10 years later, families of 5 missing still search for truth

Once in a while, Susan Olsen goes into a bedroom in her basement where her son once slept, to think, to look around.

Bradley Olsen’s clothes still hang in the closet and fill a chest of drawers. Atop the chest sits his last pack of cigarettes, spare change and a red solo cup with a key inside. Susan Olsen isn’t sure what the key opens.

It’s been 10 years since her 26-year-old son vanished.

"It would absolutely kill me to put those things in the garbage," she said. Instead, Susan Olsen keeps the room much like her son left it, but has added plastic tubs filled with paperwork, laminated newspaper articles and various mementos from searches and vigils to remember her son and others who have disappeared.

Pulling out a T-shirt commemorating one of those events, Susan Olsen points to the faces of her son and other missing people, naming them: John Spira, Scott Arcaro, Lisa Stebic, Stacy Peterson.

Like her son, they’re all adults who went missing in 2007 without a trace in all but one case — Arcaro’s. Part of his skull and a few other bones showed up in a wooded area in 2013, but police still don’t know what happened.

In the weeks and months after these five Chicago-area people went missing in unrelated cases, their families formed a bond and still keep in touch to varying degrees. A decade ago, they united for searches and news conferences. They taught each other how to mobilize and get help from police and volunteers. Those who knew Stebic and Peterson — who captured national media attention — helped the families of the men get more publicity.

They say few understand their nightmare. None of them think their loved one is alive, but no one knows exactly what happened. There’s no final resting place to visit, and there’s no justice for whoever is responsible.

They say that makes it a fate worse than death; it’s death without knowing.

Bradley Olsen — last seen Jan. 20, 2007

Bradley Olsen Chris J. Walker / Chicago Tribune

A family photo of Bradley Olsen with a godson. Bradley has been missing for 10 years.

(Chris J. Walker / Chicago Tribune)

Susan Olsen hasn’t stopped searching. She often wears a button with her son’s photo, and his face also graces the back of her trucks with a number to call police with tips and advertisement of a $50,000 reward.

She’s placed large signs near the entrance to her rural town of Maple Park, on the outskirts of western Kane County. Bradley was last seen outside a bar in nearby DeKalb, trying to find a ride back home.

"This has been my life," said Susan Olsen, 63, who works in rental management. "It’s been a really long 10 years. Sometimes I think all that’s happened is I’ve gotten older."

She monitors a Facebook page she set up to find Bradley, routinely replaces weathered posters around DeKalb and checks in with police periodically. She makes sure details about her son and his disappearance are updated on a national database — the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Everyone she’s talked to and everything she knows about the investigation is recorded in a journal.

Olsen said she’s conducted her own searches, gone along on police-led ones and even attended searches for other missing people. She estimates she’s been a part of close to 100 searches — in creek beds, abandoned properties, basements of homes and dense areas of land "where the weeds and corn are over your head."

Bradley Olsen Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune

A truck belonging to Susan Olsen, mother of missing Maple Park man Bradley Olsen, is parked at a gathering in DeKalb of friends and relatives Friday, Jan. 20, 2017 to remind the public about her son’s case. He disappeared 10 years ago after an evening at the tavern in the background, which has since been remodeled and renamed.

(Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune)

According to DeKalb police, Bradley Olsen went out the night of Jan. 19, 2007, to what was then called Bar One in DeKalb. Although his friends left, Bradley Olsen stayed until closing time.

He was last seen outside, police said, trying to find a ride home. Calls he made to friends after 2 a.m. were the last on his cellphone, his mother said. Because she and her husband were out of town on vacation, Bradley Olsen was not reported missing until Jan. 31, police said.

Since then, police have followed numerous leads, DeKalb Cmdr. Robert Redel said, including some that led investigators to dig up two basements on what turned out to be bad information.

Redel said the case is still considered active and is the only unsolved missing person investigation for the department. It’s also well known in the area, in part because of Susan Olsen’s efforts, he said.

"Sue is one of a kind," he said. "She is not going to give up. Her love for her son, it is unbelievable. She’s still pushing."

Bradley Olsen’s case garnered local media attention and was featured on a local unsolved mystery show. However, a lot of that attention faded away, his mother said, especially after two missing south suburban mothers grabbed national headlines later that year — Lisa Stebic and Stacy Peterson.

Olsen eventually met Stebic’s and Peterson’s families, as well as the loved ones of two other men — John Spira and Scott Arcaro — who disappeared from DuPage County towns about a month after her son.

"We all started attending each other’s searches," she said. And, because "the guys were getting zero (media) attention, (the families of Stebic and Peterson) started including us" at vigils and press events.

Bradley Olsen Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune

Susan Olsen, mother of Bradley Olsen, in her son’s room on Jan. 20, 2017, in Maple Park, Ill. Bradley has been missing 10 years.

(Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune)

"They called us the Families Five," she said, recalling how they all sat on a couch one day in 2007 to talk to the media about their cases. She recalled that she turned to the others and said "I hope we are not doing this five years from now."

"Now, we’re at the 10-year mark," she said, wiping away tears.

Olsen said she does not believe her son is alive. She thinks he was killed the day he was last seen. She’s even gone through the legal process of having her son declared dead and was issued a death certificate.

"Until we find the body, we don’t know what happened," Redel said. Court records show Bradley Olsen has had a string of arrests dating to his teens for mostly misdemeanor offenses such as disorderly conduct, property damage and resisting arrest. Susan Olsen said her son was known to drink, and Redel said he "was hanging out with the wrong people."

"How can somebody just go missing?" Redel said. "Since this case, it’s been really eye-opening how many people go missing."

Scott Arcaro — last seen Feb. 22, 2007

Scott Arcaro Handout

Family photo of Scott Arcaro

(Handout)

Nicole Goyette, of Lisle, was away on a mother-daughter retreat when she couldn’t get ahold of her boyfriend.

It wasn’t like Scott Arcaro, then 37, to not return her phone call or text. Then Arcaro’s friend called to ask if she had heard from him.

"I knew something was very wrong," Goyette said.

The next morning, Goyette and friends met with Lisle police to report Arcaro missing.

"I’m sure he was murdered that night," said Goyette, now 44, thinking back 10 years. "The night he went missing, I had a nightmare he was murdered. I woke up crying.

"Part of you thinks, oh, maybe … he’s being held hostage," she said. "But in your heart of hearts, you know."

It was six years before she knew for sure. Part of Arcaro’s skull, leg bone and knuckle bones turned up in nearby Woodridge, discovered by kids in a wooded area behind a park, Woodridge Deputy Chief Tom Stefanson said. Police said he had been killed but would not release further details. The case is open but has gone cold, Stefanson said.

"That’s what is tough about a case of someone who is found … years after he’s killed," he said. "There’s not a lot of fresh … leads."

Goyette and Scott, whose full name was Anthony Scott Arcaro, dated for about 3 1/2 years. The two knew each other in high school, she said, and then reconnected after Goyette had gotten a divorce. "We intended to be married."

April 2013: Remains found in Woodridge identified as Lisle man Christy Gutowski

DuPage County officials released the identity Tuesday of a man whose skeletal remains were found last month by two children in Woodridge.

The remains were identified through dental records as 37-year-old Anthony Scott Arcaro of Lisle. He had been missing since 2007, DuPage Coroner Richard Jorgensen…

DuPage County officials released the identity Tuesday of a man whose skeletal remains were found last month by two children in Woodridge.

The remains were identified through dental records as 37-year-old Anthony Scott Arcaro of Lisle. He had been missing since 2007, DuPage Coroner Richard Jorgensen…

(Christy Gutowski)

Arcaro had served prison time for drug charges in the 1990s, but Goyette said he left that life behind and was working as a maintenance worker for several area apartment complexes. But after Arcaro went missing, Goyette learned he was having financial problems and wonders whether he had become involved with some sort of illegal activity again.

After Arcaro disappeared, Goyette dropped out of nursing school.

"The kids were upset so I was trying to keep it together," Goyette said.

When his remains were found, old wounds were opened, she said, but she was relieved for some, if not all, of the answers.

"I almost feel guilty because there are some wonderful families that are dying for information," she said. "I won a morbid lottery to get some answers."

Because there was almost no media coverage of Arcaro, Goyette said she was grateful to the other families who invited her to speak at news events. "If it wasn’t for them, we would’ve been completely forgotten."

Goyette is married again with her own errand and cleaning business. She still thinks about Arcaro and the rest of the missing people whose families she met 10 years ago. She still prays for them.

"How can somebody just be murdered, and (someone) gets away with it? I can’t wrap my mind around it," she said.

Every year, Goyette and friends have a party to raise funds for local animal shelters in Arcaro’s honor. Arcaro, a dog lover, had a party every year and asked friends to bring something to donate to shelters, Goyette said.

"Scott, he really genuinely cared about people," she said. "He just made a wrong choice at the wrong time."

John Spira — last seen Feb. 23, 2007

John Spira John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune

Tom Spira shows a picture of his brother, John Spira, right, and himself, alongside one of John’s guitars, on Jan. 19, 2017, in Chicago. John Spira went missing on Feb. 23, 2007.

(John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Stephanie McNeil’s last words to her brother John Spira were "I’ll see you in 10 days."

After visiting his sister and mother in Phoenix, Ariz., Spira was flying back home to Chicago. He had planned to return to Phoenix the next month to celebrate McNeil’s birthday.

Instead, 10 days later, McNeil flew to Chicago. Her brother, 45-year-old Spira, had disappeared. The St. Charles resident was last seen at his cable construction business just outside West Chicago.

According to police reports, Spira was seen at work at Universal Cable Construction by his co-owner and their employees. No one saw him leave, his truck was still in the parking lot, and when he didn’t show up for plans later in the weekend, friends and family became worried.

DuPage sheriff’s police consider Spira’s disappearance suspicious, Sgt. Robert Harris said, but police have never named any suspects. "There’s no crime scene; there’s no physical evidence."

Six months later, Spira’s business burned down. It was found to be arson. "Is it a coincidence the business burned down? It’s hard to say. It’s certainly suspicious," Harris said.

Sept. 2007: Missing man’s business burnsOpen link

Police do not consider the case cold, Harris said, but so much time has passed there are no longer leads to chase. Investigators have run into roadblocks when some people they’ve questioned haven’t been "cooperative," he said. "There comes a point in the case where you may come to a dead end. John’s case could turn into a cold case. It’s super unfortunate that … people don’t cooperate with police."

McNeil, now 53, said she believed from the beginning that someone hurt her brother. The last day he was seen, Spira made dinner plans and was supposed to play with his band the Rabble Rousers the next night. Spira, a guitarist known as "Chicago Johnny," wouldn’t miss a gig, his family said. He had also just completed a yearslong divorce, McNeil said.

Family members said Spira wouldn’t have taken his own life, nor deliberately disappeared.

After flying to Chicago, McNeil said she wasn’t sure what to do. She eventually went to a bookstore to try to find some sort of guide to finding a missing relative.

"What do you do when someone goes missing? There are no books," she said.

Eventually, McNeil met families of others who had gone missing. She took her cues from them, arranging for billboards, talking to the media and organizing searches. McNeil said she learned more from them than police on ways she could bring light to her brother’s disappearance.

John Spira John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune

Tom Spira poses for a photograph on Jan. 19, 2017, in Chicago, with two guitars that belong to his brother, John Spira. John Spira went missing on Feb. 23, 2007, in DuPage County.

(John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

It became McNeil’s routine for years to travel back and forth from Phoenix, leaving her husband and two sons behind to attend searches and vigils for her brother and other missing adults, meet with police and do other work to try to find Spira. Besides media attention in the Chicago area, Spira’s case was featured on a cable mystery show.

Now, McNeil said she’s "lost some steam for sure."

McNeil still checks in with police, Harris said, and will forward any tips she gets from a website she started, johnspira.com. She’s scaled back her trips to the Chicago area because there aren’t new places to search, she said.

"We’re in limbo," McNeil said of her family.

"I’m always wondering what happened. I’m still sad, I’m still angry. You can’t really heal from that because what are you healing from?"

For Tom Spira, questions about his brother’s final moments run through his mind regularly, he said.

"What actually did happen? Did he suffer? Was he taken somewhere? Did he know (he would die)? Did he not know? I think about that all the time," he said.

Lisa Stebic — Last seen April 30, 2007

Lisa Stebic Family photo

Lisa Stebic, 37, of Plainfield, Ill., disappeared April 30, 2007. Stebic, 37, was last seen by her estranged husband, Craig Stebic, in the early evening on April 30, according to the family members and published reports.

(Family photo)

When Lisa Stebic, a 37-year-old Plainfield mother, never returned home from an evening workout in the spring of 2007, her case quickly captured the public’s attention.

On the same day Lisa Stebic disappeared, she had mailed papers to her lawyer seeking to evict her husband as the two went through a divorce.

Craig Stebic was later named a person of interest in the case, and still is, Plainfield Detective Carianne Siegel said. Craig Stebic could not be reached for comment. He has never been charged.

Siegel said police still follow up on leads, although they have slowed considerably, and the case is periodically discussed in front of a Will County grand jury.

For Lisa Stebic’s family, it’s been a difficult 10 years.

April 2010: Task force to join probe of Lisa Stebic’s disappearanceOpen link

"Of course, there will always be a hole in our hearts," said Lisa’s sister Debbie Ruttenberg. "There’s a loss and sadness, but there’s also this anger."

Constant searching, vigils, news conferences and a court battle for visitation of Lisa Stebic’s children over the years have given way to less action as the family ran out of options. What continues, she said, is the grief.

"You’re hopeful that this has some resolve, but a lot of years have gone by already," Ruttenberg said. "I never would’ve expected to know somebody in this situation, let alone it be me and my family."

Lisa Stebic’s family members have not seen her two children — now in their early 20s — since not long after Stebic disappeared, Ruttenberg said.

Lisa Stebic Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune

Lisa Stebic’s missing person flyer posted Dec. 26, 2007, on a gazebo in Lisa Stebic’s neighborhood in Plainfield, Ill.

(Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)

Melanie Greenberg, Lisa Stebic’s cousin, served as the family spokeswoman in the months after Stebic vanished, and was active in organizing a public campaign to find her. Soon after Lisa Stebic was reported missing, Greenberg helped set up a website and organized searches. At some point, the Olsen, Arcaro and Spira families reached out to her and joined in, Greenberg said.

On a past Mother’s Day, the family handed out flowers with a tip hotline number. They held framed photos of Lisa at news conferences, splashed information about her on billboards over major highways and even had a sign up at Wrigley Field — all tactics learned from others who had been in the same situation, and Greenberg’s friend, who was a TV producer in another state.

When Stacy Peterson of nearby Bolingbrook went missing six months after Stebic, the media attention was even greater than in Stebic’s case, so Greenberg offered that family guidance.

Oct 2007: Lisa Stebic’s family says Craig has cut all ties to them Jo Napolitano Lisa Stebic’s estranged husband, described by police as a person of interest in her disappearance six months ago, has cut off all communication between his children and his wife’s sisters, family members said Monday. The family has long feared Craig Stebic would sever those relationships, said… Lisa Stebic’s estranged husband, described by police as a person of interest in her disappearance six months ago, has cut off all communication between his children and his wife’s sisters, family members said Monday. The family has long feared Craig Stebic would sever those relationships, said… (Jo Napolitano)

"Who else could understand the chaos of that moment?" Greenberg said. And, because the press, including national media, was camped outside Stacy Peterson’s house, the five families used it as a tool to keep their loved ones’ names in the public.

"I felt like I did as much as I could," Greenberg said of her search for answers. But, "here we are, 10 years on."

Stacy Peterson — last seen Oct. 28, 2007

Stacy Peterson AFP/Getty Images

Stacy Ann Peterson, July 31, 2012

(AFP/Getty Images)

Cassandra Cales tells her 4-year-old son about his Auntie Stacy, wishing the boy could’ve met her. She points her out in photographs, so he knows who she is.

"’Auntie Stacy. She’s up in the clouds,’" the boy tells her.

The truth is, Cales, 31, doesn’t know where her sister is but doesn’t believe she’s alive.

Stacy Peterson was 23 when she went missing. She was the fourth wife of Drew Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police officer whose third wife, Kathleen Savio, died in 2004, found in her bathtub. Although Kathleen Savio’s death was initially ruled an accident, Stacy’s disappearance prompted investigators to exhume Savio’s body and re-examine the case. Drew Peterson was later convicted in Savio’s death and is in prison.

The bizarre circumstances surrounding Stacy Peterson’s disappearance made national news and eventually inspired a Lifetime movie that cast the blame on Drew Peterson. Although investigators long ago named him a suspect in Stacy Peterson’s disappearance, he has not been charged and has said repeatedly his wife left him for another man.

Feb. 2017: Drew Peterson’s son: Father ‘probably’ killed both Kathleen Savio and Stacy Peterson Kate Thayer

Living in his father’s home, raising his father’s children, Stephen Peterson, the son of convicted murderer Drew Peterson, said he’s spent the better part of a decade cleaning up his dad’s “mess.”

In 2012, Drew Peterson was sentenced to 38 years in prison for the 2004 slaying of his third wife,…

(Kate Thayer)

That’s almost beside the point to Cales.

Drew Peterson "is going to die in (prison) no matter what," she said. "I just want to put (Stacy) to rest. I just want to bring her home."

That vow has driven Cales to join in police- and volunteer-led searches for Stacy and others. She’s gone downstate acting on a tip that came to her website, searchingforstacypeterson.com, but didn’t turn up anything. She has conducted her own "interviews" with anyone who saw Drew or Stacy in the days leading up to Oct. 23, 2007. She keeps her findings on a detailed spreadsheet.

"I’m relentless and I will not give up," she said. "After Stacy went missing, I didn’t date, I didn’t do anything. My life was Stacy."

In the early days, Cales said she relied on the help of families of the missing and still keeps in touch with some of them, mostly through Facebook.

"We all became family," she said.

Nov. 2007: Police focusing on 9 sites in search for missing wife of Bolingbrook police sergeant Erika Slife, Matthew Walberg and Hal Dardick

Satellite trucks from national and local TV stations sat idling up and down Pheasant Chase Court in Bolingbrook Monday. Sharon Bychowski fielded phone calls from reporters wanting to know about her close friend and next-door neighbor, Stacy Peterson, 23, who was last seen Oct. 28 by her husband,…

(Erika Slife, Matthew Walberg and Hal Dardick)

Anne Bielby, 63, of Bolingbrook, was a volunteer searcher back then. That helped bring them together.

"It was so overwhelming to see these people not being found, one by one," said Bielby, now a trained forensic artist. She was inspired to become a volunteer after a 13-year-old went missing near her home in the 1990s. "I felt like I had to do something to help."

She remembers 2007 as "the year of strong women that were fighting for their families," referring to the female relatives of those missing that year.

Bielby connected them with each other and with services that could help them, such as a Texas search dog group.

"Lisa and Stacy’s cases were so high-profile, they literally had all these resources knocking on their door," she said, but other families aren’t sure what to do.

That’s where groups such as the New Hampshire-based nonprofit LostNMissing come in. Founder Cynthia Caron started the group in 2006, which grew from her interest in helping families with missing children. Her group works with families of missing adults.

Families can register and get guidance on working with the police, the press, and assistance with social media and databases for the missing, along with tips on when to hire private investigators and warnings of how they might be the target of psychics’ scams.

Since the group’s inception, Caron said she’s helped about 3,000 families nationwide. Of those, about 85 percent of their loved ones are never found, she said. But she tries to help the families keep hope and connects them with others who know what they’re going through.

Stacy Peterson Bonnie Trafelet / Chicago Tribune

A flier was left behind as friends and family of Stacy Peterson searched Knoch Knolls Park in Naperville on Nov. 3, 2007.

(Bonnie Trafelet / Chicago Tribune)

Closure lacking; support remains

While the hope of finding their loved ones alive may have faded, the families of those missing since 2007 still hope for closure.

McNeil is planning another billboard with Spira’s photo, hoping it will inspire tips. Goyette is planning her next animal shelter fundraiser in memory of Arcaro.

Olsen recently marked the 10th anniversary of Bradley Olsen’s disappearance with an event at Molly’s in DeKalb — the bar that replaced Bar One.

A crowd gathered outside, held signs, handed out fliers and released balloons before gathering back at the bar.

On the Help Find Bradley Facebook page, photos of the event show Susan Olsen holding blue balloons. Comments of love and hope appear on the page.

McNeil’s is among them.

"Wish I could be there. You are in my thoughts as always."

Susan Olsen Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune

Friends and relatives of Susan Olsen, mother of missing Maple Park man Bradley Olsen, gathered in DeKalb on Jan. 20, 2017, to remind the public about Bradley’s case. He disappeared 10 years ago after an evening at the tavern in the background, which has since been remodeled and renamed.

(Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune)

kthayer@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @knthayer

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