Post by hi224 on May 13, 2021 6:25:35 GMT
For Sherrill Levitt, her daughter Suzie Streeter, and Suzie's friend Stacy McCall, June 6, 1992 was a day of celebration. For their families and friends, the following days would be straight out of a nightmare.
Sherrill, Suzie, and Stacy went missing from Springfield, Missouri.
Sorry if this one has been done to death here. It's one of the cases that got me into true crime (shoutout to that one episode of Disappeared), so I wanted to share it.
The Springfield Three
Sherrill Levitt -- 47 years old, a single mother to Suzie and her son Bartt. Sherill was a cosmetologist (more specifically, a hairdresser). She was divorced from Suzie and Bartt's father, as well as a second husband whose financial troubles caught up to her when he couldn't be found by creditors. Due to this, she had recently downsized to a smaller home.
Suzie Streeter -- 19 years old, and high school graduate. Suzie lived with her mother after a failed stint living with her brother Bartt. Suzie's former romantic relationships would become focal points of the initial investigation, particularly her relationships with Mike Kovacs and Dustin Recla.
Stacy McCall -- 18 years old, high school graduate and childhood friend of Suzie. Stacy's mother, Janis, was the initial reporter of the disappearance. Stacy was not initially meant to stay at Suzie's house, but a last-minute change of plans led her there. Her mother's concern over her whereabouts kickstart the investigation.
June 6, 1992
The afternoon of June 6th saw the graduation of Stacy and Suzie from Kickapoo High School. The day went off without a hitch and, after attending separate family dinners, the girls met back up, alongside their friend, Janelle Kirby. The three girls initially planned to travel to nearby Branson late that evening, stay at a motel, and go to a waterpark in the morning to celebrate graduation. However, upon spending time at 2 parties (one of which had been reported for noise to the police), the girls had decided not to make the trip to Branson after all. They settled on staying at Janelle Kirby's house, but due to the amount of Kirby's relatives visiting for graduation that were staying at the house, decided to go to Suzie's house at 1717 East Delmar Street. The trio split up at around 2am on June 7th, with Stacy and Suzie getting into their own cars and heading to Suzie's with the promise of meeting back up in the morning.
Sherrill had been refinishing a piece of furniture and spoke to a friend on the phone at about 11pm. This is the last confirmed "sighting" of Sherrill.
The Morning After
Janelle Kirby fully expected to meet up with her friends later that morning. When she had called Suzie and Sherrill's house, she had been met with no reply several times. Expecting the girls to still be asleep, Kirby and her boyfriend (who I believe was named Mike) headed to the house on Delmar, where they had not visited before. This was at about 9am, 7 hours before the last confirmed sighting of Suzie and Stacy. Before even entering the home, there was something amiss. The globe surrounding the porch light (not the bulb itself) was shattered, with glass all over the porch. Assuming it to be nothing out of the ordinary, Janelle and Mike cleaned it up. Later, the police would admit that this attempt at a kind gesture may have swept away evidence. The two opened the door and headed inside, finding nothing out of the ordinary initially. The beds appeared slept in, and there was signs of the girls having taken makeup off. The only odd thing they found was Sherrill's Yorkshire Terrier, Cinnamon, barking nervously and looking to be picked up. Leaving the dog unattended was unusual for Sherrill, according to those who knew her. While the two were there, the phone rang, and Janelle answered. The caller was male and made strange sexual comments. Upset, Janelle hung up, but the phone rang again. The same caller said similar things. Janelle and Mike brushed this off, assumed that Suzie and Stacy had gone to the waterpark without them, and left. Some reports say that they looked through Sherrill's wallet and found $900.
In the interim, several others had been in and out of the house, moving small things around the crime scene, not knowing it was one yet.
Stacy had called her mother, Janis, to let her know that they'd be staying at Janelle's house, much to Janis' relief. She had not been crazy about the girls heading to the motel so late, so she was happy that her daughter would be safe at the Kirby home. Stacy didn't inform her mother that she'd wound up heading to Suzie's instead. After not hearing from Stacy, Janis called the Kirby home, and was informed they had gone to Suzie's. Janis did not have the phone number for the new home, though she did eventually get it. She didn't get an answer, and headed over to the house at about 1pm. After getting no answer from knocking, she reluctantly went inside and found nothing amiss, save for the absence of her daughter and the home's occupants. She panicked and called 911, but not before listening to the voicemails on the answering machine. One message of note, which Janis described as "strange" ended up being deleted. The police were unable to recover the message, and Janis couldn't remember it.
The Investigation
Unsurprisingly, there were some uncorroborated sightings of the women reported upon the realization that they were missing. One sighting was at a favorite restaurant of Suzie and Sherrill by a waitress. She claimed that the three women had been there and talked to three "clean-cut men" and seemed not to be under any distress. This sighting has not been corroborated by any other employees of the restaurant.
A more insidious sighting was reported by a neighbor of Sherrill and Suzie. This neighbor claimed to see Suzie driving a green van, looking nervous, and being told by an unseen man to not do anything stupid. This sighting was reported some time after the women went missing.
The investigation was hampered by the insecurity of the crime scene. The number of people in and out of the home made it hard to know exactly how the scene would have looked immediately after the disappearance. The missing message that Janis McCall accidentally deleted was of interest to investigators, but they don't think that they were related.
Suspects
Robert Craig Cox -- Cox was interviewed at the time, but had been given an alibi by a girlfriend who claimed he had been at church with her. Years later, however, Cox, having been jailed for a kidnapping, claimed to have known that they were murdered.
Mike Kovacs -- Kovacs was an ex-boyfriend of Suzie's who she had a temporary restraining order against. She had lived with Kovacs briefly, but he had allegedly abused her. The court proceedings were ongoing at the time of Suzie's disappearance.
Dustin Recla -- Recla, another ex-boyfriend of Suzie, and his friends had committed grave robberies, intending to pawn off gold teeth they found. Suzie had been preparing to testify against Recla and his friends at the time she went missing.
Bartt Streeter -- For all intents and purposes, Bartt was cleared by investigators. However, given the closeness to Suzie and Sherrill, as well as his tumultuous relationship with them as well as an alcohol addiction, he has fallen under suspicion.
Truthfully, there are many suspects that have been floated, but due to the lack of information on the disappearance and absence of bodies, there is little to go on outside of eyewitnesses.
Conclusions
Honestly, I can't make heads or tails of this one. The lack of information makes it very hard to discern the motivation, or the actual target. The question of who the target was is, in my opinion, at the center of this case. If this was targeted at all. There is always the possibility that this was a crime of opportunity.
I chose not to include the psychic theory because I'm not a fan of psychic involvement in these types of cases. I completely respect anyone who likes to use psychics and their theories on this sub! I just don't like it myself. I think that there is a lot of room for exploitation of desperate people by alleged mediums looking for attention and/or money. I'm not a skeptic or anything (big fan of the supernatural lol), but I don't like to count it as fact in cases like this.
All in all, I'm really curious to see what everyone thinks, because I have absolutely no good theories!
Sources
This great episode of u/robinwarder1 's podcast The Trail Went Cold (HIGHLY recommend the show!)
Springfield Three Wiki
Springfield PD's Website
Local News Station story (KY3)
Disappeared, Season 3 episode 10
Sherrill, Suzie, and Stacy went missing from Springfield, Missouri.
Sorry if this one has been done to death here. It's one of the cases that got me into true crime (shoutout to that one episode of Disappeared), so I wanted to share it.
The Springfield Three
Sherrill Levitt -- 47 years old, a single mother to Suzie and her son Bartt. Sherill was a cosmetologist (more specifically, a hairdresser). She was divorced from Suzie and Bartt's father, as well as a second husband whose financial troubles caught up to her when he couldn't be found by creditors. Due to this, she had recently downsized to a smaller home.
Suzie Streeter -- 19 years old, and high school graduate. Suzie lived with her mother after a failed stint living with her brother Bartt. Suzie's former romantic relationships would become focal points of the initial investigation, particularly her relationships with Mike Kovacs and Dustin Recla.
Stacy McCall -- 18 years old, high school graduate and childhood friend of Suzie. Stacy's mother, Janis, was the initial reporter of the disappearance. Stacy was not initially meant to stay at Suzie's house, but a last-minute change of plans led her there. Her mother's concern over her whereabouts kickstart the investigation.
June 6, 1992
The afternoon of June 6th saw the graduation of Stacy and Suzie from Kickapoo High School. The day went off without a hitch and, after attending separate family dinners, the girls met back up, alongside their friend, Janelle Kirby. The three girls initially planned to travel to nearby Branson late that evening, stay at a motel, and go to a waterpark in the morning to celebrate graduation. However, upon spending time at 2 parties (one of which had been reported for noise to the police), the girls had decided not to make the trip to Branson after all. They settled on staying at Janelle Kirby's house, but due to the amount of Kirby's relatives visiting for graduation that were staying at the house, decided to go to Suzie's house at 1717 East Delmar Street. The trio split up at around 2am on June 7th, with Stacy and Suzie getting into their own cars and heading to Suzie's with the promise of meeting back up in the morning.
Sherrill had been refinishing a piece of furniture and spoke to a friend on the phone at about 11pm. This is the last confirmed "sighting" of Sherrill.
The Morning After
Janelle Kirby fully expected to meet up with her friends later that morning. When she had called Suzie and Sherrill's house, she had been met with no reply several times. Expecting the girls to still be asleep, Kirby and her boyfriend (who I believe was named Mike) headed to the house on Delmar, where they had not visited before. This was at about 9am, 7 hours before the last confirmed sighting of Suzie and Stacy. Before even entering the home, there was something amiss. The globe surrounding the porch light (not the bulb itself) was shattered, with glass all over the porch. Assuming it to be nothing out of the ordinary, Janelle and Mike cleaned it up. Later, the police would admit that this attempt at a kind gesture may have swept away evidence. The two opened the door and headed inside, finding nothing out of the ordinary initially. The beds appeared slept in, and there was signs of the girls having taken makeup off. The only odd thing they found was Sherrill's Yorkshire Terrier, Cinnamon, barking nervously and looking to be picked up. Leaving the dog unattended was unusual for Sherrill, according to those who knew her. While the two were there, the phone rang, and Janelle answered. The caller was male and made strange sexual comments. Upset, Janelle hung up, but the phone rang again. The same caller said similar things. Janelle and Mike brushed this off, assumed that Suzie and Stacy had gone to the waterpark without them, and left. Some reports say that they looked through Sherrill's wallet and found $900.
In the interim, several others had been in and out of the house, moving small things around the crime scene, not knowing it was one yet.
Stacy had called her mother, Janis, to let her know that they'd be staying at Janelle's house, much to Janis' relief. She had not been crazy about the girls heading to the motel so late, so she was happy that her daughter would be safe at the Kirby home. Stacy didn't inform her mother that she'd wound up heading to Suzie's instead. After not hearing from Stacy, Janis called the Kirby home, and was informed they had gone to Suzie's. Janis did not have the phone number for the new home, though she did eventually get it. She didn't get an answer, and headed over to the house at about 1pm. After getting no answer from knocking, she reluctantly went inside and found nothing amiss, save for the absence of her daughter and the home's occupants. She panicked and called 911, but not before listening to the voicemails on the answering machine. One message of note, which Janis described as "strange" ended up being deleted. The police were unable to recover the message, and Janis couldn't remember it.
The Investigation
Unsurprisingly, there were some uncorroborated sightings of the women reported upon the realization that they were missing. One sighting was at a favorite restaurant of Suzie and Sherrill by a waitress. She claimed that the three women had been there and talked to three "clean-cut men" and seemed not to be under any distress. This sighting has not been corroborated by any other employees of the restaurant.
A more insidious sighting was reported by a neighbor of Sherrill and Suzie. This neighbor claimed to see Suzie driving a green van, looking nervous, and being told by an unseen man to not do anything stupid. This sighting was reported some time after the women went missing.
The investigation was hampered by the insecurity of the crime scene. The number of people in and out of the home made it hard to know exactly how the scene would have looked immediately after the disappearance. The missing message that Janis McCall accidentally deleted was of interest to investigators, but they don't think that they were related.
Suspects
Robert Craig Cox -- Cox was interviewed at the time, but had been given an alibi by a girlfriend who claimed he had been at church with her. Years later, however, Cox, having been jailed for a kidnapping, claimed to have known that they were murdered.
Mike Kovacs -- Kovacs was an ex-boyfriend of Suzie's who she had a temporary restraining order against. She had lived with Kovacs briefly, but he had allegedly abused her. The court proceedings were ongoing at the time of Suzie's disappearance.
Dustin Recla -- Recla, another ex-boyfriend of Suzie, and his friends had committed grave robberies, intending to pawn off gold teeth they found. Suzie had been preparing to testify against Recla and his friends at the time she went missing.
Bartt Streeter -- For all intents and purposes, Bartt was cleared by investigators. However, given the closeness to Suzie and Sherrill, as well as his tumultuous relationship with them as well as an alcohol addiction, he has fallen under suspicion.
Truthfully, there are many suspects that have been floated, but due to the lack of information on the disappearance and absence of bodies, there is little to go on outside of eyewitnesses.
Conclusions
Honestly, I can't make heads or tails of this one. The lack of information makes it very hard to discern the motivation, or the actual target. The question of who the target was is, in my opinion, at the center of this case. If this was targeted at all. There is always the possibility that this was a crime of opportunity.
I chose not to include the psychic theory because I'm not a fan of psychic involvement in these types of cases. I completely respect anyone who likes to use psychics and their theories on this sub! I just don't like it myself. I think that there is a lot of room for exploitation of desperate people by alleged mediums looking for attention and/or money. I'm not a skeptic or anything (big fan of the supernatural lol), but I don't like to count it as fact in cases like this.
All in all, I'm really curious to see what everyone thinks, because I have absolutely no good theories!
Sources
This great episode of u/robinwarder1 's podcast The Trail Went Cold (HIGHLY recommend the show!)
Springfield Three Wiki
Springfield PD's Website
Local News Station story (KY3)
Disappeared, Season 3 episode 10