Family of missing hunter fears foul play

A family member of a missing Dupo hunter said he is increasingly concerned that his brother is a victim of foul play.

Christopher Stasiak was last seen alive Jan. 11 when he reportedly went into some woods along Illinois 3 near Cahokia to go hunting. Despite a massive search by police that included planes, boats and dozens of officers on foot, no sign of him has turned up.

“If something happened to him in those woods, there would have to be something left behind,” said Michael Stasiak, the brother of the missing hunter. “We didn’t find an arrow, any of his clothes...nothing.”

Police searched a canal along the woods several times with concerns the hunter somehow fell in and drowned. Choked with flood waters at the time he went missing, the canal is now almost entirely drained.

“I never thought he was in that water,” Stasiak said. “He had graphite arrows with him. If they were in the water, they’d float and we would have found them.”

St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Scott Weymouth said Tuesday that family members interviewed by investigators said Chris Stasiak had a history of disappearing from time to time. Searchers were hopeful, Weymouth said, that the missing hunter would suddenly give family a call to say he’s OK.

But Michael Stasiak said his brother has never before been gone this long. And he hasn’t taken off without getting into contact with anyone for a long time.

“He’s really tried to get things together in the last year and a half,” Michael Stasiak said.

Michael Stasiak, of Arnold, Mo., said he didn’t know why anyone would want to harm his brother. But the family has become concerned about the fact that there is no evidence of him in the woods.

The hunter left $200 in cash, his food assistance card and his disability card in his mobile home at the time of his disappearance.

“If he was going to take off he wouldn’t have left his money behind,” Stasiak said. “I can tell you that $200 is a lot of money to him. It doesn’t make any sense.”

According to St. Clair County court records, Chris Stasiak had a warrant for his arrest at the time of his disappearance. Weymouth said it was a minor issue, unlikely enough to motivate the hunter to go into hiding.

Michael Stasiak agreed.

“If they wanted to put him in jail, he would have gone to jail because he would have seen that as a way of paying for what he did,” Stasiak said. “He wouldn’t have run from it.”

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Family of missing hunter fears foul play."