Three Women Vanished. More Than 30 Years Later, No One Knows What Happened

Over 30 years after their unexplained disappearance from a home in Springfield, Missouri, the unsolved case of three missing women continues to confound both authorities and online detectives alike.

Known widely as “The Springfield Three,” the case has captured national attention for its lack of evidence and absence of resolution.

On the night of June 6, 1992, friends Suzie Streeter, 19, and Stacy McCall, 18, had just celebrated their high school graduation. They spent the evening attending parties before deciding against staying at a friend’s crowded house. Instead, they went back to the home of Suzie’s mother, Sherrill Levitt, 47, a small house on East Delmar Street.

It was a routine night turned historic mystery. By morning, all three women were gone.

“The Springfield Three”—What We Know

Decades later, there’s been no confirmed sighting of the women, no arrests, and no credible suspects. The Springfield Police Department has processed more than 5,000 tips, conducted numerous searches across rural Missouri, and enlisted help from the FBI and other agencies.

The women’s personal items—cars, purses, keys, cigarettes, and even a Yorkshire terrier named Cinnamon—were left behind.

The house showed no signs of forced entry or struggle, aside from a broken porch light globe. The TV in Suzie’s room was left on, and an untouched can of soda sat near a pack of cigarettes.

The next morning, concerned friends and relatives entered the home looking for the women and likely compromised the scene. Between 10 and 20 people were likely inside before police were called. One visitor even swept up broken glass from the porch, unaware it might be evidence.

Janis McCall, who also entered the home, discovered all three purses neatly placed in a bedroom and immediately called authorities. She later listened to what she described as a “strange message” on the answering machine—but accidentally erased it after playback.

Compounding the mystery, another visitor received two “obscene” phone calls from an unidentified man while inside the house. Police later said the caller made “sexual innuendoes” and used profane language.

Law enforcement confirmed it appeared that the women had arrived home that night. Their cars were in the driveway. Their clothes from the party were folded. Levitt’s bed looked slept in. But they were gone.

In the years that followed, the case drew sporadic breaks but no resolution. In 1997, convicted armed robber Robert Craig Cox, then imprisoned in Texas, told Springfield News-Leader reporter Robert Keyes that he knew the women had been murdered and claimed their bodies would never be found. Police have long considered him an unreliable narrator, and his claims have not been corroborated.

Another name often cited in connection to the case is Dustin Recla, a former boyfriend of Suzie Streeter who had recently been implicated in vandalizing a mausoleum and stealing gold fillings from corpses. Suzie had reportedly given police a statement about the incident, leading to theories of retaliation, as detailed in the Unresolved podcast, though he was never officially charged in connection to the case.

Another tip that drew attention came from a man who called the America’s Most Wanted hotline on New Year’s Eve 1992. Police believed the caller had prime knowledge of the abductions, but the call was disconnected when a switchboard operator attempted to transfer it to investigators.

An even more elaborate theory emerged in 2007, when local crime reporter Kathee Baird arranged for a mechanical engineer to use ground-penetrating radar beneath Cox Hospital’s south parking garage following a tipoff. The scan detected three anomalies shaped like potential burial sites. However, Springfield Police dismissed the tip as improbable, and noted the tip lacked strong evidence.

What People Are Saying

The families remain at the center of the story. Janis McCall has kept up public appeals for answers, attending memorial events and supporting media projects that keep the case in the spotlight. Multiple documentaries and television episodes have featured their story.

“I expected her home that night, the next day, maybe a couple of days afterward,” McCall said in a 2017 interview with KY3. “Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think that it would be 25 years later, and I would be saying Stacy is still missing.”

What Happens Next

Officially, the Springfield Police Department still lists the women as missing. However, without new evidence, the case remains stalled. Investigators have declined to exhume suspected grave sites, citing cost and lack of substantiation. Meanwhile, theories continue to circulate online, in podcasts, and among amateur sleuths trying to connect dots from the past.