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

[UM&AMWfan]

Good points but jealousy is a very powerful emotion.

Maybe he lured her to the deck with some ruse as she was undressing for bed. He then unbalanced her and overboard she went. He then sailed off leaving her to succumb to hypothermia.

I think the trigger was the call she made to the other man. Possibly it was the 'if I can't have her then nobody can' syndrome that kicked in. Especially if he sensed it was over for them.

If he didn't do it who did?
Where is he now? Hiding out in some South American country or even Mexico?

As I wrote above never underestimate the ability of intelligent people to do very stupid things.
Criminal history is littered with crimes of passion.

I'm just thinking aloud and it could have been something entirely different.

But you are agreeing with me since your theory is not suicide. It's possible that Chuck left the country but is it worth it to kill someone knowing you can NEVER go home again without fear of being caught?

Chuck's face is all over Michigan so if Chuck shows up in Michican it's only a matter of time before someone recognizes him and he has a lot of explaining to do.

I like the idea a previous poster had that they should use the same technology the used for Natalee Holloway to drag the lake for the body of Chuck.

If they still can't find it then you've really got to wonder.........

 

[mattsmom]

I just read through the thread kind of quickly. Did I miss it or is there no mention of an autopsy on Lana's body? Had she been in the water too long to determine cause of death?

 

[drumstick]

Since her last cell phone transmission was on Thurday afternoon at approx. 2:00 PM and she had told her Aunt that she was two hours
away from her destination, I believe something happened to them
shortly after her last call.

I looked at the summer current charts for Lake Huron and the location of where her body washed ashore is consistant with that information.

The timeline would be that Thursday 2:00 to 4:30 PM.

It was never stated if her sweat clothes were the clothes found on the deck. That's an important clue about what actually happened.

In choppy water on a 27 ft. boat I would not expect her to be able to
hear on her cell phone and that could explain the boat being found
idling in neutral.
I also found it odd that she called her Aunt and then her male friend while experiencing rough water just to chit chat.
Were there hidden clues in her conversations?
Most people experienced with 5 ft. conditions would not compound the effects by placing the boat in neutral.
It can beat you up without trying.

The facts of the case rule out domestic dispute.
They dated for a year and then moved into a house and lived together for another year. All couples fight. Nothing remakable about their story.
They planned a romantic vacation all summer.

Her shoe is an important clue.
The gps going haywire is not.

The location of the boat being found is an important clue.
With mathematics and the current charts, the approx. location of where they were in the timeline can be discovered without gps marks.

I would be curious about a reenactment of kicking the gps and bracket with a similar shoe to see the result.

I've dismissed the blue bumpers. No evidence they ever existed.
Red herring.

What I think happened?

Without knowing what clothes they found on deck it's hard to say.

If her sweat clothes were not found on deck I think she removed them herself in the water to keep from being weighted down while holding onto the back of the boat until she was overcome by carbon monoxide.

If her sweat clothes were found onboard ... that changes everything.

IMO~

 

[fran]

I saw this program months ago and if IRCC, his parents had him declared 'legally' dead within months of his disappearance. Sorry, that was a red flag to me. Did he have life insurance?

There's been many cases of well educated and well off people committing these types of crimes. Domestic violence has no boundaries.

IMHO, he's involved and possibly his family knows where he is. Canada?

With his education he could easily get a job and set up a new life elsewhere.

JMHO
fran

 

[angelmom]

Since her last cell phone transmission was on Thurday afternoon at approx. 2:00 PM and she had told her Aunt that she was two hours
away from her destination, I believe something happened to them
shortly after her last call.

I looked at the summer current charts for Lake Huron and the location of where her body washed ashore is consistant with that information.

The timeline would be that Thursday 2:00 to 4:30 PM.

It was never stated if her sweat clothes were the clothes found on the deck. That's an important clue about what actually happened.

In choppy water on a 27 ft. boat I would not expect her to be able to
hear on her cell phone and that could explain the boat being found
idling in neutral.
I also found it odd that she called her Aunt and then her male friend while experiencing rough water just to chit chat.
Were there hidden clues in her conversations?
Most people experienced with 5 ft. conditions would not compound the effects by placing the boat in neutral.
It can beat you up without trying.

The facts of the case rule out domestic dispute.
They dated for a year and then moved into a house and lived together for another year. All couples fight. Nothing remakable about their story.
They planned a romantic vacation all summer.

Her shoe is an important clue.
The gps going haywire is not.

The location of the boat being found is an important clue.
With mathematics and the current charts, the approx. location of where they were in the timeline can be discovered without gps marks.

I would be curious about a reenactment of kicking the gps and bracket with a similar shoe to see the result.

I've dismissed the blue bumpers. No evidence they ever existed.
Red herring.

What I think happened?

Without knowing what clothes they found on deck it's hard to say.

If her sweat clothes were not found on deck I think she removed them herself in the water to keep from being weighted down while holding onto the back of the boat until she was overcome by carbon monoxide.

If her sweat clothes were found onboard ... that changes everything.

IMO~

ITA with your whole post. I had my own long one all ready to type and yours is better written.

I think this is one of those bizarre accidents that we will never totally understand, like the little boy who fell in the septic tank. It seems too crazy NOT to be foul play, but in reality it is probably just a horrible accident.

 

[LaWanda]

There is another thread with links to pics and more articles and info on the autopsy: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35044.

 

[Kadie]

I saw this program months ago and if IRCC, his parents had him declared 'legally' dead within months of his disappearance. Sorry, that was a red flag to me. Did he have life insurance?

There's been many cases of well educated and well off people committing these types of crimes. Domestic violence has no boundaries.

IMHO, he's involved and possibly his family knows where he is. Canada?

With his education he could easily get a job and set up a new life elsewhere.

JMHO
fran

I was wondering if anything new had progressed on this case....so started reading this thread and looks like you all were wondering too!

Yes, Chuck's family had him declared legally dead. I believe this happened approximately a year after he disappeared. (please correct me if I am wrong). I think it was mentioned on MSNBC that this was odd as I think in Michigan you usually have to wait up to 7 years to declare someone legally dead if there is no body.

Was there life insurance? Anyone know?
I do find it interesting as well that Chuck's family was vacationing somewhat near where the boat was found.

~Kadie

 

[KarlK]

I like the idea a previous poster had that they should use the same technology the used for Natalee Holloway to drag the lake for the body of Chuck.

If they still can't find it then you've really got to wonder.........

Drag lake Huron? While this may be useful to locate a sunken ship it would be useless for a human body, the area of the lake is over 20,000 square miles. It's an inland sea with strong currents. Searches for bodies on the Great Lakes are done the same way they are conducted at sea. If the body isn't floating may as well forget about it or hope it will eventually wash up on a shore somewhere.

 

[angelmom]

I was wondering if anything new had progressed on this case....so started reading this thread and looks like you all were wondering too!

Yes, Chuck's family had him declared legally dead. I believe this happened approximately a year after he disappeared. (please correct me if I am wrong). I think it was mentioned on MSNBC that this was odd as I think in Michigan you usually have to wait up to 7 years to declare someone legally dead if there is no body.

Was there life insurance? Anyone know?
I do find it interesting as well that Chuck's family was vacationing somewhat near where the boat was found.

~Kadie

I think 7 years might be standard if a person just disappeared, but they have a very strong reason to believe he is dead and virtually no chance of recovering his body. I don't think this is cold at all. The paperwork to deal with the aftermath of someone being dead is unreal, and I would think having no death certificate would only complicate things to an extreme degree. They may have had to get one just so they could do things like cancel his cell phone and his lease and sell his car...otherwise, someone is responsible for all of those things.

What else can you do?

 

[Kadie]

I think 7 years might be standard if a person just disappeared, but they have a very strong reason to believe he is dead and virtually no chance of recovering his body. I don't think this is cold at all. The paperwork to deal with the aftermath of someone being dead is unreal, and I would think having no death certificate would only complicate things to an extreme degree. They may have had to get one just so they could do things like cancel his cell phone and his lease and sell his car...otherwise, someone is responsible for all of those things.

What else can you do?

That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for posting.

~Kadie

 

[UM&AMWfan]

Drag lake Huron? While this may be useful to locate a sunken ship it would be useless for a human body, the area of the lake is over 20,000 square miles. It's an inland sea with strong currents. Searches for bodies on the Great Lakes are done the same way they are conducted at sea. If the body isn't floating may as well forget about it or hope it will eventually wash up on a shore somewhere.

Well, there is that company Equisearch that brought in high tech equipment to drag the OCEAN around Aruba to look for Natalee Holloways BODY so they could use the same technology to search for Chuck's body and the lake is definitely smaller than the ocean.

 

[Enrique Sparta]

There's no way she went into the water willingly.

She ALWAYS took her jewelry off, always. it was on when she was found.

And why naked? why? I think Only4Justice's comment about them having sex possibly and then he got mad for whatever reason and threw her over is a very good guess.

and who was tampering with the GPS system at 1:00 AM about 12 hours after Lana was last heard from in that phone call to her aunt?

very interesting that Chuck's parents were staying near where she was found.

It seems to me the father, a lawyer, knows lots of people in that area and has some pull.

I, took, think he killed her and is in hiding, possibly starting a new life or just doesn't want to be caught. She was absolutely victim of foul play. The detective, Robin Sexton, was pretty piss poor from what I saw on Dateline.

 

[curves]

Myserty, I agree that clever people do stupid things when they are drunk - especially if they have been drinking and have a bad temper.

Fan - unfortunately suicide doesn't discrimate, no matter what your back ground is. If you have just killed someone in the heat of the moment that may seem like the only way out. Having said that I don't think he did commit suicide because I think his body would have been found by now.

Drumstick - good work with the tidal flows! That makes me more inclined to believe he didn't die because his body should have washed up near where Lana's was. Even if he weighted himself down it's unlikely we would have been able to do a great job of it on his own and at least a part of his body should have been found by now.

I think the GPS is very important because someone did erase it's memory. I also think it's unlikely that if it was really rough water Lana would decide to take all her clothes off and have sex! Then go outside naked and check something, that just seems illogical to me. Because we don't know where they were as the GPS was erased they could have made it to the island and something could have happened there. Chuck's parents being nearby seems too coincedental to me. Chuck could have called them and they could have helped, drive the boat back to where it was found and then helped him fake his death. I would be interested to know what colour their floaters (is that what they are called?) are, or if they replaced them soon after that holiday. On the one hand it strikes me as very odd that they had chuck declared dead so soon. When posters have said they never said anything in the media about Chuck or Lana do you mean absolutely anything? Or did they release a small statement saying what wonderful people they both were and that it was a tragedy etc? If they are an affluent, well known family it's not so stange they haven't said anything as sometimes they don't want the press. On the other hand if they have said zip, then that does make me wonder.
Some parents will go to any lengths to protect their children - look at Jackie and Lee Peterson! It's not beyond the realms of possibility that they could have helped Chuck by hiding him and helping him get out of the area.

Lana obviously did not plan to go into the water when she did as she wearing her jewellery. Perhaps Chuck knocked her unconcious and panicked, thought he had killed her and pushed her overboard, this may explain the carbon monoxide in her system.

The thing I can't get over is that her body washed ashore and his didn't. How likely is that really?

 

[kato]

Hi - I saw this broadcast a year or so ago, and then it was broadcast again last night on Dateline. What a baffling case. It seems to me that there must have been a third boat what with the different color fenders. But him having been known to have had a bad temper, that doesn't sit right with me. And I know everyone "grieves differently", but for his parents and family never to have said a word about their son or the girl he wanted to marry, that to me seems odd, like possibly they do have something to hide. If that is the case,they know it is better to keep your mouths shut just in case something slips out. Is Dateline the only source of newd for this, or are there articles in newpapers or online that can be linked to this case? Only4 Justice, thanks for sharing your information.

Don't know where you would find it but Greta had a 1 hr. special about this case on her Crime Scenes program.

 

[angelmom]

There's no way she went into the water willingly.

She ALWAYS took her jewelry off, always. it was on when she was found.

And why naked? why? I think Only4Justice's comment about them having sex possibly and then he got mad for whatever reason and threw her over is a very good guess.

and who was tampering with the GPS system at 1:00 AM about 12 hours after Lana was last heard from in that phone call to her aunt?

very interesting that Chuck's parents were staying near where she was found.

It seems to me the father, a lawyer, knows lots of people in that area and has some pull.

I, took, think he killed her and is in hiding, possibly starting a new life or just doesn't want to be caught. She was absolutely victim of foul play. The detective, Robin Sexton, was pretty piss poor from what I saw on Dateline.

How about if there was some freak accident that knocked him overboard?

If he went over accidentally and she jumped into to try to rescue him, and if the boat was running and got away from them, or the current took them away, and she was trying to get back on the boat and tread water to stay alive.

She might have inhaled a lot of carbon monoxide trying to get back on the boat.

She might have managed to keep her head above water and even swim a long way after he went under, which would explain their bodies being in different places. It is not unusual for a body to never be found in this lake.

She might have taken her clothing off ( like the people who fell of the cruise ship) knowing that it would only weigh her down, but she might have been reluctant to take off her jewelry. She obviously wouldn't have taken time to remove her jewelry before attempting to save her boyfriend.

The stuff with the GPS could have happened before and be totally unrelated to the accident. Who knows? I actually think if this were a well planned murder, the killer would have left that as normal as possible. He could have just deleted the entries that were incriminating instead of wiping the whole log. It isn't like a black box that records everything the boat has done.

I agree with the previous poster and LE who don't think the blue bumpers ever existed.

A year is not too short a time to put your entire life on hold before declaring someone dead who has gone missing "at sea." What reason do they have to believe he is ever coming back? I think the whole 7 year thing is cruel and unusual to the survivors. Can you imagine if we made the 9/11 families wait 7 years unless they got DNA? It would be hateful. I doubt any one of them waited a year.

 

[KarlK]

A year is not too short a time to put your entire life on hold before declaring someone dead who has gone missing "at sea." What reason do they have to believe he is ever coming back? I think the whole 7 year thing is cruel and unusual to the survivors.

I believe the 7-year delay only applies when the circumstances surrounding a disappearance are completely unknown therefore making it difficult for a court to determine the probability that the person may still be alive. In the present case presumption of death by drowning, either accidental or voluntary (suicide), was deemed strong enough to have the person declared legally deceased. I don't think one needs to be a powerful attorney who can "pull strings" in order to obtain such a ruling.

 

[AlwaysShocked]

Here's some info from Wikipedia about the parents having Chuck declaared dead one year after the disappearance:

"Authorities have not found Rutherford's body despite repeatedly searching Lake Huron.[1] Investigators also found no activity on any of Rutherford's bank or email accounts after his disappearance.[1] They have ruled his death as an accidental drowning.[1] Less than a year after his disappearance, Rutherford's parents went to court in an attempt to have him declared dead in absentia. Normally, an individual has to be missing for five years to officially be considered dead in Michigan. In court proceedings attended by relatives of Stempien, who feel Rutherford is alive and may have murdered Stempien,[1] and Rutherford's parents, Rutherford's status was debated. The sole witness was a local police official who stated that their investigation determined Rutherford was dead. On August 3, 2006 the court declared Chuck Rutherford legally dead.[5]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Lana_Stempien

 

[drumstick]

AlwaysShocked, thank you for including this link.

I was surprised by reading several inconsistancies in the reports about
the facts of this case.

A few that stood out to me ...

Lana made the phones calls from land while gassing up, not underway.
The blue bumpers were found tied to the boat.
The gps was not erased.

Without the true facts and knowing what LE knows about this case,
it's impossible to reach any logical opinion.
There's too many inconsistancies in the reporting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Lana_Stempien

They stopped at Presque Isle for gasoline and Stempien made a congenial 14-minute call to her Aunt Pat.[1] The couple then departed, however, the seas were unusually rough. After another boater saw the couple's relatively small boat, he became concerned and called the Coast Guard. The boat was found unoccupied with the engine still idling.

The boat was also found with blue fenders tied to the boat which the couple reportedly did not own (they reportedly owned white fenders) and which family members have stated indicates that another boat was tied to theirs.[1] Additionally, nearly a day after the couple were last heard from, the GPS was turned on or may have recorded over itself.[4]


http://www.wzzm13.com/news/watercooler/watercooler_article.aspx?storyid=62438


Investigators have said that there is no evidence of foul play.

The GPS device contained no data showing where the boat had been before 1:23 a.m. Aug. 12, 2005, and Andrew Jarvis, an attorney and spokesman for Stempien's family suggested earlier this year that data had been erased.

The crime lab report rules out that possibility, stating that the old data of where the boat had been were "wrapped over" with new data - which is exactly what the device is supposed to do as it records data.

 

[UM&AMWfan]

Don't know where you would find it but Greta had a 1 hr. special about this case on her Crime Scenes program.

It's also been on Dateline NBC at least three times and on MSNBC but it hasn't really generated much interest on these boards or in the public which is strange because this is about as mysterious as a case can get and it does have the attractive white woman that is mandatory for any case to get lots of national attention like Natalee Holloway, Laci Petersen, Chandra Levy, etc.!!

LOL!

 

[LisainWV]

What does Chuck's cell phone records look like? Anyone know?