Speaker 1: On a warm June morning in nineteen ninety two, a
Speaker 1: quiet Springfield neighborhood awoke to find three women missing, without
Speaker 1: a trace, without a sound, and without a single clue.
Speaker 1: Inside their home sat untouched purses, sleeping beds, and a
Speaker 1: flickering TV playing static as if time had paused mid moment.
Speaker 1: What began as a simple missed call would unravel into
Speaker 1: one of the most haunting and enduring mysteries in American
Speaker 1: true crime history. This is the baffling mystery of the
Speaker 1: Springfield Three.
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcast.
Speaker 1: The following podcast and material intended for a mature audience listener.
Speaker 1: You might be listening to Wicked and Graham, but you're
Speaker 1: also listening to Nicole being really sick.
Speaker 2: I said that intro so quick. I think I was
Speaker 2: trying to hide the fact that my voice didn't sound
Speaker 2: quite proper.
Speaker 1: You know, just get it out there.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Wicked and Grip like that. It was
Speaker 2: really quick, quick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, today's episode is delayed to day so
Speaker 1: you could get a little bit more rest timing. You
Speaker 1: napped for like three hours. This afternoon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like amazing. That was one of the
Speaker 2: best naps I've ever had. But we were traveling too,
Speaker 2: and when you're under the weather weather, I don't think
Speaker 2: flying and stuff does anything good.
Speaker 1: For you, you know, No, I don't think so so
Speaker 1: so I think that little extra time did you some good.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's why we're a little bit late on
Speaker 1: uploading this episode. Got to take care of ourselves sometimes.
Speaker 2: Right, totally. And I do apologize. My voice always gets
Speaker 2: so affected any sickness I have, so sorry about that.
Speaker 1: It's all good. Just just let me do the heavy lifting.
Speaker 1: I can do a little more talking and you can
Speaker 1: just sit back and relax and drink your tea.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, And if you don't get like your immune
Speaker 2: system is unbelievable. It is so good. The fact that
Speaker 2: you haven't gotten this set is like remarkable, very impressed.
Speaker 1: I had a tickle in my throat yesterday, but I
Speaker 1: coughed and then it was gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I mean I guess you still could time
Speaker 2: could tell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll find out. Maybe next time we go to
Speaker 1: upload an episode. We'll be putting a thing out on
Speaker 1: our stories on Instagram, Facebook. Yeah, another delay because Ben's
Speaker 1: sick now and he needs some time.
Speaker 2: Fingers crossed the knock on wood that doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll take it day by day. Whether it's your
Speaker 1: recovery or mine, we'll we'll take it and we'll keep
Speaker 1: the balls balls.
Speaker 2: The ball rolling is rolling. Yeah, day by day. I
Speaker 2: feel like that's just how you have to take life. Sometimes.
Speaker 1: Ah too, Chet, It's actually funny. We had an Instagram
Speaker 1: post go I don't want to say viral. It's at
Speaker 1: like fifty thousand views right now. Well, one of the
Speaker 1: cases you know where it was like, oh, the true
Speaker 1: crime person you know, obsessive and goes in and kills someone,
Speaker 1: and then right the irony of the post, it's the
Speaker 1: discussion is going wild on people being like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: like true Crime's not that bad, and people just like
Speaker 1: on both sides of the fence and they're arguing, like
Speaker 1: it's not bad. Do you not see it? This is
Speaker 1: exactly the breakdown of what we're talking about. Why it's
Speaker 1: like controversial. Sometimes you guys are literally doing what the
Speaker 1: post is saying. It's anyways, my point was, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: take it, roll by the take it with the punches
Speaker 1: and sometimes in a situation where you kind of just
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, because true crimes like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, life is like that, you know.
Speaker 1: I feel like I really over explained that very simple.
Speaker 2: Thing I think you did. I was trying to see
Speaker 2: you at some point, but I'm like, you're in a
Speaker 2: way too deep. I can't I don't even know what
Speaker 2: to take you out of it.
Speaker 1: So how don't we just move on to patrons? How
Speaker 1: about we do that? Just shut up except that I'll
Speaker 1: thank our patrons. Shout out to Jaden Jones, Britney Stapleton,
Speaker 1: Tara Banks, d Cindy, Deborah Missey, Brenda w Aaron or
Speaker 1: not Aaron, Sorry, Airvin, there's a v in there, and
Speaker 1: Amanda Woolsey. Thank you so much for signing up over
Speaker 1: on Patreon this week.
Speaker 2: Nice, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We appreciate you, guys, we sure do. But are
Speaker 1: you ready for this story? The Springfield three?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think this is like a more known one,
Speaker 2: right a little bit.
Speaker 1: It is it is, and it's it is a mystery.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you guys this right now.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, real nice?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I even said it in the beginning.
Speaker 1: This is the baffling mystery of the Springfield three. But
Speaker 1: I just want to clarify. This is a mystery. It's unsolved.
Speaker 2: So I don't love that, of.
Speaker 1: Course you don't. I love mysteries though personally because it
Speaker 1: gets the mind thinking it when it's just here's the
Speaker 1: information and the story told for you. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it seems like it's an easy ride if you have
Speaker 1: to do some thinking, you know, it puts your brain
Speaker 1: to work, and I like that sometimes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's nice. I mean, I don't know how
Speaker 2: this one ends. I know I've heard of it, but
Speaker 2: to know that people are still working on things too, right,
Speaker 2: So like there's also the optimism. Is that the right
Speaker 2: word that you know it maybe could get solved still
Speaker 2: or something right exactly?
Speaker 1: So let's dive into it before your voice breaks on
Speaker 1: us and you can't talk for the rest of the episode.
Speaker 1: How does that sound?
Speaker 2: Sounds good? Midea?
Speaker 1: It's all good. My bad for throwing back to you
Speaker 1: when you're having a sip. Okay, let's get going. In
Speaker 1: the early nineteen nineties, Springfield, Missouri, was a growing community
Speaker 1: nestled in the heart of the Ozarks, a place where
Speaker 1: people raised families, open small businesses, and left their doors unlocked.
Speaker 1: At night. Known as the Queen City of the Ozarks,
Speaker 1: Springfield balanced to charm of a small town with the
Speaker 1: infrastructure of a regional hub. With a population nearing one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty thousand at the time, it was a
Speaker 1: large enough place to support universities, medical centers, and a
Speaker 1: lively town, but small enough that most residents felt like
Speaker 1: they knew like their neighbor's sort of situation, right, you
Speaker 1: know who's living next to you, and you're comfortable with
Speaker 1: your surroundings.
Speaker 2: See, I still feel like that's a fairly large city.
Speaker 2: One hundred and forty thousand. That's like not small in
Speaker 2: my opinion.
Speaker 1: It's not, but you still get that there's still pockets
Speaker 1: of that, you know, that small town feel in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I guess like we're we're not in a city that large.
Speaker 1: We're in a city of eighty thousand, ninety thousand somewhere
Speaker 1: in there. And there's a lot of small town vibes here.
Speaker 2: True. Okay, yeah, true, But I mean that's like double
Speaker 2: the size, but still.
Speaker 1: Still you can imagine there would be some small town
Speaker 1: vibes and that's it's not going to be everywhere for sure,
Speaker 1: but there's going to be places like that.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Crime existed, of course, but violent incidents we're seen as
Speaker 1: rare and isolated occurrence. The city had a reputation for
Speaker 1: being a relatively safe place to live, particularly in its
Speaker 1: more residential and suburban areas like the Southeast Corridor, where
Speaker 1: there were modest homes, quiet streets, and community pride painted
Speaker 1: a picture of everyday normalcy. In the spring of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, the city was busy with high school graduations,
Speaker 1: weekend outings, and the anticipation of summer now. For Suzanne
Speaker 1: or Susie Streeter and Stacy McCall, June sixth, nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: two was meant to be one of the most memorable days,
Speaker 1: memorable days of their lives. Both had just graduated from
Speaker 1: Kickapoo High School, a major milestone, you know, marking the
Speaker 1: end of their teenage years and beginning of their adult independence.
Speaker 1: The ceremony was held at the hem and Student Center
Speaker 1: in the Missouri State University campus, drawing hundreds of family members, friends,
Speaker 1: and classmates alike. There was an air of celebration, pride,
Speaker 1: and relief emotions typical of of course, any graduation. Susie
Speaker 1: was nineteen and had long been known for her bright,
Speaker 1: bold personality. She had a creative streak, a love of fashion,
Speaker 1: and a rebellious edge that led her to explore independence
Speaker 1: at quite a young age. Had five foot two and
Speaker 1: one hundred and two pounds, her shoulder length, bleach blonde hair,
Speaker 1: and a scar in her right forearm. She stood out
Speaker 1: rather easily when you were looking for her. Though she
Speaker 1: had had some turbulent moments in her late teens, including
Speaker 1: a few strained relationships and move ins in and out
Speaker 1: of her mother's house. She had plans she was set
Speaker 1: to attend cosmetology cosmetology school and the fall following in
Speaker 1: her mother's footsteps.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: Stacy McCall eighteen was more reserved than Susie, often described
Speaker 1: as sweet, funny, and little spacey, earning her the affectionate
Speaker 1: nickname Spacey Stacy.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, almost feel like that's kind of mean.
Speaker 1: I think it was a little bit more on the
Speaker 1: affectionate end when like, I bug you about being a
Speaker 1: little ditzy blonde sometimes, right, and it's the same sort
Speaker 1: of thing. It's done with love.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guess she's like, yeah, that's me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly own your flaws, right, nobody's perfect, with long,
Speaker 1: dark blonde hair, blue eyes in a sunny smile. She
Speaker 1: had recently started modeling, modeling wedding gowns, be more more specific,
Speaker 1: at a local bridle shop. She was planning to start
Speaker 1: college in Southwest Missouri State University in the fall, rooming
Speaker 1: with her longtime friend Janelle Kirby and pledging to a
Speaker 1: sorority now. She and Susie had once been close in
Speaker 1: grade school, but they had drifted in their different social
Speaker 1: circle sort of thing, but they'd recently reconnected in their
Speaker 1: final year of high school. Susie's mother, Cheryl Levitt, was
Speaker 1: forty seven years old and attended her daughter's graduation with
Speaker 1: quite a bit of pride. She was a petite, hard
Speaker 1: working woman at five foot tall and one hundred and
Speaker 1: ten pounds, with bleached blonde hair and an eye for detail.
Speaker 1: Cheryl worked as a hairdresser at a local salon. She
Speaker 1: recently purchased a small home on East Delmer Street, a modest,
Speaker 1: cozy place that she was fixing up all on her own.
Speaker 1: Enjoying a sense of independency after divorce and raising her
Speaker 1: children largely by herself, Cheryl and Susie had a close
Speaker 1: bond despite the occasional tension you know, common between mother
Speaker 1: and daughter sort of thing, navigating, you know that onset
Speaker 1: from a teenage years into adulthood.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it happens.
Speaker 1: After the excitement of graduation, Susie and Stacy headed into
Speaker 1: the night with plans typical of any teen marking the
Speaker 1: end of high school. You know, parties, laughter, the comfort
Speaker 1: of close friends, whether it's bonfires or whatever you find
Speaker 1: yourself heading to. Right. Initially, the girls intended to spend
Speaker 1: the night at their friend Janelle Kirby's house in Battlefield.
Speaker 1: Not an actual battlefield, the place is called Battlefield. It's
Speaker 1: a quiet suburb southwest of Springfield. Janelle was part of
Speaker 1: Stacy's close circle, and her home had become a gathering
Speaker 1: place for classmates celebrating their final moments together before summer,
Speaker 1: and the looming changes.
Speaker 2: Came on such a time that I don't know, it's
Speaker 2: so precious, really, it really is. It's like just a
Speaker 2: moment in time that stands still for like a brief moment,
Speaker 2: but and then yeah, literally everything changes after that, pretty much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like I remember, and luckily enough you and I
Speaker 1: got to experience that together, going to to graduation parties
Speaker 1: and prom together and everything. And I remember packing like
Speaker 1: air mattresses and like sleeping bags and sleeping the back
Speaker 1: of the vehicle after a bonfire party and that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. Like it was a good time and memories
Speaker 1: made for sure.
Speaker 2: Because I don't know high school and stuff, I feel
Speaker 2: like is kind of shitty, but from my experience anyway,
Speaker 2: grade twelve was was more was more entertaining or fun
Speaker 2: or whatever than previous grades. And because everyone sort of
Speaker 2: it gets the end, and everyone, I feel like came
Speaker 2: together a little bit more than they did in previous grades,
Speaker 2: so it was kind of nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that just shows our Canadian citizenship right there, because
Speaker 1: grade twelve in the States its senior year, right, you know, Okay,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, grade twelve senior year whatever, your final year
Speaker 1: in high school before graduation.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now. Susie arrived at Janelle's house at around eight fifteen PM,
Speaker 1: and Stacy followed shortly after. At eight thirty, The girls
Speaker 1: and headed out to a series of parties, including one
Speaker 1: hosted by a classmate named Brian Joy. Spirits were, of
Speaker 1: course high. There was music, there was drinks, chatter and
Speaker 1: lightness of you know, the whole situation. Though Susie reportedly
Speaker 1: complained of a mild stomach ache during the night, possibly
Speaker 1: from pizza she'd eaten earlier, she didn't let this dampen
Speaker 1: her mood, though. By ten thirty PM, Stacy phoned her mother,
Speaker 1: Janis McCall to let her know that the plans had changed.
Speaker 1: See instead of driving to Branson as originally planned, they
Speaker 1: were going to stay the night in Springfield instead. Stacy
Speaker 1: promised to call again in the morning before heading to
Speaker 1: Whitewater Water Park. Janis, who had been concerned about the
Speaker 1: idea of her daughter driving late at night after the party,
Speaker 1: was quite relieved at this idea and this new plan.
Speaker 1: Around that same time, Susie also called home to update
Speaker 1: her mother, Cheryl, about the changes. Cheryl herself had spoken
Speaker 1: to a friend that evening at eleven fifteen PM, chatting
Speaker 1: casually about her ongoing and ongoing improvements in her new
Speaker 1: home and her projects. Nothing unusual was noted in her demeanor.
Speaker 1: She seemed relaxed and at ease, spending the evening varnishing
Speaker 1: some furniture and winding down with her day. At around
Speaker 1: one thirty in the morning, Susie and Stacy, along with
Speaker 1: Janelle and others arrived at another party on East Hanover Street. However,
Speaker 1: this one was a bit short lived. Apparently Springfield police
Speaker 1: broke it up quite early on, shortly after the group arrived,
Speaker 1: due to a noise complaint.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's getting real pretty late at that point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I guess I shouldn't say early on, because yeah,
Speaker 1: one thirty, but early on for them, as they just
Speaker 1: recently arrived. Now, with the night winding down and options limited,
Speaker 1: the girls returned back to Janelle's house, but it was
Speaker 1: packed with out of town relatives who had come for
Speaker 1: the graduation celebrations. Despite Janelle's mother setting out the betting
Speaker 1: for them, Susie and Stacy decided they would rather sleep
Speaker 1: somewhere a little quieter. That decision would prove fateful. Oh no,
Speaker 1: Susie invited Stacy to spend the night at her house,
Speaker 1: a suggestion sweetened by the recent arrival of a graduation gift,
Speaker 1: a brand new king sized waterbed that she was eager
Speaker 1: to show off. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's amazing, right.
Speaker 1: It was some time around two am when they left
Speaker 1: Janelle's house, each in their own car. According to Janelle's mother,
Speaker 1: Kathy Kirby, she heard the girl say goodbye and walk
Speaker 1: out the front door. That was the last time anyone
Speaker 1: would hear their voices. On the morning of June seventh,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, it started like any other early summer morning.
Speaker 1: It was a Sunday in Springfield. The skies were mostly cloudy,
Speaker 1: the air was cool and breezy. Across town, graduations party
Speaker 1: had faded intil late night, and they were now quiet.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there was a few with hangovers as well
Speaker 1: stumbling around yep. But for those expecting to meet Susie
Speaker 1: and Stacey in the morning, something that felt off. By
Speaker 1: nine am, Janelle Kirby and her boyfriend Mike Henson, they
Speaker 1: had grown concerned Susie and Stacy hadn't called or arrived
Speaker 1: at her house as planned, because they were supposed to arrive,
Speaker 1: give us a call and let her let them know, Hey,
Speaker 1: we got here safe, right. That never happened. Now, As
Speaker 1: I had mentioned, there were plans to go to a
Speaker 1: water park the next day, and the trio were supposed
Speaker 1: to drive over to the water park in Branson for
Speaker 1: that post graduation tradition meant to cap off the weekend
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Now, at first, Janelle assumed that they
Speaker 1: were simply just running late, maybe you know, sleeping in
Speaker 1: after a long night, But when repeated phone calls to
Speaker 1: Susie's home when unanswered, she and Mike decided to check
Speaker 1: in in person. They arrived at one seven one seven
Speaker 1: East Delmer Street, the home Susie shared with her mother,
Speaker 1: Cheryl Levitt. As soon as they pulled into the driveway,
Speaker 1: nothing appeared out of place. Nothing was immediately a miss.
Speaker 1: All three vehicles were parked outside, Cheryl's blue Mitsubishi Eclipse,
Speaker 1: Susie's red Ford Escort with personalized license plates to go
Speaker 1: with it That's say Susie on the back, and Stacy's
Speaker 1: read Toyota Corolla. The presence of all three cars suggested
Speaker 1: the women were home, but the sense of normalcy was
Speaker 1: short lived. As they approached the front door, Janelle and
Speaker 1: Mike noticed broken glass sitting there on the front porch,
Speaker 1: the globe covering the porch light. It was broken. The
Speaker 1: bulb itself remained intact and still burning, but this glass
Speaker 1: globe that was the cover it was shattered. Without thinking twice,
Speaker 1: Mike swept up the glass and threw it away in
Speaker 1: a trash can across the street. An act of helpfulness
Speaker 1: that would later actually be seen as a critical camp
Speaker 1: contamination of a crime.
Speaker 2: I'm seeing Damn.
Speaker 1: The front door was unlocked, and Janelle cautiously stepped inside.
Speaker 1: The house was quiet and dark. The television in the
Speaker 1: living room was on, but only static flickered across the screen.
Speaker 1: She called out, Susie, Stacy, Cheryl, but there was no answer.
Speaker 1: Then from the shadows, Cinnamon, the family's dog, a small
Speaker 1: little Yorky terrier, came rushing forward. The dog was quite
Speaker 1: happy to see them, in fact, a little bit frantic
Speaker 1: barking and even a little bit of whimpering. Allegedly a
Speaker 1: little bundle of anxiety, Let's put it that way. Janelle
Speaker 1: would later recall how strange it was. Cinnamon had clearly
Speaker 1: been left alone, and she was distressed in a way
Speaker 1: that felt out of place. They looked through the home,
Speaker 1: nothing appeared to be disturbed. Beds had been slept in,
Speaker 1: but made or left only slightly rumpled from being slept in.
Speaker 1: Cheryl's glasses and book were still in her nightstand. In
Speaker 1: the bathroom, there were makeup wipes in the trash, and
Speaker 1: signs that the women had gotten ready for bed. Stacy's
Speaker 1: close from the night before had been neatly folded on
Speaker 1: a chair, and inside Susie's room, their purses sat lined
Speaker 1: up on the floor. Everything, money, cigarettes, car keys, jewelry.
Speaker 1: It was all there, all the little items someone might
Speaker 1: take with them if they were leaving, even just for
Speaker 1: a short errand but still here they are, sitting inside
Speaker 1: the house. Then the phone rang. Janelle picked it up,
Speaker 1: hopefully it was going to be one of them, but
Speaker 1: instead on the other end of the line was an
Speaker 1: unknown male voice that responded. The caller immediately launched into
Speaker 1: sexual innuendos and crude language, using profane and explicit terms,
Speaker 1: including repeated use of the F words, saying fuck or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's unsure exactly what was said because there was no
Speaker 1: quotes I could find, only saying the type of language
Speaker 1: and type of things that were being said well.
Speaker 2: Pretty alarming and pretty unexpected, probably from her answering the phone.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and Janelle was quite unsettled by the call. She
Speaker 1: immediately hung up, thinking that this was just some sort
Speaker 1: of weird prank, possibly left over from hey, graduation parties
Speaker 1: and stuff, the big weekend that was going on, right,
Speaker 1: But the phone rang again.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, she picked up.
Speaker 1: And the same man continued with more obscene language, offering
Speaker 1: no name, no context, just straight vulgarity. In the context
Speaker 1: of the empty house, it added an intense uneasy feeling
Speaker 1: that was growing in the sense that something was wrong.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, everything aligned right, Maybe just one thing isn't off,
Speaker 2: but all of these it's like, oh gosh, yeah.
Speaker 1: Now. By late afternoon that day on June seventh, Janice
Speaker 1: McCall was growing uneasy too. Her daughter Stacy had promised
Speaker 1: to call that morning before leaving for the water park,
Speaker 1: and Janis hadn't heard a single word. At first, she
Speaker 1: chalked it up to a bu morning dead phone battery,
Speaker 1: you know, common teenage oversight, whatever it may be. But
Speaker 1: after checking in which Nell Kirby and learning that the
Speaker 1: girls hadn't spent the night there as planned and hadn't
Speaker 1: shown up for the trip to the water park, her
Speaker 1: concern turned to dread. With a growing sense of something
Speaker 1: being wrong, Janice also drove to the house at East
Speaker 1: Delmer Street herself. What she found inside was the tidy home,
Speaker 1: you know, it was quiet. Their Cinnamon the dog, still alone,
Speaker 1: greeted her anxiously, and Janis noticed the strange details that
Speaker 1: had unsettled Janelle earlier that morning. The lined up purses,
Speaker 1: the cash still in Cheryl's wallet, keys in the counter,
Speaker 1: cigarettes left untouched, which for both Cheryl and Susie, who
Speaker 1: were heavy smokers, leaving without their cigarettes was something they
Speaker 1: would not do. In Stacy's case, there was an even
Speaker 1: more telling sign. The only clothes she had with her
Speaker 1: were still there, neatly folded.
Speaker 2: Oh okay.
Speaker 1: Stacy was known to be contentious about her appearance, often
Speaker 1: modeling wedding dresses. As I mentioned at that local bridle shop,
Speaker 1: if she left the house voluntarily, she wouldn't have gone
Speaker 1: out without getting dressed. She would have made sure that
Speaker 1: she was looking maybe not her best, but she was
Speaker 1: going to ensure that she did something to ensure she
Speaker 1: looked and felt good.
Speaker 2: Like she wasn't going out in her pajamas kind of
Speaker 2: thing exactly.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know she had pajamas.
Speaker 2: Well, she's probably borrowing her friends or something.
Speaker 1: Potentially, Hey, she might have just taken off her jeans
Speaker 1: and T shirt and went to bed, you know, like
Speaker 1: people sleep in their underwear all the time. That might
Speaker 1: have been the case. Then the morning wake up throw
Speaker 1: these on go about your day again. I can't count
Speaker 1: how many times I've gone to parties and woke up
Speaker 1: in the morning rather hungover and still wearing the party
Speaker 1: clothes in the night before.
Speaker 2: It's our partial of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, so she I don't know if she had pj's,
Speaker 1: but her clothes that she had were still there now
Speaker 1: in the bathroom. Damp washed clots and cloths, and recently
Speaker 1: discarded makeup wipe suggested the girls washed up before bed.
Speaker 1: Jewelry was taken off. It was left behind. In Susie's bedroom,
Speaker 1: an unfinished can of coke sat next to a cigarette.
Speaker 1: Her TV was still on broadcasting nothing but that white static,
Speaker 1: and most haunting of all, there was no sign of
Speaker 1: a struggle. In a situation like this, you know what
Speaker 1: you might be thinking, Hey, someone could break in, someone
Speaker 1: you know, forced them out, whatever the situation, But there
Speaker 1: was no sign of any of this. Everything seemed like
Speaker 1: it was in its place as it should be.
Speaker 2: It like it did, just seem like they went out
Speaker 2: for an errand but then they didn't because all their
Speaker 2: vehicles and purses and stuff were there.
Speaker 1: Exactly. Janice moved instinctively to the answering machine in the home,
Speaker 1: hoping it might contain a message that would explain what happened.
Speaker 1: What she heard was reported as a strange message, something
Speaker 1: unsettling enough to alarm her, but as she replayed it
Speaker 1: to try and really listen to what was said in it,
Speaker 1: the message was accidentally erased.
Speaker 2: Oh no, yeah, what I see.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen nineties, many answering machines auto deleted messages
Speaker 1: after you played them, and if you didn't like save
Speaker 1: them a specific way, right, they were just gone.
Speaker 2: Right, because you think, you kind of think about our technology,
Speaker 2: even if it was erased, you could probably still go
Speaker 2: about finding it, but back then not so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that sucks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that does suck. It's like these two people now
Speaker 2: have gone in there, they're trying to help, but then
Speaker 2: they have you know, made things a bit more difficult,
Speaker 2: I guess for investigators later, which is not their intention whatsoever.
Speaker 2: So it kind of sucks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you mentioned two people.
Speaker 2: Well, the boyfriend in cleaning up the glass and shit.
Speaker 1: So you have Janelle and her boyfriend, and now you
Speaker 1: have a mother. Maybe she's potentially with someone too, who knows. So, right,
Speaker 1: there's a minimum of four right there already yeah, but
Speaker 1: I have an approximate number for you, which i'll get
Speaker 1: to you in just a moment.
Speaker 2: Oh no, so I'm assuming it's more than that.
Speaker 1: Despite her raising panic, Jennie hesitated to call nine on
Speaker 1: one right away. Part of her still hope the girls
Speaker 1: would walk through the door, brushing off the worry yet
Speaker 1: any moment things being nonchalant. It was just a misunderstanding,
Speaker 1: right But by eight forty eight pm, that hope had
Speaker 1: begun to fade, and she picked up the phone and
Speaker 1: finally made the call to Springfield Police Department, reporting all
Speaker 1: three of the women, her daughter, Susie, and Cheryl, as missing.
Speaker 1: Officer Rick book Out was the first to arrive. The
Speaker 1: scene was unusual but gave no obvious sign of foul play. Still,
Speaker 1: it was immediately clear that something was very wrong when
Speaker 1: additional officers arrived, including Officer Brian. I'm going to get
Speaker 1: this name so wrong. We're going to truma my my
Speaker 1: best at reading names here, so I'm going to put
Speaker 1: my name reading hat on Officer Brian Geting Hegen.
Speaker 2: Okay, that sounds like a good last name.
Speaker 1: I think that's how you say Geting Hegen. Officer Brian
Speaker 1: Geting hegen, they began to treat the home as a
Speaker 1: potential crime scene. However, it was already too late. Over
Speaker 1: the course of the day, as many as eighteen people
Speaker 1: had entered the house.
Speaker 2: What the shit? Why?
Speaker 1: Friends, relatives, neighbors, all concerned, all searching, all well intentioned,
Speaker 1: but had unknowingly compromised a possible crime scene.
Speaker 2: That seems like so many people. Yeah, I thought that
Speaker 2: there would be the Maxill's, you know, four at the most.
Speaker 2: I don't know if the if the one mom came
Speaker 2: with anyone, but that seems crazy.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe a neighbor was out in there watering their
Speaker 1: flowers or something, and then it's like, oh seese, you know,
Speaker 1: like the mom sitting in there, panckicing. Oh is everything
Speaker 1: all right?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: I'm just worried. And then come on in and we'll
Speaker 1: make you tea real quick and we'll talk about what's
Speaker 1: going on, Like you know, he knows, right, yeah, because
Speaker 1: there was even ashtrays that had been emptied, dishes were washed,
Speaker 1: there was a bent window blind that was straightened.
Speaker 2: Out, oh gosh.
Speaker 1: And it was to the point where any physical evidence
Speaker 1: like fingerprints, hair, footprints, they were likely gone or just contaminated.
Speaker 1: Beyond being usable.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so shitty right there. It's kind of just okay, Well,
Speaker 2: I guess this is why this is a mystery.
Speaker 1: Possibly, So there were no signs of forced entry. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned, There's no blood, no scrawled message, no overturned furniture,
Speaker 1: no obvious struggle whatsoever. The only anominally anomaly aside from
Speaker 1: the missing women themselves was the shattered porch light, which
Speaker 1: had already been swept away. So when Springfield Police officially
Speaker 1: launched their investigation into the disappearance of Cheryl Levitt, Susie Streeter,
Speaker 1: and Stacy McCall, they were all already at a disadvantage.
Speaker 1: The initial response to the missing person's report had been
Speaker 1: so or not been so slow, but it been slow,
Speaker 1: and by the time the detectives began examining the home,
Speaker 1: the crime scene was basically just compromised beyond repair. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of in a situation of good luck.
Speaker 2: Well, and honestly, one of those eighteen people who came
Speaker 2: in and like looked around or whatever could have like
Speaker 2: known more, but they made themselves just look like they were,
Speaker 2: you know, just trying to be helpful.
Speaker 1: That's true. Maybe the neighbor was involved. Maybe the uhbor
Speaker 1: came in on purpose, you know, cover tracks. Who knows.
Speaker 2: Because the fact that there wasn't any signs of what's
Speaker 2: it called, like struggle distress or whatever struggle, it kind
Speaker 2: of shows that they might have known the person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's true, unless they had a way of
Speaker 1: accessing the home. I mean, if you think about it
Speaker 1: this way, this home was just recently purchased. What if
Speaker 1: it's a previous homeowner if locks weren't changed. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: if it's not a previous homeowner. But maybe it's like
Speaker 1: the homeowner who had someone babysit or home or watched
Speaker 1: their home five years ago. Who knows at that point?
Speaker 2: Honestly, Yeah, I know they do say every time you
Speaker 2: buy a house to change the locks. But you wonder
Speaker 2: how many people should do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's just pure speculation on my point, but hey,
Speaker 1: I mean it, honestly, I wonder if it's worth even
Speaker 1: looking into. Really. Now, the officers we were now left
Speaker 1: to try and find anything they could in the home
Speaker 1: that was honestly just too neat and too tidy. There
Speaker 1: was Yeah, where do you start? Is basically what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get out there's no broken locks, no visible blood,
Speaker 1: no sin of struggle. Nothing is just where do you
Speaker 1: start with a clean, almost too clean of a home.
Speaker 1: So what they did note was that Cheryl's bed had
Speaker 1: appeared to be slept in reading glasses, we're resting in
Speaker 1: the nightstand book open, she'd been interrupted mid page. Susie
Speaker 1: and Stave Stacey had makeup wipes and bathing routines, suggested
Speaker 1: that they had returned home, gotten ready for bed, and
Speaker 1: settled in. Stacy's clothes were neatly folded, jewelry placed in pockets,
Speaker 1: and Susie's room was largely untouched and outside from the
Speaker 1: two bent slats on the window blines that were previously fixed,
Speaker 1: that was about it. But those window blines almost look
Speaker 1: like someone had peeked through the window.
Speaker 2: Okay, from like the inside or the outside, the inside
Speaker 2: them looking out, Yes, someone looking out.
Speaker 1: So, despite the absence of the struggle, police immediately suspected
Speaker 1: foul play. The sheer improbability of three women voluntarily disappearing
Speaker 1: without taking a single item with them, even items of
Speaker 1: importance purse, keys, cigarettes, nothing like that. It made them
Speaker 1: running off or the idea of it just implausible. So
Speaker 1: called to Janie McCall had heard the call Janie McCall
Speaker 1: had heard on the answering machine, The one that was
Speaker 1: accellententally erased, was a particular interest to detectctives. They believed
Speaker 1: it might have contained a possible clue, possibly even a
Speaker 1: message from someone involved, but the message unfortunately lost. It
Speaker 1: became just one of those more frustrating details on a
Speaker 1: growing list of what ifs now. The obscene phone calls
Speaker 1: received by Janelle Kirby earlier that morning were also noted,
Speaker 1: though authorities were uncertain if they were actually even connected
Speaker 1: at all. Susie had reported complaints of about prank calls
Speaker 1: in the week prior, though no one knew if it
Speaker 1: was an escalating pattern or simply just high school harassment regardless.
Speaker 1: Within days, the Springfield Police Department assigned thirty officers to
Speaker 1: the case, dividing them into two twelve hour shifts to
Speaker 1: maintain a round the clock effort. On June ninth, just
Speaker 1: two days after the women's disappearance, the FBI joined the investigation,
Speaker 1: signaling how serious the case was being taken and how
Speaker 1: unusual it are already was. Investigators began to build a timeline,
Speaker 1: narrowing the window of disappearance to somewhere between two teen
Speaker 1: am and eight am on June seventh. That six hour
Speaker 1: gap became the focal point. During that time, no neighbor
Speaker 1: reported screams, strange vehicles, or any sounds of a disturbance.
Speaker 1: It was as if within those hours someone had entered
Speaker 1: the house, coerced or forced all three women out, and
Speaker 1: vanished into the early morning darkness, leaving behind nothing but
Speaker 1: silence and a whole lot of questions. As news of
Speaker 1: the disappearance spread, Springfield changed overnight. The tight knit Ozark
Speaker 1: city had just been celebrating high school graduations, and it
Speaker 1: was now suddenly just pushed into a missing persons situation.
Speaker 1: There's flyers, press conferences, and a growing unease all across town.
Speaker 1: For a place that rarely dealt with violent crimes, let
Speaker 1: alone when involving three missing persons, the community was stunned.
Speaker 1: Within days, thousands of flyers were distributed across the city
Speaker 1: and the surrounding county. They bore the names of the
Speaker 1: end faces of Sheryl Levitt, Susie Streeter, and Stacy McCall,
Speaker 1: now collectively referred to by both police and media as
Speaker 1: the Springfield Three. Local news stations ran daily updates. National
Speaker 1: outlets began picking up the story, and people locked their
Speaker 1: doors for the first time in years. Springfield PD, bolstered
Speaker 1: by FBI agents, ramped up their efforts. Detectives and volunteers
Speaker 1: conducted extensive searches of the surrounding areas. They combed through
Speaker 1: wooded trails, creeks, abandoned building, sewer systems, and rural farms.
Speaker 1: Divers explored parts of Lake Springfield and the James River,
Speaker 1: hoping for any clue, any item, any trace. Yet nothing
Speaker 1: was found. The lack of physical evidence at the home
Speaker 1: made things worse. With no crime scene, no witness, and
Speaker 1: no real directions, investigators were left with little more than
Speaker 1: tips to go on, and the tips came in by
Speaker 1: the hundreds. By mid June, police were chasing down every
Speaker 1: single possible lead, no matter how far fetched they seemed.
Speaker 1: Some tips appeared more promising than others. Of course, Several
Speaker 1: people across Being Springfield reported seeing a strange van, specifically
Speaker 1: a green Dodge panel van, older model with no rear
Speaker 1: or side windows. One witness said that they saw Susie
Speaker 1: Streeter driving such a van around six thirty am on
Speaker 1: the morning of June seventh, over a mile from her home.
Speaker 1: What the According to her, Susie looked distressed and a
Speaker 1: man in the back seat was yelling at her, warning
Speaker 1: her not to do anything stupid.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Another witness, a store clerk, said he saw a young
Speaker 1: blonde girl resembling Susie or Stacy in a similar van
Speaker 1: parked in a lot where the driver appeared nervous and
Speaker 1: out of place. The man jotted down part of the
Speaker 1: license plate, but later threw it away. Yeah dang realized
Speaker 1: its importance only after the news broke and searching for
Speaker 1: it and being like, oh shit, it's in the trash.
Speaker 2: It's like they're having no luck at all.
Speaker 1: Police talked with this individual and even attempted hypnosis to
Speaker 1: try and recover those digits from the license plate, but
Speaker 1: the trail went cold. Another sighting came from a waitress
Speaker 1: at George George's Steakhouse, one of Cheryl's favorite late night spots.
Speaker 1: She claimed that between two and three am on the
Speaker 1: night of the disappearance, she saw the three women at
Speaker 1: the diner, visibly intoxicated and accompanied by three unknown men.
Speaker 1: According to her, Cheryl was trying to calm Susie down,
Speaker 1: but no other diner employee or patron could confirm the story,
Speaker 1: and police were a bit skeptical. Other calls described screeching
Speaker 1: tires and faint screams heard in the early hours near
Speaker 1: Delmar Street, but no hard details ever emerged from them.
Speaker 1: Some of the leads came from anonymous callers who claimed
Speaker 1: insider knowledge, only to vanish just as quickly, including one
Speaker 1: tip that came into America's Most Wanted that was disconnected
Speaker 1: mid transfer, which I'll talk about that later. As the
Speaker 1: days turned into weeks, aniaes gave way to fear. Parents
Speaker 1: kept tighter watch on their children. Women in Springfield began
Speaker 1: carrying pepper spray and locking their doors once they left.
Speaker 1: Rumors spread fast, some believable, others not so much. Police
Speaker 1: were inundated with theories, even from serial killers to human
Speaker 1: trafficking to occult rituals, especially after it was discovered that
Speaker 1: Susie had books on the occult in her room, though
Speaker 1: friends said she never showed serious interest in them, And regardless, honestly,
Speaker 1: if you have serious interest in the occult, that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you're going to go and perform massachist type rituals.
Speaker 2: Honestly, well and I think too, if you did, like
Speaker 2: have serious interest, you would bring it up in conversation
Speaker 2: at times they want to talk about it, right, or
Speaker 2: something you read or whatever exactly.
Speaker 1: Now, the investigation ballooned, and by the end of the summer,
Speaker 1: over five thousand tips had been submitted. I AM investigators
Speaker 1: pursued leads in twenty one different states. But despite the
Speaker 1: national attention, the door to door searches, the media coverage,
Speaker 1: and a reward that eventually grew to forty two thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: the women remained missing, and with each passing day, the
Speaker 1: chances of finding them alive or otherwise seemed to shrink. Now,
Speaker 1: as the investigation dragged into the summer of nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: police began to look beyond the timeline and the physical searches,
Speaker 1: focusing their attention on people those close to the victims.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know, we always look at hey, if
Speaker 1: it's a wife, go to the husband. If it's a husband,
Speaker 1: it's that sort of thing, right, yep. But they also
Speaker 1: looked into whoever they could find a connection to, those
Speaker 1: with personal grudges and those with criminal pass that could
Speaker 1: fit the bill for someone that orchestrated something this clean.
Speaker 1: At the top of this early suspect list was an
Speaker 1: individual by the name of Barrett. Streeter recognized that last name.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, is that the dad.
Speaker 1: That's Susie's older brother and Cheryl's son.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, so.
Speaker 1: At twenty seven years old. Barrett was living in Springfield
Speaker 1: at the time of the disappearance, and his relationship with
Speaker 1: his mother and sister were reportedly strained and the spring
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety two, just weeks before the disappearance, Susie
Speaker 1: had moved in briefly with Barrett after an argument with
Speaker 1: her mother, but that arrangement hadn't lasted. Susie moved back
Speaker 1: home after a fight over Barrett's drinking and partying habits.
Speaker 1: The family had a complicated dynamic, and investigators initially wondered
Speaker 1: whether some kind of confrontation had spiraled out of control,
Speaker 1: but Barrett had a confirmed alibi. Both his girlfriend and
Speaker 1: a neighbor backed up his whereabouts the night of the
Speaker 1: women when the women went missing, and he also passed
Speaker 1: a polygraph, though as we know, those not the most reliable.
Speaker 2: But still that kind of seems far fetch like he
Speaker 2: wouldn't have known that all the girls were gonna be
Speaker 2: there and stuff unless whoever, someone was like attacking the
Speaker 2: mom or there for the mom and then the girls
Speaker 2: you know, came.
Speaker 1: Home and it caught in the crossway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Regardless, he had two solid alibis, passed the polygraph, and
Speaker 1: eventually he was cleared and ruled out by police. Another
Speaker 1: set of names that came and quickly rose up in
Speaker 1: suspicion were Dustin Recla, Susie's ex boyfriend, and his friend
Speaker 1: Michael Clay. A few months before the disappearance, the two
Speaker 1: had been charged with vandalism at a mausoleum. You know,
Speaker 1: they basically they into a tomb and stole gold fittings
Speaker 1: from human skulls.
Speaker 4: Ah the kind of d bags just saying that, Yeah,
Speaker 4: that is like super assholes.
Speaker 1: Yep. Susie had provided a statement to police about this
Speaker 1: incident and was expected to testify in court. She was
Speaker 1: reportedly disgusted by what her ex boyfriend had done and
Speaker 1: it cut ties with them completely. The theory was straightforward,
Speaker 1: had Dustin or his friend targeted Susie for you know,
Speaker 1: keeping her silent, and that others are involved because of
Speaker 1: collateral damage? Right, Yeah, go there for Susie, friends there,
Speaker 1: moms there, like, and so be it. We got to
Speaker 1: kill or take whoever is all in this room right
Speaker 1: now or in this house.
Speaker 2: Huh okay.
Speaker 1: But he and his accomplice had alibis. They claimed that
Speaker 1: they were at a concert the night of the disappearance,
Speaker 1: and the nature of the grave robbing case seemed pretty
Speaker 1: how do you say, pretty small in compared to persons disappearing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: douchebag for sure, But it's it's harmless to the living,
Speaker 1: I'll put it that way.
Speaker 2: Like, Yeah, they would have got a slap on the
Speaker 2: hand for sure, But I don't think it's not enough
Speaker 2: to like go about murdering or something three individuals.
Speaker 1: No, Because I mean, if you look at it on
Speaker 1: the legal level, you're basically going for a misdemeanor charge
Speaker 1: to kidnapping and or murder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that it would have escalated things real bad
Speaker 2: for them extremely.
Speaker 1: Still, they remained persons of interest for a time, especially
Speaker 1: when one of their associates, Steve Garrison, came forward in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three facing his own criminal charges. Garrison told
Speaker 1: police that he overheard a confession at a party about
Speaker 1: the women's disappearance. He led authorities to two properties in
Speaker 1: Webster County, including one linked to Francis Robbs Senior, a
Speaker 1: convicted double murderer. Searches were conducted, but nothing was found.
Speaker 2: Dang yeah. Now.
Speaker 1: Around the time time of the disappearance, several neighbors recalled
Speaker 1: seeing a strange man described as transient, disheveled with shoulder
Speaker 1: length brown hair and a beard, lurking in the neighborhood
Speaker 1: in the days prior. He was never identified, but despite
Speaker 1: police's police circulating a sketch, it just seemed to go nowhere.
Speaker 1: No one could confirm whether he had any connection to
Speaker 1: the women, and eventually the lead on that one just evaporated.
Speaker 1: Of all the suspects considered, the one by the name
Speaker 1: of Robert Craig Cox was the one with the most focus.
Speaker 1: Robert was a highly trained army ranger, once named Soldier
Speaker 1: of the Year, but his military discipline masked something much darker.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy eight, he was arrested and eventually convicted
Speaker 1: for the murder of nineteen year old Sharon Zellers in Florida,
Speaker 1: a brutal killing that left the young woman raped and beaten.
Speaker 1: The conviction was overturned years later due to insufficient evidence,
Speaker 1: and he walked free in nineteen ninety two. At the
Speaker 1: time of the Springfield three's disappearance, guests who was living
Speaker 1: in Springfield, Oh, Robert Cox. However, not only that was
Speaker 1: he just living in Springfield, but he was working as
Speaker 1: a mechanic at a car dealership, the very same one
Speaker 1: where Stacy McCall's father was employed. This guy had a
Speaker 1: history of abduction, assault and murder.
Speaker 2: But also, I feel like you'd be kind of hard
Speaker 2: for like one individual to go about doing this to three.
Speaker 1: Well, if you threaten one with the life.
Speaker 4: Of another, yeah, I guess it's possible. Yeah, So one question.
Speaker 4: Robert said that he spent the night of June sixth
Speaker 4: at home with his parents, and the next morning attended
Speaker 4: church with his girlfriend and her child. At first, the
Speaker 4: girlfriend corroborated this ally, but years later she recanted it,
Speaker 4: stating that Robert had asked her.
Speaker 2: To lie hmmm, and she was probably also a little.
Speaker 1: Bit afraid of him, potentially. In nineteen ninety seven, now
Speaker 1: incarcerated in Texas for a separate aggravated robbery, Robert gave
Speaker 1: a chilling interview with a journalist. In it he claimed
Speaker 1: that he knew the three women had been murdered and
Speaker 1: that their bodies would never.
Speaker 2: Be found, and how did he know this? Well.
Speaker 1: He also said that he wouldn't provide details until after
Speaker 1: his mother passed away.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, what a disgusting piece of shit.
Speaker 1: So to quote him, I just know that they're dead.
Speaker 1: That's not a theory, that's just what I know. Okay,
Speaker 1: he refused to elaborate. He wouldn't say who did it, why,
Speaker 1: and to this day he has never been officially charged
Speaker 1: in connection with the case.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, did his mom like not die?
Speaker 1: I'm assuming his brothers he died before her. Well, he's
Speaker 1: in prison right now. Oh still, Well, I'm assuming. I
Speaker 1: mean I didn't look up exactly if he was still
Speaker 1: but I mean at the time in nineteen ninety seven
Speaker 1: he was in charge. By then, I guess he's probably
Speaker 1: still probably out walking. I guess at the time in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven he was aggravated robbery, so he would
Speaker 1: be out by then.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, and yeah, so then if he's admitted to
Speaker 2: something like this, like yeah, he's knocketting out of jail,
Speaker 2: So why the fuck would he admit to it? Exactly
Speaker 2: there's Yeah, there's no reason for him too. I guess
Speaker 2: if he's gotten away with it this long.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, some investigators believe that he was simply seeking attention.
Speaker 1: Others felt that he might have firsthand knowledge or even
Speaker 1: involvement in it. But what's certain is that all of
Speaker 1: the people police interviewed, out of all of them, Robert
Speaker 1: Craig Cox came the closest to sounding like an actual confession.
Speaker 2: You know, that's so gross, just to play with people
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: It is. It's disgusting. So with no crime scene, no bodies,
Speaker 1: and no clear suspect, investigators and the public were left
Speaker 1: to construct possibilities from what little there was. A broken
Speaker 1: porch light, three untouched cars, and an eerie absence of
Speaker 1: three women who seemingly vanished mid routine, leaving everything behind.
Speaker 1: Over time, a handful of theories theories began to form.
Speaker 1: One theory came to light early in the investigation, and
Speaker 1: it's the idea that the perpetrator was posing as a
Speaker 1: utility worker, perhaps claiming to check for a gas leak
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood. The thought was chilling in its simplicity,
Speaker 1: So all it would take is, you know, a knock
Speaker 1: the door in the early morning, a uniform, a bad,
Speaker 1: calm voice assuring that that's just a routine check. Cheryl,
Speaker 1: being cautious but hospitable, lets him in, especially considering, hey,
Speaker 1: she's doing some work in renovations in her house. She
Speaker 1: might even be concerned that she caused a problem herself,
Speaker 1: or who knows what right.
Speaker 2: But still, that's such an odd time.
Speaker 1: It is. If that man was armed, it would have
Speaker 1: taken little effort to gain control, and if Susie and
Speaker 1: Stacy were already in their pajamas their night clothes, they
Speaker 1: may have been startled to wake or caught off guard
Speaker 1: unable to react. This theory grew incredibility when it was
Speaker 1: discovered that Robert Craig Cox as I mentioned that most
Speaker 1: important individual, had worked for a utility location company in
Speaker 1: Springfield at the time of the disappearance. In a letter
Speaker 1: sent years later, Robert claimed he had performed jobs near
Speaker 1: the area of East Delmer Street. Still, police could never
Speaker 1: place him at the house, and there was no physical
Speaker 1: evidence to support that idea, but it remained a very
Speaker 1: compelling scenario, especially given how clean the scene was and
Speaker 1: how unlikely it would be for three women to just
Speaker 1: be overpowered without any sign of a struggle. Now a
Speaker 1: small detail, but one investigators kept coming back to was
Speaker 1: Susie's car. It was not parked in its usual spot.
Speaker 1: According to her close friend and coworker Nigel Kenny, Susie
Speaker 1: was meticulous, almost obsessive about where she parked in the
Speaker 1: driveway that morning. Her car was slightly askew, not in
Speaker 1: its usual place. To Nigel, this suggested that someone else
Speaker 1: may have arrived first, possibly blocking her in her spot,
Speaker 1: prompting her to maybe park somewhere else. If that someone
Speaker 1: was already in the house or waiting for them to arrive,
Speaker 1: it would lend weight to the theory that this wasn't
Speaker 1: a random crime but something planned entirely Outside of that, though,
Speaker 1: there's nothing else to really go on for that theory.
Speaker 2: Okay, but then would they have They wouldn't have gone
Speaker 2: about like taken their makeup off.
Speaker 1: And shit, unless the individual wanted to stage a scene.
Speaker 1: It is far fetched, but it is a possibility.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another theory involves a grim line of thought amongst some investigators,
Speaker 1: and it's that Cheryl Levitt may have been the target.
Speaker 1: Perhaps someone had a grudge something from her personal life,
Speaker 1: her past relationships, even a client from the salon for
Speaker 1: whatever reason. If that were true, Susie and Stacy could
Speaker 1: have simply been at the wrong place at.
Speaker 2: The wrong time, yeah, like if they would have stayed
Speaker 2: at their friends.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But there's little evidence to support this beyond speculation.
Speaker 1: Cheryl led a quiet, focused life. She was close to
Speaker 1: her daughter. There were no known romantic entanglements or disputes
Speaker 1: that pointed to motives. But still the idea has persisted,
Speaker 1: especially considering that Susie and Stacy weren't even supposed to
Speaker 1: be at the house that night. They only changed plans
Speaker 1: at the last moment, hey being caught the crossfires.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's more likely though, that they would
Speaker 2: have brought, you know, a follower of sorts home with them.
Speaker 2: Though what do you mean, sorry, someone might have been
Speaker 2: following the girls something, right, So I feel like it's
Speaker 2: more likely in my thoughts, that it would have been
Speaker 2: like the girls kind of it. Well, it's not caused this,
Speaker 2: like I don't mean that, but you know, rather than
Speaker 2: like the mom, you know, bringing this in or well,
Speaker 2: if you.
Speaker 1: Look at it in the light that the mom is
Speaker 1: supposed to be home alone when she always has her
Speaker 1: daughter with her. She's the one who generally had raised
Speaker 1: the kids right, like the father wasn't as much in
Speaker 1: the picture. So she has her daughter with her like
Speaker 1: all the time. So this night she's supposed to be
Speaker 1: home alone, this is a good night to target her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I guess.
Speaker 1: And then the girls show up at home and are
Speaker 1: caught in the crossfires. But you are right, it's just
Speaker 1: as easy that someone saw these girls and followed them home,
Speaker 1: and now the mother's caught in the cross crossairs.
Speaker 2: So either way, like, so are you almost thinking that
Speaker 2: the girls could have walked in and the mom was
Speaker 2: like already in danger.
Speaker 1: Of sorts potentially, or the perpetrator goes there at like
Speaker 1: three in the morning or something when everyone's sleep, yeah,
Speaker 1: and is like, shit, well now I got to deal
Speaker 1: with more people.
Speaker 2: But he's still going to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, then there's the Dodge panel van, the green
Speaker 1: van reported in multiple tips across town. One witness sitting
Speaker 1: on her porch at around six thirty am on June seventh,
Speaker 1: claimed to see a distressed blonde woman driving such a
Speaker 1: van with a man in the backseat shouting threats. Another
Speaker 1: man said he saw a suspicious van parked at a
Speaker 1: grocery store, jotted down the license plate the one that
Speaker 1: threw it out. Unfortunately, the descriptions varied, but the van
Speaker 1: itself became symbolic, a rolling ghost, kind of down the
Speaker 1: highway sort of thing, possibly carrying the last known location
Speaker 1: of the Springfield three. Police even parked a similar van
Speaker 1: outside the station for weeks, hoping to trigger someone's memory,
Speaker 1: but the lead went nowhere. But still that is a
Speaker 1: highlight that many people associate with this case.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that does seem something that you know, you
Speaker 2: can kind of understand that they were kidnapped.
Speaker 1: Right well for sure. And finally the parking garage theory.
Speaker 1: Years later, a reporter named Kathy Baird received multiple anonymous
Speaker 1: tips pointing to an unlikely burial site beneath the South
Speaker 1: parking garage at Cox Hospital, roughly four miles from the house.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and seven, she brought a medical engineer
Speaker 1: with ground penetrating radar. They checked the spot. The scan
Speaker 1: revealed three anomalies, shaped and spaced in a way very
Speaker 1: consistent with grave sites, two parallel and one perpendicular. It
Speaker 1: was intriguing, but the hospital parking structure wasn't built until
Speaker 1: over a year after the disappearance, and police argued that
Speaker 1: if the women had been buried there beforehand, the construction
Speaker 1: would have unearthed the remains, and unfortunately, the cost of
Speaker 1: exit excavation was deemed unjustifiable without stronger evidence.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, honestly, that one makes so much sense, but
Speaker 2: the timing is way off. Like if it was being
Speaker 2: constructed or whatever at the time, I'd be like, holy shit, yeaheah.
Speaker 2: But if the fact that it wasn't really built for
Speaker 2: a year later doesn't I don't know that one. I
Speaker 2: don't know. I have trouble believing that one.
Speaker 1: Then I feel you too. But it's like, okay, it's
Speaker 1: it depends on how deep these footings are, right, Like
Speaker 1: how deep are we going? Did this person really do
Speaker 1: their job and they're like, I'm going to bury these
Speaker 1: these bodies ten feet down and the footings and you know,
Speaker 1: the concrete perimeter poor. Did it only go eight feet down.
Speaker 2: To dig three graves that deep in a fricking couple hours?
Speaker 1: Touchet? I mean, who knows what was on that that
Speaker 1: site beforehand?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was easy. Maybe hey, maybe there was a
Speaker 1: cont ptruction worker who had these bodies in their backyard
Speaker 1: and were like, I'm going to just do a double
Speaker 1: shift tonight and bury these bodies under the concrete of
Speaker 1: this slab. Important right now?
Speaker 2: Huh huh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: By the end of the first year, investigators had received
Speaker 1: over five thousand tips from across the country. Some were
Speaker 1: well meaning, others were bizarre. Many came from psychics offering
Speaker 1: visions and dreams. Others led to dig sites and surrounding countries.
Speaker 1: A set of bones pulled from Lake Springfield turned out
Speaker 1: to be animal remains. A pair of large women's underwear
Speaker 1: floating in the lake, so big that all three women
Speaker 1: could have fit inside, was examined and dismissed. Every tip
Speaker 1: was logged, every call was followed up, but nothing led
Speaker 1: to the missing three women. One of the most maddening
Speaker 1: missed opportunities, though, came on December thirty first, nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: when an anonymous man called the hotline for America's Most Wanted,
Speaker 1: shortly after the show featured the Springfield three. He claimed
Speaker 1: to have vital information quote vital information. The operator attempted
Speaker 1: to transfer him to investigators. However, the line was disconnected
Speaker 1: mid transfer. The man never called back. Police publicly pleaded
Speaker 1: for him to come forward, stating that if he had
Speaker 1: prime knowledge for the case, please let us know. But
Speaker 1: the man never called back.
Speaker 2: Well that's just like a hope, though, like who knows.
Speaker 2: It could have been completely shit or something like really
Speaker 2: not that vital.
Speaker 1: I believe it was either a someone who did know
Speaker 1: something and was just fucking with police, or b it
Speaker 1: was a hoax, because if someone truly knew something like
Speaker 1: that and they were attempting to call, they would call back.
Speaker 2: Well not necessarily because what if they were, you know,
Speaker 2: really stewing on if they were gonna phone, So then
Speaker 2: they finally are like, fuck, I'm going to just phone,
Speaker 2: and then it disconnects, and it's like, okay, well that's
Speaker 2: my sign. Yeah maybe, I mean right, true true for
Speaker 2: some people that are kind of like superstitious or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, you got a point. In nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: police followed tips from an inmate named Steve Garrison. They
Speaker 1: searched a farm in Northview, Missouri, as well as a
Speaker 1: forty acre property in Webster County connected to convicted killer
Speaker 1: Francis rob Senior. Garrison hid claimed to overhear a confession
Speaker 1: involving the Springfield three and a green van allegedly tied
Speaker 1: to a party involving Dustin Recla, that same boyfriend who
Speaker 1: broke into the grave sites and others as well. Search
Speaker 1: teams descended on the area. At least one search involved
Speaker 1: digging and using cadaver dogs, and what they found, though
Speaker 1: was never revealed to the public. You just gave me
Speaker 1: the biggest squinty eyes, narrowed stare I've ever seen you do.
Speaker 2: If it wasn't revealed to the public, I don't think
Speaker 2: it would be these three, right, because they would reveal
Speaker 2: the shit.
Speaker 1: Well, let me go on a little, just a little
Speaker 1: bit further here. The search records remain sealed under court order,
Speaker 1: which have of course sparked decades of speculation. However, no
Speaker 1: arrests were followed up on, no suspects emerged. If leeds
Speaker 1: did turn up or anything, it was clearly not enough.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, but doesn't say that there's it wasn't anything.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was is protected by.
Speaker 2: Authorities, okay.
Speaker 1: Over the years, strange story surfaced online, usually anonymously. One
Speaker 1: such post detailed to terrifying encounter in the wood in
Speaker 1: the woods near Camp Winoka, where a teenager claimed he
Speaker 1: and his friend had witnessed three women being pulled from
Speaker 1: a van and attacked. It read like fiction, honestly, and
Speaker 1: there's no confirm about it or anything like that. But
Speaker 1: even more chilling, there were reports of threats received by
Speaker 1: those investigating the case. Kathy Baird, the reporter who pursued
Speaker 1: the parking garage theory. She claimed that she was once
Speaker 1: boxed in by cars and they warned her, quote people
Speaker 1: I work for make people like you disappear.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, yeah, okay, it.
Speaker 1: Seems a deeper anyone, Doug the murcier things got, and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: to this day, the case has yet to been solved.
Speaker 1: Some of the most heartbreaking evidence that we have of
Speaker 1: the women's the women vanishing, lies in what was left behind,
Speaker 1: indicating that they never really intended to disappear. Cheryl had
Speaker 1: a doctor's appointment scheduled for Monday after she had vanished.
Speaker 1: Susie was due to start cosmetology school that fall. Stacy
Speaker 1: planned to attend Missouri State and join a sorority with
Speaker 1: their childhood best friend. They all left money, makeup, cigarettes, IDs, cars,
Speaker 1: They were untouched. The house was clean, too clean. Even
Speaker 1: the family dog Cinnamon had been left behind. To those
Speaker 1: who knew the women, that alone ruled out the idea
Speaker 1: of them leaving well.
Speaker 2: And they all had like stuff that they like, they
Speaker 2: had their lives were good, Like the one, you know,
Speaker 2: she had just kind of had this house and was
Speaker 2: renovating it. And the other ones had school and they
Speaker 2: just finished high school and stuff.
Speaker 1: Right, and they just celebrated graduation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's like they all had things that were
Speaker 2: good and they were looking forward to and stuff.
Speaker 1: So exactly. Now, more than three decades have passed since
Speaker 1: Cheryl Levitt, Susie Streeter, and Stacy McCall vanished from the
Speaker 1: quiet home on East Elmer Street, get their absence still
Speaker 1: looms large over Springfield. The city may have grown, evolved
Speaker 1: and moved on, but the space they once occupied has
Speaker 1: never been filled. In nineteen ninety seven, five years after
Speaker 1: the disappearance, Cheryl and Susie were declared legally deceased, and
Speaker 1: June of the same year, a bench was dedicated to Cheryl,
Speaker 1: Susie and Stacey and Phelps Grove Park within the Victim
Speaker 1: Memorial go Garden. It stands as a quiet reminder of
Speaker 1: place to sit, reflect and remember the women who should
Speaker 1: have grown old here, who should have seen grandchildren, careers,
Speaker 1: weddings and life. Stacy's family, however, refused to take that
Speaker 1: step as far as Janice and Stu McCall are concerned,
Speaker 1: until there is proof their daughter remains missing, not gone.
Speaker 1: Despite the years the Springfield the Police Department maintained that
Speaker 1: the case has never gone cold, not officially. A detective
Speaker 1: has always been assigned to monitor the flow of tips,
Speaker 1: which still trickle in. As of the last public update,
Speaker 1: the department has amassed over twenty seven thousand documents, thousands
Speaker 1: of leads, and still files around one hundred tips per year.
Speaker 1: Yet with no bodies, no arrests, no verification, verified confessions,
Speaker 1: the case remains one of the most haunting unsolved disappearances
Speaker 1: in American history. And that's the story of the Springfield three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's some shit right there. Yeah, the fact that
Speaker 2: that is not solved, it's it's just gonna fuck with me.
Speaker 1: There's nothing, honestly, like, I just read a lot, We
Speaker 1: just went over a lot. It's almost all theories. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's almost all just dead ends. There's no evidence. There
Speaker 1: is nothing, at least nothing that's been released to the public.
Speaker 2: Well, and honestly, I'm not even certain because lots of people, Oh,
Speaker 2: there are so many people going through the house and stuff,
Speaker 2: but like, who knows if there was would have even
Speaker 2: been anything left exactly, Like there's it's I'm sure that
Speaker 2: there would have been evidence. Like these people who did this,
Speaker 2: you know, they might have been real good at their jobs.
Speaker 1: I guess potentially, But then that begs a question, why
Speaker 1: would people who are real good at their jobs like
Speaker 1: this target them? Yeah, what's their motive?
Speaker 2: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like you can even say, Okay, the obvious one
Speaker 1: to go to, because you have three women is you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunately sex trafficking. You have two of them who are
Speaker 1: just coming out of high school. It's a good thought
Speaker 1: that we can immediately put a red flag on. Well
Speaker 1: not good thought, but you know, you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that still begs the question, Okay, why these women? Because
Speaker 1: when you're talking about human trafficking, usually you're trying to
Speaker 1: find someone in a vulnerable situation. Even if it's just hey,
Speaker 1: people traveling abroad and they don't know their surroundings, it's
Speaker 1: a vulnerable situation. These three were in their home. That's
Speaker 1: not a vulnerable situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, oh man, this one sucks the fact that, yeah,
Speaker 3: even thinking about is it going to get solved?
Speaker 2: You know, because just listening it's they don't have much.
Speaker 1: They don't I don't even have anything.
Speaker 2: So curious these hunter tips and shit that come in yearly,
Speaker 2: like what the heck are they?
Speaker 1: Most of them are probably bs.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: I thought I saw someone who looked like this girl.
Speaker 1: I thought I saw a van. It was green, like
Speaker 1: you know, it's yeah, I mean, you're talking about a
Speaker 1: van that was on the road in nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: If that was even a van at all, it ain't
Speaker 1: the same van out there now, I guarantee you if
Speaker 1: that one van was running and it is a true tip,
Speaker 1: by the time that tip was released to the public,
Speaker 1: we're looking for a green van. That van is long
Speaker 1: gone now being burnt down in the woods, being sold,
Speaker 1: being repainted, being torn apart, being stored in a barn.
Speaker 1: We don't know, but it certainly isn't on the road.
Speaker 2: It's so odd that they just disappeared like with really
Speaker 2: without a trace, like just gone gone.
Speaker 1: Honestly, and this is going to be a very weird suggestion,
Speaker 1: but it's almost like an alien abduction, like they were
Speaker 1: just plucked from their home.
Speaker 2: And gone, just gone, like they just.
Speaker 1: Poof, yeah, poof.
Speaker 2: I can only imagine like just being like a close
Speaker 2: friend or family and just how that would just haunt
Speaker 2: you for freaking ever really yeah, and like even the
Speaker 2: mom of the one girl, like, oh, should i've I've
Speaker 2: phoned earlier, Like you would just be going through things
Speaker 2: so much in your head, how could I have changed
Speaker 2: this or that? And like, I mean, it's just human
Speaker 2: nature and you didn't do anything wrong, but it's just
Speaker 2: like frick.
Speaker 1: Well, that brings up the the what IFFs, the what ifs, right,
Speaker 1: and hindsight is twenty twenty. Like when you go in
Speaker 1: the boyfriend comes up and he sweeps up the broken glass.
Speaker 2: He was just being nice, right, Like.
Speaker 1: Honestly, if if a friend came up to my house
Speaker 1: and was sweeping up the broken glass, but like, hell, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna buy you a beer if they step over
Speaker 1: the broken glass, and the like, by the way, you
Speaker 1: got broken glass, it'd be like cool, thanks, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go swep some shit now.
Speaker 2: Well not necessarily though, because well no, I wouldn't blame
Speaker 2: that they wouldn't know where the broom and stuff.
Speaker 1: No, But it's like I'm just being like, okay, I
Speaker 1: go sweep some broken glass now. So it's like a
Speaker 1: good friend is like, hey, looking after you and taking
Speaker 1: care of you. So it's not a bad thing, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Sorry, when I say cool, thanks,
Speaker 1: I wasn't saying like, oh, you're a dick for not
Speaker 1: cleaning my mask. That's not what I was meaning. I
Speaker 1: was just like, oh, cool, Now I got a shitty
Speaker 1: situation to deal with.
Speaker 2: Thanks, because you almost wonder if that got broken and
Speaker 2: like the mom heard it while she was in bed
Speaker 2: or whatever and then went out to investigate that, and
Speaker 2: that's when they came in, right, because this is just
Speaker 2: so bizarre, really fucks with you.
Speaker 1: It does. Now. What if that broken light had nothing
Speaker 1: to do with with it?
Speaker 2: Though?
Speaker 1: Too?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, honestly, what if a bird flew into it that morning?
Speaker 1: Just saying it like you don't know?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: The what ifs, And there are so many what ifs
Speaker 1: with this. What if a bird flew in and broke
Speaker 1: that glass, or what if alien subducted them? What if
Speaker 1: they ran off on their own? Who's to say any
Speaker 1: of those theories are more or less unlikely than the
Speaker 1: other because there's zero evidence as far as released to public,
Speaker 1: to support any of the claims, which that is the
Speaker 1: biggest and most frustrating part of this case. I love
Speaker 1: the mysteries. I talked about that at the beginning of
Speaker 1: this in other.
Speaker 2: Episodes, how do you love this?
Speaker 1: This one? I don't love. This one bugs the shit
Speaker 1: out of me because there's nothing to go on.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and the fact too, like the investigators, it
Speaker 2: probably just they would have just been pulling out their
Speaker 2: hair right.
Speaker 1: Oh definitely, And in all honesty, I could have covered
Speaker 1: this case in a ten minute podcast. There's three women,
Speaker 1: they went missing, there's no evidence on there's a ten
Speaker 1: second podcast. That's the story. That's it.
Speaker 2: H jeeze.
Speaker 1: So anyways, I'm frustrated because even for me, this case sucks.
Speaker 1: I like mysterious mystery cases. I didn't like this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is not fun. I mean not saying
Speaker 2: mysteries are fun. Some I guess can be, but yeah,
Speaker 2: this is just a pol of shit.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Anyways, if you guys have thoughts theories, shoot us
Speaker 1: a message. We'd love to hear it. All our links
Speaker 1: are in the description of this podcast, if you want
Speaker 1: to give us a review means the world. We are
Speaker 1: an independent podcast, we're owned operated, all of that. On
Speaker 1: our own reviews go a long way, so we really
Speaker 1: appreciate that and hopefully Nicole feels better.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, well, this one I think is going to
Speaker 2: keep me up at night. My brain is like going
Speaker 2: wild right now. But anyway, yeah, until next episode, stay wicked.