May 15, 2007 5:52 pm US/Central
Police Search Home Of Lisa Stebic And Her Husband
Some Items Confiscated From House, Cars
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley contributed to this report.
PLAINFIELD, Ill. (CBS) ―
Police have searched and confiscated some items from the home of a missing Plainfield woman and her husband.
Plainfield police said they obtained a search warrant for the home of Lisa Stebic and her husband, Craig, as well as their two vehicles. A search of the residence overnight resulted in some items being taken into custody, police said.
Neither Plainfield police nor will county prosecutors are saying much about the search, but neighbors were shocked to see large numbers of police vehicles and heavily armed officers descend on their neighborhood late at night.
Plainfield police, with assistance from the FBI, executed a midnight raid on the Stebic home, seizing Craig Stebic's truck, Lisa Stebic's car and other potential evidence.
"Items were recovered," said Deputy Chief Mark Eiting of the Plainfield Police. "We're not disclosing what items were removed from the residence or the vehicles."
Stebic, 37, has been missing since April 30. She was last seen by her husband,after she said she was leaving to work out. There has been no activity on her cell phone or credit cards since then.
Now, with a residential search, police acknowledge that time is working against them.
"As time goes on, there's an opportunity for information to be lost," Eiting said. "So we're always concerned about the time element involved."
Over the weekend, more than 100 rescue workers and more than 200 community volunteers searched for Stebic around the perimeter of her house, but no sign of her or her belongings was found.
Stebic's family has offered a $20,000 reward and started a Web site,
findlisastebic.com, that has generated tens of thousands of hits.
Lisa Stebic's family has described Craig Stebic as "broken up" about her disappearance, but several friends who spoke to CBS 2 news partner the Naperville Sun 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. The couple was planning a divorce when Lisa Stebic disappeared.
Craig Stebic also filed for sole custody of the couple's two children last week. Neither he nor his attorney would comment on the motion.
Police say husband Craig Stebic is neither a suspect nor a person of interest.
Meantime, Lisa's family and friends try to maintain hope with an emotional milestone approaching. Lisa's 38th birthday is Saturday.
"It's very hard to be optimistic," said Lisa Stebic's cousin, Melanie Greenberg. "It was two weeks yesterday. It's hard. It was a hard Mother's Day for the entire family. And its going to be hard this weekend as well."
Lisa's friends are still working on plans to mark her birthday on Saturday. CBS 2 is told her two sisters, who live in the northwest suburbs, plan to travel out of state to be with Lisa's parents on Saturday.
(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs of Chicago.)
