Stephania Andrews

• Missing Since 05/15/1970
• Missing From Chicago, Illinois
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Age 62 years old
• Height and Weight Unknown
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A cocktail dress and jewelry.
• Associated Vehicle(s) Black and yellow 1969 Oldsmobile sports coupe with the Illinois license plate number BB9986
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Graying brown hair, brown eyes. Some agencies refer to Stephania as "Sophia Andrews." Her maiden name is Rynak. Her ears are pierced.

Details of Disappearance

Stephania and her husband, Edward, attended a cocktail party at the Sheraton hotel in Chicago, Illinois on Friday, May 15, 1970. The party was sponsored by the Women's Auxiliary of the Beverage Institute, which Stephania was a member of.

Other guests at the party stated Edward appeared to be ill and complained of being hungry, and Stephania was crying by the time they left. At 9:30 p.m., the Andrewses left in their black and yellow 1969 Oldsmobile sports coupe with the Illinois license plate number BB9986.

The parking garage attendant stated Edward was driving and hit the door on the way out; he had to back up and reposition the car to get out of the garage. The attendant saw Edward go the wrong way after he left, driving north in a southbound lane on Michigan Avenue. Neither Edward nor Stephania have been heard from again.

It was not until the following Monday that the Andrewses were reported missing. Stephania and Edward's co-workers became concerned because they failed to arrive at work. The police visited their home in Arlington Heights, Illinois and found newspapers piled on the front lawn and letters accumulated in the mailbox. A neighbor had a key and admitted authorities to the residence. Everything inside was orderly and nothing appeared to be missing.

There has been no activity on Edward and Stephania's stocks and bonds, bank accounts, and fourteen credit cards since their disappearances. Edward was an accountant and semi-retired by 1970; Stephania was a credit investigator at a loan company. They had been married for six or seven years. Both of them are described as hardworking, trustworthy individuals who did not drink heavily.

The prevailing theory is that the missing couple was killed when their car drove off a bridge into the Chicago River. Police found a place on a bridge on Lower Wacker Drive where there were scrapes on a concrete pillar and skid marks on the road, but numerous searches of the river turned up no evidence. In 1980, a general clean-up of the Chicago River produced twelve automobiles, but none of them was Edward and Stephania's car.

In 1994, an informant told investigators that Stephania and Edward had been murdered by a gang of young men. Their bodies were afterwards placed in their car, which was dumped in a shallow pond near Green Oaks in Lake County, Illinois. A search of the pond turned up no signs of a vehicle or bodies, however.

Both Edward and Stephania's cases remain unsolved. Arlington Heights police are investigating.