June 13, 2025 • 30 mins
Three women vanished without a trace from a quiet suburban home in the early hours of a summer morning in 1992.
What began as a hopeful graduation weekend in Springfield, Missouri, spiraled into one of the most chilling and perplexing missing persons cases in American history.
Written by Emma Dibdin and produced by Richard MacLean Smith.
Find us at youtube.com/@unexplainedpod, tiktok.com/@unexplainedpodcast, twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before
we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to
be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November,
joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the
world of true crime and the paranormal four nights in
the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left,
(00:20):
Scared to Death and many more live shows Meet and greets,
Creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too,
but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to
Crimewavetsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your fan
coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to see
you on board. It was a hazy summer morning in
(00:54):
nineteen ninety two when eighteen year old Janelle Kirby turned
her car onto a quiet suburban street in Springfield, Missouri.
She'd been up late the night before celebrating her high
school graduation when she was running on fumes. Despite this,
she didn't feel tired. If anything, she felt too awake,
(01:15):
a little on edge. She'd been trying to reach her
friend Susie Streeter since seven a m. But all of
her calls had gone to voicemail. It wasn't like her
at all, and Janelle couldn't help shake the feeling that
something was wrong. Janelle pulled into the driveway of Susie's home,
relieved to see her friend's car parked up outside. See,
(01:38):
said her boyfriend Mike, who was sitting next to her,
nothing to worry about. Finally, Janelle could relax. She knew
she was overreacting after the late night they'd had. Susie
had just slept through the calls, but even still, it
was strange. She thought that Susie's mum, Cheryl, hadn't picked
(01:59):
up the either. She was always up early, even on
a Sunday. Janelle parked up and got out of the car. Then,
together she and Mike walked up the driveway toward the house.
As they climbed up the porch steps, Mike put a
hand on Janelle's arm to stop her. Careful, he said,
(02:20):
pointing to the top step. It was covered in tiny
shots of broken glass. Janelle looked about, wondering where it
had come from. Then she clocked the broken porch light overhead.
That's weird, she thought. That feeling of unease which she'd
been trying to ignore, grew stronger. They rang the doorbell
(02:44):
and waited. Then they rang it again. Growing impatient, Mike
knocked hard on the front door, but still no one came.
Janelle pressed her ear to the door, straining to hear
any sound from inside. The plan had been to drive
to a water park for the day along with another
(03:05):
friend of Janelle and SUSY's, named Stacy McCall. As far
as Janelle knew, Stacy had spent the night at SUSY's,
so both girls should have been there. But the house
was completely silent, and after ringing the bell one more time,
Janelle and Mike gave up. Janelle spotted a broom leaning
(03:27):
up against the side of the house and carefully swept
up the broken glass. Then she and Mike discussed their options.
The house was within walking distance of a number of
local restaurants. Maybe Sheryl had offered to treat the girls
to a post graduation breakfast. Janelle and Mike hovered on
(03:48):
the porch, unsure what to do next. In the end,
they decided just to wait it out at the house.
The missing trio with no doubt to show up soon.
Surely they couldn't have just disappeared. You're listening to Unexplained
and I'm Richard mc lean smith for forty seven year
(04:18):
old Sheryl Leavitt nineteen ninety two had started on a
high note. After years of scrimping and saving from her
wages as a cosmotologist, she'd finally been able to afford
a down payment on a home of her own. Seventeen
seventeen East del Mar Street was a modest house in
a lovely historic neighborhood of Springfield, Missouri. It needed some work,
(04:43):
but that suited Sheryl perfectly. She'd always been house proud,
but she'd never had the chance to put her own
stamp on a place before. For the first half of
the year, Chryl spent most of her spare time redecorating
the house room by room, transfer forming it into a
dream home for herself and her daughter, Susie. At nineteen,
(05:06):
Susie was about to graduate from high school. She and
her two best friends, Stacy McCall and Jenel Kirby had
spent weeks planning out their graduation weekend. By the beginning
of June, they had it all pinned down. After the
graduation ceremony, they would attend a series of parties that
(05:27):
classmates were hosting all over town. Then they'd drive forty
miles south to the nearby city of Branson and spend
the night at a fancy hotel. The following day, they'd
continue their celebrations with a visit to Whitewater, a thirteen
acre water park in Branson. On the evening of graduation day,
(05:49):
June sixth, eighteen year old Stacy went out to dinner
to celebrate with her family at a local steakhouse. Afterwards,
she gave her mother Janice, a goodbye kiss on the
cheek and headed out to the parking lot at the restaurant,
where Susie was waiting to pick her up. The two
girls headed to three different parties that evening, meeting Janelle
(06:14):
along the way. At some point, they realized they'd been
over ambitious with their plan to drive to Branson that night.
They decided to stay in town at Janelle's house instead,
then drive to the water park. Early the following morning,
Stacy called her mum to give her the update and
let her know that she was planning to stay the
(06:36):
night at Janelle's. It was the last time Janice ever
spoke to her daughter. Around one am. On graduation night,
Susie Streeter and Stacy McCall were both flagging. The party
(06:56):
they were at was still in a full swing, but
both girls wanted to be relatively fresh for the water
part the next day. Just as they were debating what
to do next, as Siren was hurt approaching the property,
then blue lights began to pulse through the window. A
neighbor had called the police complaining about the noise, and
(07:18):
now they'd arrived to break up the party. The young
women took it as their cue to leave. Janelle was
ready to leave too, so she, Stacy, and Susie headed
home for the night, but when they arrived at Janelle's
they realized there was a problem. A lot of Janelle's
family had come from out of town for her graduation ceremony,
(07:41):
meaning the house was completely full. Janelle's mother offered to
make up beds for the girls on the living room floor,
but Susie had a better idea. She'd just been given
a brand new water bed as a graduation gift, and
it was more than big enough for two, so she
and Stacy decided to stay at Susie's house. Janelle would
(08:03):
meet up with them the following morning to drive to Whitewater.
That night, Susie and Stacy, in their separate cars, drove
away from Janelle's house. Based on the distance, they probably
arrived at Susie's house on East Delmar Street sometime around
two fifteen am. The girls both parked their cars in
(08:26):
the circular driveway of the house, gathered their belongings, and
went inside to bed. While her daughter was out celebrating
her graduation, Cheryl Levitt had spent a quiet Saturday night
in She spent the evening painting a chest of drawers
that she'd picked up at a vintage store and chatting
(08:46):
to an old friend on the phone. Around eleven fifteen pm,
she told the friend she was planning to get an
early night. Janelle woke up restless early the following morning.
Quite the late night, she had no interest in sleeping in,
keen to get on the road and make the most
of the day. White Water was bound to be busy
(09:09):
that weekend, and she wanted to get there for when
the doors opened at ten a m. As soon as
she was up, she called Susie's house, but there was
no answer. She tried again, figuring they were all still
probably sleeping still nothing. After three calls, Janelle got a
(09:30):
strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She brushed
it off as best she could, probably feeling more irritated
than anxious. Still, she told her boyfriend Mike to get
dressed as fast as he could so they could drive
over to the house, just to calm her growing nerves.
(09:58):
At seventeen seventeen East Delmar Street, all was quiet. Both
Stacy and Susie's cars were parked in the driveway and
Sheryl's was parked in the car poard to the side
of the house. After cleaning up the broken glass and
knocking to no avail, Janelle and Mike sat down on
the porch steps and waited under the morning sun. But
(10:22):
then Janelle thought to try something they hadn't done yet.
Jumping up, she stepped toward the front door and turned
the handle. To her shock, the door opened. She looked
back at Mike, no longer trying to disguise her unease.
This was a low crime neighborhood, but Springfield wasn't the
(10:44):
kind of town where people ordinarily left their doors unlocked,
not overnight, and definitely not when you weren't home. Suddenly,
they heard frantic yapping from inside the house, accompanied by
the teartap of little paws. A brown and black bundle
of fur launched itself out at the front door and
(11:07):
onto the porch Susie's Yorkshire terrier, Cinnamon. Janelle knew the
dog well. She reflexively caught him in her arms, afraid
he'd run out into the road. Thankfully, Cinnamon recognized her
and calmed down enough to let Janelle carry him back
into the house, But in sight, Cinnamon remained agitated. He
(11:30):
ran frantically back and forth between rooms, yapping and whining.
Janelle had never seen him act like this before. He
barely made a sound usually. Though Janelle had been inside
Sheryl and Susie's home many times before, it didn't feel
right tiptoeing around uninvited, and if they had just stepped
(11:52):
out for some food, she really didn't want them to
come back and find her. In sight, she quickly went
from room to room just to make sure there was
nothing unto ward. Certainly, from what she could see at first,
everything looked as it always did. Peeking into Susie's room,
she saw the bed had clearly been slept in, with
(12:14):
both sides of the covers pulled back on a dresser.
Next to the bed was the outfit that Stacy had
worn to graduation in a neat pile. Next to Susie's clothes,
there was also a bikini and a pair of shorts
laid out ready for the water park. Aside from that,
there was nothing much else to gleam. At a loss,
(12:38):
Jeanelle and Mike left Cinnamon inside and headed back to
their car. They made a quick search of the neighborhood,
checking on spots where they thought the trio might have
gone for breakfast. They asked if anybody had seen them
at all, but nobody had, and by then they weren't
the only ones who were starting to worry. Janie McCall
(13:08):
wasn't too surprised when she didn't hear from her daughter
Stacy first thing on Sunday morning. She knew the girls
were out late celebrating, and she was safe in the
knowledge that Stacy had gone to Janelle's house for the night.
By midday, she was starting to feel anxious. She called
Janelle's house to see if the girls were awake yet,
(13:29):
but when Janelle's sister answered the phone, she told Janie
that Stacy wasn't there. She'd spent the night at Susie's instead,
she said. Janis was surprised and slightly irritated. Stacy was
normally very responsible. Janis made a point of making sure
her daughter kept her updated at all times if her
(13:51):
social plans changed, and when she called Susie's house and
nobody answered the phone had left her even more on
edgeH Still, she tried to keep things in perspective. Stacy
and her friends had probably headed out early that morning
to beat the crowds at Whitewater. She thought she didn't
(14:12):
want to be a killjoy on graduation weekend. But as
the day wore on with no word from Stacy, Janie
could no longer ignore the nauseating knotty feeling steadily growing
in her stomach. She called Susie's house again and again,
every unanswered call, making the knot Titan. Finally, with dusk approaching,
(14:37):
she couldn't stand it any longer. She drove over to
Sheryl and Susie's house, accompanied by some other concerned friends
and relatives. Janis immediately recognized Stacy's car in the driveway,
just like with Janelle. As soon as Janis and the
others entered the house. Cinnamon, the Yorkshire terrier, sprang to
(14:58):
his feet and began and yapping, frantically, racing back and forth,
heading to the bedrooms at the back of the house.
Janie too found Susie's unmade bed and saw her daughter
Stacy's outfit neatly folded on the dresser and the swimming
outfits too. Moving back into the main house, she then
(15:20):
found the three missing women's handbags, with their wallets and
keys still inside. Janice gasped when she opened her daughter's
and saw that her bottle of migraine medication was still
in side. Stacy had suffered bad migraine since childhood, had
never traveled anywhere without her medication in case she felt
(15:41):
one coming on at short notice. No longer able to
stop the deep panic rising within her, Janie was paralyzed
with fear. She called her husband, stew and relayed everything
she'd found to him without hesitation. He told her to
call the police immediately. Janie hung up the call with
(16:10):
her husband, then called the local police department. The dispatcher
asked her if she wanted to be connected to nine
one one, since that was the emergency number. Almost without
thinking Janice said no, Surely this wasn't an emergency, she
told herself, not yet, and so she asked the dispatcher
(16:32):
to send an officer over to the house instead. A
young officer named Rick book Out took the call. When
he arrived at the house, Janis greeted him anxiously and
filled him in on the situation. She emphasized the fact
that Stacy was a very responsible girl, not the kind
of teenager who might run away on a whim. Officer
(16:56):
book Out noted the fact that Stacy, Susan and Sheryl's
handbags were all together inside the house, lined up neatly
in the living room. That struck him as unusual. So
did the fact, according to Janie, all of the clothes
Stacy had with her were inside the house. If she'd
gone out willingly somewhere, she must have done so in
(17:20):
her pajamas. Book Out also learned that Susie and Cheryl
were both heavy smokers, and they'd left their cigarettes behind.
To the observant officer, that alone was a red flag.
Then Officer book Out took a walk around the perimeter
of the house, where he noticed the broken porch light,
(17:40):
a couple of shards of glass were still lying on
the ground, but most of it seemed to have been
cleared up. It seemed like a clue, perhaps an intruder
trying to cover his tracks. But when he began taking statements,
he learned from Janelle and Mike, who by then had
joined the group at the house, that they had swept
a glass that morning. It never occurred to them at
(18:03):
the time that they were destroying crucial evidence. Stepping back
into the house, the young officer looked about at all
the concerned relatives, friends and neighbors, and sighed, if this
was a crime scene, it was now hopelessly compromised. His
eyes fell on Cinnamon, the little Yorkie. It was now
(18:25):
curled up under a dining chair. If only that little
dog could talk, he thought he might be the only
creature in the world who knew what had really happened
in this house. As he left the property that night,
Officer book Out told Janie that he would be filing
this as a missing person's report with the suspicion of
(18:47):
foul play. He didn't want to panic her, but it
was better she hear it from him than from a
local newspaper. In truth, he had a very bad feeling
about it all. In the days following their disappearance, the
(19:11):
police made efforts to piece together information about Cheryl, Susie,
and Stacy's lives. They were on the lookout for anything
that might point to a suspect, somebody who might have
held a grudge against any of the women. There was
no sign of a struggle or forced entry at the house.
Investigator's best guess was that the women had left willingly,
(19:36):
perhaps with someone they knew or trusted. Cheryl's colleagues at
the salon where she worked described her as reliable, hard working,
and well liked, close to a model employee. That'd been
no indication that there was anything wrong in her life.
In fact, she seemed to be in a better place
(19:56):
than ever after moving into the new house. Susie and
Stacy were both known as dependable and responsible girls, not
trouble makers or likely runaways. But after a few days
police did identify one potential lead. Susie had an ex
boyfriend named Dustin Reckler, who'd recently had some significant run
(20:21):
ins with the law. The previous year, Dustin and two
of his friends had been arrested for crave robbing. They'd
broken into a Springfield Mausoleum and tried to steal gold
fillings from a corpse's mouth. It was a particularly disturbing
crime that had horrified the local community. Susie broke up
(20:43):
with Dustin around this time and had reportedly been due
to testify against him in an upcoming court case. According
to various unconfirmed reports, an acquaintance of Dustin's overheard him
wishing Susie dead before her discas appearance. Dustin was promptly
called in for questioning along with one of his grave
(21:05):
robbing accomplices, but due to a lack of any significant evidence,
the pair were released soon after. Another tip came in
from a woman who lived only a few streets away
from Sheryl and Susie. She recalled that on the morning
of June seventh, she was sitting out on her front
porch at around six thirty am when she saw a
(21:28):
green van park up in the street. This was notable
to her, not just because it was before dawn on
a Sunday morning, but also because she knew everybody on
her street. The neighbor claimed she saw a distressed looking
young woman in the driver's seat who looked as if
she'd been crying. Then she heard a man ordering the
(21:50):
young woman to back up and get out of here.
Seconds later, the van screeched into motion. When the neighbor
saw the news about the missing women the following day,
she recognized Susie, asked the woman in the driver's seat.
The police did what they could to pursue the tip,
(22:11):
but ultimately failed to track down the van or find
any corroborating witnesses. In the end, just like all the
others in the case, this lead went cold. Five years
after the Springfield Three, as they became known, disappeared, an
(22:35):
incarcerated kidnapper named Robert Craig Cox gave an interview to
a local reporter claiming that he'd been involved in the crime.
Speaking to Dennis Graves from KY three TV, Cox stated
that Sheryl, Susie, and Stacy had been murdered and that
their bodies would never be found. I know that they're dead.
(22:58):
I'll say that, and of that that's not a cleary yeah,
but I know that they're just sad as you know
that they're dead. Cox was a highly decorated army ranger
with a history of abducting women. He moved to Springfield
a few weeks before the three women went missing, but
he also worked with Stacy's dad at a local car dealership.
(23:22):
Had he stalked Stacy and followed her to Sheryl and
Susie's home the night they went missing, the police had
more than enough reason to bring him in for questioning,
but he was soon released when his girlfriend gave an
alibi for the night in question. The only thing was
when Cox was arrested some time later for a different offense,
(23:45):
his girlfriend seemed no longer willing to back him up,
and she retracted her initial alibi statement. In the end,
police decided that Cox, who was a notorious fabuloist, was
messing with them. A suspected serial killer by the name
of Larry de Wayne Hall has also been put forward
(24:07):
as a possible suspect. Although Hall has never been convicted
of murder, he's currently serving a life sentence for kidnapping
and is suspected of killing dozens of women and girls
during the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties. In nineteen ninety two,
Hall reportedly spent a lot of time in Springfield. Given
(24:30):
that his preferred approach was to abduct women from their
own homes, Many have theorized that he could have been involved,
but this too, has never been corroborated. One long standing
rumor posits that the women's bodies may be buried underneath
the Springfield Hospital. At the time of their disappearance, the
(24:52):
parking garage of Springfield's Cox Health Hospital was under construction
just five minutes from the house on East Delmar Street.
In two thousand and seven, local crime reporter Kathy Baird
hired a specialist to conduct the ground penetrating radar survey
at the hospital's parking garage. That survey reportedly detected three
(25:17):
anomalies of a size and shape that indicated human remains,
but this theory has been dismissed by the Springfield police
as implausible. Despite receiving nationwide attention and being featured in
an episode of America's Most Wanted, the disappearance of the
Springfield three is a complete and horrifying mystery. No arrests
(25:43):
have ever been made, no solid theory of the case
has ever emerged. Today, a bench dedicated to Sheryl, Susie,
and Stacy stands inside Springfield's victim's memorial garden, but it
has done little to stymy the gaping hole of grief
that their loved ones continue to carry to this day.
(26:07):
The question of what really happened on that night June sixth,
nineteen ninety two remains to this day Unexplained. This episode
was written by Emma Dibden and produced by Richard McLain Smith.
Thank you as ever for listening Unexplained as an Avy
(26:27):
Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other
elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced
by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook
is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to
(26:49):
and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and
feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or
ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps
you have an explanation or a store story of your
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at Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online through X
and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook
(27:11):
dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast, assass
Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before
we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to
be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November,
joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the
world of true crime and the paranormal four nights in
the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left,
(00:20):
Scared to Death and many more live shows Meet and greets,
Creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too,
but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to
Crimewavetsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your fan
coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to see
you on board. It was a hazy summer morning in
(00:54):
nineteen ninety two when eighteen year old Janelle Kirby turned
her car onto a quiet suburban street in Springfield, Missouri.
She'd been up late the night before celebrating her high
school graduation when she was running on fumes. Despite this,
she didn't feel tired. If anything, she felt too awake,
(01:15):
a little on edge. She'd been trying to reach her
friend Susie Streeter since seven a m. But all of
her calls had gone to voicemail. It wasn't like her
at all, and Janelle couldn't help shake the feeling that
something was wrong. Janelle pulled into the driveway of Susie's home,
relieved to see her friend's car parked up outside. See,
(01:38):
said her boyfriend Mike, who was sitting next to her,
nothing to worry about. Finally, Janelle could relax. She knew
she was overreacting after the late night they'd had. Susie
had just slept through the calls, but even still, it
was strange. She thought that Susie's mum, Cheryl, hadn't picked
(01:59):
up the either. She was always up early, even on
a Sunday. Janelle parked up and got out of the car. Then,
together she and Mike walked up the driveway toward the house.
As they climbed up the porch steps, Mike put a
hand on Janelle's arm to stop her. Careful, he said,
(02:20):
pointing to the top step. It was covered in tiny
shots of broken glass. Janelle looked about, wondering where it
had come from. Then she clocked the broken porch light overhead.
That's weird, she thought. That feeling of unease which she'd
been trying to ignore, grew stronger. They rang the doorbell
(02:44):
and waited. Then they rang it again. Growing impatient, Mike
knocked hard on the front door, but still no one came.
Janelle pressed her ear to the door, straining to hear
any sound from inside. The plan had been to drive
to a water park for the day along with another
(03:05):
friend of Janelle and SUSY's, named Stacy McCall. As far
as Janelle knew, Stacy had spent the night at SUSY's,
so both girls should have been there. But the house
was completely silent, and after ringing the bell one more time,
Janelle and Mike gave up. Janelle spotted a broom leaning
(03:27):
up against the side of the house and carefully swept
up the broken glass. Then she and Mike discussed their options.
The house was within walking distance of a number of
local restaurants. Maybe Sheryl had offered to treat the girls
to a post graduation breakfast. Janelle and Mike hovered on
(03:48):
the porch, unsure what to do next. In the end,
they decided just to wait it out at the house.
The missing trio with no doubt to show up soon.
Surely they couldn't have just disappeared. You're listening to Unexplained
and I'm Richard mc lean smith for forty seven year
(04:18):
old Sheryl Leavitt nineteen ninety two had started on a
high note. After years of scrimping and saving from her
wages as a cosmotologist, she'd finally been able to afford
a down payment on a home of her own. Seventeen
seventeen East del Mar Street was a modest house in
a lovely historic neighborhood of Springfield, Missouri. It needed some work,
(04:43):
but that suited Sheryl perfectly. She'd always been house proud,
but she'd never had the chance to put her own
stamp on a place before. For the first half of
the year, Chryl spent most of her spare time redecorating
the house room by room, transfer forming it into a
dream home for herself and her daughter, Susie. At nineteen,
(05:06):
Susie was about to graduate from high school. She and
her two best friends, Stacy McCall and Jenel Kirby had
spent weeks planning out their graduation weekend. By the beginning
of June, they had it all pinned down. After the
graduation ceremony, they would attend a series of parties that
(05:27):
classmates were hosting all over town. Then they'd drive forty
miles south to the nearby city of Branson and spend
the night at a fancy hotel. The following day, they'd
continue their celebrations with a visit to Whitewater, a thirteen
acre water park in Branson. On the evening of graduation day,
(05:49):
June sixth, eighteen year old Stacy went out to dinner
to celebrate with her family at a local steakhouse. Afterwards,
she gave her mother Janice, a goodbye kiss on the
cheek and headed out to the parking lot at the restaurant,
where Susie was waiting to pick her up. The two
girls headed to three different parties that evening, meeting Janelle
(06:14):
along the way. At some point, they realized they'd been
over ambitious with their plan to drive to Branson that night.
They decided to stay in town at Janelle's house instead,
then drive to the water park. Early the following morning,
Stacy called her mum to give her the update and
let her know that she was planning to stay the
(06:36):
night at Janelle's. It was the last time Janice ever
spoke to her daughter. Around one am. On graduation night,
Susie Streeter and Stacy McCall were both flagging. The party
(06:56):
they were at was still in a full swing, but
both girls wanted to be relatively fresh for the water
part the next day. Just as they were debating what
to do next, as Siren was hurt approaching the property,
then blue lights began to pulse through the window. A
neighbor had called the police complaining about the noise, and
(07:18):
now they'd arrived to break up the party. The young
women took it as their cue to leave. Janelle was
ready to leave too, so she, Stacy, and Susie headed
home for the night, but when they arrived at Janelle's
they realized there was a problem. A lot of Janelle's
family had come from out of town for her graduation ceremony,
(07:41):
meaning the house was completely full. Janelle's mother offered to
make up beds for the girls on the living room floor,
but Susie had a better idea. She'd just been given
a brand new water bed as a graduation gift, and
it was more than big enough for two, so she
and Stacy decided to stay at Susie's house. Janelle would
(08:03):
meet up with them the following morning to drive to Whitewater.
That night, Susie and Stacy, in their separate cars, drove
away from Janelle's house. Based on the distance, they probably
arrived at Susie's house on East Delmar Street sometime around
two fifteen am. The girls both parked their cars in
(08:26):
the circular driveway of the house, gathered their belongings, and
went inside to bed. While her daughter was out celebrating
her graduation, Cheryl Levitt had spent a quiet Saturday night
in She spent the evening painting a chest of drawers
that she'd picked up at a vintage store and chatting
(08:46):
to an old friend on the phone. Around eleven fifteen pm,
she told the friend she was planning to get an
early night. Janelle woke up restless early the following morning.
Quite the late night, she had no interest in sleeping in,
keen to get on the road and make the most
of the day. White Water was bound to be busy
(09:09):
that weekend, and she wanted to get there for when
the doors opened at ten a m. As soon as
she was up, she called Susie's house, but there was
no answer. She tried again, figuring they were all still
probably sleeping still nothing. After three calls, Janelle got a
(09:30):
strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She brushed
it off as best she could, probably feeling more irritated
than anxious. Still, she told her boyfriend Mike to get
dressed as fast as he could so they could drive
over to the house, just to calm her growing nerves.
(09:58):
At seventeen seventeen East Delmar Street, all was quiet. Both
Stacy and Susie's cars were parked in the driveway and
Sheryl's was parked in the car poard to the side
of the house. After cleaning up the broken glass and
knocking to no avail, Janelle and Mike sat down on
the porch steps and waited under the morning sun. But
(10:22):
then Janelle thought to try something they hadn't done yet.
Jumping up, she stepped toward the front door and turned
the handle. To her shock, the door opened. She looked
back at Mike, no longer trying to disguise her unease.
This was a low crime neighborhood, but Springfield wasn't the
(10:44):
kind of town where people ordinarily left their doors unlocked,
not overnight, and definitely not when you weren't home. Suddenly,
they heard frantic yapping from inside the house, accompanied by
the teartap of little paws. A brown and black bundle
of fur launched itself out at the front door and
(11:07):
onto the porch Susie's Yorkshire terrier, Cinnamon. Janelle knew the
dog well. She reflexively caught him in her arms, afraid
he'd run out into the road. Thankfully, Cinnamon recognized her
and calmed down enough to let Janelle carry him back
into the house, But in sight, Cinnamon remained agitated. He
(11:30):
ran frantically back and forth between rooms, yapping and whining.
Janelle had never seen him act like this before. He
barely made a sound usually. Though Janelle had been inside
Sheryl and Susie's home many times before, it didn't feel
right tiptoeing around uninvited, and if they had just stepped
(11:52):
out for some food, she really didn't want them to
come back and find her. In sight, she quickly went
from room to room just to make sure there was
nothing unto ward. Certainly, from what she could see at first,
everything looked as it always did. Peeking into Susie's room,
she saw the bed had clearly been slept in, with
(12:14):
both sides of the covers pulled back on a dresser.
Next to the bed was the outfit that Stacy had
worn to graduation in a neat pile. Next to Susie's clothes,
there was also a bikini and a pair of shorts
laid out ready for the water park. Aside from that,
there was nothing much else to gleam. At a loss,
(12:38):
Jeanelle and Mike left Cinnamon inside and headed back to
their car. They made a quick search of the neighborhood,
checking on spots where they thought the trio might have
gone for breakfast. They asked if anybody had seen them
at all, but nobody had, and by then they weren't
the only ones who were starting to worry. Janie McCall
(13:08):
wasn't too surprised when she didn't hear from her daughter
Stacy first thing on Sunday morning. She knew the girls
were out late celebrating, and she was safe in the
knowledge that Stacy had gone to Janelle's house for the night.
By midday, she was starting to feel anxious. She called
Janelle's house to see if the girls were awake yet,
(13:29):
but when Janelle's sister answered the phone, she told Janie
that Stacy wasn't there. She'd spent the night at Susie's instead,
she said. Janis was surprised and slightly irritated. Stacy was
normally very responsible. Janis made a point of making sure
her daughter kept her updated at all times if her
(13:51):
social plans changed, and when she called Susie's house and
nobody answered the phone had left her even more on
edgeH Still, she tried to keep things in perspective. Stacy
and her friends had probably headed out early that morning
to beat the crowds at Whitewater. She thought she didn't
(14:12):
want to be a killjoy on graduation weekend. But as
the day wore on with no word from Stacy, Janie
could no longer ignore the nauseating knotty feeling steadily growing
in her stomach. She called Susie's house again and again,
every unanswered call, making the knot Titan. Finally, with dusk approaching,
(14:37):
she couldn't stand it any longer. She drove over to
Sheryl and Susie's house, accompanied by some other concerned friends
and relatives. Janis immediately recognized Stacy's car in the driveway,
just like with Janelle. As soon as Janis and the
others entered the house. Cinnamon, the Yorkshire terrier, sprang to
(14:58):
his feet and began and yapping, frantically, racing back and forth,
heading to the bedrooms at the back of the house.
Janie too found Susie's unmade bed and saw her daughter
Stacy's outfit neatly folded on the dresser and the swimming
outfits too. Moving back into the main house, she then
(15:20):
found the three missing women's handbags, with their wallets and
keys still inside. Janice gasped when she opened her daughter's
and saw that her bottle of migraine medication was still
in side. Stacy had suffered bad migraine since childhood, had
never traveled anywhere without her medication in case she felt
(15:41):
one coming on at short notice. No longer able to
stop the deep panic rising within her, Janie was paralyzed
with fear. She called her husband, stew and relayed everything
she'd found to him without hesitation. He told her to
call the police immediately. Janie hung up the call with
(16:10):
her husband, then called the local police department. The dispatcher
asked her if she wanted to be connected to nine
one one, since that was the emergency number. Almost without
thinking Janice said no, Surely this wasn't an emergency, she
told herself, not yet, and so she asked the dispatcher
(16:32):
to send an officer over to the house instead. A
young officer named Rick book Out took the call. When
he arrived at the house, Janis greeted him anxiously and
filled him in on the situation. She emphasized the fact
that Stacy was a very responsible girl, not the kind
of teenager who might run away on a whim. Officer
(16:56):
book Out noted the fact that Stacy, Susan and Sheryl's
handbags were all together inside the house, lined up neatly
in the living room. That struck him as unusual. So
did the fact, according to Janie, all of the clothes
Stacy had with her were inside the house. If she'd
gone out willingly somewhere, she must have done so in
(17:20):
her pajamas. Book Out also learned that Susie and Cheryl
were both heavy smokers, and they'd left their cigarettes behind.
To the observant officer, that alone was a red flag.
Then Officer book Out took a walk around the perimeter
of the house, where he noticed the broken porch light,
(17:40):
a couple of shards of glass were still lying on
the ground, but most of it seemed to have been
cleared up. It seemed like a clue, perhaps an intruder
trying to cover his tracks. But when he began taking statements,
he learned from Janelle and Mike, who by then had
joined the group at the house, that they had swept
a glass that morning. It never occurred to them at
(18:03):
the time that they were destroying crucial evidence. Stepping back
into the house, the young officer looked about at all
the concerned relatives, friends and neighbors, and sighed, if this
was a crime scene, it was now hopelessly compromised. His
eyes fell on Cinnamon, the little Yorkie. It was now
(18:25):
curled up under a dining chair. If only that little
dog could talk, he thought he might be the only
creature in the world who knew what had really happened
in this house. As he left the property that night,
Officer book Out told Janie that he would be filing
this as a missing person's report with the suspicion of
(18:47):
foul play. He didn't want to panic her, but it
was better she hear it from him than from a
local newspaper. In truth, he had a very bad feeling
about it all. In the days following their disappearance, the
(19:11):
police made efforts to piece together information about Cheryl, Susie,
and Stacy's lives. They were on the lookout for anything
that might point to a suspect, somebody who might have
held a grudge against any of the women. There was
no sign of a struggle or forced entry at the house.
Investigator's best guess was that the women had left willingly,
(19:36):
perhaps with someone they knew or trusted. Cheryl's colleagues at
the salon where she worked described her as reliable, hard working,
and well liked, close to a model employee. That'd been
no indication that there was anything wrong in her life.
In fact, she seemed to be in a better place
(19:56):
than ever after moving into the new house. Susie and
Stacy were both known as dependable and responsible girls, not
trouble makers or likely runaways. But after a few days
police did identify one potential lead. Susie had an ex
boyfriend named Dustin Reckler, who'd recently had some significant run
(20:21):
ins with the law. The previous year, Dustin and two
of his friends had been arrested for crave robbing. They'd
broken into a Springfield Mausoleum and tried to steal gold
fillings from a corpse's mouth. It was a particularly disturbing
crime that had horrified the local community. Susie broke up
(20:43):
with Dustin around this time and had reportedly been due
to testify against him in an upcoming court case. According
to various unconfirmed reports, an acquaintance of Dustin's overheard him
wishing Susie dead before her discas appearance. Dustin was promptly
called in for questioning along with one of his grave
(21:05):
robbing accomplices, but due to a lack of any significant evidence,
the pair were released soon after. Another tip came in
from a woman who lived only a few streets away
from Sheryl and Susie. She recalled that on the morning
of June seventh, she was sitting out on her front
porch at around six thirty am when she saw a
(21:28):
green van park up in the street. This was notable
to her, not just because it was before dawn on
a Sunday morning, but also because she knew everybody on
her street. The neighbor claimed she saw a distressed looking
young woman in the driver's seat who looked as if
she'd been crying. Then she heard a man ordering the
(21:50):
young woman to back up and get out of here.
Seconds later, the van screeched into motion. When the neighbor
saw the news about the missing women the following day,
she recognized Susie, asked the woman in the driver's seat.
The police did what they could to pursue the tip,
(22:11):
but ultimately failed to track down the van or find
any corroborating witnesses. In the end, just like all the
others in the case, this lead went cold. Five years
after the Springfield Three, as they became known, disappeared, an
(22:35):
incarcerated kidnapper named Robert Craig Cox gave an interview to
a local reporter claiming that he'd been involved in the crime.
Speaking to Dennis Graves from KY three TV, Cox stated
that Sheryl, Susie, and Stacy had been murdered and that
their bodies would never be found. I know that they're dead.
(22:58):
I'll say that, and of that that's not a cleary yeah,
but I know that they're just sad as you know
that they're dead. Cox was a highly decorated army ranger
with a history of abducting women. He moved to Springfield
a few weeks before the three women went missing, but
he also worked with Stacy's dad at a local car dealership.
(23:22):
Had he stalked Stacy and followed her to Sheryl and
Susie's home the night they went missing, the police had
more than enough reason to bring him in for questioning,
but he was soon released when his girlfriend gave an
alibi for the night in question. The only thing was
when Cox was arrested some time later for a different offense,
(23:45):
his girlfriend seemed no longer willing to back him up,
and she retracted her initial alibi statement. In the end,
police decided that Cox, who was a notorious fabuloist, was
messing with them. A suspected serial killer by the name
of Larry de Wayne Hall has also been put forward
(24:07):
as a possible suspect. Although Hall has never been convicted
of murder, he's currently serving a life sentence for kidnapping
and is suspected of killing dozens of women and girls
during the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties. In nineteen ninety two,
Hall reportedly spent a lot of time in Springfield. Given
(24:30):
that his preferred approach was to abduct women from their
own homes, Many have theorized that he could have been involved,
but this too, has never been corroborated. One long standing
rumor posits that the women's bodies may be buried underneath
the Springfield Hospital. At the time of their disappearance, the
(24:52):
parking garage of Springfield's Cox Health Hospital was under construction
just five minutes from the house on East Delmar Street.
In two thousand and seven, local crime reporter Kathy Baird
hired a specialist to conduct the ground penetrating radar survey
at the hospital's parking garage. That survey reportedly detected three
(25:17):
anomalies of a size and shape that indicated human remains,
but this theory has been dismissed by the Springfield police
as implausible. Despite receiving nationwide attention and being featured in
an episode of America's Most Wanted, the disappearance of the
Springfield three is a complete and horrifying mystery. No arrests
(25:43):
have ever been made, no solid theory of the case
has ever emerged. Today, a bench dedicated to Sheryl, Susie,
and Stacy stands inside Springfield's victim's memorial garden, but it
has done little to stymy the gaping hole of grief
that their loved ones continue to carry to this day.
(26:07):
The question of what really happened on that night June sixth,
nineteen ninety two remains to this day Unexplained. This episode
was written by Emma Dibden and produced by Richard McLain Smith.
Thank you as ever for listening Unexplained as an Avy
(26:27):
Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other
elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced
by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook
is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to
(26:49):
and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and
feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or
ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps
you have an explanation or a store story of your
own you'd like to share. You can find out more
at Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online through X
and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook
(27:11):
dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast, assass
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