Their purses were still on the floor. Their cars were still in the driveway. The dog was still in the house, frantic and alone. Everything was there except the three women who lived there.
A Graduation Night
On June 6, 1992, 19-year-old Suzie Streeter and 18-year-old Stacy McCall graduated from Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri. Suzie, outgoing and a creature of habit down to exactly how she parked her car, lived with her mother, 47-year-old Sherrill Levitt, a cosmetologist who'd recently bought her dream home. Stacy, known affectionately as "Spacey Stacy" for her scattered, funny energy, was Suzie's close friend.
The two girls spent the evening at graduation parties before heading to a sleepover at their friend Janelle Kirby's house. Around 2 a.m., with Kirby's place getting too crowded, Suzie and Stacy decided to head to Suzie's house instead. Stacy called her mother, Janis, to say she'd be staying out and would call in the morning before the group headed to White Water, a Branson amusement park. It was the last anyone heard from either of them. Sherrill had spoken to a friend by phone around 11:15 p.m. that night about painting a piece of furniture — the last confirmed contact with her as well.
A House Untouched, and Three Women Gone
The next morning, when neither Suzie nor Stacy called as planned, Kirby and her boyfriend went to check on them. They found all three women's cars still parked outside — though Suzie's was sitting in the circular driveway rather than tucked into the carport the way she always parked it, an inconsistency that stood out immediately to anyone who knew her habits. A glass lampshade from the porch light lay shattered on the ground. Kirby's boyfriend swept up the glass to help, not realizing — until police later told them — that doing so had likely destroyed potential evidence.
The front door was unlocked. Inside, the television was on, the lights were off, and the family dog, Cinnamon, was distressed and agitated. Otherwise, the house looked almost untouched. All three women's purses, still holding their cash and keys, sat neatly lined up on the floor. Stacy's clothes from the night before were folded; her jewelry and makeup were set aside. Sherrill's cigarettes — and she was a committed smoker who never went anywhere without them — were left behind entirely.
While people gathered at the house, waiting and hoping the women would simply turn up, the phone rang. A message played on the answering machine from an unknown man making sexual comments. At some point, in the confusion of that day, the message was deleted before police could review it.
A Crime Scene Compromised From the Start
By the time police arrived and recognized this as a likely abduction, the scene had already been altered — swept porch glass, an erased voicemail, friends and family moving through the house trying to help. Whatever physical evidence might have existed was significantly, perhaps irreparably, compromised before the investigation even formally began.
Police initially focused on a man Suzie had recently dated, who had been charged in connection with grave robberies and whom Suzie had agreed to testify against in an upcoming trial. He and his associates denied any involvement, and without physical evidence connecting them to the scene, the lead went nowhere.
Weeks later, a tipster reported seeing Suzie the morning of the disappearance, driving an avocado-green panel van, looking frightened, with a man in the back seat yelling at her. Despite public appeals, no further information about the van or its driver ever surfaced.
A Suspect Who Said He Knew They Were Dead
In 1996, investigators turned their attention to Robert Craig Cox, a former Army Ranger who had served nine years for kidnapping two women in California and had previously been a suspect, without enough evidence to convict, in the murder of a young woman in Florida. Cox had moved to Springfield just weeks before the women disappeared and worked at the same car dealership as Stacy's father.
Cox's girlfriend initially told police he'd been with her at church the night the women vanished. After Cox was later imprisoned on an unrelated robbery charge, she retracted that alibi, telling police she actually didn't know where he'd been that night.
In a recorded prison interview, Cox told a reporter: "I know that they're dead, I'll say that. I know that... That's not my theory, I just know that." He stopped short of implicating himself, saying he wouldn't share further details until after his mother died. He has never been charged in the case.
Theories That Have Never Panned Out
Over the years, investigators and amateur researchers alike have chased numerous leads. A freelance journalist became convinced the women were buried beneath what's now a hospital parking structure, based on sonar readings from a grave-detection specialist she hired; police have noted the construction timeline doesn't support this, since excavation for the structure should have unearthed remains if they were there, and have declined to pursue an exhumation given the cost and lack of corroborating evidence.
Suzie's estranged older brother, who had struggled with alcohol addiction, was investigated and cleared after passing a polygraph. Suspicion has also periodically fallen on Dustin Recla, a former boyfriend of Suzie's who had separately been implicated in a mausoleum vandalism and theft case around the same period — Suzie had reportedly given a statement to police about that unrelated incident, fueling speculation about possible retaliation, though Recla has never been charged in connection with the disappearances.
In 1997, with no resolution in sight, Sherrill Levitt and Suzie Streeter were formally declared legally dead — a legal necessity for the family, not a finding based on any actual evidence of what happened to them.
More Than Five Thousand Tips, No Answers
The Springfield Police Department has processed more than 5,000 tips over the decades, alongside searches across rural Missouri and involvement from the FBI and Missouri State Highway Patrol. The case was reopened for renewed investigation around its tenth anniversary in 2001 and has seen periodic pushes since, including searches of an abandoned farm property that turned up nothing connected to the case.
As of the most recent official statements, the Springfield Police Department continues to classify all three women as missing, not presumed dead by any forensic finding, and continues to follow up on tips as they come in — though investigators have been candid that, absent new physical evidence, the case remains effectively stalled.
If alive today, Sherrill would be in her early eighties, Suzie in her early fifties, and Stacy in her early fifties as well. The Springfield Police Department has released age-progressed images of all three women.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Sherrill Levitt, Suzie Streeter, or Stacy McCall, you're encouraged to contact the Springfield Police Department at (417) 864-1810 or Crime Stoppers at (417) 869-TIPS.
Sources
Springfield Three — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Three
Three Women Vanished. More Than 30 Years Later, No One Knows What Happened — Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com/springfield-three-suzie-streeter-stacy-mccall-sherrill-levitt-what-happened-2057246
30 years later family still seeking answers in the disappearance of three Springfield, Missouri women — NBC News / Dateline
https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/30-years-later-family-still-seeking-answers-disappearance-three-springfield-n1296285
Three Missing Women — City of Springfield, Missouri (Official)
https://www.springfieldmo.gov/2498/Three-Missing-Women