Stephen Wayne Dornbos, 57, was stabbed to death in the early evening of Sunday, May 13, 2018, which was Mother's Day, in the first block of West Chicago Avenue on the Near North Side. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records the address as 30 W. Chicago Ave. Area Central detectives of the Chicago Police Department conducted a homicide investigation.
According to Chicago police, two men were arguing about 5:13 p.m. when both of them took out knives and stabbed each other. Dornbos was found with a stab wound to the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene, police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said. An autopsy found he died of a stab wound to the right shoulder, and his death was ruled a homicide.
The other man, who was 47, suffered multiple lacerations on his arm. He was taken into custody and treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.
By that Thursday, police said he had been released without charges. Police did not name him, and the Sun-Times tracker lists no suspect. No public statement could be found explaining whether prosecutors declined charges, whether the stabbing was treated as self-defense, or whether the investigation remained open. What the two men were arguing about has not been reported.
Very little about Dornbos himself has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family statement that can be confirmed as his could be found. Searches for his name are dominated by other people, including an Army broadcaster and a paleontologist named Stephen Dornbos, neither of whom is the man who died on Chicago Avenue. His name appears in the Chicago Tribune's list of the city's 2018 homicide victims, but with no further detail about his life, his work or where he lived.
The first block of West Chicago Avenue sits just west of State Street, in one of the busiest parts of the Near North Side, a few blocks from the Magnificent Mile and close to a CTA Red Line station. The street is lined with shops, restaurants and apartment towers, and at 5 p.m. on a spring Sunday, sidewalks there would normally have been busy. That means people walking by, waiting for a bus or sitting in nearby businesses may have seen the argument begin, and may remember how it unfolded.
Chicago recorded about 580 homicides in 2018 and about 500 in 2019. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of homicides in the years that followed, though those figures count cases closed without charges.
The circumstances of this case set it apart: police described a fight in which both men had knives, and the surviving man was released. That leaves the public without a clear answer about how investigators viewed what happened or whether the case was ever formally closed.
No arrest leading to a criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Stephen Dornbos could be found in news archives or public records. More than 8 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw the argument on West Chicago Avenue that Sunday evening, or who knew either man and heard what the dispute was about, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Chicago Police Department's anonymous tip line at (833) 408-0069 or submit a tip online at CPDTIP.com, or contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-STOP (7867).
