Stephanie Hobart came to Llanview in 1991, Carlo Hesser's niece through his adoption. Stephanie was no great fan of her uncle though. She got involved with Kevin Buchanan, but both his family and her family were against the match; Carlo hated the Buchanans, and Viki was none too thrilled that her son was getting involved with any family of Carlo Hesser. Stephanie was sent out of Llanview and although Kevin managed to track her down with Megan's help, when Stephanie didn't come back, Kevin moved on with Lee Ann Demerest.

A few months passed, then Stephanie returned to Llanview after the death of her father Joseph 'J.J.' Hobart, who had been an FBI informant working to bring down Carlo. Sarah had actually seen Carlo murder J.J., whose last word was 'Scarecrow'. Stephanie lured Carlo to the attic at Max's house, pretending that Renée was there, and shot him when he walked in. Although Stephanie was sentenced to life in prison for Carlo's murder, Alex secretly had her kidnapped and taken to Mexico out of respect for the family.

Years later, it was revealed that Carlo Hesser wasn't dead after all, and that the gun Stephanie had shot him with had contained blanks. Stephanie never knew there were blanks in the gun and is presumably still in Mexico.