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Family: Craig Stebic Was Not Abusive

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Apr 16, 2008 10:56 am US/Central

Family: Craig Stebic Was Not Abusive

Charity Chosen For Lisa Stebic Fund-Raiser Unfairly Portrays Craig Stebic's Character, They Say

PLAINFIELD, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) ― Craig and Lisa Stebic may have had a rocky relationship, and lived the last six months of their marriage barely speaking to each other before Lisa disappeared on April 30.

But Craig's family says he is not an abusive father, nor was he an abusive husband.

And the charity Lisa's family picked -- Guardian Angel Community Services in Joliet, which offers, among many other things, counseling and shelter for battered women -- to support with an April 27 fundraiser, unfairly paints Craig as an abuser, his family says.

"If that's the case, where are all of the police reports and [Department of Children and Family Services] reports that he has done all these horrible things?" said Craig's sister, Jill Webb.

"I think what Lisa's family is doing in remembrance of her one-year anniversary is a fantastic thing.

"The community of Plainfield has been wonderful in supporting Lisa's cause in the last year," Webb said. "But I feel that their choice of charity is an unfair choice as it represents my brother as a monster, a wife abuser and a child abuser, which he is not."

While police have named Craig a "person of interest" in the disappearance of his wife, Lisa's family has not publicly accused Craig of abusing Lisa or their children.

"The purpose of this is to remember Lisa on the one-year anniversary of her going missing," said Melanie Greenberg, Lisa's cousin and a spokeswoman for her family. "We have picked a very worthy charity that offers a variety of services from domestic abuse, foster care, adoption and summer camp for children."

Plainfield police have nothing more than a heated argument on record for the couple, who were in the midst of a divorce when Lisa vanished.

Lisa's friends say before she disappeared, Lisa cautioned them that if anything ever happened to her they should look at her husband, Craig.

One friend and neighbor of Lisa's said the Stebics never fought in public, but that Lisa had asked if she could send her kids over if anything happened at the house.

The day she disappeared, Lisa mailed her attorney a petition to evict Craig from their house while their divorce was pending. In the petition she described verbal abuse by Craig that she said was affecting the mental well-being of her and her children.

Lisa may have taken her children to Guardian Angel for counseling while the couple's divorce was pending, sources say. Guardian Angel staff would not confirm whether Lisa was a client.

Lisa's Walk for Guardian Angel Community Services, planned for 1 p.m. April 27, is intended to remember Lisa and "raise awareness of domestic violence and to assist in the prevention of future domestic violence," according to a posting on the family's Web site, findlisastebic.com.

April is National Child Abuse Awareness month, and the prevention of child abuse is the primary cause of the Plainfield Exchange Club, which has partnered with Lisa's family to host the event.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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