Challenges of Micromanagement and a Stalled Investigation

In the early morning hours of June 7, 1992, best friends and recent high school graduates Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall finished up their graduation festivities and headed back to Suzie’s house that she shared with her mother, Sherill Levitt. When the girls failed to meet their friends for a planned trip the following day, two of those friends went by Levitt’s house to check on them. Despite all three women’s cars being parked in the driveway and the front door being unlocked, no one was home. Perhaps more alarming was the fact that the purses, wallets, and other items of all three women were still at the house, and the television in Streeter’s bedroom had been left on. Hours later, when the three still hadn’t been seen or heard from, Stacy McCall’s mother called the police and reported them missing.

For months the case of the “Springfield Three” dominated headlines in and around the city of Springfield, Missouri and consumed a massive amount of law enforcement resources; yet leads and evidence were sparse, and it seemed to many that the three missing women had simply vanished into thin air. In the thirty years since they went missing, the investigation has produced a number of compelling leads and potential suspects, but none have produced any answers or arrests and the disappearance of the Springfield Three remains one of the city’s most baffling mysteries. 

Anyone with information about the disappearance is encouraged to contact the Springfield Police at (417) 864-1810 or place an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at (417) 869-8477. Tips and information can also be submitted online at P3tips.com.

Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!

References

Barnes, Deborah, and Traci Bauer. 1992. "Frantic families watchful for trio." Springfield News-Leader, June 9: 3.

Bauer, Traci. 1992. "Three women vanish." Springfield News-Leader, June 9: 1.

Benson, Ana. 2021. The Disappearance of the Springfield Three. Duluth, MN: Trellis Publishing.

Bentley, Chris , and Robert Keyes. 1992. "Police follow transient lead." Springfield News-Leader, June 16: 1.

Bentley, Chris. 1992. "Disappearance leaves woman's son 'frantic'." Springfield News-Leader, June 10: 1.

Clark, Christopher. 1992. "Who could be so cruel? Friends shake their heads." Speingfield News-Leader, June 10: 1.

Clark, Christopher, Traci Bauer, and Chris Bentley. 1992. "Typical teenagers, a loving mother." Springfield News-Ledger, June 10: 14.

Davis, Ron. 1992. "Troubled." Springfield News-Leader, June 26: 1.

Keyes, Robert. 1996. "Inmate to go 'under microscope'." Springfield News-Leader, January 19: 1.

—. 1996. "Missing women case leads police to Texas." Springfield News-Leader, January 2: 1.

—. 1992. "Streeter's brother passes polygraph." Springfield News-Leader, June 12: 6.

—. 1996. "Talk with inmate leads to 'nothing shattering'." Springfield News-Leader, January 20: 1.

—. 2006. "Three Missing women: Ten years later." Springfield News-Leader, June 8.

—. 1992. "Too many felonies." Springfield News-Leader, July 11: 1.

—. 1992. "Waitress gives clue." Springfield News-Leader, June 24: 1.

—. 1992. "'We're doing all we can'." Springfield News-Leader, June 21: 9.

O'Dell, Kathleen. 1992. "A sixth sense about a baffling case." Springfield News-Leader, June 28: 1.

Reid, Kyani. 2022. 30 years later family still seeking answers in the disappearance of three Springfield, Missouri women. June 12. Accessed July 31, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/30-years-later-family-still-seeking-answers-disappearance-three-springfield-n1296285.

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