John Spira Police Documents

I have finally gone through the 1.5 inches of paper that was sent to me by the police in response to my FOIA request.  I don’t think I have everything but what I do have I find interesting.  The police have done much more than I thought they had. That said, there was much that wasn’t done or simply glanced over. For instance, I don’t believe the use of John’s credit card in September and December of 2007 was thoroughly checked out. The account had been closed since 2002. Dave Stubben was an authorized user.  The documents I received don’t reflect much investitagion on that issue, in fact none at all.

Also, on 3/7/07, Dave Stubben was asked several times if John had been using company funds for John’s other adventures or if John had been taking money from the business. Dave said no.  He also confirmed that “there were no serious concerns about the business which would have driven John away.”  Fran Armstrong, the office manager, said nothing was askew basically.  In fact, Fran stated on 3/1/07, that there were no unaccounted company checks or withdraws from the company accounts.” Fran was interviewed again in June 22, 2007 and indicated “that she had knowledge of all the financial matters and couldn not think of any suspicious activity on either John or Dave’s part.” Both John’s personal accountant and business accountant found no financial issues. The police report notes that ”[Dave} went from saying he did not pay much attention to the financial matters and said Fran would be able to tell us about them, to saying he had been watching the money issue for some time now".  That was in March.  Then, in September, after the fire, suddenly, Dave says John amassed over $1m in debt (NOT!), had several failed businesses (NOT) and that John was taking money from the business (wouldn't he have known that in March as he'd been watching the finances "for sometime now"?)  Further, during the time between John's disappearance in February and around the time of the fire in September, John's employees seemed to have become experts on John's personal finances. How'd that happen? Did they do their own personal investigation? Did they speak with John's accountant? Or did Dave start spinning facts to his employees after John disappeared? Dan Maupin, a UCC employee, flatly accused John of embezzlement.  Another employee at the Harvey office, whose husband works at the West Chicago office told police that her husband said John borrowed money from some "bad people".  How the hell would this guy know that? Does he know the "bad people'?  Was he there when John made this supposed deal? Why wasn't he investigated? He must have some information on these "bad people"; either that or it's an irresponsible half ass statement made by someone who is completely ignorant of the facts. Who is feeding these people this information? Maybe it is true...maybe John was embezzling money from the company. I hate to think that's true but if it is, that would seem to be a motive for a business partner to be awfully angry.  And if it isn't, then it's pure slander meant to put the blame on John for his disappearance in order to remove the focus from the obvious culprit here. And if it's true, why then did Dave, Fran and the business accountant say all was well financially when initially interviewed just after John's disappearance and as late as June, 07?  I'd like to know what proof of embezzlement they have. Please share Dave.  Better yet Dave, TAKE A LIE DETECTOR TEST already. If he had done so in the beginning when the police asked him to and he had passed, we could've been focusing elsewhere all this time. By steadfastly refusing all this time, Dave has kept the focus on himself.

Something else I find interesting is that Dave knew the sign was gone on Saturday, the day before the fire...that was news to me. What the police report states is as follows: "The sign was subsequenty taken down by unknown individual(s) sometime on Saturday. Mr. Stubben also mentioned that he has been having problems with the owner of the new building at the corner of County Farm Rd and St. Charles Rd.  Mr. Stubben indicated that the property owner (unknown name) had come into the business shouting at Fran one day. The owner feels that Mr. Stubben's property is an "'eyesore"',  and has given Mr. Stubben's employees a hard time about it on more than once occasion...." Was Dave implying that the neighbor took the sign down? Did the employees confirm that the neighbor yelled at them?   In the neighbor's interview with police he indicated "he had not had any problems with the owners next door except for one time, their employees were using the first 15' to 18' off the road for parking. [He] addressed this issue with the owners and asked them to stop….”  So that would seem to contradict Dave’s statement.  It remains my belief that it burned up in the fire.

Here’s something else that’s interesting: Dave was contradicted by 2 other people about being the last one at the office with John on the night of his disappearance. Dave says he left after these 2 guys on Friday night but they both say that when they left Dave and John were still there and one guy said when he left only Dave and John were still there. It appears Dave is disputing he was the last one to see John, but the other 2 guys had no reason to lie. And another thing, Dave said when he left that night, John’s truck (owned by UCC) was parked in the front lot. However, when the police went to the property on 2/26, the truck was parked in the back, locked gated area, and had no snow underneath and, funny thing, was parked in the spot Dave always parks in.  What a coincidence. Since there was no snow underneath it, it had to have been moved Friday night, the night of his disappearance because it started snowing heavily that night. Dave had a financial interest in the truck and lo and behold, it’s parked in the spot Dave habitually uses.  And only a few employees have keys to the gate lock. Why would John have moved the truck to the back if he’d planned on going to Oakbrook? And why would he have parked it in Dave’s usual spot? He wouldn’t have.

Dave also stated on 3/9/07 that he had just “recently found out about John’s pending divorce, even though it had been ongoing for the past 2 years.” He also stated that “he had never heard about or met Renata before Sunday (02/25/07).   Later, he states the reason John and Dave had not been close friends for the past two to two and half  years was due to “Mr. Spira’s extramarital activities, and the divorce that he and his wife Suzanne were going through. Mr. Stubben stated that the divorce was very bitter.” So, Dave had just found out about the divorce and his extra-marital affair around the time of John’s disappearnce and yet was the cause of the breakdown of their friendship for the past 2 years? Huh? More spinning here? Seems as if he’s trying to paint John in a bad light. John and Suzanne were estranged; had been for 2 years and Suzanne was well aware of Renata; it was not a secret.  Why Dave thought John had to share this information with him is beyond me.  These are personal, not business related issues.  I think the real cause of the breakdown was Dave.  Here’s what some others had to say about him:

“He advised Stubben was a meticulous person and had to have everything arranged his way and this caused alot of arguments between Spira and Stubben.  He further described Stubben as having a short temper….During one of the meetings…Stubben had an argument with Bill…. During the altercation, Stubben threw a cell phone at Bill which caused a small laceration on Bill’s chin. [Subject] said Stubben drank alot and was usually drunk by 3 PM. After 8 months of thisy type of behavior, he decided to leave the company to seek employment elsewhere. He believed this all occurred in mid to late 2003.

And another quote:

“[Bill] said there were a lot of arguments between John and David about business matters. During one of his arguments with David, David threw a cell phone at thim which cut his chin. Even though David and John argued alot, he never saw the altercations between them turn physical. David drank a lot and was very aggressive person. Meaning, David had to have things go his way all the time. David was also a ‘gun nut’ and had a property in SW Missouri where he hunted. Bill went to the property on one occassion and saw what he described as an arsenal of weapons which ranged from handguns to assualt rifles.

Ranata was also told by John about the verbal altercations and that’s why he didn’t want to share personal info with him; he didn’t want another altercations.  I can see why.  John was not a big man and Dave is.

If Dave’s drinking and the downfall of the Creative Bath business occurred in in late 2003 or 2004; that would’ve been about 2 to 2.5 years before John’s disappearance when things became strained between he and Dave. Sounds as if that’s the reason John withdrew from the friendship as opposed to Dave blaming it on John’s extramarital affair and divorce of which Dave had no knowledge until shortly before John disappeared. Oh, and let’s not forget about the plastic sheeting last seen at the office on Friday but missing when police and employees arrived at the building on 2/25. Where is that piece that happens to be large enough to wrap a body in?

Let’s see, Dave Stubben is last guy to see John though he disputes that despite that others contradict him, heavy duty plastic sheeting large enough to wrap a body in is discovered missing from the office, Dave refuses a lie detector test, Dave has changed his story on the finances and implying that John was embezzling money and deeply in debt and thus must have left voluntarily, John’s credit card was used in September and December of 07 on an account that had been closed where only Dave and John were authorized users, John’s truck was coincedentally parked in Dave’s parking space in the gated area of the parking lot on Friday night sometime after Dave left and before it started snowing that night, the truck that’s owned by UCC, Dave knew the sign was taken down on Saturday, the day before the fire and implies that the propety neighbor had reason to do so which is contradicted by the property neighbor, Dave and John had been having verbal altercations, Dave blames the breakdown of John and Dave’s friendship 2 to 2.5 yrs prior to John’s disappearance on John’s extramarital affairs and bitter divorce, which he’d only learned about in 2/07,  Dave was a drunk and had a short temper…..

Tad Dibiase, the ”No Body Prosecutor’ has also reviewed the documents and he is of the opinion that there is enough here, at the very least, to name Stubben a person of interest in this matter AND call this foul play.  There needs to be pressure here.  People need to know of Dave’s involvement. He needs to be pressed to take a poly. He needs to substantiate his claims of embezzlement or if he’s lying about it. Dave needs to come clean about the real reason for their falling out. He needs to be labeled for the rest of his life…short of real justice. There is much more to the reports and much more about Suzanne but since she’s dead so we can only focus on Dave now. However, if Suzanne was still alive, you can be assured that I’d still be focused on her as well.

My Brother’s Seeker, Stephanie