May 22, 2007 6:45 pm US/Central
Judge Denies Craig Stebic's Sole Custody Petition
Wife Lisa Stebic Has Been Missing More Than 3 Weeks
by Mike Puccinelli
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) ―
A petition for sole custody of two children has been denied for the husband of Lisa Stebic, the mother of two who has been missing for more than three weeks.
As CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli reports, Craig Stebic of Plainfield was not in court at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet on Tuesday, but his attorney, Dion Davi, was there arguing on his behalf that Craig Stebic should be granted sole custody of the couple's two children.
Lisa Stebic was last seen April 30. Craig said she said she was leaving to go work out, but no one ever saw her at the gym where she was a member.
Lisa's divorce attorney said her family was surprised when Craig's attorney filed the emergency order.
A judge ruled on Tuesday in favor of a motion by Lisa's attorney to have Craig's order thrown out.
"The plaintiff's petition for sole custody is stricken, which means it's not before the court anymore. They do have the right to re-file it, but the court found that it didn't allege sufficient facts to essentially be a properly-pled document," said Glenn Kahn, divorce attorney for Lisa Stebic.
Craig Stebic's attorney expressed disappointment.
"It's disheartening. There are the interests of the protections of the children that have not been met this morning," Davi said.
But Lisa Stebic's divorce attorney disagreed.
"It really means nothing for the children. Their father still has all the legal rights he had before the case was filed and after the case was filed," Kahn said. "He's still the father of the children."
In court documents, Lisa's attorney argued that granting Craig sole custody would have negatively affected Lisa's parental rights, at a time when questions remain about her disappearance. He also noted that on the date Lisa disappeared she signed and mailed documents seeking to have Craig forcibly evicted from the home they shared in Plainfield.
In the documents she claimed that Craig's behavior towards her both alone and in the presence of the children was cruel, inconsiderate, domineering and verbally abusive.
Kahn argued in part that the facts are that Lisa's disappearance is the subject of a law enforcement investigation involving multiple searches of the Stebic home and multiple interviews with Craig.
Davi argued that Lisa Stebic may have been abducted or may be a runaway estranged wife, and he said for those reasons, the order should have been granted.
"Lisa, we don't know where she's at. She is gone," Davi said. "She is not assisting in the parenting of the children right now."
But the judge did not agree, and ruled against Craig Stebic in a matter of minutes.
Craig Stebic has never been called a suspect or person of interest in his wife's disappearance, but he has been the subject of scrutiny, particularly after the sole custody petition, a refusal to take a polygraph test, and most recently, what sources said was blood found on a tarp in Craig Stebic's truck, which reportedly matched Lisa's DNA.
Craig Stebic said the blood came from animals he had slaughtered while hunting over the weekend.
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