Sister of Missing St. Charles Man Says Predatory Grifter Tried Scamming Her For Reward Money

The sister of a St. Charles man missing for more than eight years said a predatory grifter tried scamming her for reward money.

Stephanie McNeil, sister of missing man John Spira, said she was contacted through Facebook by a woman claiming to be from New Zealand.

“I believe that you are looking for your brother? And I believe there is a US$10,000 reward for anyone that finds him,” the woman, identified as “Karina Coogan,” said in her message. Coogan sent McNeil the Facebook message on the eighth anniversary of her brother’s February 2007 disappearance.

“Could you please let me know what the exact terms of the reward are,” the message said. “Sorry to sound so mercenary, I am not. But I am sick of people saying they offer rewards and then not pay out on them.”

Coogan also made a point of being treated with respect and threatened to withhold information on Spira’s whereabouts if she felt slighted.

“And like i (sic) said, i (sic) don’t deal with disrespectful people and i (sic) believe i (sic) have found John,” Coogan wrote. “The comparison pics have been looked at by a panel of people who do believe it is your brother too. You wont (sic) find him easily i (sic) can tell you that. But consequences are consequences. I told you i (sic) dont (sic) deal with disrespectful people.”

McNeil said she knew she was dealing with a fraud after receiving Coogan’s first message.

“I was incredibly, really angry,” said McNeil, who sent the messages to an investigator from the DuPage County Sheriff’s Department.

Coogan failed to respond to messages left by Patch on the Facebook profile she used to contact McNeil or on a GoFundMe page she is using to raise money, ostensibly to bankroll an “international project of identifying unidentified bodies around the world, so that families can receive word from the police about their missing loved one’s (sic), and then they can be brought home to the people they belong with.”

Spira was 45 when he vanished. He was last seen at the office of his cable construction company outside West Chicago. His parked car was found at the office but there was no sign of Spira. The building was gutted by a suspicious fire nine months later.

At the time of his disappearance, Spira, an accomplished blues musician who went by the stage name “Chicago Johnny,” was in the midst of a tumultuous divorce, McNeil said. He and his wife, Suzanne Spira, were living in the same home throughout their divorce proceedings and the domestic arrangement was hellish, McNeil said.

Suzanne Spira, who later moved to Orchard Park, NY, had denied that her relationship with Spira was acrimonious when contacted by Patch.

Suzanne Spira died in October 2010. If the DuPage County cops had any idea, they neglected to mention the death to McNeil, who found out about it on her own from one of her sister-in-law’s associates in May 2011.

John Spira’s family and friends said DuPage County investigators hardly spoke with or questioned them—if they did so at all—before learning that the Discovery Channel was producing an hour-long show on the case.

“I said, ‘Now you’re investigating me because of the Discovery Channel show,’” recalled Spira’s best friend, Jim Emma.

Patch obtained police reports on the DuPage County Sheriff Department’s investigation and learned Spira’s business partner, David Stubben, accused the missing man of racking up “massive debt” in “excess of $1 million,” and speculated that this prompted him to skip town.

Patch contacted Stubben after obtaining the reports but he refused to discuss Spira’s disappearance or the the statements attributed to him by the police. McNeil said Stubben’s allegations were “something a person with some involvement would want the police to believe.”

McNeil does not know if DuPage County investigators have looked into or taken any action on the messages she was sent about her brother and the reward money. While McNeil didn’t fall for what she believes to be a scam, she thinks other grieving or vulnerable relatives of the missing might have.

“In the beginning stages, when they’re desperate, they might give her money,” McNeil said.

“It was like she was trying to bully me,” McNeil said. “Even though I knew she was just a nut, it really did bother me.”

Go take a look at our Facebook page.

And make sure you check out these other fantastic stories:

• Joliet Chiropractor Jailed on Child Porn Charges
• Plainfield Boy Injured During Louis Mall Slingshot Thrill Ride: Lawsuit
• Chicago Women Caught With 100+ Fake Credit Cards at New Lenox Walmart: Cops