running out of hope that Lisa will ever be found or that they will ever see justice. They've long believed Lisa, who would be 47 now, is dead.

"When an anniversary like this comes up, we don't have a grave to visit," she said. The family has never been able to lay Lisa's body to rest, have a proper funeral or fully mourn her loss.

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"That's part of what's so painful," Greenberg said. "It's horrifying to think of her just lying in a ditch or — I don't know."

It's especially difficult for Lisa's grandmother, now 96. "She cries to me on the phone, and I don't have answers for her," Greenberg said. "It's still devastating for the family."

In 2012, as the Ruttenberg family marked five years since Lisa vanished, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow vowed to put her case “on the front burner.” At the time, Glasgow was coming off the successful convictions of former Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson, found guilty of killing third wife Kathleen Savio, and Christopher Vaughn, who shot his wife and three children to death.

Glasgow's office did not immediately return a call from Patch on Friday.

"When I spoke to Lisa's sister last week, she said the police and the state's attorney's office have not spoken to the family in over a year," Greenberg said. While Plainfield police won't call Lisa's disappearance a cold case, Greenberg said she took note of the word police used to describe the case during an interview with WGN this week: "stagnant."

"That sounds like a cold case to me," Greenberg said.

Plainfield Police Department

Plainfield Police Department Detective Carrianne Siegel and Detective Sgt. Kevin McQuaid spoke with Patch about the case, saying it remains an open investigation. A tip hotline remains open and still receives occasional calls — usually when an anniversary approaches or when Lisa is featured on a true-crime TV show, Siegel said.

Greenberg acknowledges that cases are rarely solved without a body. In the days, weeks and months after Lisa vanished, police and volunteers combed fields, parks and even ponds looking for her.

"They did several extensive searches around Plainfield," Greenberg said. "The problem is, where do you even start to look? It feels like an impossible task.

"Intellectually, I know that it's difficult to prosecute without a body," she said. Another local family — that of Drew Peterson's missing fourth wife, Stacy Peterson — is in the same situation, she said. Stacy vanished just six months after Lisa did.

"Stacy has never been found either," Greenberg said, although Drew Peterson is now serving nearly four decades for Savio's murder. "I don't begrudge Stacy's family for their closure" knowing Peterson is behind bars, Greenberg said.

She said cases like the Brown's Chicken massacre in Palatine, solved after two decades when the former girlfriend of one of the killers came forward, give her some hope.

"Those (cases) are the only glimmers of hope that we have," Greenberg said.

Siegel said the case has been stymied by lack of evidence and a lack of cooperation. The police were only briefly able to speak to Lisa's children immediately after their mother disappeared. She said Craig Stebic refused requests to allow the kids to talk with a child forensic interviewer.

"That was declined," she said. McQuaid said there has been no communication with Craig Stebic in recent years.

As for the likelihood of someone coming forward with new information in the case, Siegel said, "We know there's one person out there that knows something."

On the three-year anniversary of Lisa's disappearance, then-Plainfield Police Chief Bill Doster announced that the Will/Grundy Major Crimes Task Force would join the investigation. Siegel said the task force is still involved.

"They would gladly help us out," Siegel said. But first, new evidence needs to come to light.

"If anyone has any information or if there's anything they feel can help, let us know," McQuaid said. "We're still working on this case. It's active. We intend to see it through to the end."

FindLisaStebic.net

Greenberg said Lisa's children, now grown, do not have a relationship with Lisa's family. "That's even more painful," she said, adding that, as adults, there's nothing stopping them from reaching out to their mother's relatives. "They're not 10 and 12 anymore," Greenberg said.

Craig Stebic sold his Red Star Drive home in August 2016, but according to police and Ruttenberg, he didn't go far. According to WGN, his name is listed on property records for a Joliet home, but a reporter who went to the house was turned away.

He stopped doing interviews with the media shortly after Lisa's disappearance, and WGN said his attorney, George Lenard, has advised him against speaking to the press.

Greenberg said Lisa's sisters plan to mark the 10th anniversary by spending Sunday together. The family's website, findlisastebic.net, has not been updated since 2012. Back then, her sister Debbie Ruttenberg left this note:

Lisa’s body hasn’t been found…yet. We haven’t received due justice…yet. We haven’t even been able to hold a funeral!
It never gets any better - it’s actually worse than any movie or program. Every moment Lisa is missed. Sleep brings nightmares and daily life remains empty. Possibly the worse addition is that Lisa’s children aren’t able to be in our lives and we aren’t able to be in theirs. How does one totally remove a mother and her family from his own children?
To attempt a life that is worthy, I can only hold Lisa’s memory in the most beautiful light. A light that shines glorious colors and has a unique brightness throughout everyone she touched in her shortened life. This comes from her pure joy and positive energy that radiates within us. Especially within Lisa’s children, Lexi and Zac.
Our family will always be devastated by our loss, but we remain hopeful for justice.

Anyone who knows anything about Lisa Stebic's disappearance is asked to call the Plainfield Police Department's tipline at 815-267-7217.


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