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Jun 13, 2007 12:12 pm US/Central
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Bones Found In Search For Stebic Were From A Deer
Plainfield Mother Has Been Missing For 6 Weeks
CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman, West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli, and the Naperville Sun's Jennifer Golz contributed to this report.
YORKVILLE, Ill. (CBS) ―
The bones that were found in Kendall County state park during a search for missing Plainfield mother Lisa Stebic belonged to a deer, officials ruled Wednesday.
The Kendall County coroner's office ruled that the bones Silver Spring State Park in Yorkville were deer bones after an examination Wednesday.
A family friend told CBS 2 Monday that the group hired the psychic over the weekend to check out the state park.
On Tuesday, that psychic called Kimberly Young, a colleague of Stebic's, and told her that she had a strong premonition that Lisa Stebic might be in that park. Stebic's friends believe Stebic's family often visited the park.
Stebic's friends called Kendall County sheriff's police and Plainfield police to the scene after they found three bones at the park, which is northwest of the Stebics' Plainfield home.
"We came out here because I received a phone call from the psychic saying she had very strong premonitions that Lisa was out here. She knew exactly where to look and we're just following that lead," Young said. "She said to look on the southeast side of the Fox River, go in about 50 to 100 feet and we should find her or some piece or part of her."
Evidence technicians then arrived and cordoned off the area so the bones could be processed.
Young says they won't rest until they search all of the park's 1,300 acres.
"We want closure," Young said. "We want the kids to know she did not leave on her own recourse; somebody took her."
The mother of two was last seen April 30 at about 6 p.m. in the Plainfield home she shares with husband Craig Stebic, despite being in the midst of a divorce. Neither her credit cards nor cell phone have been used since she went missing.
Police said they are continuing their own investigation without regard to the conclusions of psychics. They rely on what they call "good old-fashioned police work."
But police say they do not discourage anything that might lead to more information, including searches, but they urge caution on that front.
"We don't discourage them," said Planifield police Chief Mark Eiting. "We like to know when they are occurring, just in this park that they would find a piece of evidence, we would like to have our evidence techs readily available to come out to the scene so that we can preserve that piece of evidence."
When the bones were found in the park, Eiting said, "They did contact us immediately and we had evidence techs on the way out there, along with assistance from the Kendall County sheriff's department."
On the friends' use of a psychic, a relative of Stebic's had some doubt, but encouraged all efforts.
"You know, it's been over six weeks," said Melanie Greenberg. "I'm skeptical, but I'm willing to keep an open mind. We'll take whatever information we can. I want to find Lisa one way or another."
Meanwhile, six to eight people will be resuming a search in Silver Spring state park on Wednesday, working on tips from the same psychic, who wishes to remain anonymous.
Husband 'knows park well'It's been more than six weeks since Lisa's disappearance and with no new leads on the case, friends are resorting to alternative means.
Young said the psychic contacted her with a "vision" and only wants to help.
Leading them to the state park in Kendall County made sense to Young.
"They brought the kids here camping and fishing," she said. "(Craig) knows the park well."
Friend Amer Zegar said while he does not believe in psychics, he does agree with Young.
"This is a good park to dump somebody," he said.
Having participated in the mass search effort conducted two weeks after Lisa's disappearance and again at the state park Tuesday, Zegar questioned the absence of Craig each time.
"If he had nothing to do with it he would be more concerned," Zegar said.
Young agreed.
"Even Scott Peterson looked for his wife," she said, referring the notorious Modesto, Calif., case in which Peterson was found guilty of killing his seven-month pregnant wife and dumping her body into the San Francisco Bay, where it was discovered four months later.
Feeling helpless
Having worked with Lisa the Friday before she went missing, Linda Terpto said she feels helpless not knowing where her coworker and friend is and what happened to her.
"I honestly don't think there was something I could have done, but you never know," she said.
Terpto joined Tuesday's search effort at the state park, looking through heavily wooded areas lined with poison ivy and around the bridge at the Fox River.
"This is something I can do and if I can do something to help ... it would put me at ease and everyone else, too," she said.
"There's not a minute that goes by that I don't think about it," Terpto said. "It drives me crazy that we don't know anything."
Last week a psychic named Beverly led Young and three of Stebic's coworkers to two sites looking for clues into her disappearance. But searches of a gas station at Highway 126 and Route 59 and the construction site of a Super Wal-Mart in Montgomery County turned up empty.
(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs of Chicago.)