PLAINFIELD, Ill. – A Will County judge on Wednesday threw out a divorce case involving a man and his wife who has been missing since late April.

Judge Joseph Polito dismissed Craig and Lisa Stebic’s divorce proceedings just days after police identified Craig Stebic as a “person of interest” in his wife’s disappearance.

Craig Stebic’s divorce attorney filed a motion last week seeking to have the case closed.

Stebic’s attorney, Dion Davi, said there was little point in keeping the divorce case open without Lisa Stebic present. Dismissing the case saves both sides legal fees, he said.

“It’s taking a lot of attention – the divorce case,” Davi said. “The missing person investigation should be first and foremost in everyone’s mind.”

Lisa Stebic’s divorce attorney, Glenn Kahn, told the Chicago Tribune he was disappointed, saying: “As far as I know, I still have a client.” But he said the move wasn’t a surprise.

“There is really not much the court could do on the matter without Lisa Stebic,” Kahn said.

Plainfield police named Craig Stebic a “person of interest” in their investigation last week, saying they narrowed the focus of their investigation in part because of his refusal to let detectives talk to the couple’s 10- and 12-year-old children about their mother’s disappearance.

Court documents show the couple’s divorce proceedings, which began in December, had been contentious. On the day of Lisa Stebic’s disappearance, she had mailed off a petition seeking to remove Craig Stebic from their home. In the divorce case, she had accused him of being “unnecessarily relentless, cruel, inconsiderate, domineering and verbally abusive.”

Craig Stebic, who has not been charged in her disappearance, was the last person to report seeing his wife April 30.

Lisa Stebic, 38, had worked her normal shift in a nearby elementary school cafeteria and was home when her children arrived from school. Craig Stebic has said he saw his wife leave the house carrying only her cell phone and purse. He reported her missing the next morning.