Family of Stacy McCall says police are actively working the case of ‘The Springfield Three’

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Tuesday marks 30 years since 3 Springfield women vanished.

You don’t have to say who ‘The Springfield Three’ is to know their names. Fliers and billboards were plastered all over the Ozarks for years.

Now three decades later, police tell us they are still actively investigating the case.

“It’s 1992, Springfield, Missouri, in the basically the heart of the bible belt,” said former Springfield Police Detective and current Bolivar Police Chief Mark Webb.

On June 7, 1992, 18-year-old Stacy McCall, her friend, 19-year-old Suzi Streeter, and Streeter’s mother, 47-year-old Sherill Levitt, were reported missing.

“It was a totally different world back then. It wasn’t all the phone tracking and the towers and all stuff we do now,” said Webb.

He was one of the first detectives assigned to the case.

He says it seemed as though the two teens made it to Levitt’s house on Delmar Street in the early morning hours of June 7 after attending a party to celebrate their high school graduation.

“I saw her graduate Saturday night, and now she’s gone,” said Janice McCall in 1992.

Inside the house, nothing seemed to be out of place. No personal items were missing. The women’s keys and purses were accounted for. Their cars were parked in the driveway.

The three women seemed to have vanished without a trace.

“All we know is that when they decided to call it a missing person, foul play suspected is that things did change,” said Janice McCall.

Webb said, “The national media attention had focused on the Springfield Police Department. It overwhelmed us.”

The story was featured on the television show ‘America’s Most Wanted.’

The mystery of what happened only deepened as time went by. Tips about a suspicious-looking van in the area around the disappearance put authorities on high alert.

No matter how incredible a lead was, police acted on it.

“Lead number 15,416, there are buzzards flying over some silo or something. They would send people,” said Webb.

The parking structure at CoxHealth Medical Center south was examined with special equipment after rumors circulated that the women were buried there, but nothing was found.

In 1992 an anonymous caller told KY3 that a letter containing clues on the women’s whereabouts was inside a newspaper stand.

“It was found in an envelope, and they cut the words out just like in the movies,” said Webb.

Over the years, tips continue to trickle in not only to the police but to our station. Handwritten and typed letters were mailed to KY3 with vague details and theories about what happened that night.

Webb asked, “Is there something more we could have done? Is there another question we could have asked? Was that person lying to us? Could we have dug deeper there? Just those questions of how could we have done better?”

“There’s a lot of ‘what ifs.’ There are ‘what ifs’ in every case. There were many mistakes made early on. We can’t go back and relive them,” said Stu McCall, Stacy McCall’s father.

“It was all you could do to keep the face of ‘we’re going to be professional, we’re doing all we can’ and not just sit there and cry with them,” said Webb.

This case forever altered how authorities do business.

Webb said, “It changed the way Springfield looked at crime, and they started looking for computer programs. What are we going to do if we get another case of this magnitude?”

We asked Webb, “Thirty years later, what is the one thing that always crosses your mind when you think about it?”

“Whoa. There are many things. (What) I think about the most is what happened to them? What were their last hours on earth like? Again, I don’t know that, I can’t prove they’re deceased, but what things happened,” he said.

For the McCalls, June 7 isn’t an anniversary.

“This is not a happy thing. This is not a celebration. We really can’t have a celebration of anything, not of her life, or Suzi’s life, or Sherrill’s life, because we don’t know what happened,” said Janice McCall.

Stu McCall said, “You have a certain amount of depression. We go through it every day. We deal with it. We don’t have a lot of time to live. We’d like someone to come forward and just give us some kind of information.”

The McCalls say police continue to investigate the case though our requests for on-camera interviews or updates from detectives were denied.

Janis McCall said, “They have some new people who are very interested in solving this case.”

“I may be crazy, but I’d rather have hope than not have any hope at all and give up,” said Stu McCall.

“She’ll always be our baby. She’ll always be 18 in my mind because I can’t picture her as being 48. How could she have gotten to 48? We haven’t been there,” said Janice McCall. “I don’t believe in closure for missing persons. You can have an ending to this segment of our life, but it won’t be closure.”

Soon after our interview with the McCalls, Janice had a serious heart attack. We spoke to her Monday afternoon. She’s resting at home and plans on being at the vigil Tuesday night at 7:30 at the Victims Garden at Phelps Grove Park.

There is a $42,000 reward for any information on this case.

If you know anything, you’re urged to call these numbers (417) 864-1810 or (417) 869-TIPS.

To report a correction or typo, please email digitalnews@ky3.com

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