MI MI - Charles Rutherford, 34, & Lana Stempien (fd dec.), Aug 2005 - Detroit Boaters

Only4Justice

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 30, 2004
Messages
1,670
Reaction score
7,880
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/4857624/detail.html

Michigan State Police said in a Tuesday news release that a 27-foot Wellcraft boat named "Sea's Life" was found adrift on Friday at about 11 a.m. with its motor running and no persons onboard.

The vessel was found after the Coast Guard's Sault Ste. Marie sector received a report that a boat matching its description had been located near Bois Blanc Island, Mich. The St. Ignace station launched its 47-foot life boat and tracked down the missing boat at that location.

The Coast Guard suspended its search for Stempien and Rutherford on Saturday after an extensive two-day search covering the area between Marquette Island, Bois Blanc Island and Mackinac Island.

The Michigan State Police St. Ignace Post said that it's keeping its investigation into the disappearance open.

Authorities said at this point, they do not suspect foul play.



This is a couple of attorneys from Detroit. Mid-30's, boyfriend & girlfriend, come from good families.

What do you all think? Foul play or accident?

I hope I posted this correctly. I am here all the time, but rarely post. I want your great opinions sleuthers! :innocent:

I know this girl....haven't seen her in years, though.
 
This is a strange one....motor running, no passengers....police don't suspect foul play?
What do they think happened, I wonder? A suicide pact?
 
SewingDeb said:
This is a strange one....motor running, no passengers....police don't suspect foul play?
What do they think happened, I wonder? A suicide pact?

No, I don't think it was suicide. Like I said, this girl is an acquaintance from many years ago. This couple had much going for them. I talked to my aunt yesterday who knows this girl good, and she (Lana) had called her dad just prior to them disappearing, checking in with him. She also talked to a cousin of mine (her best friend) that same day. Nothing was amiss.

But, I wonder, could working for the City of Detroit as an attorney play into this?

Also, I heard from my aunt that the panic button was pushed at around 1:30 a.m.
 
The discovery of a body that washed up on a rocky shoal in northern Lake Huron may be the first step in unraveling a mystery in the disappearance of a Grosse Pointe Farms attorney who went missing along with her boyfriend two weeks ago as they boated to a Mackinac Island getaway.



The body of a woman found Wednesday in Hammond Bay may be that of Lana Stempien, 35. A lakeside resident spotted the body around 4:30 p.m. about a quarter of a mile north of the Hammond Bay Marina, Michigan State Police Sgt. Michael Powell said Thursday.



"The chances are 60% or greater that it's Lana's body," Powell said.

Still missing is Stempien's boyfriend, Charles (Chuck) Rutherford, 34.

rest of story at link

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/missing26e_20050826.htm
 
Perhaps one of them had gone swimming (the water is in better condition out farther) and got into trouble so the other one jumped in, hoping to save the other and both drown. It says the motor was "on" but it doesn't say it was in gear moving, does it? I might have missed that part.


What time did they go out on the boat?

Since one person looks to be washed up, I am hoping it was just a horrible accident. Such a sad waste of two lives.:(
 
From Dateline NBC Fri. 1/13/06:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10807318/

What secrets lie beneath the icy surface of Lake Huron? Did something sinister happen there? Do the chilly waters hold the elusive clues to a mysterious disappearance, a death, and a family’s desperate quest to unravel it all?

It was tragedy that revolves around a vibrant young beauty in the prime of her life.

More at Link....

What do you all think happened aboard this boat?
 
I don't know, right now I lean toward foul play by a third party and that's partially because Chuck has never been located alive. I do think it is interesting that Lana's body was recovered and Chuck's was not. However, they could have gone in the water at different places...one scenario I have in mind is that someone they met up with on shore approached them on the water .... Chuck was made to go overboard first, Lana was then possibly sexually assaulted (though there is no documentation of this anywhere and I don't know if it has been ruled out), then she was pushed overboard.

FWIW, that's my thoughts on it, right now anyway.
 
I think Chuck pushed her and made a new life for himself.
 
Alice253 said:
I don't know, right now I lean toward foul play by a third party and that's partially because Chuck has never been located alive. I do think it is interesting that Lana's body was recovered and Chuck's was not. However, they could have gone in the water at different places...one scenario I have in mind is that someone they met up with on shore approached them on the water .... Chuck was made to go overboard first, Lana was then possibly sexually assaulted (though there is no documentation of this anywhere and I don't know if it has been ruled out), then she was pushed overboard.

FWIW, that's my thoughts on it, right now anyway.
My husband and I watched the show. Man, she was absolutely gorgeous. At first, we both thought what you said...third party...boyfriend dumped first...

However, I can also see where he may have done it. However, WHY would be the question. They are both attorneys. He is from a wealthy family, if I recall correctly.

The thing that made me suspect him was that she called another guy while she was on the boat. Her boyfriend was really jealous of this other guy. Plus, she told others that she was going to break up with her boyfriend. So, who knows?? Maybe, in a fit of rage, he made her strip and threw her overboard.
 
If that comment she made to a friend about if anything happens to her, check out her boyfriend, is true, why on earth would she go on a trip alone with him??
 
Julie said:
If that comment she made to a friend about if anything happens to her, check out her boyfriend, is true, why on earth would she go on a trip alone with him??
Even though she was a beautiful, well-to-do lawyer, she may have been trapped in an abusive relationship and not known how to end it or been in denial. Many women in these situations don't think they have the mental strength to end it. I saw the photos, although she was very tall, he was larger than her.
 
Julie said:
If that comment she made to a friend about if anything happens to her, check out her boyfriend, is true, why on earth would she go on a trip alone with him??
I couldn't figure this one out, either. Perhaps, he talked her into going to patch things up. After she was on the trip, she realized it was a mistake. Remember, they said that they found an empty bottle of vodka on the boat and that they were sure that it wasn't her doing the drinking.

Perhaps, he got drunk and belligerent--like he did that one night at the bar. People do all sorts of things when they are drunk. Plus, the condition of her shoe does indicate some type of struggle.
 
Hi All ~

I actually knew Lana. She was a best friend of one of my cousins, and was at many of my family gatherings throughout the years. I hate to say this, but I never liked her very well, she was sort of uppity, and I never thought she was "all that". My brother told me after her death that he had "hooked up" with her a couple of times.....

Anyway, my cousin is the 'friend' who was with this couple when he threatened her, the argument the bartender overhead. They have all been deposed by her family's attorney at this point.

I think Chuck had quite the temper, and my cousin told me that he planned to ask Lana to marry him when they got to Mackinaw. Maybe he proposed to her while they were on the boat, I believe she would have said No, and possibly he threw her overboard and disappeared.

A couple of things I know from having an inside track.....1) Chuck's parents were staying on Lake Huron near where the boat was found when this happened, and 2) I am very familiar with Lake Huron, and MOST people do not swim in this lake, it is cold all year round. The only times we have swimmed in it is if the weather happened to get to 100 degrees or so.

Any other thoughts from anyone?

________________________________________________

The above is only MY opinion and I am entitled to have one.
 
I heard something very poignant the other night (something on Court TV, I believe - criminal profilers) and they said that men kill women who are trying to leave them and women kill men trying to leave.
 
at first i thought that the boyfriend killed her and he started a new life, but what would he gain? he wouldnt get anything they werent married, and that just doesnt make sense....maybe she had an admirer or a stalker of some sort...
 
I tend to think they met up with someone else on a boat...maybe the other people pretended to have trouble with their boat. I sure don't know....it's strange.
 
T'sNana said:
I tend to think they met up with someone else on a boat...maybe the other people pretended to have trouble with their boat. I sure don't know....it's strange.
it is very strange i tend to think she may have been sexually assaulted why else would she be naked? and whats up with that thing stuck in her shoe??
 
michelle said:
it is very strange i tend to think she may have been sexually assaulted why else would she be naked? and whats up with that thing stuck in her shoe??

I wonder also why she was naked. I think the autopsy would have shown if she was sexually assaulted, and that information would be out there. Her family would probably want that information out there since it would prove there was some foul play, which the police are not saying at this point.

My cousin (best friend of Lana) said Lana was not happy in their relationship and would have never married him.

His family is not speaking at all. Their lawyer says they are very private people and are grieving. I do believe the lake does not always give up bodies, so it is a real possibility that he is still out there.

One thing I know for sure....no one swims in Lake Huron in the kind of weather it was that day. I do not for one minute believe Lana went into that lake willingly.

_________________________________________

The above is MY opinion only and I AM entitled to have one!
 
Only4Justice said:
I wonder also why she was naked. I think the autopsy would have shown if she was sexually assaulted, and that information would be out there. Her family would probably want that information out there since it would prove there was some foul play, which the police are not saying at this point.

My cousin (best friend of Lana) said Lana was not happy in their relationship and would have never married him.

His family is not speaking at all. Their lawyer says they are very private people and are grieving. I do believe the lake does not always give up bodies, so it is a real possibility that he is still out there.

One thing I know for sure....no one swims in Lake Huron in the kind of weather it was that day. I do not for one minute believe Lana went into that lake willingly.

_________________________________________

The above is MY opinion only and I AM entitled to have one!
she was beautiful, do you think her boyfriend had anything to do with it?
 
michelle said:
she was beautiful, do you think her boyfriend had anything to do with it?

I hate to speculate, in case he has drowned also, but my feeling is YES, he had something to do with it. My theory is that he proposed to her, perhaps after making love (which is why she was naked, but still had on her jewelry), and when she told him NO, he threw her in the lake because he was in a rage. This is only my opinion and a theory of what could have happened.

Here is another article:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060114/NEWS06/601140304

Then, on Aug. 24, a woman's body, nude but for a thin gold necklace and an expensive non-waterproof watch -- items friends say she never wore swimming -- was found washed up in Hammond Bay, several miles away from where the Sea's Life was located. Officials identified it as Stempien's.

An autopsy found carbon monoxide in her organs and determined she drowned. Traces of alcohol were found in her system -- but at levels consistent with a body's decomposition.

Rutherford has never been found.

And the questions have continued to pile up, haunting the Stempiens.

For instance, when boaters spotted the Sea's Life floating near Marquette Island, they reported seeing blue dock bumpers, used to protect the ship's hull when docked or tied up to another boat, onboard. But a later inventory by authorities failed to mention the blue bumpers -- and family members say Stempien carried only white ones on her boat.

If the bumpers were there, could it indicate they had tied up to another boat?

Then there is the knob that was found embedded in the sole of Stempien's sneaker. It's supposed to fasten the boat's global positioning satellite device to the instrument panel. What was it doing on her sneaker?

The GPS device, according to investigators, appeared to have been turned on at about 1:22 a.m. Aug. 12, the day the boat was found. At that time, it put the boat about 10 miles out in Lake Huron off Nine Mile Point -- about 12 miles away from where it was found about eight hours later.


I find the part about the GPS very suspicious. It was said in articles and on Dateline Friday that the GPS was deliberately ERASED, and then turned back on at 1:22 a.m. That is suspicious in itself.

I'm still thinking of how/why the knob would be embedded in Lana's shoe. Her family is quoted as saying it would be difficult to get the knob into the shoe without using a hammer, indicating that she had used her foot somehow against the dash where the knob was at.

Why did her body have Carbon Monoxide in it? There is no answer for that, either.

_________________________________________________

The above is only MY opinion and I AM entitled to have one.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
196
Guests online
2,213
Total visitors
2,409

Forum statistics

Threads
589,955
Messages
17,928,255
Members
228,016
Latest member
ignoreme123
Back
Top