Family, Friends of Missing Illinois Mom Wait for News

PLAINFIELD, Ill. – Missing mom Lisa Stebic was close to her children, which is why her family and friends say there's no way she would have left home voluntarily one week ago without saying a word to anyone.

"It's my understanding she was really devoted a lot to her children, spent a lot of time with them," Plainfield Police Chief Donald Bennett told FOX News on Monday.

Stebic, a 37-year-old mother of two, was last seen April 30 at her home in the 13200 block of Red Star Drive in the southwest suburb of Plainfield, Ill., about 20 miles west of Chicago.

"All we can do is pray and wait," Jill Webb, whose brother is married to Stebic, told The Chicago Tribune. "It's a horrible feeling."

"There's no way she would leave her children — never, never," Melanie Greenberg, a cousin of Lisa's, told the Tribune. "It's incomprehensible that she would leave without contacting the family."

Her loved ones have reached out to the public, holding news conferences and creating a Web site to enlist help in finding her.

Click here to read the Chicago Tribune story

On Sunday afternoon, about 60 volunteers gathered at an elementary school near Stebic's home. They fanned out to wooded areas, parks and farm fields to search for clues. They also went to subdivisions and shopping areas to distribute fliers with a photograph of Stebic and her description.

Kevin Coffey, who works with Stebic's sister at a printing company showed volunteers satellite photos of a wooded, marshy area that he printed from the Internet.

"It seems like the most obvious place someone would hide something in this region," he said. "We're just looking for some piece of evidence — anything — that can lead to a larger search."

Harriet Bloomingbird, who lives in the Stebics' subdivision, said she didn't know Stebic personally but decided to help when she saw a television news story about her disappearance.

"It's just being a good citizen," Bloomingbird said as she taped a missing person's flier to a sign post. "The more people get involved, the better to help locate her."

Her husband, 41-year-old Craig Stebic, said he was working in the backyard and their young children were out when his wife disappeared.

"I can't see her leaving her kids," Craig Stebic told the Tribune. "She's a good mother. She'd do anything for her kids."

Lisa Stebic worked out at the Plainfield North High School track every night. Her husband believes someone picked her up. She took only her purse and cell phone; her cell phone and credit cards haven't been used since Monday.

Eiting said the children, who are 10 and 12 years old, were home when Lisa returned from work that day, but were not there when she vanished. He also said that no suspicious cars or people were seen near the Stebic home around the time of Lisa's disappearance.

"We're asking the community for their help," Plainfield Deputy Police Chief Mark Eiting told FOXNews.com.

Authorities hope that someone will see Lisa's picture and call police, said Eiting, "or if Lisa sees somebody has been looking for her, she will contact family or friends or the police department."

Investigators were aware of an Internet posting she made on April 11 looking for "female friends only" to join her in exercise, he said. She listed her "goals" as "increase cardio, tone up, simply get out more, meet new people, just have fun."

"I am a parent and would like to include my children in my health activities," she wrote in the posting, in which she said she was "looking for partners to get out and enjoy nature."

Eiting told FOXNews.com that Craig Stebic voluntarily handed over the family computer to police. Authorities still have it in their possession.

"We have her computer that we're now working with the Chicago regional crime laboratory on to see if we can find additional information off the computer," Bennett said.

Asked whether Craig Stebic was a suspect, Bennett responded: "We have to look at all the things, but right now we're really trying to gather information, trying to put a timeline together ... as to what her whereabouts was."

Craig Stebic said he filed for divorce after 14 years of marriage in January when his wife declared in October that she "didn't want to be married to me anymore," the Tribune reported. Since then, he said, they've lived separate lives in the same house and have not spoken more than five words to each other in five months.

Police were called to the Stebic house once in December during a verbal domestic dispute, according to the Tribune. No arrests were made.

Eiting confirmed to FOXNews.com that the Stebics were going through a divorce and said Craig Stebic was fully cooperating with the investigation.

"From what we can gather, it was a relationship that was strained," Bennett told FOX News on Monday. "She would come home after work, stay with her children, the husband would get home around 6, then she would normally leave the house then come back at a later time."

In 1995, Craig Stebic was charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon after police stopped his vehicle about 1,000 feet south of two Lincolnshire schools at 9 in the morning, according to the Tribune.

Police found a 10-gauge double-barrel shotgun, a .44 magnum semi-automatic pistol, a Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle and an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle in his Toyota pickup.

He was also charged with four misdemeanor counts of unlawful use of a weapon, operating an unsafe motor vehicle and driving while his license was revoked, according to the Tribune.

FOXNews.com's Liza Porteus contributed to this report.