The Springfield Three case remains one of America's most baffling unsolved mysteries.
The mystery began on June 7, 1992, when 19-year-old Suzanne Streeter, her 18-year-old friend Stacy McCall, and Suzie's 47-year-old mother, Sherrill Levitt, vanished from Suzanne's home in Springfield, Missouri.
No trace of the three women has ever been found despite extensive searches and investigations.
What makes this particular case unbelievable is that all of their personal belongings, including their cars and purses, were left behind, and the house showed no signs of a struggle or forced entry.
The only clue police could find was a message on the answering machine but unfortunately, this message was accidentally deleted before it could be properly examined.
Details of their disappearance
Suzanne "Suzie" Streeter and Stacy McCall had just graduated from Kickapoo High School on June 6, 1992.
Their celebrations continued into the early hours of June 7, attending a few graduation parties.
The last time they were seen was around 2:00 a.m. as they left the final party of the night.
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| Suzanne "Suzie" Streeter and Stacy McCall on graduation day |
Originally, the girls planned to stay at their friend Janelle Kirby's house.
However, they found Kirby's house too crowded and decided to spend the night at Streeter's home, where her mother, Sherrill Levitt, lived.
They had plans to meet Kirby and other friends at the Branson water park, White Water, the next morning.
The following morning, around 9:00 a.m., Kirby and her boyfriend, Mike Henson, went to the house after Streeter and McCall failed to show up as planned.
They were supposed to leave from Kirby's residence for White Water.
When Kirby arrived at their house, she found the front door unlocked and entered the home, but there was no sign of Streeter, McCall, or Levitt.
Their cars were parked outside, and the glass lampshade on the porch light was shattered, but the lightbulb remained intact.
Henson helped Kirby sweep up the broken glass, not knowing he was destroying potential evidence.
Inside, Kirby found Levitt and Streeter's family dog who appeared agitated.
While there, Kirby answered a disturbing call from an unidentified male making sexual advances.
She immediately hung up but received another similar call immediately afterward.
Kirby recalled Streeter mentioning that they received several prank calls since moving into the house, so initially, she didn't take the calls seriously.
Kirby later described the caller as sounding "teenish."
Several hours later, Stacy McCall's mother, Janis, arrived at the house, worried after her daughter failed to answer her calls.
Janis had friends who worked at White Water, and after confirming that Streeter and McCall had not been seen there, she panicked.
Inside the residence, she found all three women's purses on the floor of Streeter's bedroom.
Levitt’s purse still had a cash deposit of over $800 from her work at the salon.
Janis also noticed her daughter's neatly folded clothes from the night before.
Levitt and Streeter's cigarettes were left inside, which was unusual because Levitt was a known chainsmoker.
An unfinished can of Coke was found next to Streeter's pack of cigarettes.
The lights were off in Streeter's room, and the television was showing static, suggesting they had been watching a movie but never turned off the TV.
Janis then called the police from the home's telephone to report the three women missing.
While checking the phone's answering machine, she heard a strange message, which was immediately erased after being played once, a common occurrence with voicemails in the '90s.
The police were very interested in this particular message, believing it might contain a clue, although they did not think it was connected to the prank calls Kirby received.
Investigation
Stacy McCall's parents reported their daughter's disappearance to the police more than sixteen hours after the women were last seen.
Other worried friends and family visited the house the following day, with police estimating that ten to twenty people had corrupted the crime scene before they arrived.
Upon investigation, the scene showed no signs of a struggle, except for the shattered porch light.
The bed in Levitt's room seemed to have been slept in, and all personal property, including purses, money, cars, keys, cigarettes, and the family dog, Cinnamon, was left behind, leaving investigators surprised.
On December 31, 1992, a crucial call came into the America's Most Wanted hotline.
A man claimed to have vital information about the disappearance of Suzanne Streeter, Stacy McCall, and Sherrill Levitt.
Unfortunately, the call ended when the switchboard operator tried to transfer him to the Springfield investigators.
The police believed this caller had intimate knowledge of the abductions and made a public plea for him to reach out again, but he never did.
In 1997, both Levitt and Streeter were declared legally dead, though the case remains officially classified as "missing."
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| Sherrill Levitt |
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| Suzanne "Suzie" Streeter |
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| Stacy McCall |
Another significant tip led investigators to believe that the women's bodies might be buried in the foundations of the south parking garage at Cox Hospital.
In 2007, crime reporter Kathee Baird enlisted the help of Rick Norland, a mechanical engineer, to scan a section of the parking garage with ground-penetrating radar (GPR).
Norland's scan revealed three anomalies, each roughly the same size, which he indicated could be consistent with graves.
Two of these anomalies were parallel, while the third was perpendicular.
Despite these findings, Springfield Police Department (SPD) spokesperson Lisa Cox stated that the individual who reported this tip had not provided any evidence or logical reasoning to support their theory.
She also noted that the construction of the parking garage began in September 1993, more than a year after the women disappeared.
Consequently, SPD did not consider this tip credible and did not follow up
Cox explained that excavating and reconstructing the structure would be extremely costly and, without any substantial evidence to support the claim, it would not be wise to pursue this lead.
Darrell Moore, a former assistant at the Greene County Prosecutor's Office, mentioned that the tip came from someone who either claimed to be a psychic or had a dream or vision about the case.
This revelation further questioned the credibility of the lead.
Despite the advanced GPR technology and the intriguing anomalies it detected, the investigation has not moved forward with the excavation of the parking garage.
Possible Suspects
Dustin Recla, a former boyfriend of Suzie Streeter, was already being investigated by the police a few months before the three women vanished.
Recla had broken into a Springfield mausoleum and stolen $30 worth of gold fillings from a skull.
Suzie had given a statement to investigators about this incident and was rumored to be a likely witness against Recla in court.
On the night the women disappeared, Recla and the two friends who helped him with the mausoleum robbery were known to be in the area.
In 1997, Robert Craig Cox, a convicted kidnapper and robber in a Texas jail, told journalists he had crucial information on the case.
He claimed that he knew the women had been murdered and buried, and that their bodies would never be found.
Cox had lived in Springfield in 1992 and, when first interviewed, he told investigators he was with his girlfriend at church the morning after the women disappeared.
His girlfriend initially corroborated his alibi but later changed her statement, saying Cox had asked her to lie.
Cox also claimed he was at his parents' home the night of the disappearances, which they confirmed.
Authorities were unsure if Cox was genuinely involved in the case or if he was seeking attention by making false statements.
Cox told authorities and journalists that he would reveal what happened to the women after his mother died.
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| Robert Craig Cox |
Despite over 5,000 tips from the public, the case remains unsolved as of 2024.
As time marches on, the dedication to finding the truth persists.
The families of Suzie, Stacy, and Sherrill, along with the Springfield community, remain steadfast in their quest for answers.
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