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Roseville Businessman Behind Sammy Hagar Restaurant Disappears Without A Trace

ROSEVILLE (CBS13) — The mystery of a missing Roseville businessman is growing tonight after his restaurant unexpectedly shut down over the weekend.

Stephen Pease was last seen in Las Vegas in late October. He was supposed to be doing business in Portland on Nov. 1, and checked in on Nov. 2 to a hotel in Fort Bragg. He would check out the next day.

He was supposed to return his rented SUV in Portland on Nov. 5, but he never did.

A missing person's report filed in Roseville said his probably destination was Vancouver, Canada.

Meanwhile, Sammy's Rockin' Island Bar and Grill was shut down on Tuesday as friends and family continued the search for Pease.

"Initially, it was just that he was taking some time off," said longtime friend Kat Maudru.

Kat and her husband Chris have been working with police in Roseville and in Fort Bragg, where he was apparently seen checking out of the Surf and Sand Lodge, driving a rented Chevrolet Captiva with Oregon license plates.

"The car is missing, there has been no credit card activity, no contact since Nov. 5," Kat said.

Chris called Pease a guy who always returned calls and cared about his community, bringing in a large name like rocker Sammy Hagar for notoriety.

"His intentions with Sammy's in Roseville was to revitalize the downtown area, and that just wasn't a personal thing where he just wanted to start a business," he said. "His goal was to bring all the people back down to downtown Roseville."

But the project has taken a lot of money. CBS13 has confirmed Pease and his business partners took at least $1.5 million in redevelopment loans. His friends couldn't guess why he'd leave, but wanted to send him this message:

"There's a ton of people that love him. His friends and family want him back, and whatever it is that has caused you to be missing, it's not so bad that it can't be fixed."

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