St. Charles man’s disappearance still a mystery

It has been six years since Stephanie McNeil learned that her brother John Spira, a St. Charles resident and DuPage County businessman, was missing.

Since then, she has been trying to find answers from the DuPage County sheriff’s office and placing billboards along highways and in train stations.

This week, she said, she is in the area, staying with another brother in Chicago. She plans to hold a tribute to John on Saturday evening at Stormy’s Tavern in Northfield, the same town where he graduated from New Trier West High School in 1979.

She also plans once again to meet with DuPage County sheriff’s deputies on Friday.

She suspects foul play, based on such circumstantial evidence as the disappearance of heavy duty plastic sheeting and the fact that a company vehicle was parked in an unusual spot. And she wants the sheriff’s office to call it foul play as well.

“Stop calling it a missing person’s case,” she said in a phone interview Thursday.

Sheriff John Zaruba said Thursday that detectives are still seeking the public’s assistance in the search for Spira, who was 45 at the time of his disappearance.

Spira was last seen about 7 p.m. Feb. 23, 2007, at Universal Cable Construction near West Chicago, a business he co-owned with David Stubben.

The two were the last two employees at Universal Cable Construction that evening, the sheriff’s office said. Spira and a friend were to meet at a restaurant in Oak Brook at 8:30 that night, but Spira never showed up and was not heard from again. Seven months after Spira’s disappearance, the Universal Cable Construction building burned down.

The sheriff’s office release that Spira is 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. He was last seen wearing a black turtleneck sweater, blue jeans, black shoes and an olive green flight jacket.

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call the sheriff’s office at (630) 407-2141.