What lies beneath

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

LAKE HURON, MICHIGAN - On a gorgeous August morning, Tom Stempien eases his boat along the canal behind his lakefront home. His wife Carol stays behind — unable to bear the thought of ever venturing onto the water again.

One year after their youngest daughter disappeared on a boating trip, the Stempiens no longer find any joy on this lake they once loved.  They’re selling their boat and all they want now is to find out what went wrong.

Tom Stempien, Lana Stempien’s father: I’m gonna find out the truth, and believe me, trust me, I’m gonna do it.

Was it an accident? Or was it murder?  Do the elusive clues still lie somewhere beneath these waters, beyond the scope of police divers?

It’s a tragedy that revolves around a vibrant young beauty in the prime of her life.

Dick Bell, owner of one of Lana's favorite bars: She was stunning. Absolutely beautiful. She lit up the room

Andrew Jarvis, Lana's friend: She had a real effervescent personality. You wouldn’t forget her, that’s for sure

There was just something about Lana Stempien. The tall blonde started modeling after high school, and spent 6 years traveling the country as an autoshow model.

But Lana always had ambitions to do more—and went on to become the first lawyer in her family, with a successful career as an attorney for the city of Detroit.

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: How did men react when she’d walk into a place?

Tammy Swanson, Lana’s cousin: Oh, they’d fall all over her. I don’t think she ever paid for a drink when we had gone out.

Still, Tammy Swanson, Lana’s first cousin and one of her best friends, says Lana’s charm wasn’t really about beauty or brains— it had more to do with her radiant, free spirit, one that frequently caused her to unabashedly burst into song.

Hansen: And what kind of singer was she?

Swanson: Terrible! (laughs). It would be off-key, never on key. It didn’t matter. She would get everybody, wherever we were—dancing and singing.

At 35 years old, Lana still seemed to be having too much fun to settle down, but two years ago when she started dating Chuck Rutherford, there were signs that might change.

The 34-year-old attorney, who was the son of a prominent Michigan lawyer, had worked at the Detroit prosecutor’s office, then gone on to start his own practice.

Hansen: What was your first impression when you met Chuck?

Tom Stempien, Lana's father: I liked him, yeah. I thought he was a pretty good guy.

Hansen:  Fathers have a sixth sense when it comes to guys dating their daughter. You know, when somebody is full of it.

Tom Stempien: Right.

Hansen: Did you sense any of that about Chuck?

Tom Stempien: No, no I didn’t.

After dating for a year, the young couple moved in together, sharing a s modest suburban house.

And even casual observers like Dick Bell, who owned a favorite after work haunt of Lana’s, could see Chuck was smitten.

Bell: He was fawning all over her and very attentive to her. It was kind of close that way.

Pat Koczara, Lana’s aunt and godmother, remembers an especially tender moment at her daughter’s wedding in Bermuda.

Pat Koczara, Lana’s aunt and godmother: All of a sudden, he came up to me and he said, “I really love your niece.”  And I just thought that was so sweet because I think I just met him.

Loving Lana also meant loving the water. Tom Stempien is a former U.S Coast Guard officer and his daughters were always water babies. Lana was water skiing at the age of three, and skillfully navigating a boat before she was a teen.

Tom Stempien: When she was I’d say ten years old, I used to let her drive the boat like out in the middle of the lake.

Hansen:  At 10 years old?

Tom Stempien:  At ten years old.

Hansen: She had a knack for it?

Tom Stempien: Oh yeah. At times I said ‘You’re so good with this boat, you ought to join the Coast Guard!  (laughs)

Four years ago, Lana purchased a 27-foot Wellcraft cabin cruiser she named “Sea’s Life.”  Though Chuck wasn’t a boater himself, he seemed happy to spend time on the boat, and was even learning to drive it.  During their romance, the couple took “Sea’s Life” out almost every weekend, and last August, they decided to take a romantic boating vacation on Lake Huron.

On Wednesday, August 10^th, 2005  Lana launched her boat from her parent’s house here in Belle River, Canada,  across from Detroit  — something the experienced skipper had done hundreds of times before. She and Chuck were heading to Mackinac Island, a summer destination in northern Michigan.

But what started as a fun adventure would soon turn into a mystery, an investigation and a list of unanswered questions.

The two day trip was to take Lana and Chuck up the St. Clair River and into the vast waters of Lake Huron. From there, they would pass Michigan’s thumb area, then stick close to the state’s eastern shore all the way up to the straits of Mackinac.

Dateline The route the couple was supposed to take.

Hansen: Did you have any concerns about her taking the boat up to Mackinac Island?

Tom Stempien: No, no.

Hansen: That’s a big trip though, in big water.

Tom Stempien: Yeah, right.

Hansen: You have some big seas up there.

Tom Stempien: Yeah, I figured she could handle it.

At 9 a.m. that day, Tom walked his daughter and Chuck out to the canal where she kept her boat and hugged them both goodbye.

Tom Stempien: Chuck said to me ‘Well, wherever we stop at night, I’ll give you a call.’  I said ‘I wish you would.’

Urging his daughter to be careful, the former coast guard officer couldn’t resist asking if she had all her life safety cushions on board.

Tom Stempien: “You and Chuck know what to do with those if you ever run into a problem’. You got all the safety equipment on the boat: flare gun, GPS , ship to shore radio— use it.” She just smiled and said “I know dad.”

As Tom Stempien watched his daughter pull out, the smiling skipper turned to make her dad one last promise.

Tom Stempien: "Dad, I’ll be back Tuesday," cause I was having an operation.

Hansen: You were going to have heart surgery, and she wanted to make sure she was gonna be back to be present for that?

Tom Stempien: Right.

Sadly, it was a promise Lana wouldn’t be able to keep.

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