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GameChanger [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:44
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man that told me nobody goes there anymore because it's
00:01:50
too crowded he is the captain yeah and you can't find a place to park it's good to be seen and it's good to see you
00:01:57
thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend this week we have selected sleepy bear
00:02:08
by Workforce brewing in planfield Illinois garage grade 4 and A2 bottle caps out of five when we featured this
00:02:15
yesterday I failed to mention coffee there's a good hint of roasty coffee here that mixes well with the chocolate
00:02:22
and caramel flavors and thanks to the following for going to our website true Crim garage.com and contributing to our
00:02:29
beer fund first up thanks to Julie and Rio Rancho New Mexico and a big cheers mates to Jennifer and Covington Township
00:02:37
Pennsylvania next up we have a shout to Matthew and meline in North Augustus South Carolina also in South Carolina we
00:02:44
have Lisa and Fort Mill and put on your tin cap and a big cheers to Maggie a conspiracy theorist in Brooklyn New York
00:02:53
next we thank cat and West cavina California and last but certainly not least we have Harry and Finland so
00:02:59
thanks for the rounds of beers friends make sure you check us out at true Crim garage.com and on social media and for
00:03:06
all of our old episodes make sure you check us out on the Stitcher app and check out our show off the Record which
00:03:13
is on Stitcher premium and that is enough of the business that's right everybody gather around grab a chair
00:03:19
grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] on Wednesday July 11th 2007 police in a
00:03:47
news conference pinpointed Lisa's husband Craig Steck as the sole person of interest in Lisa steck's
00:03:54
disappearance planfield police chief Donald Bennett said Craig steach has been of minimal assistance to detectives
00:04:02
and refuse to participate in searches in part leading them to name him as a person of interest plus they said he has
00:04:09
refused their repeated request to talk to his children who are amongst the last people to see their mother alive twice
00:04:17
he has refused request to have police talk with these children said Bennett adding that such action has clearly
00:04:24
hampered the investigation it is the police's belief that the children have viable info that could assist them in
00:04:31
their investigation Craig Steck and his children somewhere along this investigative timeline they cut off all
00:04:38
contact with Lisa's family he smell that mhm smells a little fishy yeah this is a bad situation not
00:04:48
only they not working with the investigators and his children you know perceivably we can believe that this is
00:04:56
at his own doing are not talking with investigators as well but we also find out at some point they're not even
00:05:02
communicating with Lisa's family which I understand that there might be some bad
00:05:06
blood especially with her missing but that shouldn't should not really change the interaction between his children and
00:05:15
her family right now this case Lisa steck's Disappearance in what later police would pretty much officially
00:05:21
announce as suspected Foul Play and they even go out and say they don't believe Lisa is alive
00:05:30
this case was receiving a good deal of Statewide news publicity and national news coverage in the beginning but as we
00:05:38
have seen in other cases and in other states eventually there are distractions and I mean cases that take priority in
00:05:46
the news Spotlight MH and cases that took the spotlight came relatively quickly and became big news over Lisa's
00:05:53
case and this is as follows on June 14th 2007 Christopher V murdered his wife and
00:06:01
kids in Shanahan Illinois Chris use a piece of [ __ ] on October 28th 2007 Stacy
00:06:08
Peterson vanishes from balling Brook Illinois Drew Peterson use a piece of [ __ ] then as longtime garage listeners
00:06:15
very well know and one of the cases that fascinates me the most the February 2nd
00:06:21
2008 Lane Bryant store shootings in Tinley Park Illinois unknown suspect use a piece of [ __ ] now even though this
00:06:29
case faded from the spotlight Seeking Justice for Lisa needs to go on and I think there are a lot of important
00:06:36
questions in this case so let's go through some of these here Captain so the divorce is in full swing as it
00:06:42
appears this is often a red flag but in this case it seems clear that both parties wanted the divorce and both were
00:06:49
moving forward with it now there could be some motives inside all of this right the police were called to the house
00:06:58
again normally a red flag flag but here it appears there was no type of physical
00:07:02
altercation right and Craig was the one who called the police not the later missing individual Lisa yeah I agree
00:07:10
with that but also we have somebody that used to be a private investigator this could be some kind of a setup yes and
00:07:17
then we also have this situation about what we now know is probably reported as fact that Lisa was dating another man at
00:07:24
some point during the course of this separation mhm it seems like it that the question here that we have to go back to
00:07:32
if this would be a motive for her to disappear on Craig's part is one did he even know about this other individual
00:07:41
was it even something that was serious and I get that it doesn't have to be something serious for him to fly off the
00:07:46
handle and do something crazy but does one does he even know about it and two if he does know about it does he even
00:07:53
care is this something that even bothers him as said they're both moving forward
00:07:58
with separating from one another and ultimately it seems like the care of their children is the concern of both of
00:08:05
them yeah but we have mixed you know feelings there as well we have somebody saying hey at one point we have them
00:08:14
saying hey we're going to have joint custody right with with the mother Lisa having the primary custody or primary
00:08:22
house is where they' be living mhm but then that seems like that's going to change well like she changed mind on
00:08:29
that I question that a little bit because of a few things one I don't think it was ever filed in a way that
00:08:36
she would be the sole caretaker of these children I wonder if this is a situation
00:08:41
where we have a divorce moving forward and she's saying I'm going to be the main caregiver of these children well
00:08:48
what if he what if he disputes this at some point her lawyer asking for information to what what do we have to
00:08:55
point out that you should be the main caretaker of these children right because the whole thing you have to ask
00:09:02
yourself if she truly did feel that he was an unfit father and the thing that I keep going back to and I'm probably
00:09:09
going to take some criticism for this but I want everybody to keep in mind we don't know 100% what was going on inside
00:09:15
those four walls we don't know what was going on 100% under the roof of that home right so if she truly did feel that
00:09:22
he was unfit or dangerous a danger to their children she did have some control under
00:09:30
the fact that they were still all living under the same Ruth right and she does seem to be a caring mother that would
00:09:36
take that into account along the way the other thing is I don't I don't hesitate
00:09:41
to say that I do think that there was some kind of verbal abuse or belittling going on I know that there are talks
00:09:52
that she was attending counseling at a place that is pretty much structured for battered women right right one thing
00:10:00
though we got to keep in mind usually those places keep their records sealed for good reason so I don't know that we
00:10:07
have an official from that agency coming forward and saying yes she was seeking counseling here or if this is just
00:10:14
something that her family is saying or friends suspected along the way or something she said she might seek in the
00:10:20
future yeah and maybe it's just Counseling in general MH but one has to Wonder look there's going to be kinds of
00:10:29
rumors that come out your friend goes missing and it becomes okay well I do remember that one time that that she
00:10:37
said her husband was mean I do remember that you know what I mean like right and
00:10:41
now you're trying to you're trying to work backwards your friend's missing now let's work backwards and now you have
00:10:47
this husband which yeah it's odd he's trying to keep everything close to the to the vest but who knows what's been
00:10:53
said about him and then at that point you go okay my wife is missing and that sucks but I need to take care of myself
00:11:01
I need to take care of my family I need to make sure they're all right because if I go away what's going to happen to
00:11:08
them the other thing that could be going on here and this is much darker than anything that we've talked about is we
00:11:15
see a couple things inside this relationship a couple things going on in this Dynamic that we are aware of and
00:11:23
that is fact so let's go through that real quick and look at it through this angle and this might be uncomfortable to
00:11:30
talk about but it's a possibility we have Craig who is the I mean he's the bread winner by far in this situation 80
00:11:39
grand a year roughly compared to 10 grand a year right now is that that doesn't mean I don't mean that to
00:11:46
suggest that Lisa was any less of a person or earner than her husband what I'm getting at is was that a situation
00:11:54
controlled by this man was that a situation where he goes out and he makes a good deal of money and he's reminding
00:12:01
her day after day you got this job over here it's not going to pay the bills I'm
00:12:07
in control of this situation you need me you need me for financial support and you need me to keep this roof over our
00:12:16
heads even if it's joint custody and they award her uh child support money it's not going to be even though he
00:12:22
makes a lot more money mhm it's not going to be enough for her to live off of right and now we certainly know that
00:12:28
she was capable of earning more I mean she has a degree she worked a second job for a while I would love to know what
00:12:36
happened with that second job it sounds to me some of the things I've read Captain sounds like it was a fill-in
00:12:42
position that she was filling in for someone right or was this a situation where Craig goes you know what I'm tired
00:12:49
of you being gone at night you're not allowed to be gone at night you can work your job during the day I expect you to
00:12:55
be home during the evenings right I would love to know the situation going on there because you have to wonder with
00:13:01
this being their second time around on the divorce proceedings was she making plans to better her financial situation
00:13:09
leading up to the eventual separation again yeah and if if he's telling her not to work the job that goes back into
00:13:18
the controlling factor I I just think um somebody that's going to be that controlling of somebody you think
00:13:25
they're actually going to file for divorce mhm it doesn't make a lot of sense but again that could be playing a
00:13:31
certain hand let me file for the divorce let me seem like I'm okay with it yeah again a controlling Factor right he's
00:13:40
the one that decides when they're going to file for divorce he's the one that decides when the police are going to be
00:13:45
called also we know the situation of her cell phone he's in charge of the cell phone both of the cars are registered to
00:13:54
Craig none to Lisa right you know it so you do have some things in here where it
00:14:00
looks like we have a guy that's kind of controlling the whole situation this whole family and then later on or or is
00:14:07
it a logical thing I'm going to put the car in my name because I'm paying for the tags because I'm paying for the
00:14:14
license plates because I'm paying the insurance because I'm paying the gas money because I'm paying for the car
00:14:20
right is it just a logical thing well why would I put it in somebody else's name if it's mine well and some have
00:14:26
cited money troubles as a possible motive while we're on the talks of motives here apparently they did have a
00:14:32
second mortgage on the house and they were getting ready to separate but they owed quite a bit more on the home than
00:14:40
the value of that home well that's always good yeah then we have the eviction papers and again this this
00:14:47
thing is a tricky motive here too just like everything else we have the situation where she has filed for a
00:14:54
petition of eviction of this man who's probably paying most of the bills as we discuss with the amount of money that
00:15:01
he's right and that that part's not tricky I mean if you're paying all the bills and you got eviction notice from
00:15:08
the person not paying the bills uh I'd be super pissed I'd be I'd be Captain America B well that's where you wonder
00:15:18
that's where people are going to say hey he must have known about this and when he found out he lost it right but that's
00:15:26
that's the weird speculation cuz do know if he knew about this his claims he says
00:15:31
he never knew about this paperwork until after she went missing right so we cited
00:15:37
the money troubles possible money troubles we cited the eviction papers and the normal red flags we would expect
00:15:44
with a divorce as it's going on we also have a situation Captain where police announced two very vague but interesting
00:15:52
things to the media over the years one they have ruled out several people and what I mean by this exactly is they have
00:16:01
talked to several people they're saying we've ruled other people out in this disappearance we can't rule him out that
00:16:08
makes me wonder about this individual that she was dating this unnamed man he's in the papers he's unnamed this to
00:16:15
me knowing his age the age is reported in the media this points to me that law enforcement knows who this guy is right
00:16:23
and they've probably talked to him they've investigated him he would be on that list and if they're saying that
00:16:28
we've cleared everyone else well then that man that she dated again we don't know how many times he must be on that
00:16:35
list of people that have been cleared by law enforcement yeah I think that's safe
00:16:40
to assume and then two Craig Steck is law enforcement's sole Person of Interest we know this from a statement
00:16:47
released to the public and I think that this has to stem from three key factors one Craig is believed to be the last
00:16:55
person to see Lisa or at least he reports having SE seen her at their home and hearing her leave sometime around
00:17:02
6:00 p.m. that night right we don't have anybody else to say that they saw her after that time we don't have any
00:17:08
activity on her credit cards or cell phone after that time right two the small amount of blood found on the tarp
00:17:15
in Craig's truck I mean that's just that blood just doesn't magically appear again you're not going to be able to get
00:17:23
a murder charge out of that but it seems awfully suspicious then three it seems like law enforcement have good reason to
00:17:31
believe that Craig Steck has access to places that might make it easy for him to dispose of Lisa's body and hide
00:17:39
evidence we talked about the property that his family owns out of state we also have a situation where this guy
00:17:47
he's a pipe fitter he moves around to different job sites you know we just talked about a case last week where
00:17:53
right the husband buried the the wife and children at one of his job sites yeah so what happened to Lisa you know
00:18:01
did Craig do it does Craig not submitting to a lie detector test mean anything I think what it means is he's
00:18:09
not a total idiot as we've discussed those tests are unreliable and the results can be damaged by the Proctor's
00:18:16
opinion and several times we have pointed out how you can end up with false positives to deception regarding
00:18:22
those tests and with specific questions he claims that he has turned down this RH request at the advice of his
00:18:32
attorney what are the other possibilities well like did Craig's dad help in any way this could be an
00:18:41
interesting angle but the thing I have to wonder here Captain is I feel like there isn't much on his testimony as far
00:18:49
as what he was doing or where he was but I would have to guess I would wager that
00:18:55
this was probably looked into and was investigated I mean it could be a possibility but I also think that it's
00:19:02
quite unlikely I think that there would have been something connecting the dad to it or connecting the dad to Craig as
00:19:09
being some kind of assistant in all of this right maybe some eyewitness yeah and I think investigators spent a good
00:19:16
amount of time on this case we talked about all the searches that were involved not just in the stebic home in
00:19:23
the greater planfield area but all those searches inside the home and the vehicles you think that something
00:19:30
somewhere would turn up and I really want to know or have a good I'd like to have a good understanding of what
00:19:37
information we could pull from her phone because we know that she is on a site looking for a gy pal
00:19:46
mhm you know are we just hearing that she looked for a gy pal and it was only female is there more to that story
00:19:55
because her car is still there right and everything goes missing so it's like that makes a lot of sense if you go yeah
00:20:03
she came home we got to prove that we haven't been able to prove that I think that's on her husband to prove I think
00:20:11
it's on her kids to prove but then if she's at home and she leaves we have eyewitnesses not that
00:20:19
much later or some some eyewitnesses around that time that say oh yeah he was working in his in his backyard right so
00:20:29
is are some of these things setups by a guy that knew how cases worked CU he was
00:20:35
a private investigator or is this a guy being cautious because he was a private investigator and we've seen people get
00:20:43
railroaded we've seen people with no evidence mhm but a false confession by somebody
00:20:50
else doing life in prison or get death death row MH so how would we react if something happened
00:21:03
and and and they were putting you on trial in the in the media Spotlight well the public Spotlight and other than that
00:21:12
small amount of blood which I mean she lived at the home who knows that could have come from anything well my other
00:21:17
question would be how long did he own the truck because they're together 14 years they had this tarp for however
00:21:24
many years how long did they have the truck right so is it is it possible if they had the
00:21:30
truck for six years that there's some blood somewhere possible well and with her regards to her cell phone sorry let
00:21:37
me backtrack just a quick second here okay we're talking about what evidence is there against Craig there's not much
00:21:44
and I think that's the big problem with this case one you know the little small trace of blood that could be evidence
00:21:50
but but it's hard to make that evidence you have to almost make that evidence right and then two we have the you know
00:21:58
people family friends later coming out saying well no Lisa was afraid of him well again we don't know what was going
00:22:07
on under that roof what was going on inside those four walls it seems like a lot of
00:22:11
hearsay so then you have people that come out and say well if there's no evidence against Craig you know and
00:22:19
that's why I brought up the father his father we know they were tight did his father help in some way you have other
00:22:24
people that say well Craig could have paid someone to get rid of Lisa and I think this too is an interesting angle
00:22:33
however I think this very much Falls right into the last question about Craig's father and I think this is an
00:22:39
unlikely situation I don't think this is what happened here because again there would have been phone records or some
00:22:47
type of communication between Craig and the Hitman some trail of evidence connecting the two of them and you bring
00:22:56
up a good a good interesting scenario here mhm did she in fact leave the home just like Craig said did she in fact
00:23:05
intend to go to the gym that night and meet someone at the gym who later abducted and killed her right this
00:23:13
certainly is somewhat of a possibility but in order for this to be more likely than what I think it is she would I
00:23:21
think she would have had to have been abducted in route to the gym you know because we don't have anyone that says
00:23:28
that they saw her at the gym that night and you have to wonder how many people work out at a high school gym at 6:00 on
00:23:36
that Monday night yeah but if let's say she met this person before then it was as simple hey I'll pick you up we'll go
00:23:44
to the gym together mhm and so he picks her up or she picks her up and when it when it comes down to it they just don't
00:23:53
make it to the gym mhm I mean I I she is a a pretty small individual mhm um 52 120 mhm uh this is
00:24:09
uh male or female could move her if she was deceased you know they could move the
00:24:17
body there's the other thought and I know Craig has really pointed to this you know did she leave on her own accord
00:24:25
did she go out to start up a new life life personally I think I would say if there were no kids no children involved
00:24:34
that this could be the case but right I I mean I don't see any signs or any reason that she would abandon her kids
00:24:42
no one said that that would be in her character we also have someone that is tattooing the names of her children on
00:24:49
her body right but that that doesn't mean anything well it means something to me I I feel like it it means that
00:24:57
they're special to her and that they hold some significance some special place in her life yeah and well I I
00:25:05
think the runaway Theory doesn't make a lot of sense because one she didn't use any of her cards we don't have any
00:25:11
transactions she didn't make enough money that she could stockpile enough to kind of get a new start mhm uh and if
00:25:19
you're going to get a new start again is it is it possible that she's trying to better her life and then she just went
00:25:25
you know what and I don't want to be a mom it happens MH it happens to dads it happens to moms it's just there's really
00:25:34
no evidence of it so I mean we can go down that rabbit hole but until there's really evidence I don't see what the
00:25:40
point would be we also have um you know there are cases where there's almost like an underground railroad situation
00:25:49
where like these agencies for battered women will relocate them but it's all very secretive you know and it's all
00:25:57
very much you have to drop everything and cut off all ties with your old life right to go on and start a new one and
00:26:04
they never disclose that information the thing is that doesn't happen a lot for many
00:26:13
reasons the most important one and the most prominent one of those reasons is it's so hard for someone that has loved
00:26:21
ones and people that they care about and children right for them to sever all ties and to to to move on and create a
00:26:29
new life elsewhere the other thing I would point out here too Captain is the children were young they're 10 they're
00:26:35
12 you know these aren't grown adult children that are out making their own life and have moved on or moved away
00:26:43
right you know these are people that children that were very much dependent on her as much as they are her husband
00:26:50
Craig yeah I I mean isn't there some law can't they subpoena these kids and so they could talk to him well
00:26:58
they did they did um and that's where that's where it gets tricky again with Craig's
00:27:05
situation you know they spoke with the grand jury nothing new apparently was gained from that now this these are
00:27:13
closed door meetings these are closed door uh interviews so we don't know what was discussed we don't know what was
00:27:20
asked there but apparently there was nothing there was not enough inside that information or answers that they
00:27:27
provided to this grand jury that would lead to the arrest and charges being filed against Craig
00:27:38
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there yeah so with this case I I don't see the evidence or any indication that she
00:30:02
would be running away mhm like it seems like there's definitely evidence that she
00:30:09
wants to change some things in her life and better some things in her life but not her just getting up and leaving
00:30:17
M well she's making moves too within the divorce proceedings you know it's it's not like oh this is happening he filed
00:30:25
for divorce and she's just dragging her feet waiting for it to happen you know we see the situation of the eviction
00:30:31
notice we see the situation of her going ahead and moving on with her life we see
00:30:37
a situation of her getting her daughter's name tattooed on her body and then telling friends that she wants a
00:30:43
tattoo of her son's name you know these are all things th this to me all points to somebody that has a plan future
00:30:52
things that she is looking forward to right not things that she is running away from or even sitting back and
00:30:59
denying that they are happening well and you also wonder too if she's been with this guy for 14 years that is quote
00:31:07
unquote verba abusive did she meet somebody that's might not treat her the best and we just don't know about it but
00:31:19
she's willing to put up with that because she that's what she's known for 14 years I mean you'd think that would
00:31:26
they would have find some kind of information on that home computer right and I think you know that's where
00:31:33
they're going to get all the information regarding these uh connection sites that
00:31:38
she was involved in because one thing we got to keep in mind in regards to her cell phone first off this is 2007 okay
00:31:46
so her cell phone is automatically different from the ones that we have in 2019 but then on top of that it's it's
00:31:54
often reported that this is an older cell phone right as of 2007 so probably pretty
00:32:01
primitive compared to what we are using today yeah Zach moris called he wants his phone back well and I have to wonder
00:32:08
I'm I'm guessing here that we have a phone that doesn't even have internet capabilities possibly that this is just
00:32:15
a uh a phone used to call people maybe text people as well so but that brings up an interesting question and one that
00:32:24
is posed in this case did Lisa meet someone online and then she agreed to meet with this person this is possible
00:32:33
but the problem with this question here is this was investigated and pretty thoroughly as well well we could answer
00:32:42
some of the questions some of these questions could be answered by was he at work cuz he
00:32:49
claims he came home at about 5:45 6:00 yeah says he was home at about 5:40 p.m. that night that's because he was at work
00:32:58
correct so do we have anything and I know he bounces around from sight to site but some of these cars have GPS
00:33:09
tracking for different job you know for different companies mhm like we saw in the Chris Watts case right do we have
00:33:16
any evidence that he was gone uh until he said he was well what we don't have is anyone disputing that he wasn't where
00:33:26
he says he was right um so I really feel like the the time frame in question is after 5:40 p.m. that night we don't have
00:33:37
anyone to say any differently that he wasn't where he says he was so just real quick back to did she meet someone and
00:33:45
and this is I don't necessarily mean did she meet someone and decide oh you're my
00:33:50
night and Shining Army I fell in love with you let's run away together I don't mean that at all I mean someone that
00:33:56
that was there to deceive her you know someone that she met through one of these connection sites and they did
00:34:03
something bad to her and took her from her life right and the thing is though like I said I think this because some
00:34:11
people have pointed out look someone on there just like you talked about in yesterday's show you could have somebody
00:34:17
on there pretending to be a woman yeah and communicating with her the old catfish and then setting up a hey let's
00:34:24
meet up or let's go for a jog together I'll meet you at the gym or you meet me here on your way to the gym yeah and
00:34:31
then she never shows up again again the problem with this is you you feel like that the investigation really had very
00:34:40
quickly nowhere else to go other than Craig Steck and I think again there would have been breadcrumbs found on
00:34:48
that computer found within those connection sites that would have said she was talking to somebody yeah and
00:34:54
here's okay here's where I feel bad for him mhm initially he called we have a situation take the
00:35:05
Chris Watts case right it's it's been on my mind so from time to time so that's a
00:35:13
situation where he he's not really telling anybody anybody's missing he's just kind of going about his business
00:35:21
he's waiting for other people to say hey something's up here we need to call the
00:35:25
cops not only that he's he's offering an explanation that why they are not at home Chris Watts is he's saying they
00:35:33
went on a play date and I don't know the person's name or where they live yeah piece of [ __ ] uh so but here we have a
00:35:40
case where you go you could say yeah well he didn't call Captain he didn't call till the next day well they're
00:35:49
getting separated they're not going to be married anymore this is going to be his normal life going forward maybe he's
00:35:58
pretending it's already his normal life she's gone out and like we said she go out till 10:00 11:00 MH is it possible
00:36:08
that he fell asleep didn't even know that she didn't come home mhm right maybe he wasn't worried the
00:36:15
night before maybe he didn't think about it then the next day he's going what the
00:36:20
[ __ ] is going on right where is she at guess who calls the cops guess who starts going hello she's missing well he
00:36:31
doesn't call the cops but he does call a couple of people to find out if they know where she is right but didn't
00:36:38
he the one of the people that he talked to they called the cops yeah but again the person it's it's very unclear as to
00:36:50
the situation right but one thing that I'm pretty certain of it seems like the neighbor that he called to find out
00:36:59
where his wife could be right that the neighbor was close with Lisa and and that they were like friends the couples
00:37:06
were friends you know the husband and wife husband and wife they hung out together but I feel like the neighbor
00:37:14
that he contacted and the neighbor is the one that goes oh there's something fishy going on here
00:37:21
and they're the one that decid I don't think he prompted them to call the police right but but one would argue
00:37:28
again this guy was a private investigator he's no dummy right mhm one could argue by calling other people you
00:37:36
called her work mhm you're calling people that you're notifying people that she's missing
00:37:42
you're notify yeah right you're notifying the people and on top of that you're the one that that's that's
00:37:47
throwing up Flags in his favor in his favor that's right he's saying hey you know did he call cops right away no cuz
00:37:55
he was calling people so we don't know if he would have eventually you know after five calls maybe he would have
00:38:03
called the police or if he returned home from work that day would have called the
00:38:07
police right right at some point he but he's calling her work again it's one of those things
00:38:14
where on one side you go oh that's a play you sneaky bastard mhm and that's just you setting it up you got rid of
00:38:22
her the night before you bought your kids candy to keep their mouth shut and guess
00:38:28
what now you're just uh you're you're dropping off this information leading to you want to make people believe that
00:38:37
you're concerned but then on the other hand you go well maybe that's just the truth
00:38:42
because there there is a logical explanation to his actions there so it's it and then he goes here's the computer
00:38:51
well how much time did he spend making sure that they would find exactly what they found on the computer mhm and maybe
00:38:59
it or erasing what they didn't find right and what I mean by that is it doesn't have to be you know like a Casey
00:39:06
Anthony where it's like uh Craig came home and and Googled how to murder wife and get away with
00:39:13
it right maybe it's not something like that but maybe it was a dating website that she was on that he got rid of
00:39:24
mhm again I don't know what his uh knowledge is of computers and I would assume that law enforcement has better
00:39:34
text that would be be able to uncover that information that's the thing we've seen plenty of cases where people think
00:39:41
they're pretty good at wiping clean a computer or device police get their hands on it and very quickly they're
00:39:47
like what about this what about this what about that cuz what they don't know as they call the garage and they go wing
00:39:54
wing wing wing is is the colonel there we need him to check out this computer and then you find every but
00:40:02
what I'm saying everything that's encrypted I will find so then he goes okay uh yes we're trying to find my soon
00:40:10
Tobe ex-wife I'm helping you here's the computer I'm talking to you some things get said and then he goes oh I've seen
00:40:20
this story before and he shuts it down and can you blame the guy you can't blame the guy MH but that again it's one
00:40:30
of those things where logically you go One Direction is this guy is trying to protect himself trying to protect his
00:40:37
kids trying to protect his family on the other hand you go that seems fishy that that is fishy as the fish
00:40:47
sticks that they serve during lunch well and here's the thing too because a lot of times and I would say 99% of the time
00:40:55
99% of the time we have a situation where people are like you know what the he does not
00:41:02
report her missing he does not call police that is a giant red flag against him I think the thing that everybody
00:41:09
needs to keep in mind here is that can we all agree that this scenario is unique in
00:41:17
the sense that every bit of evidence that we can find points to the fact that they were both walking away from this
00:41:26
relationship they were both walking away maybe in a situation if if she were and
00:41:32
this is not the truth but if she were running around on him you'd go well that's a red flag he didn't report her
00:41:38
missing he didn't he didn't get scared he didn't get nervous that she wasn't coming home right that's a red flag no
00:41:43
they were both walking away from this relationship regardless of what was going on inside that home so therefore
00:41:51
to me I almost feel like a different reaction to her not coming home is what I would actually expect in this
00:41:59
situation meaning either a he was a bit upset oh what she's just not going to come home now oh I'll call a few people
00:42:07
but I'm not going to waste my time on it I got kids I got to get to school I got
00:42:10
a job I got to show up to right or the other one that we've talked about a few times here too did he just not care did
00:42:17
he just go well whatever this is over I've I've already emotionally walked away from this relationship a while ago
00:42:24
right but hold on you're talking about just the fact that he didn't report her missing right where where many many
00:42:30
people would say that's a red flag against him I almost feel like if I were in this situation I would think that
00:42:37
it's a it's in his favor that he felt differently or at least appears from the outside to have felt differently yeah
00:42:44
but I don't look at that like that at all I mean he could have been going I'm going to call her work I'm going to call
00:42:49
some of her friends well then you call the neighbor and they called the cops mhm okay well you didn't report rep it
00:42:56
but you called the neighbor so it's not like you hit it from anybody right indirectly you reported it so you know I
00:43:03
mean like uh he didn't report it but somebody did so at that point for all we know the neighbor said hey guess what I
00:43:10
called the cops or the cops came to his house and why he's calling and still looking for her okay now we're doing
00:43:16
this you know so it's so weird because there's so many things that like you easily go ah this guy I don't like him
00:43:28
smells like a turd and then there's other parts where you go I see what you know a sane person would do
00:43:37
that or somebody that actually cared about her you know and again they're going through a divorce there's anger
00:43:42
there but at the end of the day they're together for 14 years he probably cares about her on some level there's the
00:43:48
mother of his kids so just it's so weird it's like he calls I mean does that that's as simple
00:43:57
as it can be he calls her work to figure out if she made it to work that's either
00:44:03
a cover up or he gives a [ __ ] and like that's what where almost every piece of evidence points and and
00:44:12
that's really frustrating and if he's not guilty of anything you know this is uh I feel bad
00:44:18
for him well here's the other thing you got to wonder about right for for the future of his life separated from his
00:44:25
exy wife doesn't having her around make it easier for him and what I mean by that look if they're having money
00:44:33
problems they're separating they're going to share those money problems even after they separate um it it eases his
00:44:41
burden a little bit and the other thing too is they both planned on shared parenting as a single as a a now single
00:44:49
man he has somebody that he can trust more than anyone else to watch his children a few nights a week right you
00:44:57
know so what I'm getting at it seems a little easier for him that that she be around there doesn't seem to be a
00:45:02
situation where he's running around on her and just has to get out of this marriage and can't come up with any
00:45:07
better idea than to turn into Chris Watts and end it all right well well I agree with that but then I start
00:45:14
thinking that maybe it's a situation where he goes I'm in control I make 80 grand you make 10 grand and she starts
00:45:22
playing the system a little bit and goes you know what I can actually get you out of the
00:45:28
house maybe I can win this house in the divorce because look anybody that's gone
00:45:35
through a big breakup let's just say you live with the person you don't have to be married to the person but several
00:45:42
times I'd sit down at a table you know we need to talk about what we're splitting up okay this is how
00:45:50
I think things will go right that's maybe somebody lays out to you I'm I'm going to keep the house you keep this
00:45:57
car you do this right all that can change in an argument you see what I'm saying no I
00:46:05
get I get it and so is so motive could be a lot more than money and custody it could be a bunch of stuff whereas this
00:46:15
person maybe didn't really care so much he filed for divorce but now it's all all of a sudden shifting and she starts
00:46:23
going well you were verbally abusive and you did all this stuff and I'm going to
00:46:27
take everything I can and then he's going wait a second this is not how it's supposed to go we're supposed to both
00:46:33
this walk away mhm is that enough for somebody to snap and kill somebody I believe so she could have threatened him
00:46:41
with that but from the outside looking in I don't see much in the way of property I mean I just don't see it you
00:46:48
know what I mean it seems like well I mean she filed for him to be evicted from the house right I mean that's
00:46:54
evidence of that's just a place to stay until they get until the divorce is final though right but what I'm saying
00:47:00
the difference is is the the the communication could have been you know you're going to you know
00:47:08
he paid for the house maybe if she's only making 10,000 bucks you think he really needed her help to pay for the
00:47:14
house probably not no no I don't think so and so what I'm saying is the the conversation could have been well I'm
00:47:21
going to keep the house cuz I paid on it and she's like yeah no big deal and we're going to do shared parenting yeah
00:47:28
B deal but what I'm getting at is it's it's I see what you're saying but the the problem in that though to go to the
00:47:36
extent of killing somebody there's no equity in that home it's not like you're losing something right but sometimes
00:47:44
people are grasping at straws to hold on to some stability of their life is what
00:47:51
I mean and I know that sounds like silly but if if it's a stretch is what I'm saying so I'm not leaning towards that
00:47:59
I'm just saying I could see that and that's what make like I said back to the my main point and my final wrap up of
00:48:06
the case in my eyes is either almost everything in this case points to that's fishy and I kind of understand why he
00:48:16
did it does that make sense you kind of understand why he killed his wife no no no no no no I'm no you kind of
00:48:23
understand why people suspect him no no no what I'm saying is like just take any
00:48:28
point of evidence any knowledge that we have it's like he called it her work it's
00:48:37
like part of me goes oh that's him covering up that he did something to her right and the other part of me goes no
00:48:45
he was actually looking for her but it's like there's so much stuff that does that where like At first he's talking to
00:48:52
the cops and then he stops talking to the cops and it's like I see does that make sense yeah well but one thing one
00:49:00
possibility we didn't get to yet is did some random person grab her off the street and kill her and this I actually
00:49:08
believe to be one of the more probable scenarios for a couple of reasons one the weather was not bad that night from
00:49:15
what I could find it wasn't perfect but what if she took off on a jog you know planfield is a safe area but we have
00:49:23
covered just in the past year at least three incidences of a lady going out jogging by herself and some snake in the
00:49:31
grass evil man sees her and attacks her um so it's even though this is a safe area you have to keep in mind
00:49:39
unfortunately this stuff can happen anywhere and I think that this might be somewhat possible because of the items
00:49:46
missing you know we have the purse is a bit tricky I don't know anybody that goes out jogging with their purse but I
00:49:52
would expect her to take her cell phone with her we also know that the area was safe enough and at least the weather was
00:49:59
nice enough for the father to send a 12 and 10-year-old you know kids out on a bike ride in search of candy right so
00:50:07
that is a possible interesting angle here and we know that she jogged in the park across the street from their home
00:50:17
this wouldn't require her to take her car this wouldn't require her to tell anyone where she was going well also she
00:50:23
could have taken her purse and put it on a bench while she's running mhm as long as she knows that
00:50:30
she can see the bench while she's running I I've seen people do that a lot the problem though here Captain is you
00:50:38
know could this case just ultimately be a dead end because I hope not what I mean by this is I I've so many cases
00:50:46
that we've covered there's very few what maybe two that I can think of that it seems like a person just straight up in
00:50:56
right and with her situation it doesn't seem like she was in charge of going missing I feel like between her close
00:51:04
friends all the things that came out later I feel like Lisa was a bit of an open book to her friends and her close
00:51:12
you know relatives right and so therefore I kind of feel like this is a situation where she may have vanished
00:51:19
for unknown reasons and the answer could be right in front of us it really could
00:51:25
but there's nothing to connect there's nothing solid and concrete to connect Craig as 100% your guy let me just ask a
00:51:33
a couple questions if if you can answer these and I know I'm going back a little
00:51:39
bit but she leaves work what time at 2:30 and then this would be a pretty normal time for her to leave work and
00:51:48
what time does the kid need picked up 3:30 and we know that she stopped and got a sandwich somewhere along the way
00:51:56
right so we have her whereabouts up to let's say about 3:00 somebody picks up the kid we don't
00:52:02
know if it's her don't know if it's the husband mhm they get back to that puts him back to the house pick the kid up at
00:52:11
3:30 he waited in line a little bit roughly about 4:00 mhm the neighbors see him roughly around
00:52:19
6 6:37 no I I don't know exactly when they see him um or if they even claim to have
00:52:29
seen him at all what here here's what I think is concrete in this in this case and this is coming from law enforcement
00:52:38
law enforcement has stated that they believe that Lisa Steck was in the home when the children left to go to
00:52:44
Walgreens to get candy this would have been shortly after Craig came home from work at 5:40 p.m. then when they
00:52:52
returned sometime between 6:30 and 6 4 p.m. Lisa Steck was not in the home but Craig was and we do know that they even
00:53:02
though that communication was cut off at some point law enforcement did speak with the children right yeah at first
00:53:10
yeah and so what's interesting here is you have an hour you have an hour that you have to now they talked to the kids
00:53:19
so I'm assuming that the kids are saying yeah our dad was there when we got back
00:53:24
our mom wasn't that gives him an hour and if people saw him digging in his backyard or whatever that you know
00:53:33
working in the backyard whatever they brought dogs in mhm nothing no scent picked up you would
00:53:41
think they would have picked something up case be solved but that an hour is not a big window well a a good friend of
00:53:49
mine who lives in Illinois he's retired uh firefighter he has a theory that basically ends with Craig killed Lisa at
00:53:59
some point and was planning it for months and she's in the ground at their property really I Greg is shout out to
00:54:10
my buddy Greg thanks for all your he just retired recently as a firefighter so thanks for all your years as a first
00:54:16
responder I think his theory is very interesting he claims that she would be um at least she's probably in some kind
00:54:23
of container maybe a Barrel or something that he put in the ground at some point
00:54:28
and that this Barrel would be at least 3T or deeper in the ground and he's his thought is that they need to
00:54:36
use uh sonar you know ground penetrating sonar to see if there's anything on that
00:54:42
property right there's a couple of there's a couple of things that I I throw in there to to poke a hole or at
00:54:49
least question that theory I think it's a good one but I saw that the property was listed for sale at some point this
00:54:58
is not a large property it would be interesting you know you and I have talked so many times about in these
00:55:04
cases what can we prove and what can we disprove is there any Theory or anything
00:55:09
along our list that we can at least scratch off even if we can't find Lisa's remains on the stebic property that they
00:55:16
used to own can we at least go well that's not a possibility because we've searched it properly and we know that
00:55:22
that cannot be right and so it would be interesting that's not a large property it's a regular neighborhood so I'm
00:55:29
guessing from pictures we're probably talking about a quarter acre loish somewhere in there so it wouldn't take
00:55:35
long to scan that property and see if there's anything hiding in the ground there but I would love I would love for
00:55:43
the current homeowners to give consent for that to happen and I'm sure there's somewhere someone out there that
00:55:50
followed this case maybe even to this day that would be willing to help in that detection of if there's any anomaly in
00:55:57
the ground there well the reason why I would like that theory is the idea like I said it's not a lot of time from the
00:56:06
time that the children leave yeah 45 minutes maybe an hour this guy would have had to have moved quick yeah but if
00:56:14
you plan this a week in advance well then you'd have everything ready all all you'd have to do is kill
00:56:23
her put her in the container and then bury it it's an interesting case but a very sad one too because I kind of feel
00:56:31
like unless Lisa's now grown adult children come forward with something new with something that they have not spoke
00:56:39
about yet some kind of new information this is a cold case and I think it might just keep getting colder do you have a
00:56:45
number to call if anybody has any information uh we can look up the planfield police department the number
00:56:53
is area code 815 436 2341 815 436 2341 thanks to everybody for joining us in the garage this week we will see you
00:57:19
back here next week until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause]
00:57:39
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