She Mysteriously Disappeared, And Then Her Blood Was Found In Her Husband’s Car
Lisa Stebic, a 37-year-old mother of two, mysteriously disappeared from Plainfield, Illinois, in 2007, and her case remains unsolved to this day.
“What sticks in my mind is her laugh. She just had this infectious laugh,” recalled her cousin, Melanie Greenberg.
At the time, Lisa worked as a food assistant at Lincoln Elementary School. She had earned a degree in hotel and restaurant management and was married to her husband, Craig Stebic, for 14 years.
However, their relationship was on the rocks leading up to the day she vanished. Several months earlier, Craig reportedly filed for divorce, and while they continued living in the same home together, the pair barely spoke.
Then, in October 2006, the police responded to a domestic disturbance at the Stebic residence, located in the 13200 block of Red Star Drive, but no arrests were made. It’s suspected the couple was dealing with financial issues, too, in the wake of their mortgage payments and Craig getting laid off.
According to Lisa’s friends, she was supposedly scared of her husband. Yet, she began working on starting fresh and leading a life without him. In fact, on the day she disappeared, Lisa mailed a petition to her attorney, asking that Craig be ordered out of their home. She stated he was “unnecessarily relentless, cruel, inconsiderate, domineering, and verbally abusive,” adding that his actions were harmful to their kids.
She vanished the same day, April 30, 2007. That morning started off normally for Lisa, who attended work at Lincoln Elementary School in the afternoon before getting a sandwich at a local Jimmy John’s and returning home.
In the evenings, Lisa typically worked out at Plainfield North High School, and Craig claimed to have last seen his wife at 6:00 p.m. He reportedly gave their children money to get candy at Walgreens; meanwhile, he figured Lisa had either walked or gotten a ride to the high school since her car was still in the garage.
Lisa brought her cell phone and purse with her, but she didn’t arrive for her workout or make it home that evening. She has never been seen or heard from again.
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The following morning, Craig contacted Lisa’s coworkers to determine if anyone had seen her. Next, he reached out to a neighbor, Laurri Bingenheimer, who ultimately reported Lisa missing to the police on May 1, 2007.
Once authorities arrived at the Stebic home, they found Lisa’s vehicle on the property, and records show that her phone, credit cards, and bank account have had no activity since she vanished.
Craig initially allowed forensic analysts to comb through his computer, but a week after Lisa went missing, he changed his tune. He refused to undergo a polygraph examination or any further interviews involving him or his children about his wife’s disappearance.
The police later discovered a small amount of blood on a tarp inside Craig’s car, a 2002 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck, on May 20, 2007. He alleged the blood was from a deer hunting trip, but testing revealed the blood belonged to Lisa.
Craig was ultimately named a person of interest on July 12, 2007. The day afterward, he asked the court to dismiss his divorce petition.
Now, over 17 years later, what exactly happened to Lisa has continued to baffle investigators. They don’t believe that she would’ve left her own children. Instead, they suspect Lisa, who is remembered as a vibrant and devoted mother, was met with foul play.
Craig has never been charged in relation to Lisa’s case, but after he allegedly threatened a neighbor, he was arrested for assault in November 2009. As of 2019, Lisa’s cousin, Melanie, said her family kept holding out hope that justice would be served despite knowing Lisa is likely dead.
“I’m hoping the police are still tracking his whereabouts and keeping an eye on [Craig] because you never know, something could crack,” she stated.
The same year, Plainfield Police Chief John Konopek explained, “We’re closer than we were [on] day one, I will tell you that.”
“My gut as a police officer tells me that there’s absolutely somebody out there who knows exactly what happened to Lisa. And we still consider Craig a person of interest.”
Lisa was five feet two, weighed 125 pounds, and had brown hair and brown eyes. Her maiden name was Ruttenberg, and she had a butterfly tattoo with the names “Zach” and “Lexi” on her mid-back.
Anyone with information regarding Lisa’s case is urged to contact the Plainfield Police Department at (815) 436-2341.
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