May 17, 2007 12:20 pm US/Central
Lisa Stebic Filed To Have Husband Kicked Out
Petition: Craig Stebic Was 'Jeopardizing The Mental Well-Being' Of Their 2 Children
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
PLAINFIELD, Ill. (CBS) ―
Lisa Stebic, the missing mother from Plainfield, tried to have her estranged husband evicted the day she disappeared.
An attorney for Stebic released a petition she mailed to his office. In it, she called husband Craig Stebic "unnecessarily relentless, cruel, inconsiderate, domineering and verbally abusive," and wrote that his conduct was "jeopardizing the mental well-being" of their two children, the Joliet Herald-News reported.
Lisa Stebic, 37, was last seen April 30 at her home, after leaving the house to work out. Professional search teams and volunteers have been combing the area around her Plainfield house ever since.
After the disappearance, Craig Stebic filed for sole custody of their two children. That hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Lisa Stebic's cousin, Mark Greenberg, said last week the family was trying to keep hope alive as he spoke with CBS 2 about Craig Stebic.
"I think the commitment is there, from what I've seen of Craig – and I spent a good amount of time with him today – he's very troubled by this. He's very broken up," Greenberg said last week.
But several friends who spoke to CBS 2 news partner the Naperville Sun last week painted a picture of an extremely troubled marriage. They said Lisa told them Craig threatened on several occasions that he would kill her and nobody would find her.
Family members have said the allegations surprised them and that Craig would never hurt his wife. But neighbor Amer Zegar said that last week, during visits to his home, Lisa spoke of receiving verbal abuse from her husband and expressed fear of him and his threats.
Zegar and his wife, who declined to be named, said Lisa had been receiving counseling from the Guardian Angel Home in Joliet - a nonprofit organization that provides services for victims of domestic violence and rape.
The FBI and police earlier this week searched the Stebic home. Craig Stebic has accused authorities of coercion.
"They say he's not a suspect. They say he's not a person of interest. But they come in the middle of the night, take the kids out of their sleep and force them to sleep in a car while they search for hours," said Davi, who said he learned of the search when Stebic called him early last Tuesday.
Lisa Stebic's attorney, Glenn Kahn, told the Herald-News it was not clear whether Craig Stebic knew about the petition to have him leave the house. He said it was not filed in court because it was received after Lisa was reported missing.
(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs of Chicago.)
