Lisa Stebic

Case background and investigation

Lisa Michelle Stebic, 37, disappeared from her home in Plainfield, Illinois, a suburb southwest of Chicago, on April 30, 2007. Plainfield Deputy Police Chief Mark Eiting told Fox News that she was last seen at about 6 p.m. that Monday. Her two children, then aged 10 and 12, had been home when she returned from work but were out when she vanished, he said. ABC7 Chicago reported that a neighbor reported her missing on May 1, 2007.

According to Fox News, which cited the Chicago Tribune, her husband, Craig Stebic, said he was working in the backyard at the time and believed someone had picked her up. She regularly exercised at the Plainfield North High School track. Only her purse and cell phone were missing, and police said neither the phone nor her credit cards were used afterwards. A family spokeswoman, Melanie Greenberg, later told ABC7 that her car had been left in the garage.

The couple were in the middle of a divorce and were living separately within the same house, Fox News reported. ABC7 reported that Lisa Stebic was last seen on the same day her divorce attorney sent eviction papers intended to remove her husband from the home. Police said in the first days that there were no signs of foul play and that no suspicious vehicles or people had been seen near the house. Craig Stebic gave the family computer to investigators voluntarily, and in May 2007 police said he was cooperating and had not been named a suspect; his lawyer advised him not to take a polygraph. He filed an emergency motion for sole custody of the children that month, and the FBI joined the search.

According to Wikipedia, which cites Chicago Sun-Times reporting from July 2007, Plainfield police later described Craig Stebic as a person of interest. He has never been named a suspect or charged, and relatives quoted by Fox News said he denied any involvement. In October 2007 the FBI added her case to its kidnapped and missing persons website.

No trace of Lisa Stebic has been found. CBS Chicago reported in 2013 that her family presumes she is dead. On the tenth anniversary in 2017, ABC7 reported that the family was offering a $75,000 reward and that the Plainfield Police Department's tip line remained open. Wikipedia quotes Plainfield Police Chief John Konopek as saying in 2019 that investigators were closer than at the start and still considered Craig Stebic a person of interest, and cites a 2026 WGN Radio interview in which Greenberg described the matter as a very cold case. As of September 2026 no one has been charged.