Stacy, Suzie, and Sherrill: Mystery in the Ozarks // 610

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Going West: True Crime

Episode: Stacy, Suzie, and Sherrill: Mystery in the Ozarks // 610
Release Date: May 22, 2026
Hosts: Daphne Woolsoncroft and Heath (“Teeth”) Merryman

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Overview

This episode of Going West: True Crime explores the baffling and spooky 1992 disappearance of “The Springfield 3”—Sherrill Levitt, her daughter Susie Streeter, and Susie’s friend Stacy McCall—from their home in Springfield, Missouri. Despite years of investigation, theories, and rumors, the case remains unsolved. The hosts walk listeners through the women’s backgrounds, the timeline of their disappearance, baffling details at the scene, and the main suspects and theories that have emerged—trying to unravel why and how three women vanished without a trace.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction & Background of Victims

[02:58–11:02]

• The Springfield 3 vanished after Susie and Stacy returned to Susie and Cheryl’s (Susie’s mother) house following a night of graduation celebrations.
• Victim Profiles:
  • Stacy McCall: 18, described as “fun and bubbly,” recent high school graduate, planning to attend university, worked as a secretary and wedding model.
  • Susie Streeter: 19, close to Stacy since childhood, described as strong-willed, worked at a movie theater, hoped to follow her mother’s footsteps as a hair stylist.
  • Sherrill Levitt: 47, single mother, hair stylist, described as passionate, loving, and recently divorced.
• Family Dynamics:
  • Susie’s older brother, Bart, had struggled with alcoholism and violence, leading to estrangement but was reconnecting with Susie before the disappearance.

2. Timeline of Events

[12:23–23:17]

• June 6, 1992: Stacy and Susie attend graduation and multiple parties. They plan to stay at a friend Janelle’s but, due to a crowded house, head to Susie’s home around 2–2:15 a.m.
• Cheryl was not expecting them, spent the evening alone.
• At 7:30 a.m. on June 7, Janelle tries to reach the girls—no answer. By 12:30pm, Janelle and boyfriend Mike go to the house:
  • All three women’s cars are present.
  • Shards of broken porch light glass on the front step.
  • No signs of struggle inside; house is undisturbed but the women—and only a small dog are—missing.
• [17:22] Disturbing phone calls: While waiting at the house, Janelle answers two obscene phone calls from a man, echoing earlier prank calls Susie had received in the days before vanishing.

3. Discovery of a Crime Scene That Wasn’t

[20:09–23:17]

• The women’s purses were neatly lined up inside, containing valuables, IDs, money, medications, and essentials—indicating none had planned to leave.
• TV left on; beds appeared slept in; graduation gown on a chair.
• No forced entry, no sign of struggle, but found evidence the women had returned home, washed off makeup, and possibly read before bed.

“It was truly like they evaporated.” — Daphne [16:40]

4. Early Investigation & Critical Mistakes

[24:23–34:42]

• Stacy’s parents alerted by her absence; families, friends, and later, police all walk through the house (possibly disturbing evidence).
• Janice (Stacy’s mother) accidentally deletes a crucial voicemail while calling from Susie’s house. The message, believed to be another obscene call, was lost forever.
  • “I’m sure that that was such a horrific slip that haunted her forever.” — Daphne [33:39]
• Both police and the public are left not knowing the exact content of the call.

5. Neighborhood & Scene Analysis

[35:36–38:11]

• House located close to busy businesses and a highway, but crime occurs undetected at night.
• The inconspicuous street location makes the trio’s disappearance even more confounding—neither remote nor private.

6. Emerging Leads and Theories

[38:11–61:31]

6.1. Key Suspects:

• Bart Streeter (Susie's brother):

  • History of violence, but alibied out of suspicion—passed polygraph, but later attempted abductions eerily reminiscent of the crime (e.g., in 2019, tried to take a 15-year-old from a Tennessee nail salon) [41:49].
  • “He’s kind of looking like a good suspect.” — Teeth [43:49]

• Larry Dwayne Hall:

  • Multiple murder convictions, known to confess to other crimes without evidence, allegedly confessed to this one.
  • No verifiable connection beyond false or unproven admissions.

• Dustin Rechla (Susie’s ex-boyfriend):

  • Involved in grave robbing months before, stealing gold teeth; Susie was due to testify against him and had received threats.
  • Polygraphs and fingerprint checks didn’t connect him or his friends to the scene, but alibis are weak and motive exists.
  • “He [Dustin] even told an interrogating officer that he wished Susie was dead.” — Daphne [46:33]

• Robert Craig Cox:

  • Convicted kidnapper/murderer, was living in Springfield, working on the same street, and may have known Stacy’s family.
  • Original alibi (backed by girlfriend) fell apart; later hinted to media he knew what happened, claimed he’d reveal details when his mother died.
  • “He said, ‘I just know that they’re dead. It’s not a theory...I just know that.’” — Daphne [50:42]

6.2. Other Investigation Details:

• A neighbor claims to have seen Susie in a “distressed” state in a van driven by a man; nothing ever came of this [39:10].
• Disturbed blinds in Susie’s room suggest someone may have been peering outside before the abduction.
• [53:24] Debate about whether the prank/obscene calls were from the actual perpetrator, a local teen, or were just a cruel coincidence.
• [55:19] The timing and context of the calls lead hosts to suspect they might be unrelated teenage pranks, not evidence of the actual crime.

7. Unanswered Questions & Reflections

[56:16–62:25]

• Why was this night chosen?
  • Three cars in the driveway, multiple people inside—odd for a targeted abduction.
  • Perpetrator(s) may have had a gun to control victims.
  • Did someone know all three would be there, or did they strike at the “worst possible” moment by accident?
• Why no struggle or evidence?
  • “By almost every measure, that night was the worst possible time to commit the crime. Unless, for whatever reason, they wanted all three of them, which wouldn’t make any sense.” — Daphne [58:34]
  • Possible scenarios: followed from party, stalked, or perpetrator already inside.
• No physical or forensic evidence: Despite searches and leads, nothing definitive has ever been found.

8. Speculation, Theories, and the Cold Case

[61:31–65:13]

• A theory persists that the women are buried under a hospital parking lot built more than a year after the disappearance — police have found this highly dubious.
• The case is officially cold, though still open—now nearly 34 years old.
• Stats: Reward stands at $42,000; the women’s physical descriptions and tipline were shared.

“This is just like, what happened to them? Who did this and why?” — Daphne [64:27]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the House Scene:

  “The scene that the three women left behind truly could not have been less indicative of a crime scene. I mean, there was nothing here. It was truly like they evaporated.”
  — Daphne [16:40]

• On the Difficulty of the Crime:

  “It’s like this one feels like there were so many ways it could have been solved. There’s good suspects in it. We had a voicemail, but it accidentally got deleted. I mean, it’s just so perplexing and frustrating beyond mind boggling.”
  — Daphne [65:03]

• On Unsolved Nature:

  “I know that a lot of you guys know this case, are invested in this case, but damn. It's like this one feels like there were so many ways it could have been solved...it’s just so perplexing and frustrating beyond mind boggling.”
  — Teeth [64:46]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:58 | Overview & victim backgrounds | | 12:23 | Timeline: graduation night, party-hopping, evening events | | 13:36 | The women return to Susie’s house | | 16:40 | Discovery of the “quiet” crime scene | | 17:22 | Disturbing obscene phone calls begin | | 22:52 | Discovery: women’s purses & house details | | 24:23 | Arrival of Stacy’s mother, crucial voicemail deleted | | 35:36 | Police investigation, location context | | 38:11 | Leads, witness sighting of van, local business context | | 41:49 | Bart Streeter’s later criminal charges | | 46:33 | Susie’s ex-boyfriend Dustin Rechla and grave robbing details | | 48:52 | Robert Craig Cox’s possible involvement | | 50:40 | Robert Cox’s chilling claims | | 53:24 | Debate: prank caller’s significance | | 56:16 | Perplexing logistics: why that night, why those victims | | 61:31 | Speculation: bodies under hospital parking lot | | 62:25 | Reward, victim stats, call for tips | | 64:27 | Reflections, outro |

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Conclusion

“The Springfield 3” remains one of America’s most chilling missing persons mysteries. Despite solid suspects—with ties ranging from violent ex-boyfriends to serial offenders—there is no forensic evidence, confession, or recovery of the women. The neatness of the house, the existence of strange phone calls, absence of motive, and the complete lack of struggle all continue to confound. Daphne and Teeth reflect on how years of investigation, suspect leads, and lost opportunities—including the deleted voicemail—have failed to bring closure to one of Ozark’s most iconic cold cases.

Tipline: If you have information about the case, contact Springfield Crime Stoppers at 417-869-8477.
Reward: $42,000 for information leading to an arrest.

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For visuals, neighborhood maps, and photos, visit Going West on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.

Transcript

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[Teeth]

What is going on? True crime fans? I'm your host, Teeth.

[Daphne]

And I'm your host, Daphne.

[Teeth]

And you're listening to Going West.

[Daphne]

Hello everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Big shout out to Angela, Sonny, Jace, Lyn, Justin and Casey who all recommended this case over the years. This is another one that I have heard of time and time again and never dove into and it is one of the spookiest, most mysterious stories I have ever looked into.

[Teeth]

Yes, and we love diving into these ones because, you know, it's so mind boggling. You just are left scratching your head because you don't know where what happened to these people?

[Daphne]

This is definition, a head scratcher. So really excited to talk about this one with you guys. Make sure that you're sharing the posts that we're sharing on our socials to get the word out on this case more and more. You never know. It could totally make a difference. So thank you guys for tuning into this one, especially if you've already heard it and without further ado.

[Teeth]

All right guys, this is episode 610 of going west. So let's get into it.

[Daphne]

SA. In June of 1992, three women vanished without a trace from a quiet home in Springfield, Missouri. Susie Streeter, her friend Stacey McCall and Susie's mother, Cheryl Levitt, had returned home after a graduation celebration, never to be seen again. And a cryptic, unsettling message on the answering machine was erased before police could hear it. What should have been a safe, ordinary night became one of the most haunting mysteries in American true crime. This is the disappearance of the spirit Springfield. 3. Stacey McCall was born on April 23, 1974 to parents Janice and Stewart and was the youngest of three girls. She was described by her mom as fun and bubbly and her family lovingly referred to her as Spirit Spacey Stacy. She was a gifted student who loved to read and was coming to the end of her tenure at Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri, which is the largest city in the Ozarks region of the state. So after graduation, she planned on attending Southwest Missouri State University and she was really hoping to pledge a sorority there too. Now, at the time of her disappearance, she was working as a secretary at Springfield Gymnastics and also enjoyed modeling wedding dresses for the Total Bride, which was a local bridal shop owned by some family friends. In June of 1992, when today's story takes place, Stacy was preparing to graduate from Kickapoo High School alongside one of her best friends, Susie Streeter, who she had been friends with since second grade. But for many years of their childhood they had drifted apart but recently reconnected and became very close. Obviously this happens all the time, you get other friends, you have different interests, but in recent years they had gotten really, really close again. Suzanne or Susie Streeter was born on March 9, 1973 to parents Cheryl Levitt and Brent Streeter. Though they divorced soon after Susie was born and in 1981, her mom Cheryl relocated to the Ozarks region of Missouri, believing that it would offer the best possible upbringing for her daughter Susie, who she had a very tight knit relationship with. At the time of her disappearance, 19 year old Susie, who was actually held back in second grade, making her a year older than everybody at her high school. That's why she's 19 when she's graduating, was working at her local movie theater. And like her mom, Cheryl planned to become a hairstylist following her upcoming graduation from Kickapoo High School. Susie was sweet, outspoken and strong willed and was said to be drawn to more of the bad boys in her grade. She was also known for her unique style which she loved, you know, putting together her outfits, usually from a good thrift store. Now her Mom. Cheryl was a hardworking single mother who was a hairstylist in the area, obviously, like I just said. And she was known to be beloved by her clients. Always remembering their coffee order and having it ready to go when they arrived. You know, she, she liked to go the extra mile. And she was also just really great at hair.

[Teeth]

I think that's really nice. You know, she's, she's trying to do a little something extra for her clients.

[Daphne]

Yeah. Something special. So according to her sister Deborah, Cheryl was intense and passionate, which were traits that she also instilled in her daughter. She was known for being a responsible and loving mother to her daughter. And having been recently divorced from her second husband. So Susie's stepfather. She really just wanted to focus on making a new home for she and Susie at this point in time. This is around Susie's graduation. You know, of course she knows her daughter is going to follow in her footsteps. She's not necessarily going to flee the nest right away. So she's like, okay, I'm just gonna focus on myself and my daughter and making a nice home for us.

[Teeth]

Sure. Time to put down some roots.

[Daphne]

Yeah. Because also, shortly before her disappearance, alongside her daughter, she had purchased a modest house for them located on East Del Mar street in Springfield, just southeast of downtown. This is the house where everything is gonna happen today. So we'll go ahead and post photos of the street and the outside of the house on our social. So you guys can see now. Actually, Susie had only recently moved back in with her mom to this house on East Del Mar street after a little stint of staying with her brother Bart at his home, which was also in Springfield. And this was like kind of in an attempt to rekindle their relationship because for years, her brother Bart, her older brother Bart had been estranged from both his mom Cheryl and sister Susie due to his struggle with alcoholism and erratic, sometimes threatening behavior. So, yeah, Susie living with him for a little while gave them a chance to reconnect.

[Teeth]

Now, let's talk a little bit about 27 year old Bart. So he actually left home at 17 and had struggled with violent tendencies, as Daphne just hinted to, which included physical altercations with his mom, Cheryl, that led to her having to draw a line between Bart and herself and Susie to keep them safe.

[Daphne]

Yeah, I mean, you don't put your hands on your mom.

[Teeth]

Yeah, that's bad. Bad looks there. Well, Susie had allegedly claimed to have been afraid of Bart, but he had recently moved back to Springfield after a bad breakup and just kind of hoped to patch things up with his mom and sister now, Bart had recently secured his first lucrative job, working as a surveyor for urban planning and real estate in this area of Springfield. And since moving back, Susie and Bart's relationship had blossomed so much that this is when she decided to move in with him in hopes of getting even closer. But one night when Bart was drinking heavily, he refused to turn down the stereo despite Susie's repeated complaints that he was disturbing her. And when she walked behind him to turn the stereo down herself, Bart grew so angry that he shoved her away, leaving a bruise. So obviously these old habits of Bart's are still kind of apparent, you know, while Susie is living with him. So that's when Susie moved back in with her mother, Cheryl, because things weren't quite panning out with Bart.

[Daphne]

Yeah, like you're saying Bart was, you know, this was supposed to be a move that would make their relationship even better than it had been as of recent, but it seemed to just kind of make them backpedal again, which, to be fair, can happen when you live with somebody and you're in such close proximity. But yeah, like you're saying, he also showed that Bart maybe hadn't changed that much at all if he's gonna put his hands on his sister just like he put his hands on his mom.

[Teeth]

Right. It seems that Bart, you know, has always had these problems in the past. But I will say, you know, I love my sister and living with your siblings can sometimes be kind of hard.

[Daphne]

But you wouldn't put your hands on your sister.

[Teeth]

No. Well, yeah, no, absolutely. So what I'm saying is this situation even worse.

[Daphne]

Yeah.

[Teeth]

Than what most people would think.

[Daphne]

But I know what you mean. Yeah, like sharing a space is difficult.

[Teeth]

Yeah, it's already difficult despite, you know, Bart being erratic. Well, in the late spring of 1992, Stacy and Susie's senior year was finally winding down and the girls were nearing graduation. June 6th of 1992 brought Kickapoo High School's graduation ceremony, which was held at the Missouri State University Student Center. And following the evening ceremony, 18 year old Stacy and 19 year old Susie were making their way around town to a number of graduation parties. The girls closed out the night attending the party of a mutual friend named Janelle Kirby, arriving around 8:30pm to Janelle's family home on Coach Drive in Battlefield, Missouri. So about 20 minutes southwest of Springfield, all three girls were looking forward to the following day because a large group of friends of theirs were going to head to Whitewater, which is a water park and a resort In Branson, Missouri, which is about an hour south of Springfield.

[Daphne]

I feel like a lot of people do that after graduation.

[Teeth]

Oh yeah, totally. I mean, did you? I. No, I didn't actually get anything like that. I mean, I grew up in a small town. Did you, did you go to like Disneyland or something?

[Daphne]

We went to shoot. I think we went to Knott's Berry Farm and we should have done Disney. I don't know why we didn't do Universal or something, but I'm pretty sure we did Knott's Berry Farm. But they were just going on their own, like not even a part of school. We did that for school graduation. It was like overnight. Yeah. You know, so it was like after graduation everybody gets on the bus and we went to Knott's Berry Farm. But they were just going on their own just as a group of friends.

[Teeth]

Right.

[Daphne]

And you know, they probably didn't get that either.

[Teeth]

Exactly. And some teenagers actually, like after graduation they. They get to take trips or they go on cruises or something. So this is kind of like their version of that.

[Daphne]

Totally.

[Teeth]

So Stacy and Susie were originally planning to stay at Janelle's house for the night and then head to the water park together the next day. But with Janelle's house full of visiting relatives, the girls headed back to Susie's house, arriving between 2 and 2:15am on the morning of Sunday, June 7, 1992 to spend the night.

[Daphne]

So at Susie's house would be Stacy, Susie and Susie's mom Cheryl. And then Stacy and Susie would meet up in a few hours time in the early morning with their friends and head down to Branson for the water park. So Janelle said goodnight to her friends and they left in their separate vehicles to Susie's. Meanwhile, back at Susie's, her mom Cheryl had spent a quiet evening alone repainting a dresser and had spoken to a friend on the phone at 11pm her friend later said that nothing had been out of the ordinary about their conversation and that Cheryl didn't seem to be on edge in the slightest, like she was just having a relaxing solo evening at home. It didn't seem like there was anything wrong or anything going on.

[Teeth]

Right. And she wasn't even expecting Stacy or Susie to be back that night because they had planned on staying at Janelle's.

[Daphne]

Right.

[Teeth]

But Susie and Stacey ultimately decided that they were going to head back to Cheryl's house.

[Daphne]

Exactly. Well, at 7:30am on the morning of June 7th, like Heath said, this was Sunday. So only about five hours after Stacy and Susie had last been seen. Janelle called Susie's house to confirm their plan for the day, but didn't receive an answer. As the morning slipped away into the afternoon, Janelle became increasingly concerned because they had planned to make their way to Branson early. And suddenly Stacy and Susie aren't reachable. You know, by this point, she's like, we should have already left, like, a while ago, and I don't know where you guys are. So they're, like, waiting around. And then finally, at 12:30pm which is now practically the middle of the day, and they're an hour away from Branson, Janelle and her boyfriend Mike headed over to Susie's house to check on the girls. And what they found shocked them. Surprisingly. Stacy, Susie, and Cheryl's cars were all still parked outside, and the keys to all three vehicles were inside the house. Stacy's Toyota Corolla and Susie's red Ford Escort were both parked in the circle driveway that bisected the front yard. And Cheryl's blue Corsica was still in the carport. But when Janelle and Mike reached the front door, a more sinister scene began taking shape on the front porch. In front of the door were shards of shattered glass from the overhead globe light. So Mike kind of just tended to the glass because Janelle, his girlfriend, had come without shoes on. And then they tried the front door and they found it unlocked. The scene that the three women left behind truly could not have been less indicative of a crime scene. I mean, there was nothing here. It was truly like they evaporated.

[Teeth]

Yeah. Just an anomaly.

[Daphne]

Yeah. Because aside from the broken glass outside, there was no sign of a struggle and no sign of Stacey, Susie, or Cheryl anywhere. So Janelle and her boyfriend Mike just kind of waited for a while because again, it doesn't seem like there was anything wrong except for, oh, something must have hit that light, you know, could have been anything. Right. They're just hoping to hear from them, but when they didn't, they decided to leave and just figured they would reach them later. But of course, you know, now the. The day's plans are kind of ruined because they're still a little bit worried they're not just going to go off to the water park without them.

[Teeth]

Sure.

[Daphne]

But then the phone rang. So, wondering if it was perhaps one of the girls, Janelle picked up Susie and Cheryl's house phone. But the caller was a man who was speaking in obscene sexual comments and curse words. So very disturbed by this, Janelle hung up the phone. But the same caller called back again with the same Message just these sexual

[Teeth]

remarks, which is just so creepy.

[Daphne]

I know you're fighting the urge to bring up Black Christmas.

[Teeth]

Yeah. You know, because it really does seem like that. Or, you know, I think there's like the whiny voiced killer kind of. That's what it says.

[Daphne]

The weepy voiced killer.

[Teeth]

Yeah, the weepy voice killer kind of reminds me of that too. But.

[Spectrum Business Advertiser]

Yep.

[Teeth]

Yeah. It's just horrifying that at that moment, while Janelle and Mike are there, the phone rings and it just so happens to be a weirdo on the other line, you know, saying all these sexual and weird things to her, which then

[Daphne]

would give me two notes or two ideas, I guess, that either A, the person who's calling is not involved in whatever's going on.

[Teeth]

Sure.

[Daphne]

Or B, that they're close enough to know that somebody is in the house.

[Teeth]

And this would have been coming from a landline. So is this a local call?

[Daphne]

You would imagine it would have been. So, you know, Janelle is completely rattled by this. She doesn't know where her friends are. She doesn't know who is calling and why they're calling, why they called twice, and why they're saying these horrific things. And I wish we only had this call so we could hear it and know exactly what they were saying and what type of message this really was. Although it probably was just like obscene, like nonsense. Yes, exactly. But she remembered actually that Susie mentioned that she had been receiving prank calls recently, which is also very disturbing, that leading up to her disappearance, she was getting these nasty phone calls. So with no word from their friends, Mike and Janelle decided to leave the house and just abandon their hope of Susie and Stacy joining them for the water park. So as the afternoon came about, Stacy's parents were concerned that they hadn't yet heard from her at all. So Stacy's mom, Janice, called Janelle's house where Stacy had told them that she was spending the night. You know, they didn't know that she ended up going to Susie's. But Janelle's sister then informed Janice that not only was Stacy not at the house, but she hadn't stayed the night there and no one had seen her.

[Teeth]

So, of course, even though she was considering the fact that her daughter had just graduated the day before and had also been out with some friends, Janice called a few people that she knew who actually worked at the water park, but none of them had seen or heard from Stacy or Susie that day. Evening approached, and like Janelle and her boyfriend Mike, Janice decided to head over to Cheryl and Susie's house to check on them herself, because she's like, you know, at this point, there's not really much else I can do. I already called the water park. They're not there. And actually, Janelle and Mike happened to return to the home with their paranoia growing, and the three converged and went inside the house together. Now, yet again, the house was static and empty. But this time, Janice led the three of them through the house to look for the women. And in Susie's bedroom, though, according to some reports, this was actually in the living room, she found the purses of all three women lined up neatly, as if they had been staged. So that meant, wherever they were, that none of the women had their wallets, IDs, keys, or makeup bags with them. Now, strangely, Cheryl's wallet contained about $900 in cash, most likely ruling out the possibility of robbery being a motive for their absence. And also inside her purse were her cigarettes and a lighter, which was quite concerning in itself since Cheryl was known to be a heavy smoker. So it was kind of surprising that she would leave these things behind. And then, of course, their cars were outside and their keys were inside, so they didn't have any of their things and no possible way to leave the area on their own. Stacy's migraine medication, which she always kept on hand, was still in her handbag. The TV was also left on, and Cinnamon, who was Susie and Cheryl's Yorkshire terrier, was safe, but was alone inside the house. A gold graduation gown had been draped across a chair, and both Susie and Cheryl's beds had been left unmade and also appeared as if they had been slept in the night prior. The outfit that Stacy had worn to her graduation, which was a pair of floral print shorts, were folded in a neat pile atop the sandals that she had worn. And the jewelry that she had been wearing was tucked away inside one of her pockets. The only items of hers that were missing were the yellow shirt that she had worn that day and her underwear, because those were the only clothes and shoes that she had with her at the time, leading Janice to worry even more about her whereabouts, because this is

[Daphne]

really painting the picture of them being taken from the home against their will in the night, so much so that Stacey doesn't even put on her floral shorts and her sandals.

[Teeth]

Exactly. But it's so interesting because it's not like there's a bunch of stuff knocked over inside the house. There's not broken windows or anything like that. It's just these things are folded up neatly and then these three women are missing.

[Daphne]

Like they evaporated. It's like it's a quiet disappearance.

[Teeth]

Yeah, it's like being beamed up by a UFO or something. Well, an even more proof of this is that in Susie's room there were even signs that the girls had made it home and gotten ready for bed and likely even gotten to sleep for an undetermined amount of time because there were discarded washcloths in the hamper which indicated that they had wiped their graduation makeup off before going to bed. And strangely, there were also two slats in the blinds that had been wedged open, as if somebody was peering out to the street looking at someone who was outside.

[Daphne]

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[Teeth]

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[Daphne]

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[Teeth]

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[Daphne]

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[Daphne]

If those blind slats were wedged open from the night before and not from some other night. I wonder if to avoid detection because this crime likely happened in the dark hours of night that the the perpetrator broke that front porch light. And that's why it was broken, because it's harder for me to imagine that it would have been broken in a struggle, since there was absolutely no other struggle to be seen. So I wonder if maybe Susie had seen them. But FYI, Susie's bedroom did not look out on the street. Multiple reports state that it faced the back of the house like the backyard. But still, it just makes you wonder if she was awake and she heard something outside. Because also worth noting was the fact that Cheryl's glasses and an open book were left on her bed. And I think this could be a potential tell, because that could indicate that she heard something, too, and maybe put her book down for a second, like, ready to return to it, versus the movement of someone who was putting their book away for the evening to go to bed. You know, you would, like, put a bookmark in it or dog ear the page and then close it and put it away, but it was on her bed. Well, from Susie and Cheryl's house, Janice, who again, is Stacy's mom, called the police to report the women missing and then called her husband so Stacy's father, Stuart, to come over to the house. But unfortunately, in doing so, she may have inadvertently deleted one of the only potential pieces of evidence in the case. Because as she made the phone calls, Janice accidentally deleted a voicemail that had been left on the answering machine of Susie and Cheryl's phone. And according to her best recollection, the voicemail had been another example of the obscene phone call that Janelle experienced earlier that day. But it was the only recorded one that they would have, which obviously could have been a major clue in the case if it was connected.

[Teeth]

Yeah, I mean, this just feels like such a bummer, because obviously, she didn't know. You know, it's like she wasn't trying to delete that message. But unfortunately, if we had that message today, we would maybe know a little

[Daphne]

bit more about the caller, if the caller is connected. So I'm sure that that was such a horrific slip that haunted her forever. Well, to the best of her ability, she thought back to what was going on in the call and told investigators that it was a man's voice making sexual remarks and innuendos and cursing. But detectives were unable to be sure without the recording, which caused a really early setback in the investigation, as the call was unable to be traced. And by the way, the police have stated that they asked Janice and Janelle not to share with the public what was on the voicemail and the phone call that came in that day. So to this day, the public doesn't know exactly what it said. Obviously nobody knows exactly what it said. But we don't know. We don't have like, oh, he said something like blank. We don't have that.

[Teeth]

Yeah. And I'm sure that this was in an attempt to kind of COVID their tracks, keep the investigation close to the vest. They don't want to release that information.

[Daphne]

Information in case it was relevant.

[Teeth]

Yeah, exactly.

[Daphne]

Well, whether or not what it did say could help the investigation or not, we don't know. But what's important is that the police do have some sort of clue what was on this call. But all we. All we know is that Janelle said the voice appeared to be somewhat teenish.

[Teeth]

And that may come into play here in a bit.

[Daphne]

Right. So detectives surmised that the women had either known their perpetrator and thus were not afraid to leave the house with him, or that there were multiple perpetrators and that they had been able to overpower the women and threaten them into submission. Which it's hard for me to believe that, especially knowing that Stacy was likely only wearing a T shirt and underwear unless she borrowed something from Susie. Like, it's hard for me to believe that they would have just all been like, yeah, let's leave everything behind and go off with this person. Even if it was somebody in their family. Like, yeah, that's hard for me to believe.

[Teeth]

It feels like it was probably coerced.

[Daphne]

But, you know, part of there not being a struggle also includes the fact that there was no sign of forced entry, which would either mean that the door was left unlocked that night or that someone willingly opened the door for this person or these people. And if they did, many suggest again that they would have known their killer. But the door, again, also could have been unlocked or they could have been threatened into opening the door. So, as usual, there are too many possibilities. While Cheryl's sister Deborah claims that she can't imagine who would have wanted Cheryl gone. Like, there was no bad blood between Cheryl and anybody else or nobody that Deborah knew about in Cheryl's life that would have been capable of doing this. Well, let's talk more about their street for a second. So they lived in a. And I say they, Cheryl and Susie, of course, lived in a three bedroom, one bathroom house on East Del Mar street that was and is just two buildings down from a main highway. That's Glenstone Avenue or U.S. 65. And I say buildings and not houses because although they lived in a small house next door towards the highway is now a skincare and spa business. And then the business right on the highway corner is a non profit learning center. And then right across, you know, this small street from their house directly across the street when you, when you're standing outside the front door, is a three story office building presently for a healthcare company. But it was built back in the 1960s, this building was. So even when Cheryl and Susie lived there, they were so close to so many businesses and a main highway right at the end of a residential area. Because up the street on the other side are very large, actually very, very nice, beautiful, like Tudor style residential houses. And for those who do know this area, this is the eastern edge of the Roundtree neighborhood near the University district. So they're not secluded at all, which is what makes three women vanishing in the night from this particular spot and no one seeing it so perplexing. But, but at the same time, the residential houses nearby mostly sit on larger plots of land, and the nearby businesses were likely either closed on the weekends or only operating during the day, meaning not many people would be around in the night when this occurred.

[Teeth]

Well, as the investigation was going, family and friends hung missing posters and even put up billboards around town. And of course, the police were just baffled at the lack of evidence. But that didn't stop thousands of leads from pouring in. Though we may never know what the content of the accidentally deleted voicemail was, it seems only natural that the police surmise that the prank caller most likely had something to do with the disappearances. While this may not have been the case, it was one of the only emerging pieces of evidence and trails that the investigators had to follow. And again, according to Janell, the voice had sounded young, like that of a teenage boy. And unfortunately, though this offered the police one of their only leads, the phone company was unable to track that phone call, as Daphne mentioned. So to the frustration of their loved ones, who were anxiously awaiting answers, no evidence ever materialized that led investigators to a suspect who was solid enough to convict. The only possible eyewitness sighting in the case is a woman who claimed to have been sitting out on her front porch early on the morning that the women vanished, who happened to see an older model, likely mid-1960s to like 1970s green color Dodge panel van at the house. The neighbor claimed that a woman that she later identified as Susie, who appeared to be distressed, was in the driver's seat of that van and was being instructed by a man's voice to quote, back out slowly and don't do anything stupid. And actually The Springfield police were so eager to chase down this tip that they even parked a similar van in front of the police station as an example. But no leads ever materialized from this, leaving officials, neighbors and strangers alike wondering what happened to the Springfield 3, which is what they were dubbed as in the media.

[Daphne]

I mean, that's a pretty suspicious witness sighting if true. Like you see a girl that looks like Susie in the passenger seat of a van being instructed by a man to back out slowly. Like that's really concerning.

[Teeth]

Yeah. And also don't do anything stupid.

[Daphne]

Yeah. Like really, really creepy. So especially with all the suspicious pieces to this puzzle, theories swirled when so little evidence was available. One theory was that Susie's brother and Cheryl's son, 27 year old Bart Streeter, was involved, which I'm sure many of you guys guess from the jump. So he was brought in for questioning as someone who had a clear connection to the victims and also a reason to have an axe to grind with them. Now, at the time of the murder, Bart claimed that he had been at the house of a friend and neighbor and that they were drinking heavily. His neighbor recalled Bart being, quote, sloshed, but that he drove himself home anyway and then just went to bed. He even willingly came in to speak with police and consented to a polygraph, which he passed. But many felt that he was a key person of interest. Though he eventually was eliminated as an official suspect, Bart claimed that he loved his mom and sister and struggled greatly in the aftermath of their disappearances and that despite their issues, he never would have done anything to hurt them. Obviously he had physically put his hands on them before, but I guess he's saying that he wouldn't have, you know, taken, abducted them and killed them. Right. So he described Cheryl as a hard working single mother and said that they all shared a mutual love of dancing. In the wake of Stacey, Susie and Cheryl's disappearances, he felt that he was haunted by his reputation as a suspect in the case of. But get this. Although he was eliminated as a suspect in that particular case in March of 2019. So almost 27 years after the Springfield Three vanished, when he was around 54 years old, he was arrested for an eerily similar crime. In February of 2019, he was arrested for allegedly trying to abduct a 15 year old girl from a nail salon in Smyrna, Tennessee. So basically, Bart entered this nail salon and took the hand of a customer before pointing out a 15 year old who was getting her nails done at the time and telling an employee that he was her grandfather and that he would like to take her home when they were done. So he's like covertly trying to tell somebody, hey, by the way, that's my granddaughter. And when she's done, bring her over to me because I'm going to take her home.

[Teeth]

Yeah, he's planting the seed to abduct this girl.

[Daphne]

But surprised by this when she caught wind, this 15 year old girl told employees that she had never seen Bart before. And thus police were summoned to the scene and Bart was arrested on charges of attempted false imprisonment and public intoxication. Then back in 2000, he had also sustained an attempted kidnapping charge following an incident in Las Vegas.

[Teeth]

So it's kind of crazy because, you know, it's like you would originally not want to believe that Bart was involved in, you know, his sister and mom's disappearance, but then it comes out that he was actually trying to kidnap somebody else or maybe two other people in the future. And it's like, okay, now he's kind of looking like a good suspect.

[Daphne]

Yeah, these are very concerning charges for somebody who was previously looked at in the abduction of three women. But somehow there just wasn't enough evidence to prove if he had done it. You know, of course, if he passed a polygraph and he's being forthcoming and saying, yeah, I'm so upset by this, I had nothing to do with it. And there's no evidence saying that he, he did, then police are stuck. They can't just go search his house and see if they're there.

[Teeth]

They don't really have anything to go on. Well, another, another person often discussed in this case is Larry Dwayne hall, who's a convicted killer with two convictions under his belt, but is suspected of potentially dozens more scattered across the United States, especially concentrated in the Midwest as well as the South. Now, at one point, after being sentenced to life in prison, he mocked up a map with the names and location of his victims, but authorities were never able to see it. A Civil War aficionado, Larry traveled around the country frequently to participate in Civil War reenactments and therefore would have had access to women and girls from all different areas and walks of life. And this actually ties into the Springfield 3, because according to one detective, he actually once casually confessed to the abductions and murders of Stacy, Susie and Cheryl. But I will say that he was known to kind of falsely confess to crimes for notoriety and attention. So his involvement in the crime remains a mystery. And he is actually still in prison in North Carolina as no real evidence had connected him to this strange case. Though reports suggest that he was in Springfield at the time that it happened. Well, another disturbing and more direct connection is that of Susie's ex boyfriend, Dustin Rechla, who worked with Susie at the local movie theater. So just four months before the women went missing, Dustin and a friend of his named Michael Clay were behind an absolutely shocking and very vile crime. In February of 1992, Dustin and his friend Michael broke into a local mausoleum to remove the corpses and steal the teeth from their mouths in order to sell the gold fillings. Thomas Munro Swires died in 1961, and his skull was stolen by Dustin and Michael from the Maple Park Cemetery in Springfield, netting them a measly $30 worth of gold fillings.

[Daphne]

Oh, sounds like it was really worth it to go into a mausoleum and dig up skeletons.

[Teeth]

Yeah, like that's an insane thing to do for 30 bucks. Well, Dustin actually borrowed Susie's car and he used it for this crime. And because of this, she was actually brought in for questioning and claimed that she hadn't known anything about the grave robbery and also that she had no involvement. So Susie was actually scheduled to testify against these boys in the months following her disappearance, giving them plenty of motivation to want Suzy out of the picture. And before the girls even disappeared, Dustin actually even told one of the interrogating officers that he wished Susie was dead. But when Dustin and Michael were questioned after the Springfield three vanished, Dustin claimed that he had been out late drinking that night and was unable to drive home. And that he had fallen asleep in a car parked at the intersection of Roberson and Commercial, waiting to sober up. But get this. This was just eight minutes away from Susie's house. So naturally, their fingerprints were taken and compared with those found left behind at Susie and Cheryl's house. But none of them matched. And then both men were administered polygraph tests, and they both passed. So with no physical evidence against them, investigators were forced to continue tracking down alternate suspects. But does that mean that they weren't involved? Because they certainly could have used gloves. And polygraphs are notoriously unreliable, and they also are admissible in court.

[Daphne]

Well, another convicted criminal with possible ties to the three women is a man named Robert Craig Cox, who was a convicted kidnapper and murderer in the 1976 brutal killing of a 19 year old Disney World employee in named Sharon Zellers. But because his death sentence in her case was overturned, he had served only 18 months in prison for this crime in the 1980s, making him free when the Springfield Three vanished. He was then extradited to California, where he had been held for kidnap and assault against two women. And when he was finally released from prison, he was paroled to his hometown

[Teeth]

of, you guessed it, oh my God, Springfield, Missouri.

[Daphne]

So at the time of the disappearances of Stacy, Susie and Cheryl, Robert Cox worked for a telephone company who, guess what, was doing work on the street in front of Susie and Cheryl's house.

[Teeth]

Meaning that if he had been, you know, working on that street that day, he could have easily, you know, seen them, been watching them absolutely prowling the area.

[Daphne]

Yeah, beautiful women, noticing that they live alone. And strangely, he also used to work at a car dealership with Stacy's father, selling used trucks.

[Teeth]

So he may have even seen Stacy prior to that day.

[Daphne]

Well, here's the thing. When Robert was questioned, because luckily he was questioned and he maintained that he attended a golf tournament that weekend, having spent the night at his parents house and then gone to church with his girlfriend the next morning. And his girlfriend was able to corroborate this story for the time because years later, police interviewed his then former girlfriend again and she admitted that she had lied to cover for him and that she hadn't known where he had been on the night of the disappearances and the next morning.

[Teeth]

So that makes you wonder if he coerced her into lying for him.

[Daphne]

Yes, because she said that the story about attending church together was a lie. So maybe he lied because he didn't have a solid alibi and he didn't actually do it and he didn't want them to think he did because he had no one to, you know, support his actual whereabouts because he was alone. I don't know. I think that's so freaking suspicious.

[Teeth]

Oh, absolutely.

[Daphne]

Well, get this. In 1996, so four years later, he granted another interview in which he alleged that he knew what happened to the women and that they were dead and he knew exactly where their bodies were, stating I just know that they're dead. It's not a theory. I just know that there's no doubt about that. He was once again interviewed by law enforcement and refused to admit responsibility, though he also wouldn't deny it, claiming that he would wait until his mom died to reveal the truth. And even though he said all this 30 years ago this year, currently Robert Cox is still alive and imprisoned in Livingston, Texas, and his mother is also still alive. So there, if, if he meant that there is still hope yet.

[Teeth]

I mean, it's kind of crazy that, you know, there's a possibility that when his mother dies, he may actually reveal the Truth.

[Daphne]

So I don't know. I think Robert Cox is actually a pretty good suspect in this case. If he hadn't been working on their street and had merely been a man who was living in the same city, I'd be like, I don't know. But I completely agree with what you said, Heath, about him working out on the street and possibly seeing them, noticing their schedule, noticing how beautiful they were, and that they lived without a man in the house.

[Teeth]

Yeah. Possibly stalking them.

[Daphne]

Yeah. I think that is so plausible. And of course, as you were just saying, Heath, with Larry Dwayne hall, he often took credit, if you. If you will, for crimes that he didn't commit. A lot of killers will do this for whatever reason. It's funny. There are the killers that want to take all the credit and the killers that don't want to take any.

[Teeth]

Yeah.

[Daphne]

But maybe he's doing that very same thing. Maybe Robert really is not involved in what happened with the Springfield 3, and he's just trying to toy with investigators. Who knows? But, you know, of course I know your mind is doing the same thing, Heath. My mind keeps returning to the obscene phone calls and that either the person responsible for them was not involved, hence maybe why they called that day because they didn't know something had happened to Susie or that they were involved and that they lived nearby. Because if they were involved, they would know, obviously, that Susie and Cheryl weren't home because they were responsible for taking them. And then why would they call an empty house unless they lived close by enough to see that Janelle and her boyfriend Mike were at the house and they called to spook them.

[Teeth]

Yeah, that's kind of an interesting angle, because it's like you would probably, in order to do this phone call, you would want to know that somebody was there to actually pick up the phone, because what's the point?

[Daphne]

Unless you're, like, severely deranged and you don't know what the hell is going

[Teeth]

on, or if you just don't know that Cheryl and Susie and Stacy aren't there.

[Daphne]

Well, so then I think about the office building across the street and that it would have been empty on Sunday, you know, when this all happened. So it's not like this was a Monday. And maybe there's some creep in the office across the street on the third floor that likes to watch Susie and Cheryl. And he's in his office by himself and he's calling. You know, it was Sunday, and there weren't any other neighbors who could really see the house to know when to Call. Except for the next door neighbor on the left side. The left side. When you're facing the houses, whose house is very, very close to Cheryl's. They're, like, practically in the same driveway. But there weren't any suspicious neighbors that we know of that came up in the investigation. So I actually think I might have to go with these calls being unrelated pranks. I just wish that if they were, that the caller would have come forward to police.

[Teeth]

And one huge thing that we have to talk about here is the fact that Janelle, when she picked up that call, she said that the call sounded like it was teenish, like maybe some younger guys were calling and just trying

[Daphne]

to prank, which was so popular during that time. Like, teens did that constantly.

[Teeth]

Oh, absolutely. But then that makes my mind go back to Susie's ex boyfriend because, you know, he had an axe to grind with her. The fact that she was going to testify against him in this crime of robbing the.

[Daphne]

The.

[Teeth]

The mausoleum. Is it possible that he was trying to scare her and, you know, he was just pissed off at her and wanted to make these obscene phone calls, like a fuck you?

[Daphne]

Because we know that she had been getting them for a minute before she vanished. But also, the calls didn't say anything about the women being missing or being deceased or being hurt. It was apparently just random sexual innuendo. So that makes me think even more it was a red herring, because if the caller was like, I have the girls or something, then you'd be like, okay, they obviously know what happened, but they weren't even bringing that up. So that makes me think probably was a prank.

[Teeth]

Is it just like, you know, very convenient timing that right after these women went missing that these. That phone call came in and Janelle picked up the phone?

[Daphne]

Maybe.

[Teeth]

You know, I think if Susie's ex boyfriend is dumb enough to go into a mausoleum and steal gold fillings, he's probably also dumb enough to make, you know, prank phone calls with, like, sexual innuendos.

[Daphne]

Well, and also, if he was already being questioned by police and he was the one behind the calls, if he had said, by the way, that was me, they. They maybe would have thought he did it. And. And maybe he was scared to admit that because he didn't want to seem suspicious more so than he already did. Well, now I want to add it. It seems like Stacy was collateral damage for this abduction, considering, one, it wasn't her house, and two, that she wasn't even supposed to be there that night, but neither was Susie. So either the person targeting Susie didn't know she wasn't supposed to be home and only came in when they saw her car or her mom was the target. But at the end of the day, abducting three people is very difficult. And it would have been obvious from the outside of the house that multiple people were inside because there were three cars outside in the driveway. So little did the perp or perps know, there could have been even more people inside, but they went in anyway. So were there multiple perps? And how did they quietly convince the three of them to leave the house? You know, there wasn't any blood, There wasn't a struggle. So did they have a gun? And why were they there at all?

[Teeth]

I mean, that's a really good point because it's like, just because there was three cars in the driveway doesn't automatically mean it's three women's cars. Like, it could have been men inside the house. It could have been like, like eight dudes. So that leads me to believe that the perpetrator or perpetrators knew that there were at least a few women in the house and that they were alone. And knowing that Cheryl was supposed to be home alone that night, even though she had been painting until very late and chatting on the phone with a friend, likely not expecting male company. It seems a logical possibility that the perpetrator could have possibly been a man that, that Cheryl had been seeing. Or perhaps someone that had an infatuation with her and wasn't expecting the girls to be there, but took them as collateral damage. Or perhaps the girls were the intended target of the abduction and they were being followed to Susie's in their cars. So the perpetrator knew exactly where they were headed that night.

[Daphne]

If they weren't followed and the person wasn't already in the house when the girls got home, the three cars outside, again, really should have deterred the perp. Like having multiple victims to control should have deterred them. And the late and unexpected arrival of Susie and Stacy at like 2:30am should have deterred them if they were already there. But clearly none of that did. Whoever the intended target was, the perp could have waited one night and Stacy likely wouldn't have been there. They could have watched the house for a few more days and caught their target alone. By almost every measure, that night was the worst possible time to commit the crime. Unless, for whatever reason, they wanted all three of them, which also really wouldn't make any sense. Any other night would have been easier and less complicated. Yet that is the night they chose. Why? So again, some Point to it being Susie's ex or another teen, like we said. And the graduation trip would have been reason to be away and committing the crime. But then come Monday, they would have been expected back home or maybe even back at work. And missing work immediately after the disappearance would draw attention and weaken any normal alibi. But that also doesn't feel strong enough to then take three people. Like, again, unless the person was already in the house and they were just trying to take Cheryl, and then. Oh, shit. Susie and Stacy just got home. What are they doing here in the middle of the night?

[Teeth]

Well, I know that we keep saying that that would probably be the worst night to take these three girls or these three women, I should say. But apparently it was the perfect night because this case is still unsolved to this day. But one thing that I do want to say is that, you know, looking back at different killers, like btk, the fact that he was able to go into homes sometimes, there was, you know, one crime that he committed where he was able to basically, with just a gun, go in and control an entire family and then murder them. It's possible that this perpetrator went into that house with a gun, and the girls were so scared that they didn't want to move. They wanted to do exactly what this perp told them to do. And maybe he said, hey, listen, if you do what I say, you won't get hurt.

[Daphne]

Right? I mean, I think that definitely makes sense, especially with no struggle, that they were terrified, and there probably was a gun involved versus maybe a knife or

[Teeth]

something that they could maybe run away from or wrangle out of the perpetrator's hand or.

[Daphne]

Versus multiple perps. I mean, it's all possible. It's just. If it's. It's impossible to know. It's actually so crazy. This is one of the most mysterious stories we have covered, because it doesn't make any sense.

[Teeth]

Well, many people here believe that the women were buried beneath a local hospital parking lot. Now, construction on that parking lot didn't begin until September of 1993, so about 15 months after the women vanished. But a police spokeswoman claimed that the department received the tip in 2006, though the original tipster provided no evidence or logical reasoning behind this theory at that time or since then. And it has remained baseless Internet speculation that many actually do believe. The police issued a statement that read, digging up the area and subsequently reconstructing this structure would be extremely costly and without any reasonable belief that the bodies could be located here. It is illogical to do so. And for those reasons, SPD does not intend to.

[Daphne]

While at the time of their disappearances, Stacey was 18, Susie was 19, and Cheryl was 47, they would now be 52, 53, and 81, respectively. In 1997, the Springfield Police Department announced that they were halting the investigation in the case unless tangible evidence came to them and they confirmed that it was officially cold. Despite technically remaining an open case, nearly 34 years have passed since the women vanished without a trace in one of the most frustrating and baffling disappearance cases of all time. At the time their disappearances took place, Stacy stood at 5ft 3 inches tall and weighed about 120 pounds. She had long dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Suzy was 5 foot 2 inches tall, so about the same height as Stacey and weighed about 100 pounds. And she had shoulder length blonde hair and brown eyes. Cheryl was 5ft tall, 110 pounds, and had short curly blond hair and brown eyes. There remains a $42,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. So if you have any information about the disappearance of Stacy, Susie and Cheryl, please call the Springfield area Crime Stoppers at 417-869-8477. Thank you so much, everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

[Teeth]

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. If you want to see photos of the three women and all of the pictures associated with this case, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram @goingwest podcast. We're on Facebook as well as Tick Tock.

[Daphne]

Yeah, we're gonna post street views and photos of the house as well so you guys can see. This is one I will not never get over. If when we did episode 600 of Going West a couple weeks ago and we were talking about cases we want to see solved, this is my new one. Like, this is just like, what happened to them? Who did this and why?

[Teeth]

And it's such a huge case. I know that a lot of you guys know this case are invested in this case, but damn. It's like this one feels like there were so many ways it could have been solved. There's good suspects in it. We had a voicemail, but it accidentally got deleted. I mean, it's just like, it's just

[Daphne]

so perplexing and frustrating beyond mind boggling. So let us know what you guys think and we will see you back here on Tuesday.

[Teeth]

All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the

[Daphne]

world, don't be a strange. Sam. Sa.

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[Teeth]

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