SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Twenty long years have passed since three women mysteriously vanished shortly after two of them graduated from Kickapoo High School. On Thursday morning, about 200 gathered to remember and hope.
"It's not easy and things like this, of course, bring it back,” said Stu McCall.
McCall remembers his last day seeing his teenage daughter, Stacy, like it was yesterday.
"You try to put up a tough façade, but that only lasts so long,” he said.
Many in Phelps Grove Park fought back tears because there are still more questions than answers.
"There's not going to be a memorial service until we find the three women and, hopefully, we find them alive," said Janis McCall, Stacy’s mother.
Scores gathered at Phelps Grove to celebrate the good times with Stacy, as well as Sherill Leavitt and her daughter, Suzie Streeter. Their families will hold onto hope until there’s some kind of resolution.
"We can't say that she is deceased, we don't know that. If we knew that, we would have closure, but we don't, so there's no way we can say that and feel that way, so every day we just keep going and we have hope,” said Stu McCall.
Out-of-state relatives came to say they are not giving up.
"There is no closure. It's not like there is a funeral. It's hard to explain. They're gone,” said Beeson.
Beeson is the age that her cousin, Suzy, would be now.
"I look and it's like I'm almost 40. I have two kids, and this happened when I graduated from high school, but it doesn't seem like it has been 20 years, because they are frozen. I look at her and I think, if we ever found her again, she would still be 19, but it's like, no, she would be 40,” said Sarah Beeson, Leavitt’s niece and Suzie’s cousin.
"If we can get them home one way or another, it would be so wonderful,” said Janis McCall.
Janis McCall says none of the women are ever far from her thoughts. She and her husband just want to know how close their little girl might be.
"Anyone that has kids, yeah, they know. I hope you never have to go through it,” said Stu McCall.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children put together time progression photos of what they might look like now.
There is a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the kidnapper of the women. If someone knows something, Stu McCall says the $100,000 is ready if someone can bring this thing to an end.
