Morbid - Episode 594: The Disappearance of the Springfield Three

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

In the early morning hours of June 7, 1992, best friends and recent high school graduates Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall finished up their graduation festivities and headed back to Suzie’s house that she shared with her mother, Sherill Levitt. When the girls failed to meet their friends for a planned trip the following day, two of those friends went by Levitt’s house to check on them. Despite all three women’s cars being parked in the driveway and the front door being unlocked, no one was home. Perhaps more alarming was the fact that the purses, wallets, and other items of all three women were still at the house, and the television in Streeter’s bedroom had been left on. Hours later, when the three still hadn’t been seen or heard from, Stacy McCall’s mother called the police and reported them missing.For months the case of the “Springfield Three” dominated headlines in and around the city of Springfield, Missouri and consumed a massive amount of law enforcement resources; yet leads and evidence were sparse, and it seemed to many that the three missing women had simply vanished into thin air. In the thirty years since they went missing, the investigation has produced a number of compelling leads and potential suspects, but none have produced any answers or arrests and the disappearance of the Springfield Three remains one of the city’s most baffling mysteries. Anyone with information about the disappearance is encouraged to contact the Springfield Police at [phone] or place an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at [phone]. Tips and information can also be submitted online at P3tips.com.Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!ReferencesBarnes, Deborah, and Traci Bauer. 1992. "Frantic families watchful for trio." Springfield News-Leader, June 9: 3.Bauer, Traci. 1992. "Three women vanish." Springfield News-Leader, June 9: 1.Benson, Ana. 2021. The Disappearance of the Springfield Three. Duluth, MN: Trellis Publishing.Bentley, Chris , and Robert Keyes. 1992. "Police follow transient lead." Springfield News-Leader, June 16: 1.Bentley, Chris. 1992. "Disappearance leaves woman's son 'frantic'." Springfield News-Leader, June 10: 1.Clark, Christopher. 1992. "Who could be so cruel? Friends shake their heads." Speingfield News-Leader, June 10: 1.Clark, Christopher, Traci Bauer, and Chris Bentley. 1992. "Typical teenagers, a loving mother." Springfield News-Ledger, June 10: 14.Davis, Ron. 1992. "Troubled." Springfield News-Leader, June 26: 1.Keyes, Robert. 1996. "Inmate to go 'under microscope'." Springfield News-Leader, January 19: 1.—. 1996. "Missing women case leads police to Texas." Springfield News-Leader, January 2: 1.—. 1992. "Streeter's brother passes polygraph." Springfield News-Leader, June 12: 6.—. 1996. "Talk with inmate leads to 'nothing shattering'." Springfield News-Leader, January 20: 1.—. 2006. "Three Missing women: Ten years later." Springfield News-Leader, June 8.—. 1992. "Too many felonies." Springfield News-Leader, July 11: 1.—. 1992. "Waitress gives clue." Springfield News-Leader, June 24: 1.—. 1992. "'We're doing all we can'." Springfield News-Leader, June 21: 9.O'Dell, Kathleen. 1992. "A sixth sense about a baffling case." Springfield News-Leader, June 28: 1.Reid, Kyani. 2022. 30 years later family still seeking answers in the disappearance of three Springfield, Missouri women. June 12. Accessed July 31, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/30-years-later-family-still-seeking-answers-disappearance-three-springfield-n1296285.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities and new ways of thinking. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception, along with popular podcasts and exclusive Audible originals all in one easy app. Enjoy Audible anytime while

you do other things, household chores, exercising, on the road, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine, without needing to set aside extra time. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. I'm Dan Tuberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. What's the answer? And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head? Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios.

Binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Alaina. And this is morbid. I hate carbonated water. Were you making fun of me? No, unintentionally.

Were you making fun of me? I just took a sip of this water that I just found in the fridge, which was really bold of me. It was really bold of me. It was really old of me. No, bold. Like old people just find... I mean, old people do just be finding things in the fridge, so fair enough. That's very ancient of me. Very bold of me to just grab this water.

It is old as well, but it's water. But anyway, it's gross. I don't like it. And I don't know why. No, I do know why. It's the carbonation. It's definitely just that. If you drink, does water go bad?

No. No. Okay. So if you drink carbonated water, I don't trust you. Mikey's dying. You drink sparkling water. That. Okay. So if you drink carbonated water, I don't trust you. Mikey's dying. You drink sparkling water. That's different. Oh, that is sparkling water. No, no, no, no. It's- Sparkling carbonated water.

Yeah. Different. Sparkling carbonated. Yeah, they're all the same. You just drink sparkling. This is way more. This is way more. Do you guys hear her? Than the water. Would you like a sip? It's horrible. I need to hear me. I need to defend myself.

Not only did she call me old class on the rewatcher. I asked if you had ever taken a Scantron test. There's a difference. Essentially said, were you around when cars were invented? You know what's actually crazy is you still haven't answered the question of, were you around during Scantron tests? Of course you have. They've been around since like the 70s.

I didn't know that. I thought they were new because one, no, genuinely, one day we were taking regular tests, like circle A, B, C, or D, like just on the paper. And then all of a sudden in high school, they were like, we have to conserve paper. So we got this smaller paper for you, and we're going to give you a test and this paper. Do not circle the answers on the big packet, only put them on the Scantron. So I said, oh, these must be new. And that's Sparkling Water and Scantron. Well, I can tell you a thing about being old.

What's up? I could tell you a thing or two. I'll tell you about being old. We were at Storyland recently. I was with my family. I certainly wasn't. But the things you do when you get kids. I know.

That's how the kids put it. That's how they put it. But we were there and there's this ride. It's like this little, it's like in a fire. It's like got fire trucks outside of it. It's like in a fire. It feels like it's in a fire to be quite honest. It's in the middle of town.

Would I rather be in a fire? Maybe. It feels like it's in a fire, to be quite honest. It's in the middle of hell. Would I rather be in a fire? Maybe, but it's... I really don't like theme parks. But... That's so unfinged. That was a joke, everybody. But look it up. These fire trucks are like the old timey fire trucks

outside of the ride. And so one of my girls was like, oh, what are these? And I was like, oh, this is what fire trucks used to look like. And she goes, mama, is this what fire trucks look like when you were little? Was that the littlest? And I said, baby, these are like from 1910. Wait, now I need to look up what they looked like.

And no, it wasn't even my littlest. That's the rough. Middle or oldest? Oldest. Wow. I would put that on middle-est my littlest. That's the rough. Middle or oldest? Oldest. Wow. I would put that on middleist or littlest. Middleist or littlest. Yeah. Ask me like old timey fire trucks. Damn. Hold on. I'm looking up a picture. Like the ones you see in parades. Oh, fuck.

Yeah. Like the ones you see in parades. She said, did they, the moment, did they look like this in the 80s? Yeah. Did they look like this when you were little? I was like, nope. Damn. I was like, no, did they look like this in the 80s? Yeah, did they look like this when you were little? I was like, nope. I was like, no, they just looked like regular fire trucks when I was little. I'm not that old. Well, what's fucking crazy is our kids are like,

wow, you were born in the 1900s. Yeah, I don't have kids, but my kids will say that someday too. I'm like, our kids are like. All our kids are saying that. People are like, Ash, you don't have them. Well, speaking of, Can't really segue that. No, it's not segue. I tried.

And that's why we drink, say it. It's not sago-able. It's not sago-able. I have a more recent case. It's not old. It's not old. There you go. It is from the 1900s, so sorry. So I guess it is a little old. It's a little bit old. It's not old. There you go. It is from the 1900s. So sorry. So I guess it is a little old It's a little bit old. It's older than me. It's the 90s, right? Yeah, it's the 90s It's older than me a little bit, but it's a cold case and it's a very interesting case

I don't oh no, actually, I'm sorry I don't have your username But I the the reason I found this is because I saw somebody on comments be like, oh, you should cover this. Oh, hey. So, hey, somebody who said that. I'm covering. Thank you for saying that. Thank you for saying that.

I should have written your name down, but I don't know your username, but you rule. You know who you are. Exactly. Yeah. It's just me. It's how I roll. It's just me. But as you could tell from the title, we're going to be talking about the disappearance

of the Springfield 3. It is a very like chilling, haunting case. Yeah, I only know the the gist of this case. Yeah, it's always fascinated me. Yeah, it is. I had heard the name before, but I didn't know any details whatsoever. And it's just creepy. Yeah.

So let's get into it. On the afternoon of Saturday, what? I said let's do it, sorry. What? I said it as you began and I was like uh-oh. In my head I was like oh no, you're talking while she's talking and she's gonna say what? On the afternoon of Saturday, June 6, 1992, friends and relatives of Kickapoo High School's graduating senior class gathered at, I think it's the Hammonds Student Center for the graduation ceremony. So everybody was getting together, graduating, you know. Yeah, the Vitamin C song was playing, even though it hadn't happened yet.

Is that the like, as we grow old? As we go on. Not as we grow old. I think it's as we go on. We remember. We remember. We remember. That reminds me of the end of Laguna Beach. Yes.

But that hadn't happened yet. No. Anyway, among the graduates were 19-year-old Susie Streeter and her best friend, 18-year-old Stacey Macal. When the ceremony wrapped up later that afternoon, they made a quick stop at home to change into some more casual clothes. And then, you remember, you headed out to go to all the senior parties, the graduating parties. Yeah. Why didn't I remember what that was called? The senior parties.

So for Susie and Stacey, the first stop that night was at the home of their friend and fellow graduate Janelle Kirby. She lived in Battlefield, Missouri, just outside of Springfield. So it was like a little bit further away, but not crazy. Earlier that day, they all made plans to meet up at Janelle Kirby's house that night, and then they were going to walk to a party that was being held at the home of another student nearby. So they were really just going to be like making their rounds that night, going to a couple different parties. And then the plan was to drive to Branson and get a hotel room. They were going to meet some more friends, kind of hang out, And then the plan was to drive to Branson and get a hotel room. They were going to meet some more friends, kind of hang out, and then the next morning they were all going to be

going to a water park together. However, just a few hours into the evening, Janelle Kirby called her mom to say that they actually changed their minds, and instead of getting a hotel room, they were going to go to a few more parties and leave for Branson in the morning instead. So after a little while, all three girls moved from the party in battlefield to another grad party back in Springfield. Around two in the morning, after bouncing around between all the parties, the three girls ended back up at Janelle Kirby's house. So they were going to be staying at Janelle's for the night, but when they got there,

they realized that her house was full of relatives who had come into town for the graduation and Susie and Stacey didn't want to impose on their friends' family. But when they got there, they realized that her house was full of relatives who had come into town for the graduation. And Suzy and Stacey didn't want to impose on their friend's family. It would have been like really tight quarters anyway. So they decided to go to Suzy's house. And Suzy had just gotten a king size waterbed delivered as a graduation gift from her mom. And she was really, really excited to show her friend. Dude, waterbed... Were the shit.

Holy shit! I will never forget yours as long as I live. Yes, and everyone's parents had water beds. I remember all my friend's parents had like those wily water beds that felt like you were like in the middle of the ocean. Remember you could like hear it, like you would like flop onto your bed. Oh yeah, it literally was like, boom, boom, boom. Like, why?

It was crazy. Why did we all think this was great? And remember when you're started leaking? Yeah. It was gone. Bad news bears when it starts leaking. That's when you got to get out of, you got to get out of Dodge at that point. Yeah.

It's like Kristen Cavalieri and Luguna Beach. Your waterbed is gone. So it's done. So it's done. So it's done. So done. So, but yeah, how freaking cool is that? That her mom got her a water, a king sized water for graduation. Dunzo. Dunzo. But yeah, how freaking cool is that that her mom got her a water, a king sized water bottle for graduation? The best.

So Suzy was like, I got to show this to Stacey. So honestly, this works out. So a little after 2am, Janelle Kirby waved goodbye to her friends as they pulled out of the driveway. And unfortunately, that would be the last time she would see Stacey or Suzy again. So let's talk a little bit about both girls. Suzy Streeter was born in March of 1973. She was a pretty typical teenager with a somewhat atypical history. She was raised by a single mother who was working with a limited income. The family had

actually moved from Spring, to Springfield from Seattle in 1980, and not long after Suzy's mother Cheryl ended up marrying her stepfather Don Leavitt. Their relationship lasted nine years, but they ended up getting divorced in 1989, and according to friends, Suzy quote, seldom talked about her father or her stepfather, who had left town after the couple divorced and hadn't been heard from since. Oh, interesting. Yeah, sounds like kind of a poo poo head.

Yeah. While her relationship with her stepfather doesn't really appear to have had any kind of big influence on her life, her relationship with her mother was always strong, and Cheryl, her mom, was a constant source of support for Suzie. At the time of their disappearance, Janelle Kirby's mother Cathy told reporters Suzie's very protective of her mother and vice versa. So they really looked out for each other. Despite the support she had at home, Suzy did struggle pretty often at school.

She had a learning disorder that made her feel like she was something of an outsider. And she also felt like she didn't really have a lot of friends. Oh, I know. Which all of these women, like the two girls and the mom are gorgeous. So the fact that she felt like an outsider, I'm like, no, uh-uh. You're smart and great and beautiful. But family friend Janet Olivera said she was a very sensitive girl. She felt like she wasn't part of the in crowd. But what she did lack in quantity of friends was definitely made up for in quality, particularly her best friend, Stacey McCall.

Which I think is more important. I think so, too. Which I think is more important. I think so too. So I think you realize that the older you get. You do. Yeah, that's the thing. You do realize that probably a little too late in life most of the time.

But it is. It's the quality. You don't need a bunch. You need a handful. If you have, isn't that like an old saying, if you can count your friends on one hand, you're lucky? Yeah. Yeah. So we're fucking lucky.

You guys are so lucky. We have two friends in this room right now. Hell yeah. Thank you for being a friend. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know what's up. Anyway, it's a Golden Girls theme song. It's the carbonated sparkling water.

It is. The old carbonated sparkling water. It is. The old carbonated sparkling water. Exactly. But like Susie Streeter, Stacey was a quintessential 1980s American teenager. She was obsessed with fashion. She loved tanning. She loved music.

Metallica was her favorite, along with Garth Brooks. I just went to the Metallica concert. I thought that was a good way to slip that in. Yeah, it was awesome. And she was described by many people as bubbly and outgoing. Aw. Yeah. Although they were a year apart in age, Suzie's learning disability had put her in the same grade as Stacy,

and they became fast friends at actually a young age. They met like, it seems like in grade school. Yeah. Throughout elementary school, Stacy, Suzie, and Junelle, the one that they were hanging out with earlier, they were inseparable and they spent almost every afternoon and every evening together. But when Stacey was 11 years old, her family moved out of state for a few years. And when they returned, they kind of had drifted apart a little bit. Actually they had only recently reconnected and become close again in the months before

graduation. Oh, so during her senior year, Suszie was actually living with her older brother Bart. About halfway through the school year though, they got into a quote unquote heated argument. And a few months before graduation, she ended up moving back in with her mother Cheryl. Huh. Yeah. I couldn't find like a lot about. Yeah, it's probably hard to.

Yeah. But anyway, she moved back in with Cheryl. Cheryl Levitt was really happy to have Suzy move back into the house. They had always been super close, like I said, really protective of each other. In the few years since she had gotten the divorce, Cheryl had rented out a room to single tenants in the house to subsidize her income because she was a hairstylist, but she wanted to bring in some more income. Yeah.

So she was never really lonely because there was always somebody living at the house. But those relationships obviously were nothing compared to the one that she had with her daughter. So they really didn't have a lot, but Cheryl worked really, really hard for everything they did have. And she was also always happy to spend a little extra money on her daughter. Like the king-size waterbed she bought her. Other than her daughter, Cheryl had a few close friends.

But after her divorce in 1989, a few close friends. But after her divorce in 1989, she didn't date, she really didn't socialize much. Instead, she was focusing on some home renovations around that time. She'd been slowly completing them around the house in her free time. Friend Janet Olivera said, she didn't know how to fix half the stuff, but she taught herself. Damn, what a badass. Yeah. Handy woman. Literally. That night, after having dinner with Suzy, Cheryl cleaned up the dishes from dinner. Damn. Isn't that cool? What a badass. Yeah. Handy woman. Literally. That night after having dinner with Suzy, Cheryl cleaned up the dishes from dinner and

having the house to herself, she decided to finish hanging some wallpaper and varnishing a chair. Damn. Which like that's, if you've ever had to fucking hang wallpaper. Oh, I was just going to say. That is no easy feat. That alone, like. To varnish, what is varnishing again?

To varnish a chair, it's like to put that transparent top coat on. Like varnish that makes it like that shiny. So to do that on top of wallpaper? Yeah. Baddusby. Baddusby. Baddusby. Good for her.

Yeah. So she was working on that that night. A little after 11 p.m. she called a friend and they talked about the projects that she was finishing and then presumably she went to bed. The next morning, Susie and Stacey, like I said, made plans with Janelle and several other friends to go to that water park over in Branson and they were all going to meet at Janelle's house in the morning. But when morning came, Susie and Stacey just didn't show up. Janelle said, I started getting worried because Stacey, she's so responsible and so is Suzy. So a few hours later, when they still hadn't heard from their friends, Janelle and her boyfriend Mike Henson decided to go to Cheryl Streeter's house to make sure everything was okay. The first thing that Janelle noticed when they arrived at the house was that the

glass globe on the porch light had been shattered and there was glass scattered across the front porch. The bulb itself, it was intact, but like the globe around it was completely broken. Yeah, that's creepy. Super creepy. Especially because the bulb was intact. Yeah. I really wonder if it was like unscrewed a little bit though, like in the strangers. Yeah, like if they smashed the globe to get to the thing.

Yeah, that's all I could think of. Or I don't know if it was just like smashed in some kind of struggle. Yeah. But anyway, Janelle remembered that quote unquote, as a favor to Susie's mom, her boyfriend, Mike, grabbed a broom and swept up the glass and dumped it in the garbage. You would not think anything of that. No. In hindsight, investigators believe that the broken glass could have been,

and like could have contained some kind of important clue. But at the time, Mike was just concerned that somebody might cut their foot or get cut somehow. So he threw it away. But unfortunately, he potentially did throw away valuable evidence. Without having any idea. Literally completely unknowing. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. I feel like kids are always learning and growing, obviously, but as adults, we sometimes lose that curiosity.

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to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dotcom slash morbid today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash morbid. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. Find the genres you love and discover new ones along the way. Explore bestsellers, new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks and originals that members can listen to all they want with more added all the time. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your daily routine without needing to set

aside extra time. There's more to imagine when you listen. I have been listening to The Spell Shop. It is a title written by Sarah Beth Durst, and it's narrated by Caitlin Davies, who just has the most beautiful voice. I feel like I'm transported into a different world when I'm listening. I love this title. And I think you would too. Also as an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases.

New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500 500. As far as Janelle could tell, everybody's cars were still parked in the driveway. And when she peered into the living room window, everything looked normal. But she was like, what's going on? Like, they were supposed to meet me. Did they oversleep? So she tried the front door and she found it unlocked. And she cracked the front door. And when she did, Suzy's dog, Cinnamon, started barking and appeared to be in a pretty agitated state, only calming down when Janelle opened the front door further,

and he recognized Janelle, like he knew who she was, so he calmed down. Yeah. Janelle said she started to yell to them, calling out to see if anybody was in the house, but the house was completely still, completely quiet. She got no response. Ooh, that's chilling. Yeah. So to Janelle, who had been in the house countless times, nothing seemed out of the ordinary

other than the fact that they didn't seem to be home. But there were a couple things that didn't, or that did catch her attention. Susie's bedding had been pulled back like somebody had slept in the bed. All the purses of all three women were piled on the steps leading to Susie's room. And Susie and Cheryl's open cigarette packets were on the counter. The two were said to be pretty heavy smokers and they didn't go anywhere without their packs of cigarettes. So that was weird, definitely. So as they were walking out the phone rang. The home phone, that was when people had the landline, if you will.

And Janelle ran to answer it, hoping that it might be her friends. But the voice on the other end of the line was a man, or at least a male. And Janelle would later describe the caller as sounding like a teenager. The caller immediately launched into just like a barrage of offensive comments and sexual innuendos. So she hung up and they left the house. That is, that series of events is so creepy. It's so creepy. And they found out later that Cheryl and Suzie had been getting calls like that. Really?

Yeah, like, just yucky, crank calls is what they thought they were. And still, like, it's... Nobody's really sure if it connects to the case or if it's just like a separate, like, gross thing happening. Coincidence. So, finding nothing super alarming at the house, obviously it's alarming that they're not there, but it doesn't

look like there's a sign of struggle beyond the glass. Janelle and Mike decided to stop by their friend Shane's house, hoping that the girls maybe got confused about the plan where they were supposed to meet and were there. But when they got there, Shane said he hadn't seen them, he hadn't heard from them, nothing. So they were kind of frustrated and ended up going back to the Streeter house and found it exactly as they left. So they set out to look for the girls around the neighborhood thinking maybe they walked somewhere to get lunch, something like that. At the time, remember, these are like 18 year old kids who just graduated high school.

It didn't occur to Janelle or Mike that something could be super, super wrong here. No, because especially at that point, you're not, you think you're invincible and all your friends are too. Exactly. Nothing bad can happen. And it's just like, oh, like something weird must be going on, but we'll figure it out. So around that time Janelle was walking through Cheryl Streeter's empty house, Stacey's mother, Janice McCall, was getting irritated that she had not heard from her daughter since

the previous night. She called to say there had been a change of plans and she would be staying at Janelle's house because at that point they were still going to be staying there. So Janice called the Kirby house and asked to speak to her daughter, assuming that the girls maybe just got a late start. But Janelle's sister explained that Stacey and Suzie hadn't actually stayed there the night before because the house was so crowded and as far as she knew, they had actually gone back to Suzie's house. So Janice is frustrated because she's like, okay, Stacy didn't call me and tell me this. Yeah, I'd be frustrated. And I'm trying to track her down. So she called

Susie's house and left a message on the answering machine instructing her daughter to call her back as soon as she got the message. A few hours passed, and Janice McCall was finally able to get a hold of Janelle Kirby, who told her that they had gone by the house and they couldn't find Stacey or Suzy, or for that matter, Cheryl, anywhere. So Janice placed several more calls to the Streeter house, just leaving increasingly frantic messages like, why are you calling me back? Where are you? You need to call me. I can't imagine.

A short time later, she got a call from the mother of one of Stacey's other friends, informing her that the girls' cars and purses were actually still at the streeter house. So now convinced that her daughter was just being irresponsible and maybe like she like slept in or, you know, yeah, exactly, blowing her off. She called her other daughter and together, they grabbed the spare car key and drove over to the house.

The plan was for Stacey's sister to drive Stacey's car home and Janice would grab her purse, effectively leaving her daughter just like confused and stranded. Janice said, I was gonna let her look for her car and clothes. I thought that serves you right. You didn't let me know anything and I won't let you know. It was the 90s.

Exactly. So she might've been angry with her daughter on the way there, you know, when she left for the Streeter house. But by the time she reached the house, that anger turned back to worry. Oh, I'm sure. In the several hours that had passed since Janelle had first checked on her friends, the Streeter house had filled up by this point with concerned friends and families all looking for signs of Susie, Stacy, or Cheryl. As Janice went through the house, the same signs that seemed odd to Janelle were now concerning. She was like, what the fuck? Because now it's turning into like more time has passed by.

Other people are worried. Yep. Yeah. And not only had they left their cars and their purses behind, but Stacy also left behind some of her clothing that she'd been wearing the night before and her migraine medication, which she always had with her. But Stacey also left behind some of her clothing that she'd been wearing the night before and her migraine medication, which she always had with her. Honey, you're not going anywhere without that. I thought of you. If you have migraines, I have Excedrin migraine with me literally 24-7.

It was still in her purse. Yeah, that's not good. Janice was like, there's no way she would have gone somewhere without that. And there's no way they would have gone somewhere without their purses. Suzie and Cheryl wouldn't have gone without their cigarettes. Like there's all these different signs now. So Janice hit play on the answering machine and waded through her own messages that she'd left

before she quote, heard a man's voice who was saying very unpleasant things. So this person, who? I'm assuming it was the same person that Janelle had picked up the phone for. This person called back and left a message. I'm sorry, I think there's something there. I think there could be.

So despite the obvious red flags, nobody's minds had turned to outright panic yet. When one woman suggested that they make a pot of coffee to keep everybody going, Janice thought, I don't want to do that. What's Cheryl going to say when we're sitting in her kitchen drinking her coffee? I don't blame her. Never thinking that Cheryl might not be coming back. Oh. So after calling all of her daughter's friends that she could think of, Janice finally called her husband, Stu, and she said,

there's something not right, something is really wrong. And Stu agreed and suggested it was time to call the police and report the three women missing. Yeah. Janice still couldn't accept at that point that something bad was happening or might have happened to her daughter. So she didn't want to call 911. She felt like it was unnecessary.

She later said, I was still waiting for them to come in. Well, and it's, it's hard when you realize you have to call 911 in a situation. It's scary. Yeah, it's very scary. And you're always worried about overreacting, even though like we say it all the time, overreact, don't underreact. But it's easier said than done. Totally.

It really is. Every time I've ever had to call 911, it's been a very scary experience. You have an internal battle with yourself. You're like, am I supposed to be doing this? Yeah. Yeah. Because it's meant for emergencies and you really, like, you don't want to waste somebody's time. No, and resources of like, you know,

and in a situation like this, where you're battling back and forth of like, is this really fucked up or is this not? Am I just going to call and say, I don't know where they are and then they're going to come back from like a day at the beach and we're going to be like, sorry. Okay, our bad. Yeah, and you also don't want to admit to yourself

that it's an emergency. Definitely not. So instead of calling 911, she called the police department's main line and she asked the dispatcher to send an officer out to the house as soon as they could. A few minutes later, luckily they responded pretty quickly. Springfield police officer Rick Bookow pulled into the already crowded driveway at Cheryl Streeter's house because now everybody's there. A three-year veteran of the police force, Rick Bucco wasn't too alarmed when the call

came in about the missing women. But despite the lack of evidence, when investigators did arrive at the house, they just felt like something was different. Something was off. Interesting. Yeah. Well, there's so many people in there, like, tramping all over the place. That's the thing.

This, if it was a crime scene, like, who really knows? There's no evidence now it's been trampled all over. It's like the Sean Benet Ramsey kind of scene where everybody just walking around. Exactly. So Bookout noticed that Susie and Stacey's cars were in the driveway and Cheryl's car was also there. It was in the garage, just like Janice McCollid said. As he walked through the house, he noticed all the other oddities that had been delayed to the dispatcher. Jewelry by the bathroom sink, the unmade bed that looked like it had been slept in,

and so on. Springfield police captain Tony Glenn said, "'The only thing unusual about this house "'was that three women were missing from it. "'You had this feeling as you looked around "'that something was missing, "'that something had to be missing, "'but there wasn't just them.

So like tons of valuables still around the house, like you know, like jewelry and that kind of thing, cars, purses, I'm assuming wallets in the purses. Just people missing. Just people missing. Like they, it was like they up and vanish. And it's like people that would have taken some of these things with them. Exactly. So Bookout got started by talking to Janice and Stu McCall, who explained, or McCall Stu McCall, who explained that their daughter had gone out with friends the night before to celebrate graduation and hadn't come back the next morning when they were all supposed to leave for the water park. So he got that story and then he walked around the house with Janice at his side this time. So the scene seemed to be telling a story of a household that had started the routine

of getting ready for bed but was interrupted at some point. Jewelry and makeup were removed. There was literally like dirty makeup wipes at the scene. Clothes were changed. TV was turned on. And this is so fucking creepy because it was the nineties and whatever they were watching had played through by the time everybody started like arriving at the house. It was on that snow. Do you remember how like when your movie was over, it would go to the blue screen and then the snow. And then shhh. Yeah. Yeah.

Something about that. I was like, I hope you guys muted it. Oh. Mm-hmm. It was just like they had just vanished, like I said. Yeah. But most concerning, like we said, was that they had all left their purses

containing essential items like identification, medication, all that kind of stuff behind. And they hadn't just been left on a chair or somewhere that you might throw your purse. They were stacked, piled together on the stairs leading to Suzie's bedroom. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah, it seems weird to me too, right?

Yeah. And Stacey's overnight bag was on the stairs too. Officer Bookout casually suggested that, what did they suggest in the 90s? They probably were just gone, having fun. Oh yeah, don't worry about it. They just forgot to call and forgot their purses and you know, forgot everything. But Janice pointed to her daughter's clothes that were piled up by the bed and she said, if she is, she's in her underwear.

Like literally looked at the cop and was like, yeah, no. Yeah, do you think my daughter's out there in her skivvies? I don't think so. No. So by the time Bookout had finished his walkthrough of the house, other officers arrived and started, he started bringing them up to speed on what he knew. It was clearly a missing persons case, but despite the lack of evidence or the presence of anything suspicious, they couldn't shake the feeling that these women hadn't gone missing voluntarily.

Yeah. There's something off here. And this suspicion was unintentionally conveyed to the families when Bookout asked Janice McCall whether they could get dental records for her daughter or not. Oh. She said, I thought if they want dental records, they want to identify my daughter. They thought my daughter could be dead. Oh, that's awful. Like, I can't imagine.

What an awful feeling. No. Finally, after they'd cleared the house of friends and families, Bookout locked the doors and the windows and stuck a note on the door asking that somebody call the police department when they returned to confirm their safety, which is just so chilling. Yeah, I was going to say something about that.

Just walking out. It's just quiet in that house. Leaving a note. And just leaving a note, like, call us when you're back safe. But like they never came back. Despite their suspicions and their instincts, even the police didn't want to admit that something terrible could have happened in that house.

Because it's bizarre. It's so bizarre. It's a bizarre scene. It is. So the next day, news about the disappearance hit the local papers and the alarm over the three missing women began to spread. Friend and former classmate, Adina Ruff-Ruaf, I hope I'm saying that right, told a reporter,

I'm scared to death about what's going on. The longer they're gone, the more negative comes out. I'm scared someone broke in and got them. I just hope to God nobody hurts them. Oh, geez. Yeah. Those who knew Cheryl were equally concerned by her sudden disappearance. Joe Tate, who owned the salon where she worked, told the press,

I've already talked to two or three detectives today. I've told them this is not like her. Cheryl is definitely not the type of person that would just leave. She would contact someone. Something is wrong. That's the thing. It's like these aren't people that are known to do this stuff that they're like, oh, well, you know, let's all wait around a little bit because sometimes they do this. Sometimes they disappear and we don't hear from them for a few days and then they come back. These people were like creatures of habit.

Yeah, they weren't going to just run off. And it didn't make sense. Like why would Stacey, the friend run away with Suzy and Suzy's mom? Like that doesn't make a lot of sense. That's the honestly, that's the part that really gets me is that there's somebody not not part of the family here. Right. Yeah, exactly.

In the house and maybe it was just in the house at the wrong time. Exactly. Which is also so sad to think about when you think about the fact that they weren't even supposed to say it's Susie's that night. Yeah. But then also you're like, would something have still happened to Cheryl? Like, yeah, it could have been a very different story. Yeah.

While friends and family of the missing women formed their own informal search parties, the local police started to go over what they had learned about the case already, hoping that somebody knew something that might help. Captain Tony Glenn said, while we haven't had any real breaks in the case that would lead us to have knowledge of their current location,

we're actively pursuing and talking to individuals who were in contact with them Saturday night. But after three days had passed and there was still no sign of these missing women, the FBI was called in to join the 30-member team of investigators now working the case. Damn.

Yeah, it was, shit was getting real. Yeah. By then, it seemed very much possible that all these women had been kidnapped. But even that didn't make a lot of sense, because even if the individual was armed, it would still be pretty difficult for one person to kidnap three adult women without leaving any kind of evidence of a break-in or any kind of struggle at the scene. Yeah. Like, yes and no, I guess.

Yeah. I said that and then the more I was thinking about it, they were all petite women. Yeah, and it's like, you brandish a couple of weapons and... Even just, even just, I'll go. You'll be surprised, you know? Yeah. It would scare anybody. I said that and then I was like, well, maybe not.

I don't know. Yeah. It is hard to believe that nothing would have been like knocked over. Like, you know what I mean? And the leaving like the purses on the stairs and like a line. Yeah. When did that happen? If you're, if it's one person trying to corral three adult women. Yeah.

He's not going to have time to do that. No. You know, like it's, there's strange things. Yeah, I don't, it's just weird. Like, why was that thing broken? Yeah, why was the globe around the porch light broken? This person, if this was somebody, did they mean to break the light too? But they just smashed the globe and thought they broke the light and maybe just loosened

it? Or and this is like such a dark thought. It's awful. But I was thinking like, was somebody carried out kicking? Oh Oh, maybe like maybe they had a hand over their mouth. So nobody heard them screaming Are they kicking or like like thrashing? Yeah, maybe but then you would think that maybe there would be somebody here something or blood or yeah Yeah, I don't know. It's it this case is like yeah, it gets your brain going. It really does. There is no better feeling than loving your home. Wayfair makes it easy to create a space where you can relax, unwind, no matter the season.

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["The Daily Show Theme"] But the other thing was, nobody could think of a single reason why anyone would kidnap any of these three women, let alone all of them. Yeah. According to friends, Suzy and Stacey were generally happy, pretty well liked, they didn't have any enemies.

The same was true of Cheryl, who was described as a quote, reliable, dependable worker. But maybe it was a, unless it's a stranger. Which it could be. Yeah. But I think at that, I don't know why they weren't thinking of that at the time, but it doesn't sound like they were. Yeah, I think that was, I think that was genuinely something that was not first thought on everyone's mind for a long time.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. But when it came to suspects, investigators had difficulty putting together a list of any real substance. There was Suzy's ex-boyfriend, 17-year-old Mike Kovacs, who she had a somewhat troubled and occasionally violent relationship with a couple years earlier. Kovacs said, quote, Sure, we hit each other before back when we were first going out when I was just 15.

I was like, Oh, fuck, that sounds pretty volatile. At 15, you were hitting your girlfriend? Jesus. What? But he said he had been on good terms with both girls since that relationship ended, and he did have an alibi for the night that they went missing. And at the time of their disappearance, neither girl was dating anybody seriously, nor did anyone believe Susie's fiercely protective mother would have let anyone in the house after the girls had got home that night. Janet Olivera said, if Susie got a phone call after 10 o'clock at night, Cheryl didn't even allow her to answer it, so I know she would never let her answer the door after 10, especially at 2 a.m. Yeah. Eventually investigators started administering

polygraph tests to the men in Suzy, Stacey, and Cheryl's lives, hoping that maybe one of them might produce a lead. Bart Streeter, Suzy's brother and Cheryl's son said, I was upset with it, mainly because it's my mother and my sister and I love them more than anything in the world. And while he might have been upset, he did give in to a polygraph examination because he was willing to do whatever it took to get his family and Stacey back. Yeah, I mean, he just said that, you know, I love them more than anything in this world. Yeah, he's like, it's pretty shitty, but yeah. He said, I think what the police are trying to do is right.

I've spent as much time as I can at the department. The emotional thing is incredible." Wow. In the end, he passed his polygraph exam, and so did the other young men that investigators tested, leaving them no closer to finding these three women. After a week, investigators had made zero progress on the case, and the families of the missing women had started to accept that somebody might have taken their loved ones and most likely had. Friends and family had spread out across the city to distribute

more than 20,000 missing persons flyers, which are still around in the area today. Wow. Which is again, like I said, chilling, haunting. Yeah, truly. It like gives you goosebumps. And while friends and family were doing that, Janice and Stu McCall had started going around to all the local hospitals showing pictures of their daughter to anyone who would listen. Sergeant Mark Webb said, in the beginning, I had every hope that we would solve this in a few days, that we'd find them, know what happened. I thought we'd get to the bottom of it. But the problem was that investigators

had virtually nothing to work with. The crime scene at Cheryl Streeter's house, assuming like I said it even was a crime scene, showed no signs of a struggle or break-in. Nothing was missing or out of place, and nothing had been left behind to indicate who took these women or where they could have gone. There was that broken glass discovered outside, but like I said, that had been thrown away, so evidence was also thrown away with it. And the same was true of that obscene message that was left on the answering machine. Back at that time, it was standard for answering machines to automatically delete messages after 24 hours.

And that's exactly what happened with that one. It was just gone. And at that point in time, there was no way to get it back. Now you just tap your fucking iPhone to delete deleted messages. It wasn't like that. So investigators turned to the media for help with segments about Susie, Stacey and Cheryl appearing on America's Most Wanted in 48 hours, but none produced any viable leads. Oh man. Finally, in mid-June, Springfield police

got a tip about a potential suspect and for the first time they had a lead to chase. According to a caller on the tip line, on June 5th and 6th a local woman saw an unfamiliar man lingering around Cheryl Streeter's house. Captain Glenn told reporters this individual was totally out of place in the area. He was a transient type with no apparent reason for being there. It's something we feel is significant. That's creepy. I know it is creepy. So investigators released a

composite drawing of the suspect which depicted a middle-aged bearded man, average height and weight, with dark shoulder length hair and a quote freckled tan complexion. I feel like it's like very hard to picture this man. Yeah, I'm trying to picture this man. I'm struggling. Same. Well, the so-called transient man quickly shot to the top of a suspect list that still included Bart Streeter and Mark Kovacs, but hope of finding that individual soon faded because he wasn't seen in the area again.

And realistically, who knows if he ever existed in the first place. As theories of the quote unquote transient abductor started to dry up, detectives shifted their focus to Cheryl Streeter, hoping something or someone in her background might provide a lead. Deputy Chief Worsham told a reporter, as the case entered its third week, I think it's an abduction, and I think the answer lies somewhere in Cheryl Levitt's background. Sometimes she's referred to, just so nobody's confused, sometimes she's referred to as Cheryl Streeter,

and then other times Cheryl Levitt, because she had been divorced from Don Levitt. So people called her by different last names. Yeah, it's like both. But since they were divorced, I most often refer to her as Cheryl Streeter. But anyway, he added, We have no information, and I want to emphasize that. I don't want the relatives and friends of Cheryl Levitt to feel like we think she's the cause of

this or a bad person, but she may be a focus of the investigation and somebody in her background may have some reason to do something like this. Whoa. Which is scary. Yeah. Cheryl had been married twice, first to Bart and Susie's father Brent and then to Dawn Levitt, like I said. Both relationships had ended in divorce. And as far as anybody knew, she actually had no contact with either man since their relationships had ended, hadn't seen from or heard from

either since. According to Bart Streeter, Cheryl's second husband, Don Leavitt, had left her in 1989 and literally no one even knew where he went. Which is so creepy. Like what the fuck? Bart said, he pretty much left my mom in debt and took off. Nice guy. Yeah. So Cheryl hired a lawyer in 1990 because it seems like he left her in some kind of debt.

He had like a failed business. But unfortunately he was never found and nothing came of it. Otherwise, Cheryl was said to live a relatively quiet and private life. Her friend Janet Olivera said, she was about as close to Mother Teresa as you could get. Whoever did this had to be somebody who did not know her. No one had any kind of vendetta against her. Damn. Which is even fucking scary.

It is. Like somebody just that you have no idea who they are walks in your house in the middle of the night and abducts you and your child and her friend. Yeah. Huh. So after struggling to find leads on the case, the detectives caught another break on June 24th when a waitress at Georgia's Steakhouse, which was one of Cheryl's favorite restaurants, reported to investigators that she had seen the three missing women in the early morning

hours of June 7. According to the waitress, Cheryl, Susie, and Stacey came into the diner sometime between 1 and 3 a.m. and she recalled Susie was extremely giddy or maybe even drunk and that Cheryl was trying to quiet her down. Around that time of night, Georgia's steakhouse was known to be pretty typically busy with a quote-unquote bar crowd. But the woman recognized Levitt and Streeter because they were regular customers, though they hadn't been to the restaurant in a couple months. One detective told reporters she seems like a credible witness, but other detectives and investigators were less convinced because a convenience store clerk in Springfield had also reported to the police that Susie and Stacey came into his store that night a little before 2.15

a.m. and he said they seemed like they were in a hurry. But if that was true, it wouldn't have been possible for the server to have seen them at the diner because that would have put them in two places at the same time. And the report from the server conflicted with the previously established timeline that put their disappearance somewhere between put them in two places at the same time. And the report from the server conflicted with the previously established timeline that put their disappearance somewhere between 2.30 and 7 a.m. Whoa.

So, regardless of the conflicting reports, the possibility of a new sighting did reinvigorate the case. And the reward fund that had been established days earlier jumped from $3,000 to $40,000. Whoa, that's a leap. An anonymous donor made a very large contribution, I guess. So, now we're three weeks deep.

The detectives have made almost no progress on the case, and at this point, everyone was starting to get desperate. The supposed sighting reported by the woman at the steakhouse pretty much went nowhere. And billboards and flyers yielded thousands of tips from the public, but they did little to move the investigation forward. That's so frustrating. It is.

With options dwindling, the family started turning to a local psychic, referred to in the press simply as Ruth. According to Ruth, the disappearance was a quote unquote revenge abduction that she referred to as quote, Cheryl's problem, possibly involvement in or knowledge of illegal activity. Huh? Yeah. In her visions of the scene, Ruth described, quote, two men in a brown or beige van. One man is medium tall, has dark hair and a short ponytail, and stows his sunglasses horizontally into his shirt.

The women were, quote, abducted at gunpoint with a small black revolver at 3.40 a.m. and the transient reportedly seen in the neighborhood is not involved in the abduction. So that's all quotes. Wow. Janice McCall had received hundreds of calls and letters from psychics all around the country offering her tips, and each one was passed on to the police. But apparently Ruth's tips seemed to resonate with her more than the others did. Janice said, I wish one could say, I see her now and she's all right. That's

what I look for. So they give me hope. Oh, that's so sad. And the rest of the McCall family agreed that Ruth actually did seem to have more insight than the others. And they were, quote, stunned by her accuracy in describing their own private lives. That's interesting. It is interesting. You know how I feel usually about psychics entering

these kinds of things? Yeah, because it can be iffy. But when the, I don't know, it's a hard one. Because you want family members to have hope. And when it seems like these people actually are the real deal, because I've seen certain things where it's like, they know so much and they end up helping the investigation. People have like solved cases before.

So you hope it's one of those. You do. Cause you just don't want them giving people hope. And false hope at that. Just for it to be ripped out from under them. Exactly. We've seen that a lot. Yeah, which is really shitty.

That's just the human species being the human species. Truly, people just people. People going to people. But regardless of how accurate she was about their family's private lives, it should be said that much of what Ruth told Janice McCall had actually already been reported on the papers. I mean, again, she did know things about their personal lives that they were pretty like amazed by. Okay.

But the details regarding the crime had been reported on. Like her seeing a light colored van, neighbors had already reported that. The other information she had was given to investigators who followed all of the leads, but eventually reported that, quote, none has proven helpful. Yeah. So after three weeks now of no progress, public demand for action had grown exponentially and was generally targeted at the chief of police Terry Knowles. This was not the first time that he had come under attack by the press and the public

at that point for perceived failures because one year earlier investigators failed to solve a brutal rape case and more recently the murder of an elderly woman had gone unsolved. Oh shit. So they're over their heads. They're in over their heads, yeah. Jinx. In response, he took a defensive position claiming lack of evidence and a potentially tainted crime scene were responsible for the slow progress, which-

I mean, yeah. Fair, very fair. Tons of people traipsed through there. That's very tainted. He said, we would have looked at the glass on the front porch, that could have told us some things. He also pointed to the large number of people who had gathered in Cheryl's house and handled personal items like the purses as additional issues in the case.

He said, whether it's a real hindrance or not, it doesn't matter. We're stuck with going in there after the fact. And yes, it sets you back. Because you also think about the fact that like he's saying, like, you know, if we had been able to look at that broken glass, it could have told us something. It's like, what really had been able to look at that broken glass, it could have told us something. It's like, what really could it have told you? I feel the same way.

The glass specifically, it's like mentioned and of course you have to mention it. It's a thing that happens. Of course. But it's in every outlet that reports on this is like, and who knows if valuable evidence was thrown away. I'm like, there was nothing else at the scene, so I don't know. The fact that that globe was smashed, that the light was smashed, for sure.

Mention that, that's important. That could point to some foul play here, something crazy going on for sure. And it's spooky, no matter what. I just don't know how much it would have been the actual shards of glass we're going to tell you. I completely agree. Because it's like, I mean, if somebody punched the glass with a gloved hand or something, it's not going to tell you if they hit it with something. It's not shattered glass. No, what is it going to tell you? And I don't know if they're like making a big deal of it because he swept up the glass and who knows like, maybe there was like a footprint in

the dirt or something like that. But maybe put it that way instead of like he threw away the glass and who knows, maybe there was a footprintor in the dirt or something like that. But maybe put it that way instead of like, he threw away the glass and there was valuable evidence in there possibly. That broken glass could have told us something. It's like, what though? It's like, can you tell me that? Even at that point, I don't even know if they could have tested the blood. It was like 92. And he didn't see any blood.

Yeah, exactly. Anyway, years later, several investigators would actually speak out in the press blaming the lack of progress on Knowles himself, claiming that he micromanaged the detectives and constantly interfered with how they were performing their jobs. Well, that's not a good way to be. No, some even claimed that he ruled out suspects. Other on others on the team strongly believed had a motive to abduct the women. Oh shit.

Green County prosecutor Darryl Moore told a reporter, This was clearly the most micromanaged case I've ever seen. Seasoned detectives were not allowed to use their expertise and judgment in this investigation. Oh, that's bad. He said this is the only case where that happened and I don't understand that. Yeah, that's not good. Yeah. Knowles himself rejected the idea that his hands-on approach negatively affected the case and claimed

he hadn't heard any criticism on his performance back when it was happening. And more recently, he said, I don't recall that being an issue back then. What anyone wants to say 10 years later, I can't control that. It's certainly disappointing, and it's frustrating at the time to be doing everything you possibly can.

Yeah. I think I kind of see both sides here. I was going to say, you can see both sides for sure. And I understand the want to micromanage. Honestly. But you got to sometimes you just got to let people do their jobs. I think a lot of times people who micromanage don't necessarily realize that they're micromanaging until it's brought to their attention.

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equals over 40% off their starter pack. Use code morbid for 15% off your first purchase at lumideodorant.com. That's morbid at L-U-M-E-D-E-O-D-O-R-A-N-T.com. But whether it was micromanagement or just a lack of evidence and leads or both, I think it was honestly an amalgamation of everything. After a month, investigators found themselves at a complete dead end with the investigation and it was starting to look like this case might go unsolved. To make matters worse, in the time that had passed since Cheryl, Susie and Stacey disappeared, several other cases had gone under-investigated or just un-investigated due to a significant

number of departmental resources being directed toward this missing person's case. According to Detective Truly Applegate, which like, literally had to be a detective. Truly Applegate? Like, come on. Truly Applegate forever. They said officers are quote, not doing what we're normally able to do because of the attention paid to the Streeter McCall case

and quote, there are simply too many felonies to follow and not enough officers to work them. Well, shit, that's a problem, my friends. Like we said earlier, I think they were very much in over the heads. I mean, they called the FBI in, but. That's, I know, at least they did that. You know, I just, I think the lack of evidence and the fact that the crime

scene quote, like if it was or wasn't, it was completely contaminated. Like there was nothing they could have done. Yeah. So in response, the Springfield police regrettably announced that they would be scaling back the number of investigators working on the disappearance so that they could free up some detectives to work on other crimes. Although most of the community was understanding, it was hard not to see the shift in priorities as a sign that the case had begun to stall and was definitely in danger of getting cold.

Oh, as soon as you see that kind of thing happen, like when you see that they're shifting away from it. Yeah. It's natural for natural from on the outside especially to be like, are they giving up on this? Or are they shelving it? It's watching the air go out of a balloon. Exactly, exactly. By the onset of fall, the investigation had pretty much come to a virtual standstill.

And though very much still being said an active case, many of the resources and hours dedicated to it had been redirected to more quote-unquote urgent matters. In mid-September, Bart Streeter actually quit his job and left Springfield for good. He wasn't able to live in the city because it had so many awful memories. Janice McCall expressed similar frustration. She said, I'd hate to think of doing this another hundred days. But that is exactly what happened. And then some, and then some.

I can't imagine. As the days turned to months, detectives continued to follow leads from the public, including searching a farm in a neighboring county where some evidence was collected, but nothing that moved the case in any direction. Then, in late 1995, detectives revisited one of their earlier suspects, Robert Craig Cox, who had been arrested in Texas after robbing a tanning salon and holding a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint. Oh, fuck you, Robert. Oh, just you motherfucking wait. On the list of suspects assembled by law enforcement, there was literally no better suspect than

Robert Cox. Oh, shit. Remember, the list of suspects is a little shaky. It's not great, yeah. He's a good one. On New Year's weekend 1979, 19-year-old Sharon Zellers disappeared after finishing her shift at Walt Disney World in Florida. Oh goodness.

A few days later, her car was discovered abandoned in a nearby orange grove. And the next day, investigators found her body in a nearby sewage station. At the same time, an ambulance was called to a motel adjacent to the sewage station for Robert Cox, who was on vacation in Orlando with his parents. Part of his tongue had been bitten off and needed to be surgically repaired, and he refused to say how it happened. What the fuck? Part of his tongue had been bitten off and needed to be surgically repaired, and he wouldn't

tell anyone why. Okay. Yup. Yeah. That's probably fine. Totally. Many years later, in 1986, Cox was arrested and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon.

Oh, you don't say. In an unrelated matter in California, when he abducted a young woman and put a knife to her throat. I'm sorry, are we seeing a pattern? We sure are, because that same year, he also attempted to abduct a female soldier who he was serving alongside in the army. He wanted to take her to a remote location but she ended up escaping. So it was while he was serving his sentence on the abduction in California that authorities in Orlando found

evidence that connected him to the Zellers murder in Orlando and in 1988 he was returned to Florida to stand trial where he was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death. Whoa. The conviction was appealed to the state Supreme Court of Florida. Why? The justices found that there was insufficient evidence to justify his conviction, which was ultimately reversed by the court and Cox returned to California to serve out the rest

of his sentence on the earlier charge. Holy shit. So he was cleared of the first degree murder, but he still had to serve time for, you know, abducting a young woman. Yeah. In 1992, he was paroled and left California to live with his parents where you might ask? Springfield. Springfield.

A few weeks after Cheryl, Stacey, and Susie went missing, Sharon Zeller's brother Steve read about the case in the paper and actually called investigators in Springfield to tell them about Cox's criminal history. Oh, shit. The Zellers family had been keeping tabs on him since his release. Good for them. And as soon as they heard the details of the case, they immediately felt he could be a suspect.

Guys, listen to them. Steve Zeller said they didn't even know he was serving parole there. Jesus. But they appreciated the tip and started looking into Cox as a possible suspect. After they got that tip, they interviewed him, who claimed that at the time of the abduction,

he had been at home with his girlfriend. And later that morning, the two of them went to church together. I literally don't believe you. You shouldn't. Yeah. With other leads and suspects to chase down, detectives confirmed his believe you. You shouldn't. Yeah. With other leads and suspects to chase down, detectives confirmed his alibi with his mother and his girlfriend. Oh, with his mom and girlfriend? Yeah. You know, the two closest people. Very reliable. Yeah.

And they moved on to other priorities. I'm also like this dangerous guy. Like, yeah, you're like, oh, you probably were at church. Yeah. And also his girlfriend. Yeah. She's probably not scared of him. No. Cool, cool, cool. Totally. So they moved on to other priorities. However, his alibi notwithstanding, Robert Cox had always been the best suspect on the list and easily the most likely person to have committed the abduction. Sergeant Dave Smith told a reporter in 1996, the year of my birth, we didn't dig deep enough. We didn't feel we needed to dig deeper. Do you regret that? 1996, the year of my birth. We didn't dig deep enough. We didn't feel we needed to dig deeper.

Do you regret that? Those feelings changed later, when Cox was convicted of an armed robbery in Texas and sentenced to life in prison. In the years since the abduction, several key members of the investigation team had been replaced by new detectives, and they hoped, now that he had nothing to lose, Robert Cox might be willing to share whatever information he had on the Springfield 3 abduction. On January 19, 1996, two Springfield detectives went to Texas and spent three hours interviewing Cox in prison.

But according to Captain Darryl Crick, Cox, quote, had nothing earth-shattering to say about the case. But investigators in Springfield still were not ready to cross him off their suspect list. A Texas law enforcement official said he knows they don't have anything new on him and he's remorseful for some acts he's committed in the past, so there was still a chance that he might divulge some information. Now despite being remorseful about his past of heinous crimes, quote-unquote, he seemed to delight in the attention from these Missouri detectives. Yeah, so I don't think he's very remorseful about his past of heinous crimes, quote unquote, he seemed to delight in the attention from these Missouri detectives. Yeah, so I don't think he's very remorseful.

No, I don't think so either. He maintained that he had nothing to do with the missing women in Springfield, yet quote, told police enough for them to think he knew something, but not enough to incriminate himself. Guys. Yeah. For instance, in one of the many interviews they conducted with him, he told detectives that the three women were dead and were, quote, buried near Springfield. But when they asked follow-up questions, he just smiled and refused to say anything else. Oh, come on. He's either fucking with you completely, or he's your guy.

So there's nothing in between. There's literally no in between there. It's one of those two things. Their suspicions of his involvement grew considerably when, So there's nothing in between. There's literally no in between there. It's one of those two things. Their suspicions of his involvement grew considerably when, while giving testimony before a grand jury, his former girlfriend admitted that she had lied to the police when she gave him his alibi for the morning of June 7th, 1992. I'm sorry, then what was he doing? Nobody knows.

If somebody had to lie for him for that alibi, ding ding ding. Ding ding ding. To me that's like boom. Oh, 100%. Investigators continue to remain interested in him as a suspect, and they check the places he was known to have worked at the time. But without any solid evidence against him, they couldn't move forward in any official capacity or even name him publicly at the time.

The families of the victims, on the other hand, were pretty well convinced that Cox was responsible for the disappearance of their loved ones. Cheryl Levitt's father, Jim Williams, was certain that Cox was responsible for his daughter's disappearance, but he died in 1997, having never seen the case solved. That always kills me. Cliff Williams, Cheryl's uncle, said, He told me, I'm sure that's the guy. I just don't know if they'll be able to prove it.

Oh. Like, how sad is that? That breaks my heart. For his part, Robert Cox has always maintained his innocence, at least publicly. In 1996, he wrote a letter to the Springfield News leader, insisting he had nothing to do with the case, and claimed that he, too, was a victim of the story.

Shut up. Like, you're not a victim of the story. Shut up. Like you're not a victim in any capacity. He wrote, I told them that I wanted closure too. I'm tired of the harassment I've received because of my association to this case. Even in his letter, he couldn't help but toy with the investigators though. He added, then I told Sergeant Routh, if I could tell him where the bodies were, then he could come after me with an indictment and seek the death penalty.

He went on to tell a reporter he could tell the press where the bodies were located, but the journalists would give him up to the police and he'd get the death penalty. So he wasn't willing to. So he's like, I know where they're buried. And I could tell you, but I'm not gonna because I don't want to get the death penalty. But I'm such a victim of this. And I'm sick of everybody harassing me. Yeah. Shut up.

And that's the thing that does lead me to believe that he absolutely is the strongest suspect, because I'm not so sure that his Florida case there should have been overturned. I'm not so sure either. And he was able to win that, because he was trying to avoid the death penalty. Yeah.

So he's afraid of dying. Of course. Which. There you's afraid of dying. Of course. Which. There you go. That's what I think. Now interviews and informal communication between Robert Cox, investigators in Springfield and journalists continued through the rest of the 1990s, but nothing concrete ever came out of their correspondence.

Come on. He just wouldn't give them anything. In 2002, detectives in Springfield reached out to him again in a letter requesting an interview but he denied. So shitty. This is so frustrating because I'm like, I, come on. It gives you a strong feeling. I don't want to say he like 100% did it because there's definitely not enough evidence to

be 100%. But you want to talk to him more. But he's a strong suspect. And I'm like, if you know where the bodies are, just say. Yeah, just say it. There's no evidence tying you to them. Exactly. I mean, other than the fact that you know where the bodies are, just say. Yeah, just say it. There's no evidence tying you to them. Exactly. I mean, other than the fact that you know where they're buried.

But you could just be like, I don't know how I knew that. I just heard. I just knew. I mean, don't make anything up. But come on. Like, you're not going to get the death penalty for saying where the bodies are. And you know that someone can crack him. Absolutely.

There's some investigator out there, there's some interrogator out there that could do it. This is a guy from the 90s. You can crack them. Exactly. And it's like you say, a cold case is never cold. It's never cold. Don't leave it.

Like, I really want this case to crack open. Oh, me too. I want it so bad. So over the years, the Springfield police have gotten still, they still get countless tips from the public about the disappearance of the Springfield Three as they're known. But no trace of any of the three women has ever been found. And no one has come forward with new information about the case. That's been helpful. Many family members of the missing women remain in belief that Robert Cox had something to do with their disappearance.

Cheryl's sister Deborah said in 2022, he doesn't deny it. It's just question mark after question mark. That's infuriating. Yeah, I would lose my mind. Cox, meanwhile, has been quiet on the subject of the Springfield Three and continues to serve his sentence in a Texas prison. While the case may have gone cold decades ago, their city has not forgotten about Cheryl, Susie or Stacey. Like I said earlier, many of those original missing flyers can still be seen in restaurants and storefronts all around Springfield. And others have been replaced with newer versions that show aged versions of women.

Yeah. And nearly every year a large group gets together and holds a visual to raise awareness and keep the women in their collective memories. Good for them. Now, like we said, as of today, the case has been labeled a cold case by the Springfield Police Department. But the reward for information leading to an arrest and prosecution of the person responsible has risen now to $42,000. Wow.

Anyone with information about the disappearance is encouraged to contact the Springfield Police at 417-864-1810 or place an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at 417-869-8477. And tips and information can also be submitted online at p3tips.com and that's capital P the number three tips.com. Wow. But I just really want this case to be solved because you think of their family and their friends

just sitting around wondering what the fuck happened. Yeah. And they don't have anywhere to go to visit them. Like they have no closure on anything. They have all they have is their own imagination to come up with what could have happened here, which is way worse. Like, I'm sorry, these, these women didn't disappear on their own. No, there's no way. There's no way. And I just want somebody to talk to Robert Cox again. I, they need to send a spicy detective in there. Exactly

what they need to do. And they like, I'm not not saying for him to elicit a confession out of anything wrong, but just send somebody in there that is intimidating. You nailed it when you said send a spicy detective in it. A spicy detective. A spicy detective who plays by the goddamn rules, but he skirts that line and is good at it. That's what you need. Or send some good cop, bad cop that shit. Send somebody in there that makes him think, yeah, keep talking, man. Like, I'm your homie. I'm your friend. Exactly. You got to get some good cop.

Play the game. You need to get some, you know, you need to get some mind hunter style teams in there. Yes. You got to get some attention forward in there. Yeah. You just got to. Cause realistically this case is like a little over 30 years old.

It can be solved. It can. It can be solved. We've seen shit solved. The fucking Summerton man was identified a couple years ago. Yeah, like come on. The boy in the box was identified a couple years ago. Yeah, like come on, the boy in the box was identified. The lady in the dunes.

The lady in the dunes, like it can happen. It can happen. And I just want these families and these friends of these victims, like these are three separate people who all had people that loved them. You just want them to have some kind of closure. You really do. And you feel like it's there. It's somewhere.

It's somewhere. Oh, it makes you so mad. Maybe even as frustrating as it is, maybe even a deathbed confession. Yeah, something. And just say where the bodies are, you know? Like, so they can have somewhere to go visit their family. Yeah, exactly. But yes, that is the case of the Springfield Three.

If anybody listening knows anything, saw anything. They're still taking tips. They're still taking tips. You know who to call. You know where to submit them. And in the meantime, we hope you keep listening. We're still taking tips. They're still taking tips. You know who to call. You know where to submit them. And in the meantime, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you drink carbonated sparkling water

because it is old and disgusting. And you will be old and disgusting if you do it. That's how I feel. I'm going to go to bed. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Experience in person the unsettling true stories behind the Dr. Death podcast at Exhibit C Live presents Dr. Death, A Closer Look. This live tour experience brings you face to face with accounts of doctors who caused irreparable harm, the system that failed to protect their patients, and the heroes who stopped them. You'll hear from me, Laura Beal, reporter and host of the Dr.

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