Couple's Fatal Trip: Few clues; Lots of Gossip
Detroit Free Press
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Presque Isle, Michigan (US):
Lana Stempien and Chuck Rutherford were a laughing, golden couple when they fired up Sea's Life at Presque Isle, pointed their 27-foot cabin cruiser toward Mackinac Island and, on a breezy August afternoon, sailed into mystery.
A day later, the boat was found southeast of Marquette Island in northern Lake Huron with its engine idling. Stempien and Rutherford -- lawyers who shared a Grosse Pointe Farms home -- were not aboard.
Two weeks later, Stempien's nude body washed ashore at Hammond Bay.Five months later, there has still been no sign of Rutherford.Ever since Stempien's body was found, true crime Web sites and cocktail party whispers in metro Detroit have hummed with hunches and what-ifs.Even though Rutherford has taken a drubbing in the rumor mill -- with innuendos that he may have fled and is hiding, and that he was somehow responsible for the death of Stempien, a 35-year-old skilled sailor -- investigators say there is nothing to warrant such gossip.
Jan 14, 2006
Detroit Free Press
______________
Presque Isle, Michigan (US):
Lana Stempien and Chuck Rutherford were a laughing, golden couple when they fired up Sea's Life at Presque Isle, pointed their 27-foot cabin cruiser toward Mackinac Island and, on a breezy August afternoon, sailed into mystery.
A day later, the boat was found southeast of Marquette Island in northern Lake Huron with its engine idling. Stempien and Rutherford -- lawyers who shared a Grosse Pointe Farms home -- were not aboard.
Two weeks later, Stempien's nude body washed ashore at Hammond Bay.Five months later, there has still been no sign of Rutherford.Ever since Stempien's body was found, true crime Web sites and cocktail party whispers in metro Detroit have hummed with hunches and what-ifs.Even though Rutherford has taken a drubbing in the rumor mill -- with innuendos that he may have fled and is hiding, and that he was somehow responsible for the death of Stempien, a 35-year-old skilled sailor -- investigators say there is nothing to warrant such gossip.
Jan 14, 2006
