Springfield Three: Disappearance of Suzanne Streeter, Stacy McCall, Sherrill Levitt still a mystery 28 years later
SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI: June 7, 1992, is a date that is etched into the memories of many in Springfield, Missouri. It was the day that Suzanne 'Suzie' Streeter, Stacy McCall, and Streeter's mother, Sherrill Levitt, went missing, only to be never seen again. A day earlier, Streeter and McCall had graduated from Kickapoo High School and were celebrating their achievement by attending numerous parties. They were last seen at around 2 am on June 7 when they were leaving the last of these graduation parties and heading for the home of a friend, Janelle Kirby.
But when they found Kirby's home to be too crowded, they headed back to Streeter's home to retire for the night. The next morning, Kirby and her boyfriend visited the house after the teens failed to show up at her home and found the front door unlocked. Streeter and McCall were both missing, as was Streeter's mother. The family's dog, a Yorkshire Terrier named Cinnamon, was agitated. Police who were called to the residence were met with an unusual scene. It appeared as though both girls had arrived the previous night, because all their clothing from the graduation was neatly folded. They also noted that Levitt's bed had been slept in.
The disappearance did not make any sense. All their personal belongings, including cars, purses, jewelry, and cigarettes, had been left behind. There were no signs of a struggle either, except for the broken porch light globe. The news caught the attention of national media at the time, with the likes of 'America's Most Wanted', '48 Hours', Maury Povich, and Oprah Winfrey all profiling the case, but clues to their whereabouts remained scarce.
Kirby did tell police that, while at the home, she answered a "strange and disturbing call" from an unidentified male who made "sexual innuendos." She said she hung up and immediately received another call of a sexual nature. It was believed to have been a prank call.
Unfortunately, the little evidence that investigators could have collected from the broken pieces of the glass lampshade had been innocently swept away by Kirby's boyfriend. The crime scene had also been contaminated by the 10 to 20 people who had visited the house. On June 8, 1997, around five years from the date of their disappearance, the family of Levitt and Streeter successfully petitioned a court to have the women declared legally dead. Janice and Stu McCall, however, refused to give up on the hope that their daughter is alive. All three of their case files are still officially filed under "missing," with Springfield Police revealing last November that they still get new leads -- more than 5,000 tips have been called in -- but that none of them have so far amounted to actionable evidence.
The closest they've come to solving the disappearance was in 1997 when convicted kidnapper and robber Robert Craig Cox confessed he knew that the three women had been murdered and buried and claimed their bodies would never be discovered. In 1992, at the time they went missing, Cox had been living in Springfield. He was even questioned by detectives at the time but was thought not to be suspect because his girlfriend confirmed his alibi that she was with him at the time Levitt, Streeter, and McCall were last seen.
However, she later recanted that statement and said Cox had told her to say that. Cox then claimed he was at the home of his parents the night of the disappearance, and they confirmed that alibi. Authorities are still unsure if he was involved or if he's seeking recognition for the murders by issuing false statements. When pressed further, Cox told authorities and journalists he would disclose what happened to the three women after his mother died because he did not want her to hear the gruesome details.
The only other noteworthy lead came in the form of a tip investigators received stating that the women's bodies were buried in the foundations of the south parking garage at Cox Hospital -- the building had started construction just one year after they went missing. In 2007, crime reporter Kathee Baird invited Rick Norland, a mechanical engineer, to scan a corner of the parking garage with a ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Norland subsequently found three anomalies that were "roughly the same size" as the women and consistent with a "gravesite location."
But nothing further came of it after multiple law enforcement sources played down the finding. A police spokesperson revealed they did not act on it because the person who reported the tip "provided no evidence or logical reasoning behind this theory," while the prosecutor's office said the tip came from someone who "claimed to be a psychic or claimed to have a dream or vision about the case." Twenty-eight years later, the files are still listed on the Springfield Police Department website under "cold cases," and investigators are welcoming any information that could help them.
Janis McCall still believes her daughter is alive. "Until I know a hundred percent that Stacy is deceased, I will never declare her dead," she told KY3. "They're going to have to find some remains somewhere before I call her legally dead. It's not for any reason other than if I do and she's not dead, think of how mad she'd be when she gets back."