Speaker 1: Hello Gules, and welcome to episode forty one of the
Speaker 1: Shrouded in Darkness podcast, where we shine a light on
Speaker 1: the cases that the world forgot. This is your true
Speaker 1: crime obsess host Marlina and I hope you're having the
Speaker 1: best day. Today's case takes us to Springfield, Missouri and
Speaker 1: another mysterious unsolved case's book, The Up Gules. Before we
Speaker 1: dive in, let's look at our sources for the case.
Speaker 1: We have ky three dot com, springfieldmo dot gov and
Speaker 1: then they were gone, podcast, Morbid podcast, and Crime Weekly podcast. Now,
Speaker 1: the reason I usually listen a lot of podcasts is
Speaker 1: because that's where most of my research comes from. It
Speaker 1: I'm able to listen to this kind of stuff when
Speaker 1: I'm working my normal job. My real job flotations, so
Speaker 1: I'm able to listen to podcasts during today and I
Speaker 1: take notes as I'm listening. So that's why you'll see
Speaker 1: me mention a lot to podcasts during my sources. So
Speaker 1: now allow me to introduce you to our Springfield three.
Speaker 1: Cheryl Levitt is forty seven years old. She's been married
Speaker 1: and divorced twice. With her first husband, she has Bart
Speaker 1: and Susie. In the eighties, she marries her second husband,
Speaker 1: but this only lasts a few years. After this, Cheryl
Speaker 1: chooses to focus on her cosmetology career, her kids, and
Speaker 1: her home. According to her friends and family, she is
Speaker 1: described as independent and very hard working. So I mentioned Susie.
Speaker 1: This is Cheryl's daughter. She is nineteen and graduating from
Speaker 1: high school. Susie and her mom, Cheryl, are super close
Speaker 1: and they're very protective of one another. When people describe Susie,
Speaker 1: they say she's sensitive, and I think more part of
Speaker 1: this might be because she actually has a learning disorder.
Speaker 1: This caused her to struggle, so I'm in high school,
Speaker 1: she wasn't super social. She does plan to follow in
Speaker 1: her mother's footsteps, so she wants to attend cosmetology school.
Speaker 1: We also meet Susie's friend, Stacy McCall. She is eighteen
Speaker 1: and also a recent high school grad. Stacy is your
Speaker 1: typical teenager. She loves fashion, tanning, and metallica. She is
Speaker 1: described as bubbly and outgoing, and she is the youngest
Speaker 1: of three daughters and plans to attend Southwest Missouri State
Speaker 1: University after high school. A little more background on the girls.
Speaker 1: So Susie and Stacy, they met in grade school quickly
Speaker 1: became best friends. When Stacy is eleven, her family moves
Speaker 1: out of state, So this kind of causes a little
Speaker 1: bit of Stacy and Susie to drift apart. Now they
Speaker 1: do eventually move back to Springfield, so Stacy and Susie
Speaker 1: kind of restart their friendship. Another part of this friend
Speaker 1: group is just Nelle Kirby. Now, she'll be mentioned later on,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to make sure I mentioned her name now. Now,
Speaker 1: Janelle is friends with both Susie and Stacy, and I believe,
Speaker 1: based on the information I have found, Janelle and Susie
Speaker 1: are the closest between the three. Now, a few other
Speaker 1: notes in case it's relevant to the case. At one point,
Speaker 1: Susie lives with her brother Bart. They do have some
Speaker 1: kind of falling out. I'm unaware of what the circumstances are,
Speaker 1: but she does move back in with Cheryl. Then in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Cheryl purchases a new home. This is
Speaker 1: on Delmore Avenue, which I will use as a reference point,
Speaker 1: and she has plans of remodeling it. That's actually part
Speaker 1: of what she does. She does a lot of fixing
Speaker 1: up the place, furniture, walls, etc. And it's not that
Speaker 1: she has necessary experience your skills in this, It's just
Speaker 1: something she enjoys and she kind of teaches herself as
Speaker 1: she does it. Now let's jump into the day of
Speaker 1: the case. It's Saturday, June sixth, nineteen ninety two. It's
Speaker 1: officially summertime, and the girls are wrapping up their high
Speaker 1: school careers. The plan is to attend a couple graduation
Speaker 1: parties and then road trip it to Branson for an
Speaker 1: overnight stay and then a fun day at the water
Speaker 1: park that's there. And added fyi, Branson is about an
Speaker 1: hour away from Springfield, where the girls live. Now, let's
Speaker 1: review a few things. At graduation, Stacy's parents invites Cheryl
Speaker 1: and Susie to join them for dinner at a local steakhouse,
Speaker 1: but they decline. They instead pick up a pizza and
Speaker 1: take it home to eat. The girls would meet later
Speaker 1: on to start their night's festivities to remember the graduation
Speaker 1: parties and stuff. So from what I can tell, the
Speaker 1: night starts at Janelle's house. The three of the girls, Susie,
Speaker 1: Stacy and Janelle. They they walk to the first party.
Speaker 1: It's not far from Dannelle's and It's at Brian Joy's
Speaker 1: house on Coach Drive, the second party that they attend.
Speaker 1: It's about a ten to fifteen minute drive and this
Speaker 1: house belonged to Michelle Elder and is on East Hanover Street. Now,
Speaker 1: sometime between the two parties, so around ten or ten
Speaker 1: thirty pm, the girls decide to make a slight change
Speaker 1: in their plans and Stacy actually calls her mom, Janice
Speaker 1: McCall during this time and you know, she confirms all this.
Speaker 1: So the plan is that they would hang out a
Speaker 1: little longer with the friends that night at the parties,
Speaker 1: and then they would drive to Branson the water park
Speaker 1: in the morning. So instead of road tripping that night,
Speaker 1: they were just gonna, you know, hang out in the parties.
Speaker 1: So meanwhile, during all this, Cheryl is at home. She
Speaker 1: is actually revarnishing an old chair. It's also possible she
Speaker 1: was hanging wallpaper, so she's working on things in the house.
Speaker 1: She speaks to a friend on the phone between nine
Speaker 1: thirty pm and eleven fifteen pm, so this is verified.
Speaker 1: So now we move on to one. For five am,
Speaker 1: the girls return to Janelle's with plans to stay there
Speaker 1: for the night. Only the house Janelle's house is a
Speaker 1: little overcrowded because they have a lot of out of
Speaker 1: town guests that came for the graduation. So again we
Speaker 1: see the plans change. It's overcrowded, So Susie and Stacy
Speaker 1: decide to drive to Susie's house on del Mar and
Speaker 1: stay there and then the group would reconvene in the
Speaker 1: morning and you know, head for their trip to Branson.
Speaker 1: So at this point, it's two fifteen AM. Susie and
Speaker 1: Stacy both have their vehicles at Janelle's, so they each
Speaker 1: drive the fifteen to twenty minute route to the del
Speaker 1: Mar house. Okay, now we fast forward to the normal
Speaker 1: morning hours of eight AM. Now this is when the
Speaker 1: group is supposed to like connect and meet up and
Speaker 1: head for the water park, but Susie and Stacy are mia.
Speaker 1: Janelle's not able to get a hold of either one
Speaker 1: of them. So at nine AM, about an hour later,
Speaker 1: Janelle and her boyfriend Mike drive to the house on Delmore.
Speaker 1: This is where Susie, Stacey You're supposed to be. Now,
Speaker 1: when they first arrive, they see all three vehicles, so
Speaker 1: that's Sheryl's, Susie's, and Stacy's cars. They're all part of
Speaker 1: the house. They also noticed that the porch light's glass
Speaker 1: globe is shattered along the steps, so there's like glass pieces.
Speaker 1: The bulb itself was still intact, and some things some
Speaker 1: reports show that it was slightly loose, like if you
Speaker 1: flip the switch to turn it on, it may not
Speaker 1: come on. Now, gene on Mike. They don't think much
Speaker 1: of this. They sweep it away get rid of the mess.
Speaker 1: The front doors online, which is also not unusual, so
Speaker 1: the couple lets themselves in. Only they find no one
Speaker 1: home except the family dog, Cinnamon, and Cinnamon is kind
Speaker 1: of going a little crazy, pretty anxiously barking, but Cinnamon
Speaker 1: recognizes Janelle, so she calms down. Now, something that I
Speaker 1: feel is really important. I learned that about the parking situation. Now.
Speaker 1: I mention this because I felt like this could be
Speaker 1: relevant to the case. And this comes from a close
Speaker 1: friend of Susie's. According to the friend, Susie would only
Speaker 1: park in one of two places at home. In most
Speaker 1: everyday situations, Susie would park behind her mother's car in
Speaker 1: the carport area. Now, if her mother was gone or
Speaker 1: someone else was there, Susie would park in their circle drive.
Speaker 1: On this particular day this is when Janelle and might
Speaker 1: show up at the house. We know that Cheryl's car
Speaker 1: is parked where it always is, in the car port.
Speaker 1: Susie and Stacy's vehicles, though, are parked in a circle drive. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure we can assume that this wasn't because
Speaker 1: Cheryl wasn't home. I mean, it's two am in the morning,
Speaker 1: so most likely her help or she's at home, so
Speaker 1: there's no reason for her car to be gone. But
Speaker 1: there is the possibility that maybe someone else was there
Speaker 1: at the house. And I mean it wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: enough to alert Susie because you know, she didn't call anybody,
Speaker 1: nothing's it seems out of place. So there is one
Speaker 1: other possibility that's a little more innocent. Whereas, since Cheryl was,
Speaker 1: you know, working on projects like burnishing the chair, it's
Speaker 1: possible she was using the car port to work on
Speaker 1: the chair, and so her car band in parts somewhere differently,
Speaker 1: and then maybe after the girls get home, she moves
Speaker 1: it back into the car port. I'm not really sure.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of possibilities I feel like here, but again,
Speaker 1: I felt like this was really important. I mean, if
Speaker 1: Susie has this whole routine of where she parks her car,
Speaker 1: and for some reason she parked in the circle drive
Speaker 1: that night. Then there's a reason behind that. We just
Speaker 1: don't know what the reason is. Now, let's look back
Speaker 1: at the scene with Janelle and Mike, so we know
Speaker 1: there was glass on the front steps and the door
Speaker 1: was unlocked. Cinnamon was alone. We find the TV is on,
Speaker 1: but it's at that static screen towards Susie's bedroom, which
Speaker 1: I believe is kind of towards the back of the house.
Speaker 1: We find all three persons almost lined up along these
Speaker 1: short steps that lead into Susie's bedroom. It's possible it
Speaker 1: even looks stage because this was not a normal place
Speaker 1: that they put stuff. We see Stacy's shorts, jewelry, and
Speaker 1: flip flops. She also has her migraine medication there, which
Speaker 1: she never leaves without. I believe there are also a
Speaker 1: couple packs of cigarettes. I believe Cheryl and Susie smoked,
Speaker 1: but that was something else that was strange to be
Speaker 1: there if the girls weren't there, because they always took
Speaker 1: those with them wherever they were. Now, Cheryl's purse again,
Speaker 1: it's there, and it has nine hundred dollars cash in it.
Speaker 1: All three car keys are also sitting there. There are
Speaker 1: bathing suits sitting out, which confirms the plan for the
Speaker 1: water park. There are makeup covered washcloths in the laundry.
Speaker 1: The beds appeared to be slept in. Cheryl's glasses are
Speaker 1: on her bed or on the nightstand. There's an overturned book.
Speaker 1: So all of these things indicate that the girls made
Speaker 1: it home safely, and they were in the process of
Speaker 1: getting ready for bed and possibly already in bed. So
Speaker 1: this is what we're seeing. Nothing else is out of
Speaker 1: place at the same So at some point during this day, Janice,
Speaker 1: Stacy's mom, she connects with Janelle, you know, they find
Speaker 1: out that no one has seen or heard from Cheryl, Susie,
Speaker 1: or Stacy. So Janis is concerned and she decides to
Speaker 1: actually go to Cheryl's house the Tewson Delmore to kind
Speaker 1: of see for herself, to see if she notices anything
Speaker 1: and more. Friends and family do actually show up kind
Speaker 1: of off and on all day. We also learn that
Speaker 1: there are some strange phone calls coming in. Janelle actually
Speaker 1: answered one of them and it was a Mel's voice
Speaker 1: on the other end, and it was just he was
Speaker 1: creepy and perverted and lewde And as soon as this
Speaker 1: happened a few times, it may have even happened on
Speaker 1: previous occasions to Cheryl and Susie. I couldn't find anything
Speaker 1: definitive on that, but that is a possibility. Unfortunately, though
Speaker 1: there's little information on these calls. The person left messages,
Speaker 1: but somehow those messages got deleted before they could be
Speaker 1: like processed or investigator or anything. So it kind of
Speaker 1: goes to show you kind of how unworried people were
Speaker 1: at this time. You know, they probably thought this was
Speaker 1: a prank, that the girls were fine, nothing was wrong,
Speaker 1: but the calls could have very well been something some
Speaker 1: part of the case we may never know. So while
Speaker 1: at the Delmar residence again people are in and outs
Speaker 1: and they don't know what's due. They just know their
Speaker 1: friends are missing, that they're not there, they're not home,
Speaker 1: so for some reason they start cleaning and straightening up things.
Speaker 1: Of course, this greatly interferes with what later becomes an investigation,
Speaker 1: because again no one realized how serious the situation was
Speaker 1: now between eight and nine that evening. So this is
Speaker 1: a full, you know, full end of the day Janie
Speaker 1: doesy for herself that her daughter, Stacy, Cheryl, Susie, all
Speaker 1: of them are missing. None of them have come home,
Speaker 1: none of them have contacted anyone, no friends and family.
Speaker 1: So Janie contacts the Springfield Police Department. They arrive at
Speaker 1: seeing shortly after, and they are kind of immediately concerned
Speaker 1: with what they're saying, or rather what they're not saying,
Speaker 1: so they ask everyone to leave so they can start
Speaker 1: a proper investigation. And they find all the things they've
Speaker 1: already discussed, the purses, the keys, the cars. There are
Speaker 1: no signs of forced entry, the vehicles all of them
Speaker 1: are locked. There are no viable fingerprints, no DNA swabs, etc.
Speaker 1: But again, the community of friends and family to the
Speaker 1: girls like they had already been in and out of
Speaker 1: the house, so and we know that they cleaned and
Speaker 1: straightened up, so anything that could have been there may
Speaker 1: have very well been erased basically, and from what I read,
Speaker 1: it could have been somewhere between ten and twenty people
Speaker 1: in and out of that house before the police were
Speaker 1: ever called. Again, this is the early nineties, so none
Speaker 1: of that is really that unusual now. When police leave
Speaker 1: the scene put a note on the front door, asking
Speaker 1: the girls to call them. You know that there's a
Speaker 1: possible missing person's report being made, so you know, when
Speaker 1: they get home, they need to call and let everyone
Speaker 1: know they're safe. Now, I feel like everyone really thought
Speaker 1: very lightly of this whole scenario because, think about it,
Speaker 1: from what they're seeing, these three women vanished without a trace,
Speaker 1: and that's not that's not normal. So everyone leaves notice
Speaker 1: on the door, a call never comes, nobody ever hears
Speaker 1: from them. So flyers are eventually hung around town, surrounding areas,
Speaker 1: rivers are searched, hospitals are called, tips were followed, the
Speaker 1: neighborhood is canvassed. There is still nothing, and not only
Speaker 1: were the local police department involved, but so were the
Speaker 1: Missouri State Police and even the FBI. So on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: June tenth, this is, you know, a few days after
Speaker 1: they're scene is missing, the Cheryl's parents, they finally arrived
Speaker 1: to Springfield. There's not really any more details on that.
Speaker 1: I just feel like that's important that they do travel
Speaker 1: to Springfield to be there to hopefully find out what's
Speaker 1: going on. On Thursday, June eleventh, Bart, who is Susie's
Speaker 1: brother in Cheryl's son, he undergoes a polygraph exam, he passes.
Speaker 1: It seems he was kind of a big person of
Speaker 1: interest for them, maybe because of the whole falling out thing,
Speaker 1: but he admits that he hadn't actually seen or spoken
Speaker 1: to his mother or sister in months, but there's nothing
Speaker 1: linking him to the crime. We also know that some
Speaker 1: of Susie's ex boyfriends are questioned. One of them actually
Speaker 1: was known to be violent, but again they take polygraph
Speaker 1: test and they pass. We have both of Cheryl's ex
Speaker 1: husbands are interviewed. Both of them are quickly ruled out.
Speaker 1: So throughout the years, there have been many speculations, many rumors.
Speaker 1: Of course, nothing has been proven. No one has been
Speaker 1: officially linked or arrested, and the case still remains unsolved.
Speaker 1: Now Here are a few of the theories and possibilities
Speaker 1: that are in reports. A convicted felon was in the
Speaker 1: area at that same time of the disappearance. He was
Speaker 1: interviewed in nineteen ninety six, so that would have been
Speaker 1: four years later. Apparently he had worked with Stacy's father
Speaker 1: and claimed to know where the women, or claim to
Speaker 1: know the women were already dead, but there was nothing
Speaker 1: substantial for detectives to go on a concrete company that
Speaker 1: was tied to a possible vehicle from the case. The
Speaker 1: grounds of the company that was researched in two thousand
Speaker 1: and two and again nothing. Then in two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: tips took the investigators to a piece of farmland. There
Speaker 1: was blood found in something that can link to that
Speaker 1: same respect a concrete company vehicle, but we find inconclusive results.
Speaker 1: Speculations about a hospital parking lot came up in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. A local writer took it upon himself
Speaker 1: to hire someone to scan the area with radar. That
Speaker 1: scan picked up three distinctive objects, but the police didn't
Speaker 1: think it was credible because the construction for the building
Speaker 1: hadn't began until like a year after the case opened.
Speaker 1: So the girls went missing in ninety two, so the
Speaker 1: construction would have began in ninety three. The tip also
Speaker 1: came from a psychic, and it kind of looks like
Speaker 1: no other investigation was done. We should also consider the
Speaker 1: one main piece of evidence that was at the scene,
Speaker 1: the broken porch light globe. You know, could this have
Speaker 1: been part of the perpetrator's plans, Like I said, maybe
Speaker 1: the light was switched or when the light was switched,
Speaker 1: the light didn't come on, so maybe he was hiding
Speaker 1: in the darkness. Maybe the globe was broken in a struggle.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's absolutely meaningless. But this is something else we'll
Speaker 1: never know because the kids unknowingly throughout the evidence. Some
Speaker 1: question who the target was. Was it the older woman, Cheryl,
Speaker 1: the mom of two? Was it the teenagers freshly out
Speaker 1: of high school? Did one of them have a stalker?
Speaker 1: Did something happen that calls one of them to intentionally disappear?
Speaker 1: Did something happen at graduation? Is it someone they went
Speaker 1: to school with, someone that they worked with. There's so
Speaker 1: many possibilities because there's so much that's unknown. It's possible
Speaker 1: someone you know, pose as a utility worker or a neighbor,
Speaker 1: someone that would give the girls an excuse to willingly
Speaker 1: step outside. Because remember, there were no signs of foul play,
Speaker 1: nothing at a place, no overturned furniture, no valuable stolen.
Speaker 1: Remember there was nine hundred dollars in one of the purses.
Speaker 1: The only thing we have is the broken globe and
Speaker 1: an unlocked door. Speaking of theories, I think it's important
Speaker 1: to cover a couple of rumors. I found There had
Speaker 1: been reports that satanic items were found in Cecy's bedroom,
Speaker 1: but there's nothing supporting this. There was also a rumor
Speaker 1: that Cheryl was renting one of the rooms to or
Speaker 1: an extra income, But what I've been able to find
Speaker 1: is the home only had two bedrooms, so that wouldn't
Speaker 1: really make sense to rent out a bedroom that was
Speaker 1: already occupied. So this goes to show you that not
Speaker 1: all information that you hear or information you read is factual,
Speaker 1: and you have to be mindful of that always. Looking
Speaker 1: back at other details on the night of the party's
Speaker 1: friends say that the girls weren't acting any differently, that
Speaker 1: they were happy, enjoying themselves. No one recalled seeing anyone
Speaker 1: looking around, and there's even no talk about alcohol drugs,
Speaker 1: which some look at as a common thing for this
Speaker 1: time period, I mean recent graduates, graduation parties. You expect
Speaker 1: there to be alcohol and drugs involved, but it all
Speaker 1: kind of just shows that nothing was out of the
Speaker 1: normal that night. A few witnesses report seeing a nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies green colored van near the residence on Delmore on
Speaker 1: that June day. Some of those same witnesses believed that
Speaker 1: it was Susie in the driver's seat, that it was
Speaker 1: someone that looked just like her, and she looked stressed,
Speaker 1: and those same witnesses said they could hear a man's
Speaker 1: voice saying, don't do anything stupid. Now, police do attempt
Speaker 1: to follow this tip. Remember I mentioned that, hey, there
Speaker 1: was a vehicle that led them to inspecting a concrete company. Well,
Speaker 1: this is that vehicle. And honestly, they searched thousands of vans,
Speaker 1: but nothing substantial. Once again, it's believed that whatever happened
Speaker 1: to those girls had been between the hours of two
Speaker 1: thirty am and seven thirty am. That's a five hour
Speaker 1: time span, and despite the close quarters of neighboring homes,
Speaker 1: nothing unusual was heard or seen. No screams, no commotion. Now,
Speaker 1: before we wrap things up, let's look at our persons
Speaker 1: of interest. Robert Craig Cox. He is a convicted kidnapper,
Speaker 1: Robert and former military man. He lived in Springfield at
Speaker 1: the time the disappearances. His girlfriend at the time confirmed
Speaker 1: his alibi, but she's since then recanted. Even though Robert
Speaker 1: has taunted police for years in claims he knows where
Speaker 1: the bodies are, there has been nothing verifying him or
Speaker 1: linking him to the case. Another person of interest is
Speaker 1: Larry de Wayne Hall, another convicted person, this time sillery
Speaker 1: killer from the Midwest. He could possibly tie the case
Speaker 1: the casey targets young women. We also have Stephen Garrison,
Speaker 1: another local criminal with a violent history of sexual assaults.
Speaker 1: A tip came in stating that Stephen had been heard
Speaker 1: bragging about his involvement in the case. Yet again nothing definitive. Lastly,
Speaker 1: we have Gerald Carnahan, also from the Springfield area and
Speaker 1: known as a wealthy businessman. Now, he was actually convicted
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven for the murder of a
Speaker 1: young woman from nineteen eighty five. Her name was Jackie Johns,
Speaker 1: by the way, so this obviously puts him in the
Speaker 1: lineup for being a possible suspect to what happened to
Speaker 1: the girls. But where does where does the case stand? Today?
Speaker 1: We know that police have compiled somewhere around twenty seven
Speaker 1: thousand pages of information, They've received more than five thousand tips,
Speaker 1: and they've conducted countless holographs and chase leads over twenty
Speaker 1: one states. The case is still active and we still
Speaker 1: know very little about what happened that day, even thirty
Speaker 1: four years later, And added Fyi, there is still a
Speaker 1: reward of forty three thousand dollars for information in this case.
Speaker 1: Despite everything and all the unknowns, we still have hope.
Speaker 1: The families of those girls still have hope that answers
Speaker 1: will come one day. Like I always ask, if you
Speaker 1: have any details worth sharing, or maybe you have your
Speaker 1: own theory, anything at all, please reach out. You can
Speaker 1: connect with us on Instagram, WordPress, Patreon, and all the
Speaker 1: listening platforms. Just search for the Shouted and Darkness podcast
Speaker 1: and you'll find us. Thank you for tuning in today
Speaker 1: and there. If there's a case from your hometown that
Speaker 1: deserves attention, send it to us. We want you to
Speaker 1: reach out. Tune in next week as we dive into
Speaker 1: the case of the Cleveland Torso murders. Until next time, Gules,
Speaker 1: remember the truth is always hiding in the darkness.