The Springfield Three

The Springfield Three refers to an unsolved missing persons case that began on June 7, 1992, when friends Suzanne "Suzie" Streeter and Stacy McCall, and Streeter's mother, Sherrill Levitt, went missing from Levitt's home in Springfield, Missouri. Neither their whereabouts nor their remains have been discovered. Background: Sherrill Elizabeth Levitt was born on November 1, 1944, and was age 47 at time of her disappearance. She was 5 feet 0 inches (1.52 m), 110 pounds (50 kg), with short light blonde hair, brown eyes and pierced ears. She was a cosmetologist at a local salon and a single mother, and was described as being very close to her daughter, Suzanne Elizabeth "Suzie" Streeter. Streeter was born on March 9, 1973 (age 19 in 1992), was 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m), 102 pounds (46 kg), with shoulder length blonde hair and brown eyes. Her distinguishable marks included a scar on her upper right forearm, a small mole on the left corner of her mouth, and pierced ears (left ear pierced twice). Streeter's friend, Stacy Kathleen McCall, was born on April 23, 1974 (age 18 in 1992), was 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) and 120 pounds (54 kg), with long dark blonde hair and light colored eyes. Disappearance: Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall graduated from Kickapoo High School on June 6, 1992. Streeter and McCall had been reported to be last seen at around 2:00 am on June 7, when they were leaving the last of the few graduation parties they had attended that evening. At some point during the night, they were also seen in Battlefield, Missouri. The pair planned to spend the night at a friend's house, but when they decided the friend's house was too crowded, they instead left to go to Streeter's (and thus Levitt's) home to retire for the night. It is assumed they arrived, because their clothing, jewelry, purses and vehicles were all present at the house the next day. Sherrill Levitt, Suzie's mother, was last heard from at approximately 11:15 p.m. on June 6 when she spoke with a friend on the phone about painting an armoire. The alleged timeline of the three is suspected to be convoluted, as the friends who last saw Suzie and Stacy the previous evening were also the first to arrive at the Levitt home the next day. McCall's parents contacted police in reference to their daughter's disappearance from Levitt's home more than 16 hours after the women were last seen, and other worried friends and family called and visited the home the following day. Police later estimated that the crime scene had been corrupted by ten to twenty people who visited Levitt's house. Upon the officers' arrival, the scene showed no signs of a struggle, except for a shattered porch light that had been innocuously cleaned by friends. Police also noted Levitt's bed had been slept in. All personal property was left behind including purses, money, cars, keys, cigarettes, and the family dog (a Yorkshire Terrier). Later developments: On December 31, 1992, a man called the America's Most Wanted hotline with information about the women's disappearances, but the call was disconnected when the switchboard operator attempted to link up with Springfield investigators. Police said the caller had "prime knowledge of the abductions" and publicly appealed for the man to contact them, but he never did. Levitt and Streeter were declared legally dead in 1997. However, their case files are still officially filed under "missing". Investigators received a tip that the women's bodies were buried in the foundations of the south parking garage at Cox Hospital. In 2007, crime reporter Kathee Baird invited Rick Norland, a mechanical engineer, to Springfield to scan a corner of the parking lot with ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Norland found three anomalies "roughly the same size" that he said were consistent with a "grave site location"; two of the anomalies were parallel, and the other was perpendicular. The Springfield Police Department did not believe the scan was conclusive enough to "justify tearing up the concrete", and also stated that the parking garage was completed a year after the women disappeared. Suspect: In 1997, Robert Craig Cox, imprisoned in Texas as a convicted kidnapper and robber and the suspect in a Florida murder, told journalists that he knew the three women had been murdered and buried, and claimed their bodies would never be recovered. In 1992, Cox had been living in Springfield and, when interviewed then, had told investigators that he was with his girlfriend at church the morning after the women disappeared, which she corroborated. However, she later recanted that evidence and said that Cox had asked her to say that. Cox also stated that he was at the home of his parents the night of the disappearance, and they confirmed that alibi. Authorities were uncertain if Cox was involved in the case or if he was seeking recognition for the alleged murders by issuing false statements. Cox stated to authorities and journalists that he would disclose what happened to the three women after his mother had died. In media: The case remains unsolved in spite of upward of 5,000 tips from the public. In June 1997, a bench was dedicated to the women inside the Victim's Memorial Garden in Springfield's Phelps Grove Park. The case has been featured on 48 Hours, Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted. In March 2011, Investigation Discovery aired "The Springfield Three" on its Disappeared TV series.