Crest Hill Mystery Makes Me Think Of Stebic, Morrow Cases: Ferak

CREST HILL, IL — Monday marks a full month since 50-year-old Crest Hill resident Wendy Gessing vanished without a trace. There have been several times during the past month I've found myself wondering whether the Crest Hill Police Department is up to the task of solving this complicated investigation.

In many missing persons cases, family and close acquaintances of the missing person are clamoring for news media attention. But that has not been the case in Gessing's disappearance. At no point during the past month has anybody from Gessing's family reached out to me to be interviewed. Likewise, I've seen no interviews with Gessing's relatives in any other Joliet or Chicago news outlets.

That's kind of odd.

In late June, I noticed missing person posters for Gessing taped to the glass doors for the new Will County Courthouse, alerting the thousands of people visiting the courthouse every day to Gessing's disappearance. This is a good thing, and I'm happy that's been done.

On the other hand, strangely, you will not find one single poster of Gessing posted at the city of Crest Hill Municipal Building, which is where the Crest Hill Police Department is located.

Why are posters of Gessing being displayed in downtown Joliet at the county courthouse, but not at the most notable public building in Crest Hill, the city where Gessing has lived for many years?

I don't get it.

On Friday, Crest Hill Police Chief Ed Clark indicated that investigators are now utilizing the information extracted from Gessing's cell phone as they attempt to locate her. For the first several days of June, Crest Hill police investigated Gessing's disappearance under the belief that she was alive and well but may have chosen to run off.

I have my doubts that Gessing simply ran off.

After all, the 50-year-old woman has lived in the Crest Hill-Joliet area for many years. She had a stable job, working at Pizzas By Marchelloni in Crest Hill, at the corner of Theodore and Raynor. The restaurant is owned by Gessing's long-time boyfriend. She has lived with the long-time Crest Hill small business owner for many years at a ranch house on nearby Hosmer Lane, just a few blocks away from the popular pizza restaurant.

On Friday, Chief Clark told me he considered Gessing's boyfriend continued to be helpful and cooperative with police amid the investigation.

In the early stages of the investigation, Crest Hill police worked off the premise that Gessing had frequented the Motel 6 in Joliet on McDonough Street. My subsequent interviews with the Joliet hotel manager, however, left me convinced that the woman seen on a blurry nighttime video surveillance camera from the Motel 6 property probably was not Gessing.

There are a few irrefutable facts in the mysterious disappearance of the Crest Hill woman:

According to Crest Hill police, Gessing was last seen on Saturday, June 12, at Raynor and Theodore, which is where Pizzas by Marchelloni is located.

Five days later, Gessing's abandoned car turned up in the 400 block of Joliet's Buell Avenue, which is several miles from the Pizzas By Marchelloni restaurant.

Then, a few days after Gessing's car was found, Gessing's cell phone turned up in the village of Romeoville, in an area along Taylor Road.

One of the most alarming things I uncovered about Gessing's disappearance is that she did not pack a suitcase or an overnight travel bag when she vanished June 12.

She also has not made any contact with family, coworkers, friends or acquaintances.

There are two notable Will County missing persons cases that remain on my mind as I continue to report on Gessing's disappearance.

One of those cases is Lisa Stebic, who disappeared from her Plainfield home in April 2007. She was divorcing her husband of 14 years, and legal papers had just been served to compel Craig Stebic to leave the family home in the Nature's Crossing subdivision.

Lisa left the Plainfield house on April 30, 2007, supposedly to work out at a local gym, and she was never seen again. Divorce papers claimed Craig Stebic was "unnecessarily relentless, cruel, inconsiderate, domineering and verbally abusive." Her friends said he frequently called her names and demeaned her in public.

Craig Stebic — who remains a person of interest, according to police — told investigators he was working in the yard the night of Lisa's disappearance. He insists she left on her own or was kidnapped.

The other case that comes to mind is a missing person case from Joliet that I covered in 2019.

In that case, the Joliet Police Department issued an advisory seeking the community's help in locating Jasmine Morrow, a missing 33-year-old woman. She was reported missing by her mother back on July 2, 2019. Joliet police noted that Morrow was homeless, and she often frequented Black Road/Route 30, Chicago and McDonough Streets, and Jefferson and Hickory Streets.

Family and friends held prayer vigils for Morrow. Then, almost two months after her disappearance, Joliet police had good news to announce. Jasmine Morrow, "had been safely located in Chicago by the Chicago Police Department. The Joliet Police Department wants to thank everyone who assisted in the search of Jasmine," officials said.

• Is Wendy Gessing living in a hotel under an assumed name in another community?
• Did someone kill the Crest Hill woman and hide her body in an out-of-the-way location?

The answer to this mystery, probably lies in the information gleaned from Gessing's mobile phone found in Romeoville, of all places.

Let's hope the Crest Hill Police Department is up to the task of solving Gessing's disappearance.

I have my doubts.