IL IL - John Spira, 45, DuPage County, 23 Feb 2007

Cubby

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http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/stcharlessun/news/293665,2_6_2_CH14_VIGIL_S1.article



The family of a business owner and locally known blues musician who disappeared two weeks ago organized a candlelight vigil Saturday in West Chicago.

The vigil at Brian's Charhouse restaurant, 27W371 North Ave., was intended to remind people to keep looking and hoping for John Spira, a 45-year-old St. Charles man who vanished on Feb. 23. "We don't want people to forget," said his sister, Stephanie McNeil. "We don't want people to stop caring."

picture at link
 
No news on this man? How do people just disappear? I know it happens all of the time but it just seems impossible that no one has seen him.
 
Link family and friends set up.
http://johnspira.com/

The above also links to all news media regarding this case and links to google for updates.

What's strange is his car was found still in the parking lot at work. He was last seen at 5:30pm and last cell call was made at 7:00pm.
 
Link family and friends set up.
http://johnspira.com/

The above also links to all news media regarding this case and links to google for updates.

What's strange is his car was found still in the parking lot at work. He was last seen at 5:30pm and last cell call was made at 7:00pm.


He must have left work with someone. I wonder who he talked to at 7:00 and where he was?
 
The sister of John Spira, Stephanie McNeil, was recently interviewed for the Missing People Podcast, a Project Jason partner. In the interview, Stephanie tells the story of her missing brother and her determination to find him.

You may listen to the three part interview at this link: missingpeoplepodcast.com


Thank you for caring about the missing.

Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
Project Jason - Assistance for families of the missing
Read our Voice for the Missing Blog
Project Jason-Voice for the Missing
 
Bump for John. His family is organizing a search on May 19th. I will be there.
 
Bump for John. His family is organizing a search on May 19th. I will be there.

I came here to start a thread for John, and am happy to find there is one. :) I found out about John, when I found an article on a young man named Bradley Olsen who is missing from DeKalb Co, IL. That article featured both missing Illinois men. I learned about Bradley being missing by reading a post his mother left on Lisa Stebic's (missing) site her family had set up. Seem kind of strange these men go missing around the same time.

Here is what I wanted to post, from the article date April 27th:

John Spira, 45, of St. Charles last was seen Feb. 23 at his office in unincorporated West Chicago.
The DuPage County Sheriff's Office on Friday took over the Spira investigation from St. Charles police.

"At this point, we have to review the case again and see where we have to go from here", Detective Joe DelGiudice said.

DelGiudice said billboards could help bring attention to the case. "We are looking for help", he said.

Spira's sister, Stephanie McNeil, is frustrated by the lack of answers. McNeil, who lives in Phoenix, has organized several searches and is planning another May 19 when she returns to the area.

"He is a gentle human being" McNeil said. "I can't believe someone would have a reason to hurt him."

The search will begin at 10 a.m. May 19 at Brian's Charhouse, near the corner of County Farm Road and North Avenue in West Chicago.

To help in the search for Spira, a billboard recently was placed at Interstate 294 and Ninth Street, and another billboard will be put up next month on Ogden Avenue, near Interstate 355.

In addition to the Spira billboard, there are three billboards along Route 38 seeking help in finding Olsen.

Have any information?

Contact DuPage County Sheriff Detective Joe DelGiudice at (630) 407-2326 with any information about John Spira.

A Web page for Spira also has been set up, www.johnspira.com

http://www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2007/04/28/news/local/doc4632d9f47f7f7076165677.txt
 
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/387295,2_1_AU16_MISSING_S1.article

New search set for missing St. Charles man



The family of John Spira is organizing a search for his body, following the lead that the St. Charles man's cell phone remained active in western DuPage County for several hours after he vanished Feb. 23.

<snip>
Spira's sister, Stephanie McNeil, said Spira would not have dropped out of sight voluntarily, especially not for this long.
None of his financial accounts have been touched, McNeil said, and she is convinced her brother was slain.
She said she hopes the fact that his cell phone was never active anywhere else means that it is still in the area, possibly with Spira's remains or some other evidence.
"If we find the cell phone, we'll probably find John," she said. "I'm hoping we get a lot of people out there to search, and we can cover a lot of ground."
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/387295,2_1_AU16_MISSING_S1.article
 
Three families are expected to meet this weekend for the first time -- the families of three missing suburban men from three separate missing persons cases.

As WBBM's Steve Miller reports, a search for one of the men is drawing them all together.

Missing since January: 27-year-old Bradley Olsen of DeKalb County.

Missing since February: 38-year-old Scott Anthony Arcaro of Lisle.

Missing since February: 45-year-old John Spira (pictured) of St. Charles.

This Saturday, families of all three men will meet for the first time to search for John Spira.

"Maybe we can help each other. Certainly we can relate to each other."

Stephanie McNeil is John Spira's sister.

The mother of Bradley Olsen, Susan Olsen, says she was so moved by people who have turned out to look for her son, she had to help in this search.

"We had many people that were total strangers to us. Many people from many walks of life that came out and helped us. We were very touched."
 
Thanks, Marie. I hope the search tomorrow is productive. Praying for these families to get some answers!
 
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]from his website:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]John had attended a formal meeting with his estranged wife, Suzanne, on the morning of February 23rd for the purpose of detailing their divorce settlement. She was finally coaxed into filing an official missing person's report with the St. Charles Police Department at 5:30am of the following Sunday, February 25th, 2007. The couple's divorce was to be official on March the 8th.[/FONT]
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Some of John's employees at Universal Cable have officially reported a large roll of plastic wrap material to have been missing from the premises, but the Du Page County Police Department's position remains that they believe John to have simply walked away from his family and his life, stating that there is no evidence to prove otherwise. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]WE STRONGLY DISAGREE AND SUBMIT THAT JOHN WAS MURDERED BY SOMEONE THAT HE KNEW![/FONT]



 
DuPage County Sheriff spokesman Carol Roegner confirmed today that the office's arson task force is investigating the fire.


"Our investigators are on the scene but have not found reason to label the fire as suspicious," she said.


Family members of Spira, who was last seen at the business the night of Feb. 23, disagree and hope the investigation shines more light on the search for Spira, also a blues musician known as Chicago Johnny.

More at link:

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=39597&src=5
 
I was just watching our local news from last night, I had taped the Emmys and it was on after, I didn't hear about the fire til then.
I am going to try and get in touch with John's sister and see if she has any more info or needs any help with anything.
I think about John everytime I drive by the restaurant the search was held, which is like 2 minutes from my house.

If anything good can come of this, it's that this is the first time John has been talked about on our local news station. I hope and pray that this is what will break the case. Somebody knows something.
 
"On Friday afternoon, Tom Spira said, he and other family members hung a 10-by-10-foot banner with John's picture and reward information across the street from the business.
"By Saturday morning, the banner was torn down and just destroyed -- and Sunday the building burns," he said. "That's not a coincidence and no one that's seriously looking deep into this can dismiss this as nothing fishy going on."

They're crazy not to think something is going on. Whoever did this knows something.
 
"On Friday afternoon, Tom Spira said, he and other family members hung a 10-by-10-foot banner with John's picture and reward information across the street from the business.
"By Saturday morning, the banner was torn down and just destroyed -- and Sunday the building burns," he said. "That's not a coincidence and no one that's seriously looking deep into this can dismiss this as nothing fishy going on."

They're crazy not to think something is going on. Whoever did this knows something.

I got the same feeling. I just don't understand why the authorities first of all would not think something is amiss with this man just disappearing off the face of the earth and second the banner is destroyed and then the business burns down the same weekend? HELLLOOO! I also read that his wife has never participated in any of the search efforts. I find that strange even if their divorce was going to be finalized soon. I wonder if the family court judge had put her settlement on hold until he surfaced would have changed her behavior.

I personally think that every missing person report should be taken as a foul play situation UNTIL it can be proven otherwise.
 
I drove by the business location earlier this evening. A county police car and an ambulance were parked in the lot. Neither looked occupied or running, both times I drove by. There was no evidence from the road of any kind of activity happening at the time. It looked nothing like another recent business fire of an old appliance store on Main St. Lombard, now that looked not only suspicious but dangerous to enter.

Johns families blog states the building was owned by his stbx wife and his business partners wife. As for the banner, why on County Farm and not North Ave? at or near the same intersection? North has far more traffic than this area of CF. Brians Charhouse, which is at best a 30 second drive around the corner. Why not the Gas Station, the pet hospital, the vacant buildings or land on North just east.

an old article from 96 indicates John and the co-owner of the business were building an airplane in Addison

Something smells funny about this.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the wife was the last to see him alive. They met the night he disappeared to finalize some papers, yes?

Cubby, can you think of anything we can do locally to help? Sounds like you're really close to where I am.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the wife was the last to see him alive. They met the night he disappeared to finalize some papers, yes?

Cubby, can you think of anything we can do locally to help? Sounds like you're really close to where I am.

I think I read that they met to finalize the papers earlier in the day and the last people to see him were co-workers. I will go back and check.
 

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