The Disappearance of the Springfield Three | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is [Music] morbid this is morbid I hate carbonated
water were you making fun of me no unintentional were you making fun of me I wasn't I
just took a sip of this water that I just found in the fridge which was really bold of
me it was really old of Me no bold I thought he said old of me like old people just find I mean old
people do just be finding things in the fridge so fair enough that's very agent of
me very bold of me to just grab this water it is old as well but it's water so 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 Mike's dying you drink
Sparkling Water that's different that is that is spark no no it's sparkling carbonated water yeah different
sparkling carbonated you just sparkling this is way more this is way more do you guys hear
her take would you like a sip it's horrible I'm sorry I need to add my mic in I need to people to hear me I need to
defend myself not only did she call me old last week on the rewatcher I did I didn't call you old 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 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 Pap 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 um well I can I can tell you an
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 um
Storyland uh recently I was with my family certainly wasn't but uh the things you do when you 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's like in a it feels like it's in a
fire to be quite honest it's in the middle of would I rather be in a fire maybe but it's I really don't like theme
parks but so unhinged 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 oh no these are like from 1910 wait now I to what they looked like
and no it wasn't my it wasn't even my littlest that's that's the r middle or oldest uh oldest wow yeah I would put
that on middlest or Littlest middlest 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 yeah like the ones you see in parades
she said did they the mama did they look like this in the 80s yeah did they look
like this when you were little I was like nope they sure I was like no they just looked like regular fir trucks when
I was little I'm not that old well what's [ __ ] 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 somay I'm like our kids are 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 I didn't that's why we drink say itoo it's not suable it's not suable um
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 older than the 9s right yeah it's the '90s it's older than me a little bit but um
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 hey
somebody who said that I'm covering this thank you for saying that yeah thank you
for saying that I should have written your name down but I am I don't know your username but you rule know who you
are exactly yeah it's 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 the gist of this case and it's always fascinated me yeah it is I 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 I was like uh oh in my head I was like
Oh no you're talking while she's talking talking and and she's going to say what
what on the afternoon of Saturday June 6th 1992 friends and relatives of kaboo high school's graduating senior class
gathered at I think it's the Hammond's 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 as we go not as we grow old I think it's as we go on we remember that
reminds me of the end of laga beach yes what what but that hadn't happened yet no anyway among the graduates were
19-year-old Susie streer and her best friend 18-year-old Stacy mcau 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 the
gradua senties so for Susie and Stacy 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 near by 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 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 okay 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
Stacy didn't want to impose on their friend's family it would have been like really tight quars anyway so they
decided to go to su's house and Susie had just gotten a king side water bed delivered as a graduation gift from her
mom and she was really really excited to show her friend dude water beds were the
[ __ ] holy [ __ ] I will never forget yours as long as I live yes and everyone's
parents had water beds I remember all my friends parents had like those Wy 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 on
your bed oh yeah it would literally was like like it why it was crazy why did we
all think this was great and remember when your started leaking it was gone bad news bear is
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
Christen cavaler and luguna Beach your water bed is gonzo dunzo dunzo it's dunzo dunzo but yeah how freaking cool
is that that her mom got her a water a king-sized water bed for graduation the best so Susie was like I got to show
this to Stacy so honestly this works out so a little after 2: a.m. Janelle Kirby
waved goodbye to were friends as they pulled out of the driveway and unfortunately that would be the last
time she would see Stacy or Susie again so let's talk a little bit about both girls Susie streer 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 uh to Springfield from Seattle in 1980 and not
long after Susie's mother Cheryl ended up marrying her her stepfather Don levit their relationship lasted 9 years but
they ended up getting divorced in 1989 and according to friends Susie 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 yeah interesting 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 Susie at the time of their disappearance Janelle Kirby's mother Cathy told reporters Susie's very
protective of her mother and vice versa so like they really looked out for each other despite the support she had at
home Susie 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 bad 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 yeah 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 Stacy McCall which I think is more important I
think so too I think you realize that the older you get you do yeah it's liter it's that's the thing it's the you do
realize that probably a little too late in life more most the time yeah but it's
it is it's the quality you don't need a bunch no you need a handful as if you have isn't that like an old saying of
like if you can count your friends on one hand you're lucky yeah yeah yeah so we're [ __ ] lucky every 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 spar
sparkly water exactly but like Susie streer Stacy was a quintessential 1980s American Teenager
she was obsessed with fashion she loved tanning she loved music Metallica was her favorite along with gu 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 a yeah although they were a year apart in
age Susie'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 Susie and Janelle the one that they were hanging out with earlier they were inseparable and they spent almost
every afternoon and every evening together but when Stacy 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 Susie 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
it I couldn't find like a lot about yeah it's probably hard to yeah but anyway she moved back in with Cheryl Cheryl L
it was really happy to have Susie 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 she was a hair stylist but she wanted to bring in some more income yeah
so she was never really lonely cuz there was always somebody living at the house
but those relationships obviously were nothing compared to the one that she had with her daughter of course so she 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-sized water bed she bought her yeah other than her
daughter Cheryl had a few close friends but after her divorce 1989 she didn't date she really didn't socialize much
instead she was focusing on some home renovations around that time she had 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 Isn't that cool what a badass yeah handy woman literally that night after having dinner with Susie 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 you ever had to [ __ ] hang wallpaper oh I was just going to say that is no easy
feat that alone like to Varnish a what is varnishing varnish a chair it's like to put that
like um transparent like top coat on like varnish it makes it like that shiny so to do that on top of wallpaper yeah
badest be badest be bad as be good for her yeah so she was working on that that night a little after 11:00 p.m. she
called a friend and they talked about the projects that she was finishing and and then presumably she went to bed the
next morning Susie and Stacy 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
Stacy just didn't show up Janelle said I started getting worried because Stacy she's so responsible and so is Susie 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 that's yeah that's creepy super creepy especially because the bulb was intact yeah I I really wonder if it was
like unscrewed a little bit though like um in the strangers yeah like if they smashed the globe to get to the thing
yeah that's all I could think of yeah 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 an 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 having any idea literally completely unknowing 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 over sleep so she tried the front door and she
found it unlocked and she cracked the front door and when she did Susie'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 o 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
su's bedding had been pulled back like somebody had slept in the bed all the cses of all three women were piled on
the steps leading to su's room huh 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 this was already like
so that was weird definitely yeah so as they were walking out the phone ring the
home phone that was when people had the the landline 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 inuendos what the [ __ ] 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 and Susie had been getting calls like that really yeah
like just yucky prank calls is what they thought they were and still like it's it's nobody's really sure if it connects
to the case or it was just like a separate like gross thing happen 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 cuz 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 home but we'll figure it out yeah so around that time Janelle was walking through Cheryl streeter's empty house
stac 's mother Janice McCall was getting irritated that she heard 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 okay so Janice called the Kirby
house and asked to speak to her daughter assuming that the girls maybe just got a
late start yeah but Janelle's sister explained that Stacy and Susie 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 Susie's house so Janice is
frustrated cuz she's like okay Stacy didn't call me tell me this yeah it'd be frustrated and I'm trying to track her
down so she called su'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 Stacy or Susie or for that matter Cheryl
anywhere so Janice placed several more calls to the street our house just leaving increasingly frantic messages
like why aren you calling me back where are you to call me a short time later she got a call from the mother of one of
Stacy's other friends informing her that the girl's 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 Stacy's sister to drive Stacy's car home and Janice would
grab her purse effectively leaving her daughter just like confused and Stranded Janice said I was going to 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 have 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 fam is 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 like she was like what the
[ __ ] cuz 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 back uh 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 exender Migraine with me literally 24/7 it was still in
her purse and 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 Susie 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 waited through her own messages that she' left before she quote heard a man's
voice who was saying very unpl Pleasant things so this person who know I 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 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 and it's situation it's
scary it's not yeah it's very scary and you're always worried about overreacting
even though like we say it all the time overreact and underreact and 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 over yet am I supposed to be doing this like yeah cuz 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 it in a situation like this
where you're battling back and forth of like is this really [ __ ] 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 they responded pretty quickly Springfield Police Officer Rick Bookout pulled into
the already CR a driveway at Cheryl streeter's house cuz now everybody's there a three-year veteran of the police
force Rick booko 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 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 they there's no evidence now it's
been trampled it's like the um Jean B Ramsey kind of scene where everybody just walking around mhm exactly so book
out noticed that Susie and Stacy's cars were in the driveway and Cheryl's car was also there it was in the garage just
like Janice McCall had said as he walked through the house he noticed all the other Oddities that had been delayed to
the 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 there people missing just people missing like they it was like
they up and vanished 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 Mcall who explain or M excuse me
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 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 [ __ ] creepy because it was the '90s and whatever
they were watching had played through by the 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 yeah yeah something about that I was like I hope you guys muted it oh mhm 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 know you might throw your purse they were stacked like piled together on the stairs
leading to su's bedroom yeah that's weird yeah it seems weird to me too right yeah and Stacy's overnight bag was
on the stairs too officer Bookout casually suggested that you know what did they suggest in the 90s they
probably were just gone having fun oh yeah don't worry about it just forgot to call and forgot their purses and you
know forgot everything but Janice pointed to her daughter's clothes that were ped up by the bed and she said if
she is she's in her underwear like literally looked at the the cop and was like yeah no yeah do you
think my daughters out there in her skibbies 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 person's 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 I can't imagine what an awful feeling no finally after
they' cleared the house of friends and fames 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 CU it's bizarre it's so 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 ad Ru Rua 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 jeez 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 they come back these people were like creatures of habit like
they they weren't going to just run off and it didn't make sense like why would Stacy the friend run away with suie and
su'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 but was in the house
and maybe 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 stay at sus that night yeah but then also you're like would something have
still happened to Cheryl like yeah would damn 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 3 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 [ __ ] 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 Breakin 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 a gun you'll be surprised you know like it would scare
anybody I said that and I was like well maybe 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 like 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 strange things yeah I don't it's just weird like
and why was that thing broken yeah why was the globe around the POR you mean to 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 maybe just loosened
it maybe or and this is like such a dark thought it's awful but I was thinking like was somebody carried out kicking oh
maybe like maybe they had a hand over their mouth so nobody heard them screaming were they kicking or like like
thrashing yeah maybe but then you would think that maybe there would be blood some hear 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 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 Susie and Stacy 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 mhm but I think at that I don't know why they weren't thinking of that at the time but it 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 in investigators had
difficulty putting together a list of any real substance there was Susie's ex-boyfriend 17-year-old Mike Kovac who
she had a somewhat troubled and occasionally violent relationship with a couple years earlier uh kovak said quote
sure we hit each other before back when we were going out when I was just 15 [ __ ] 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 Ola said if Susie got a phone call after
after 10:00 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 Susie Stacy and Charles's lives hoping that maybe one of them might produce a lead uh Bart streer Susie'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 into a polygraph examination cuz
cuz he was willing to do whatever it took to get his family and Stacy back yeah I mean he just said that you know I
love them more than anything in this world of course I'm going to do that he's like it's pretty shitty but sure
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 wow
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 damn which are
still around in the area today wow which is again like I said chilling haunting truly it like gives you Goosebumps and
while friends and family were doing that Janice and stall had started going around to all the local hospital 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 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
Breakin 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 get
getting it back yeah it was just gone now you just tap your [ __ ] iPhone to Del deleted messages it wasn't like that
so investigators turned to the media for help with segments about Susie Stacy 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 the 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 uh composite drawing of the suspect which depicted a middle-aged bearded man average height
in 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 a suspect list that still included Bart streer and Mark Kovac who 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 streer hoping something or someone in her background might provide a lead deputy
chief waram 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 levet's background sometimes she's referred to just um so nobody's confused sometimes she's
referred to a Cheryl streer and then other time Cheryl levit because she had been divorced from Don levit so people
called her by different last names yeah it's like both yeah but since they were divorced I most often refer to her as
Cheryl streer but anyway he added we have no information and I want to emphasize that I don't want the
relatives and Friends of Cheryl levit 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 Don levit 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 either heard from either since according to Bart streer Cheryl's second
husband Don levit had left her in 1989 and literally no one even knew where he went damn which is so creepy like what
the [ __ ] Bart said he pretty much left my mom in debt and took off nice guy yeah so Cheryl H hired a lawyer in 1990
because it seems like he left her in some kind of debt uh he had like a failed business but okay unfortunately
he was never found and nothing came of it damn otherwise Cheryl was said to live a relatively quiet and private life
her Janet Oliva 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 [ __ ] scarier it is like somebody just
that you have no idea who they are stranger walks in your house in the middle of the night and abducts you and
your child and her friend yeah so after struggling to find leads in the case the detectives caught
another break on June 24th when a waitress at Georgia's steakhous which was one of Cheryl's restaurants reported
to investigators that she had seen the three missing women in the early morning hours of June 7th according to the
waitress Cheryl Susie and Stacy came into the diner sometime between 1: and 3:00 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 George's Steakhouse was known to be pretty typically busy with a quote unquote bar
crowd but the women recognized or the woman recognized Lev and streer 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 Stacy 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 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
2:30 and 7:00 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 so now we're 3 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 steakhous pretty much went
nowhere and billboards and flyers yielded thousands of tips from the public but they did little to move the
investigation forward 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 venge abduction
that she referred to as quote Cheryl's problem possibly involvement in or knowledge of illegal activity H yeah in
her visions of the scene Ruth described quote two men in a Browner 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 reported uh reportedly
seen in the neighborhood is not in 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 mall family agreed that Ruth actually did seem to have more insight than the others and they were quot
stunned by her accuracy in describing their own private lives that's interesting it is interesting you know
how I feel usually about psychic centering these kind of things yeah cuz it can be iffy but in when the I don't
know it's it's a hard one cuz like you want family members to have hope and when they seem it when it seems like
these people actually are like the real deal cuz I've seen certain things where it's like they know so much and they end
up helping the investig people like solved cases before so you hope it's one of those you know cuz 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 yeah that's just the human species being the human species truly people just
people and 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 that 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 damn yeah so after 3 weeks now of no progress public
demand for Action had grown exponentially and was generally targeted at the chief of police Terry nles this
was not the first time that he had come under attack by the press and the public
for 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 [ __ ] so they
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 Fair very fair tons of people
traes through there 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
cuz 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 could it have told you I feel the same way glass specifically
it's like mentioned in and of course you have to mention it it's it's a thing that happens of course but it's in every
uh outlet that reports on this is like and who knows if valuable evidence was thrown away like there was nothing else
at the scene so I don't know like the the fact that that Globe was smashed to the light was smashed like for sure
mention that that's important that could point to some foul play here or something crazy going on for and it's
spooky no matter what yeah I just don't know how much it would the actual shards
of glass were going to tell you I completely agree cuz it's like if I mean if somebody punched the glass with a
glove 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 cuz he swept up the glass and who
knows like maybe there was like a foot putter in the dirt or like in the dust something like that like 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 yeah can you tell me that even at that point I don't even
know if they could have tested the blood yeah it like 92 so yeah and he didn't see any blood so it's like yeah exactly
yeah anyway years later several investigators would actually speak out in the Press blaming the lack of
progress on nolles 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 [ __ ] Green County prosecutor darl 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 well 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 nolles himself rejected the idea that his Hands-On approach negatively
affected the case and claimed he hadn't heard any criticism on his perform 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 uh the want to
micromanage but honestly but you got to sometimes you just got to let people do their jobs I think a lot of times people
who micro manage don't necessarily realize that they're micromanaging until it's brought to their attention and then
I'm sure it's a little bit of a point of embarrassment then you get defensive yeah you I was going to say you get
defensive Yeah but whether it was micromanagement or just a lack of evidence and leads or both I think it
was honestly an amalgamation of everything yeah 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 and the time that passed since Cheryl Susie and Stacy disappeared several other cases had gone
underinvestigated or just uninvestigated due to a significant number of departmental resources being directed
toward this missing person's case oh no according to detective truly Applegate which like you literally had to be a
detective yeah 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 quote there are simply too many
felonies to follow and not enough officers to work them well [ __ ] that's a problem my friends like we said earlier
I think they were very much in over their 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 from on the outside especially to be
like are they giving up on this they Shing it it's watching the air go out of a bu 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 streer 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 Mall expressed similar frustration she said I'd hate to
think of doing this another 100 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 [ __ ] you Robert oh just you [ __ ] wait on the
list a list of suspects assembled by law enforcement there was literally no better suspect than Robert Cox oh [ __ ]
remember the list of suspects is a little like shaky but it's not great yeah he's a good one on New Year's
weekend 1979 19-year-old Sharon zelers 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 [ __ ] part of his
tongue had been bitten off and needed to be surgically repaired and he wouldn't tell anyone
why okay yep yeah that's probably fine totally many years later in 1986 Cox was arrested and pleaded guilty to
kidnapping an 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 have 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 Jesus 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 ze's 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 to the state supreme court of Florida why uh 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 [ __ ]
so he was cleared of the first degree murder but he still had to serve time for um 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 Stacy 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
[ __ ] the zers family had been keeping tabs on him since his release 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 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 by and also his girlfriend she's probably not scared of him 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 uh do you regret that those
feelings changed later when Cox was convicted of an armed robbery in Texas and sentenced to life in prison Jesus 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 19th 1996 two Springfield detectives went to Texas and spent 3 hours interviewing Cox
in prison but according to Captain Daryl Crick Cox's 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 uh his past of heinous crimes
quote unquote yeah 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 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 [ __ ] with you completely or he's your guy so there's in between
there's literally no in between there it's 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
exactly to me that's like boom Oh 100% investig compers continue to remain interested in him as a suspect and they
checked 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 charl lit'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 oh 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
newsleader 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 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 ralth 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 journalist 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 but I'm not going to cuz 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 uh 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 so he'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 cuz there's definitely not enough evidence to be 100% 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 other than I mean other than the fact that you know where they're married but but you could just be like I don't
know how I knew that I just heard make knew I mean don't make anything up but 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 there's some investigator out
there there's some interrogator out there that could do it it's this is a guy from the '90s you can crack them
exactly and it's like you say a Cold Case is never C never cold like I really I really want this case to crack open o
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 3 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 disae interesting 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 3 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 Stacy 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 the
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 c 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 anyone with information about the subh herence is encouraged to
contact the Springfield police at 417 8641 1810 or place an anonymous call to Crim
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 [ __ ] 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 something happen way there's no way and I just want somebody to talk to
Robert Cox again I they need to send a spicy Detective that's exactly what they need to do and
they like I'm not saying like for him to elicit a confession out of like anything
wrong but like no just send somebody in there that like is intimidating that's that you you nailed it when you said
send a spicy detective spicy detective a spicy detective who plays by the godamn
rules but he skirts that line and is good at it that's what you need trick or S good cop bad cop that [ __ ] 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 uh tension forward in there yeah you just got to cuz realistically this case is like a
little over 30 years old it can be solved it can it can be solved we've seen [ __ ] solved old than Summerton man
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 we 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 and just say where
the body are you know like so they can have somewhere to go visit their family exactly but yes that is the case of the
Springfield 3 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 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
[Music] [Music] [Music]

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 (417) 864-1810 or place an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at (417) 869-8477. 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!

References Barnes, 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.

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Brief Summary

The episode covers the mysterious disappearance of the Springfield 3 and the ongoing search for answers.

Key points

The Disappearance of the Springfield 3. A chilling case of three girls who vanished after graduation parties.
A Night of Celebration Turns Dark. Susie, Stacy, and Janelle plan to celebrate graduation but things take a turn.
Mysterious Calls. Janelle receives a strange phone call while searching for her friends.
The Disappearance. Three women vanish without a trace, leaving behind their belongings and raising alarms.
Frantic Search. Families and friends begin to search for the missing women as police investigate.
Investigation Stalled. Despite extensive searches and polygraph tests, no leads emerge in the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Our kids are saying that people are like Ash, you don't have them.

Ash reflects on kids' perceptions of age.

4:30WatchAug 26, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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