Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 85 | The PUZZLING Cold Case of the Springfield 3

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

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LG appliances, so much more. Make life easier with LG. See the latest models and savings now at LG.com. On a summer night in 1992 in a quiet Missouri neighborhood, three women came home, changed into their pajamas, and climbed into bed. But by morning, they had vanished. No screams, no struggle, no bad. blood and no bodies. And the question that still haunts Springfield over three decades later is,

how do three people simply disappear from their beds in the middle of the night without leaving a single trace behind? Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder, all things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually mighty freak. Today we are talking about an extremely mysterious case. A lot of you have recommended me looking into this case, so I did. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts go mock right on the highway, slam on the brakes and bust through this windshield into this cold case together. I have a message for you guys before we get into the video.

No, it's not an ad spot. It's okay. But it is regarding that. And I just want to say I do really, really appreciate your guys as support. and, you know, getting through the ads that are in these videos, they are what keep this series going, because often YouTube really doesn't like these types of videos, even though I try to heavily censor and follow all the guidelines. Be respectful. XYZ, it just doesn't happen a lot of the time.

So these ad spots are a way I can keep doing these videos. And I also give part of those proceeds from the ad spots to victims charities as well. I just want to say, I have heard your concerns about ad spots. I am trying to space them out a little bit better. They're a little bit finicky on those. These ad people, I swear to God. But I want to make your listening experience as best as possible. But I hear you, and I always, always, always appreciate feedback.

Yeah, I just wanted to say that. But I'm going to stop yapping, and I'm going to get into the video. All right. Thank you. In 1992, Springfield was a mid-sized Midwestern city of around 100,000. and 40,000 people nestled in the Ozark Hills of the southwest Missouri. And it was the kind of place where screen doors stayed unlocked, where neighbors borrowed sugar and returned with cookies, where graduation parties spilled out from one backyard into the next,

and nobody really minded. Maybe crazy Karen across the street, but you know, in general, people were more lax. But it was all around a conservative, church-going town, where violent crime was something that only happened in the big cities, in Kansas City or St. Louis, somewhere else, but not here. And the Delmar Street neighborhood specifically sat in the heart of the ordinary American landscape, tree-lined and unassuming.

It was neither majorly wealthy nor extremely poor, just block after block of modest, single-story homes with tidy lawns and carports, the kind of street where children rode bikes until the streetlights came on. And everyone seemed to know everyone else's business. You know, classic small-town stuff. And at 1717 East Delmar, a small house had recently changed hands. And in April of 1992, just two months before the events that would make this addressed infamous, a woman named Cheryl Levitt signed the papers and made it hers.

And it was a very practical purchase. Financial constraints from a difficult divorce meant she couldn't afford much, but Cheryl saw potential. And she spent that spring painting walls, hanging curtains, finishing old furniture, etc. making something out of nothing, the way she had always done. Just a fresh start after years and years of struggle. And by June, the house was beginning to feel like a home. Now, Cheryl Levitt was 47 years old in the summer of 1992.

And she was petite at just five feet tall. She had blonde, curly hair, and brown eyes. And she would be born November 1, 1944, in Bellevue, Washington. Or at least she was raised in Bellevue, Washington. We don't know exactly where she was born. But Cheryl grew up as the older sister, the caretaker, if you will. And her younger sister, Deborah, would later remember her as very nurturing and protective, saying, quote, usually the one to cook me dinner, definitely always looking out for me, unquote.

And that instinct to care for others defined Cheryl's life, even when life didn't return the favor. And Cheryl married young to Brent Streeter in 1964 in Seattle, full of hope and plans for the future, as you do when you first get married, you know? And they would go on to have two children, a son, Bart in the mid-1960s, and a daughter, Suzanne, on March 9, 1973. But the marriage fell apart shortly after Susie's birth. And Brent reportedly proposed an arrangement.

And the arrangement was that they would divorce on paper but continue living together so Cheryl could qualify for welfare to cover their daughter's medical expenses for a cosmetic birth defect on her chin. But Cheryl refused because whatever else she was willing to sacrifice, her dignity wasn't part of that bargain. And she walked away from the marriage and rebuilt her life as a single mother with two children. So in 1980, she tried again, and she married Don Levitt.

And the blended family they created felt, as friends described it, like the Brady Bunch. And they moved to Springfield, Missouri, a fresh start in a new city. And for a while, it did work. But then Dawn's business failed. and creditors came after Cheryl for his debts, and the second marriage ended in 1989. And this time, something in Cheryl seemed to close off. And friends just noticed she'd given up on romance entirely. One described her, quote, hermit side, a woman who'd learned through hard experience to protect

herself to expect disappointment to build a life that didn't depend on anyone else. And what she built was a career. Cheryl worked as a cosmetologist at New Attitudes Hair Salon on West Sunshine Street, where she'd established herself as a model employee with a devoted clientele of over 250 customers, which as a previous hair stylist, that's very impressive. And she was the kind of hairdresser who remembered your children's names, asked about your mother, made you feel like you just mattered. And her friend, Janet Bustle Oliverus, would later say of her quote, she was about as close to Mother Teresa as you could get. So by the spring of 1992, Cheryl was pouring her energy into the little house on East Del Mar Street, painting, decorating, refinishing

furniture piece by piece. And on the night of June 6th, she was actually working on an old dresser and the sharp smell of varnish was filling the rooms. And unfortunately, it would be a project that she would never finish. But for all her independence, for all the walls she'd built around herself, everyone who knew Cheryl agreed on one thing. Her greatest joy was her daughter, Susie. Now, Susie Streeter at the time was 19 years old with her mother's blonde hair and brown eyes. And she stood five foot two and was also very petite. And a small mole near the left corner of her mouth gave her an appearance of always having something tucked in her cheek, a very distinctive feature that people remembered about her. And she was born in Seattle but raised in Springfield, Missouri

after the 1980 move. And Susie had never really known her biological father. And she'd grown up, watching her mother work and struggle and rebuild and she just absorbed those lessons and her cousin Sarah Beeson described her as independent and tough and always always fashionable saying quote she would always have the trendy haircuts and the trendy clothes unquote and other words like bubbly outgoing and full of life just a teenager that like to have a good time but there was vulnerability beneath the surface and susie struggled academically with dyslexia. So school had never really been easy for her. And despite her outgoing personality, she carried an insecurity that those closest to her could see. And Janet Bustle noticed it, saying, quote, she was a very sensitive girl. She felt like she wasn't part of the crowd,

like she didn't have enough friends, unquote. But despite the struggles, Susie had made it. And on June 6, 1992, she walked across the stage at Hammond Student Center and received her diploma from Kikapoo High School and her whole future stretched out ahead of her and she planned to follow in her mother's cosmetology footsteps to build a career doing what Cheryl did working side by side if things worked out that way and she'd actually been working at a movie theater during high school saving money and making plans and she'd recently ended a relationship with a young man named Dustin Reckla and she was ready for whatever came next but what stood out most to everyone who knew her was the bond between Susie and her mother, because it was unusual for a 19-year-old.

Because unlike most teenagers straining against their parents, so desperate for independence, Susie would sometimes cancel plans with friends to spend time with Cheryl instead, which I think is really sweet. And they were described over and over by everyone who knew them as inseparable. Two women who had been through hard times together and come out on the other side. So on graduation night, Susie's best friend since childhood, would be by her side to celebrate. And that friend was Stacey McCall,

who at the time was 18 years old. And she would be the youngest woman of the three, though only by a year. And she had long, dark, blonde hair, and freckles scattered all over her face and neck. And when she smiled, which was often, people described it as infectious. And she was the youngest of three children

born to Stuart and Janice McCall. And Stacey also attended Kickapoo High School alongside Susie. And she would walk across the same stage on June 6, 1992, receiving the same diploma, ready for the same bright future. And where Susie was sometimes insecure, Stacey seemed to have figured out the whole world. And she worked as a secretary and receptionist at Springfield Gymnastics and modeled wedding gowns for the total bride at the Brentwood Center. And she planned to attend Southwest Missouri State University in the fall. And her family described her unique personality, infectious smile.

and love her dancing. She was giggly, conscientious about her appearance, and responsible, the kind of girl who showed up when she said she would, called when she was supposed to, and never left people wondering where she was. She was overall just a very responsible girl, and that reliability would become significant very, very quickly. And one detail about Stacey mattered more than anyone knew at the time, and that is that she suffered from de-habilitating migraine headaches that required prescription.

and medication to manage. And she never went anywhere without it. And Stacey and Susie had known each other since second grade. And along with their friends, Janelle, Kirby, and Adina, they'd formed the kind of tight-knit group that carries girls through the complicated terrain of adolescents. And in the months leading up to graduation, Stacey and Susie had grown closer than ever, best friends standing on the edge of adulthood, ready to step into their new lives. And by June of 1992, the paths of these three women, a mother rebuilding her life, a daughter

finding her footprint, and a best friend along for the ride, were about to converge at a single point. A graduation celebration, a night of parties and plans, the kind of night that happens in towns like Springfield every summer, and it should have been the new chapters and new beginnings for all of them. But it wasn't. How many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to save.

here. Multi-vehicle discount, safe driver discount, new vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy how many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. So the ceremony began at four o'clock on June 6th, 1992 at Hammond Student Center on the campus of Southwest Missouri State University, and rows of folding chairs filled with families, mothers clutching cameras, fathers loosening ties in the June heat, and younger siblings squirming with boredom, and the The Kickapoo High School class of 1992 filed in wearing caps and gowns, nervous and grinning, ready to cross the threshold into whatever came next. And Cheryl Levitt sat somewhere in the audience, watching her daughter Susie walk across a stage

to receive her diploma. And nearby, Stuart and Janice McCall watched their daughter, Stacey, do the same. And by 6 o'clock, it was over. Caps flew into the air, hugs and handshakes and plans shouted across the parking lot. And the Kirby family invited Cheryl to join. them for dinner, but she declined. And instead, she drove home with Susie to the little house on East Del Mar Street,

just the two of them, mother and daughter, sharing takeout pizza and savoring the milestone. And at 6.38 p.m., a family friend named Nigel Kenny stopped by with a small white graduation cake, and more photographs were taken and Susie posed with her mother, smiling. And the school had organized an alcohol-free lock-in for graduates, which is a supervised celebration that would last until eight the next morning. and Susie and Stacy weren't really interested because they had their own plans.

Remember, they were really close. They actually liked to hang out with each other as mother and daughter. And they would spend the night at their friend, Janelle Kirby's house in Battlefield about 10 miles southwest of Springfield. And then wake up early and drive to Branson because a hotel room was waiting because Branson had Whitewater Water Park. A perfect post-graduation weekend that they could spend with their best friends. That was the plan. So between 8 and 8.30 p.m. that evening, Susie and Stacey arrived separately at Janelle Kirby's house in Battlefield, each driving their own car, Susie's Red Ford Escort and Stacy's Toyota Corolla. And they parked in the driveway and walked together.

And they walked about 700 meters down the road to a graduation party at a neighbor's house. And Brian Joy lived on Coach Drive, and his place was full of teenagers celebrating and music spilling out into the very warm night. And back at East Delmar Street, Cheryl Levitt was on the phone around 9.30 p.m., talking with a friend, and she mentioned she was working on refinishing an old dresser. Nothing particularly unusual in her voice. Nothing to suggest anything was wrong. Just another Saturday night, a mother puttering around her house while her daughter was out celebrating. And at 10 o'clock, Stacey called home to check in with her mother, saying, quote,

Mom, don't worry, we're not going to Branson tonight. Unquote. So the plan had shifted slightly. They would stay local, get some sleep, and meet up between 8 and 8.30 the next morning to head to white water. So it was a small change that kind teenagers make 100 times over a summer without thinking twice. So at 11.15 p.m., Cheryl had her last known phone conversation, and she spoke with a friend about the armoire she was painting and varnishing in her bedroom. But this is the last time anyone is confirmed to have spoken with Cheryl Levitt.

Because sometime between 11.30 p.m. and 1.30 a.m., sources differ on the exact timing. Susie, Stacey, and their friends moved on to another party at Michelle, Elder's House on East Hanover Street in Springfield. And the night stretched on. Teenagers laughing, talking, doing whatever teenagers do on graduation night. And at 1.50 a.m. on June 7th, Springfield Police arrived and broke up the party. And the graduates scattered into the darkness as they do. And at around 2 o'clock in the morning, Susie, Stacey, and Janelle made their way back to the Kirby House in Battlefield. But when they arrived, the house was really crowded, and out-of-town relatives had come for Janelle's graduation, and there were people sleeping in every available space. So too many bodies, not enough room, not enough quiet for three young women who wanted to stay up late talking.

And Susie mentioned her new waterbed, which was a king size, and it was a graduation present from her mother. So why not just go to her house instead? It was only 15 or 20 minutes away, in fact. And it had more space and more privacy, and they could stay up as late as they wanted. It made perfect sense in the moment. So sometime between 2.15 and 220 a.m., Susie and Stacey gathered their things and prepared to leave. And they would take both cars and caravan to East Del Mar Street. And Jadale's mother, Kathy Kirby, was in bed but still awake,

and through the walls, she heard the girls saying their goodbye. eyes. Susie's voice would say, follow me to my house. And Stacey would reply, okay, I will. And these would be the last words anyone heard either of them speak. So two sets of headlights pulled out of the driveway and disappeared down the dark road towards Springfield. And the drive would have taken about 15 to 20 minutes at that hour, because the streets were empty and the town was pretty much fully asleep. And they would have arrived at 1717 East Delmar Street sometime between 2.30 and 2.45 a.m. So Susie and Stacey arrived at the house on East Delmar Street, and the evidence would prove it, because both cars parked in the driveway. Their clothes from graduation

night were folded on the dresser, and used makeup wipes indicated they'd wash their faces and prepared for bed, and jewelry was removed and set aside for the night as well. So every sign pointed to two young women who made it home safely and went to sleep. And whatever happened next occurred sometime between approximately 2.30 a.m. and 8 a.m. a window of five and a half hours. So the neighborhood slept and a newspaper carrier made his rounds during those dark hours and noticed nothing unusual. No screams echoed down the block, no sounds of struggle, no unfamiliar cars idling at the curb, just the ordinary silence of a summer night in the Midwest. The kind of quiet that settles over a town when everyone is home and the world just feels safe. But,

Susie and Stacey were supposed to meet their friends between 8 and 830 to head to Whitewater. So by 7.30 a.m., when they hadn't shown up and hadn't called, Janelle Kirby started dialing the house on East Elmar. And the phone rang and rang and rang. And no one answered. So she tried again and again, but nothing. And this wasn't like Stacy. She's reliable and responsible, the girl who always showed up when she said she would.

And this wasn't like Susie either. and something felt very, very wrong. So by approximately 9 o'clock that morning, some accounts say closer to noon, Janelle and her boyfriend, Mike Henson, decided to drive over and check. And when they pulled up to the house, they saw what should have been reassuring.

All three vehicles parked outside. Cheryl's blue Chevrolet in the carport, Susie's Red Fort Escort in the driveway, and Stacey's Toyota Carolla parked behind it. So the women had to be home, but when they went to the front door, it was unlocked, which was pretty unusual. And when they walked in, the house was empty.

And Cinnamon, the family's Yorkshire Terrier, was pacing and agitated, whimpering at silence. But there were no sign of the three women who should have been there. Not in their bedrooms, not in the kitchen, not anywhere. And one small detail struck Nigel Kenny as wrong. And that's that Susie's car wasn't parked in her usual spot. He knew her well enough to know she was a creature of habit about things like that. It was a small thing, but it was unsettling. And while Janelle and Mike were at the house, the phone rang.

And there was a male voice on the other end making obscene comments and sexual innuendos. And Janelle described the voice as sounding teenish. And the caller hung up, and then the phone rang again and the same thing. And Susie had complained about prank calls since moving into that house. house that spring. And an elderly man would later be arrested for making obscene calls throughout Springfield that summer. And police would determine these calls were unrelated to the disappearance, apparently. But in the moment, standing in an empty house with the dog whimpering and the phone ringing with strange voices, nothing felt right. And throughout the day, friends and family came

and went, and everyone assumed there had to be some sort of explanation, because what else are you supposed to think. Maybe the three women had gone somewhere together for breakfast or a last-minute errand. Maybe Cheryl had decided to take the girls out for a post-graduation treat, and they would eventually turn up. They had to turn up. So people tidied and they waited. Someone even emptied the ashtrays, and someone washed the coffee cups in the sink. And Mike Henson noticed the broken glass from the front porch light scattered across the concrete, because the globe had shattered. though the bulb itself was still intact and burning. And he was worried that barefoot Janelle might cut herself.

So he swept up the shards and threw them in the garbage. And he had no way of knowing he was destroying evidence at this point. So the hours stretched on and no one appeared and no one called. And the women's cars sat in the driveway going nowhere. So by 7 o'clock that evening, Janice McCall had waited far long enough. And she drove to the house on East Del Mar, her worry hardening into something closer to dread. And when she walked through the door,

cinnamon came barreling toward her, yipping and crying, frantic in the way a little dog had never been before. So Janice moved through the house. In Susie's bedroom, she found all three purses stacked together on the floor, and she opened them, and the contents were intact,

and wallets with cash and cards were still inside, and there were car keys as well, and nearly $900 from Cheryl's salon deposits on top. And Stacey's clothes from the night before were neatly folded on the dresser, but her shirt and underwear were missing. And she had apparently changed into sleepwear. And Stacey's migraine medication, the prescription she never traveled without, sat on the counter where she'd left it. And nothing had been taken, not money, not keys, not cars, just the women themselves. And Janice would check the answering machine, and there was a message waiting.

The message was a man's voice and very strange. And she would later describe it only as disturbing. The whole shock of the moment erasing the specific words from her memory almost as soon as she heard them. And police would express significant interest in that message, believing it may have contained a clue, but answering machines in 1992 weren't like voicemail today. And when Janice played the message, the machine did what it was designed to do. And it erased automatically, making room for the next recording. So the message was gone. And whatever the voice had said,

whoever had called and why vanished into silence. So right around 9 o'clock p.m. that evening on June 7, 1992, Janice McCall picked up the phone and called the Springfield Police Department. And three women were missing, a mother, a daughter, and a daughter's best friend. And their cars were still in the driveway, and their purses were still in the bedroom, and nearly a full day had passed since anyone had seen or heard from them. so the investigation was about to begin.

But as we were saying, the crime scene had already been contaminated because the porch light glass had been swept away and the answering machine message had been erased. And 10 to 20 people had walked through the house, touching surfaces, moving objects, washing dishes. So whatever evidence might have pointed toward answers was already slipping away.

So when Springfield police officers arrived at 1717 East Delmar Street on the night of June 7, 1992, they walked into a crime scene that had already been compromised beyond repair. And an estimated 10 to 20 people had moved through the house throughout the day, doing everything we just previously mentioned.

Cleaning and moving stuff, erasing, answering machine messages, etc. And what remained by the time the police got there was a strange and very incomplete story. Because we had the three cars that were still there, all of their purses were stacked together on the floor, with everything still inside them, wallets, cash, keys, and everything accounted for.

And the house showed every sign that women had come home and settled in for the night. The Stacey's clothes from graduation neatly folded on the dresser and Susie's graduation outfit had been put away and used makeup wipes in the bathroom indicated both girls had washed their faces before bed and their jewelry had been removed and set aside. And both Cheryl's beds and Susie's waterbed appear to have been slept in. And in Susie's room, the television was still on, displaying nothing but static and the soft hiss of a channel that had gone off air suggesting a movie or late night program had played to its end while no one was watching and a half-finished can of Coca-Cola sat warming on a

table next to Susie's cigarettes and the whole house still carried that sharp smell of varnish from the furniture Cheryl had been refinishing so three women had clearly arrived home and three women had clearly gone to bed and then somehow three women seemingly vanished into thin air. So investigators would search for signs of what happened, but they would find almost nothing. No forced entry, every door, every window, every lock was intact, although the front door was open.

So whoever took these women either had a key or was let inside willingly or found another way in and left no trace. And there was also no signs of struggle, no overturned furniture, no broken objects, indication that anyone broke into a fight or tried to resist. So three adult women had apparently been removed from the house without disturbing so much as a lamp. And there was also no blood. This luminal testing revealed nothing. So whatever happened, it either didn't involve violence

inside the house or any evidence of violence had been cleaned up so thoroughly that nothing remained. And there was also no useful fingerprints, nothing that connected to, you know, any known suspect or pointed toward any specific person. And on top of that, there was no witnesses because the neighbors had slept through the night. And the newspaper carrier who made his rounds in the pre-dawn hours noticed nothing unusual. No one reported screams, no one saw suspicious vehicles,

no one heard anything that suggested three women were being taken against their will. And the only physical anomalies were small and ambiguous, like the shattered porch light. But the glass had been thrown away before anyone thought to examine it, and one window blind in Cheryl's bedroom was awkwardly bent, left partially open if someone had been peering outside. And the answering machine message, as we know, was erased before police could hear it, and its contents were lost forever.

So Captain Tony Glenn, who worked the case, would later summarize it simply as, quote, The only thing unusual about this house was that three women were missing from it. unquote. So the Springfield Police Department recognized immediately that this was no ordinary missing persons case. Just three women don't vanish from their beds in the middle of the night without some sort of explanation. And two days after the disappearance on June 9th, 1992, the FBI joined the investigation. And detectives worked 12-hour shifts for weeks, and the case consumed the department. And by June 10th, over 20,000 flyers bearing faces of Cheryl, Susie and Stacey had been destroyed. throughout Springfield and the surrounding area.

And the three women stared out from telephone poles, storefront windows, and gas station counters. And tips would begin flooding in almost immediately. And it was people who thought they'd seen something, people who thought they knew something, people with theories, with suspicions, with fragments of information that might mean everything or just nothing.

And by June 14th, search teams fanned out across the region. And volunteers joined law enforcement. enforcement officers in combing remote and wooded areas outside Springfield, and dive teams search Lake Springfield, and crews walk the banks of the James River, and dogs sniffed through fields and abandoned properties for miles around. But they would find nothing. No trace of the three women anywhere. But one lead early on seemed promising, because a witness came forward claiming to have seen Susie Streeter around 6.30 a.m. on June 7. just hours after she would have arrived home behind the wheel of a green van.

So the witness said Susie looked distressed, and from the back seat, a male voice allegedly said, don't do anything stupid. And police took the tip seriously, and they searched thousands of vans across the region. And they displayed a painted green van outside the station, hoping to jog someone's memory, hoping another witness might come forward with more information. But the lead went nowhere. And no green van was ever identified and no driver was ever found. And the sighting was never confirmed or explained.

And another lead proved equally frustrating. As someone had seen a vehicle in the Delmar Street neighborhood in the early morning hours of June 7th, a car that supposedly didn't belong there, moving through the quiet streets while the rest of the neighborhood slept. A police sought information but withheld the vehicle description from the public, hoping to use it to verify legitimate tips. And lead investigator David Asher noted, quote, Someone saw a car in that neighborhood. You just don't drive through a neighborhood and not be seen.

Unquote. I mean, I can think of how many times I've just been in my house and I hear a car. I always check. I mean, maybe it's because I like true crime stuff so much or I'm just so paranoid about it. But I always check. It's just crazy to think that a car could drive through a neighborhood

and no one would see it. But the car was never identified and the driver was never found. And like so much else, in the case, the lead simply evaporated. And 11 days after the disappearance, the Kansas City Star published a detail that has never been explained. And that is that a convenience store clerk named Steve Thompson told police that Cheryl Levitt came into his store, the APCO A-Mart at 4140 South Fremont at 2.15 a.m. on June 7th. And apparently, she appeared very hurried, he would say.

And she stepped only halfway through the door, and she asked if he'd seen her daughter and two friends, describing them as a burnet and a blonde, and then she left quickly. And police considered the clerk credible, but the timing creates an impossible contradiction. Because at 2.15 a.m., Susie and Stacey were still at the Kirby House in Battlefield, and they didn't leave until after 2 o'clock, and they couldn't have been missing yet, and Cheryl couldn't have known to look for them. And Captain Tony Glenn posed the question, quote, What would cause a mother to be out at 2.15 a.m. looking for her daughter, unquote.

And no one has ever answered it. And the sighting has never been reconciled within the known timeline. So it remains one of the many details in the case that just simply doesn't fit. But, you know, my crazy theory would be if this is a credible tip, if it's something that actually happened, who's to say, she wasn't threatened in her own home that he had done something to the daughter and the friend or whoever had taken them if they were taken

something might have happened where she knew that they were threatened so maybe she was looking I don't know I feel like something would have had to happen someone would have had to tell her that you know I don't know it's it's mind-boggling I have no idea but that's the only thing I could think because that someone had come to the house ahead of time or called, but there would be call logs, so probably not, and just told her that, you know, her daughter and best friend were already in danger,

and then they left, and then they left her to. But then, I don't know, because then they would come home, but maybe he was still in the house. I'm not sure. I could go on and on. I have no idea. I'm curious what you guys think down below, but we have a lot more to go through,

so let's do that. So the FBI would bring in a criminal profiler to analyze the case, to try to understand what kind of person could make three women disappear without leaving a trace. And the profiler's conclusions were sobering, because one person, the analyst suggested, had probably committed the crime. And if there was a second person involved, they might not have known what they were getting into until it was too late to turn back. So the perpetrator almost certainly needed a larger vehicle, probably a van, to transport three victims at once. And the profile fit with the physical evidence or rather lack thereof.

There's no signs of struggle suggested the women had been caught off guard and controlled very quickly, perhaps threatened with a weapon. And the absence of any trace evidence suggested someone who knew what they were doing or someone who had simply gotten lucky. But a profile isn't a name and it doesn't tell you who to arrest. It only narrows the field of possibilities

and in a case with no physical evidence and no witnesses, even a narrow field can stretch to the horizon. But in any case like this, investigators begin with the people closest to the victims. Statistically, they're often responsible. But in the Springfield three case, the inner circle was quickly cleared.

First, there was Bart Streeter, Susie's older brother, who drew early attention. A strange from the family in struggling with alcoholism, he seemed a logical starting point, and he submitted to a polygraph examination, and he would pass it, and he would eventually be eliminated as a suspect. And then we have Don Levitt, who's Cheryl's ex-husband,

who was never seriously considered. He had an alibi and really no motive. And everyone who knew Cheryl said the same thing, and that is that she had no enemies. So the investigation would have to look elsewhere. So they looked at one of the ex-boyfriends, and more attention fell on Dustin Reckla, Susie's ex-boyfriend.

And Reckla had a complicated history that gave investigators reason to look closely, as he and two friends, Michael Clay and Joseph Redell, had broken into a Springfield mausoleum at Maple Park Cemetery and had stolen approximately $30 worth of gold fillings from a skull. What are teenagers doing? What is that? What? So it was a disturbing crime, the kind that suggested something dark beneath the surface,

and Susie had given police a statement about the incident. And words spread that she might be called as a witness against recla. And if true, this gave him most. motive. And that would be to silence the witness before she could testify. And Reckla and his associates were in the Springfield area on the night of June 6th to 7th, 1992. And during police interrogations, Michael Clay reportedly made what investigator described as, quote unquote, incriminating statements, though he ultimately claimed no involvement. And both Reckla and Clay had connections to the Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club through mutual associates. And recla submitted to a polygraph,

and he would deny any involvement in the disappearance, and he would pass. And he testified before the grand jury in August of 1994, and he received a suspended sentence for the mausoleum vandalism and eventually moved to Colorado. So he was never charged in connection with the Springfield 3. But one thread runs through multiple suspects in this case, and that is the aforementioned Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club, because the Galloping Goose was not a Sunday riding club. They were involved in drugs, weapons, and various criminal enterprises throughout the Springfield area.

And their members' names kept surfacing in connection with this case, and not as direct suspects necessarily, but as reoccurring presence in the background, basically a web of associations that kept drawing investigators back. And one was Stephen Garrison. When you buy LG, you get so much more than just an appliance. You get more done, more cost savings, more peace of mind and more control, because LG appliances are designed to do more, like washers and dryers with AI tech to take out the guesswork, refrigerators that fit in tight spaces, and keep food fresher, longer, or ranges with precise induction cooking and easy cleanup built in, all with the style you want and reliability you can count on, so you can get more from your home.

every day. LG appliances, so much more. Make life easier with LG. See the latest models and savings now at LG.com. So in January of 1993, seven months after the disappearance, a man named Stephen Garrison told police he had information. Garrison was a galloping goose member who had been released from prison on May 15, 1992, just three weeks before Cheryl, Susie and Stacey vanished. And now he was back in custody. awaiting trial on weapons and drug charges and he wanted to make a deal. So he claimed he'd been at a drug party where someone confessed to killing the three women. And he said he knew where the bodies were buried.

And that place was a hog farm in Webster County. And police were obviously intrigued. They've got nothing up until this point, so they obviously latched on to this lead. Garrison seemed to know details that hadn't yet made it to the public. So a judge lowered his bail based on his cooperation. And investigators put him up in a hotel where they verified his information. And that's where Garrison would promptly escape.

And days later, he broke into a woman's apartment in Springfield and S-Aid her before he finally got recaptured. So despite Garrison's obvious lack of credibility, police still followed up on his tip, and they searched 40 acres in Webster County, and the property owner, it turned out, was a convicted murderer. So there's that.

But the search yielded nothing. No bodies, no evidence, and no confirmation of anything Garrison had claimed. I'm assuming he just did that to gain time and get the bail to lessen and just for him to escape because he's a giant piece of shit. But what if there is some validity to it, you know? But he is currently serving 40 years in prison and his claims about the hog farm were never verified. But if the crime was committed by someone in galloping goose circles, others might know about it. might have heard whispers, might have pieces of the puzzle they never shared. So Gerald Carnahan was a prominent Springfield businessman, an heir to Springfield aluminum and brass,

a man who moved in respectable circles while harboring something much darker beneath the surface. And like Stephen Garrison, Carnahan had ties to the galloping goose. And unlike Garrison, he had money, status, a veneer of respectability, and he also had a documented history of violence against which. As in 1985, Jackie Johns, a 20-year-old woman, was beaten, raped, and dumped in Lake Springfield. And Carnahan was the prime suspect from the beginning, but prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to charge him, so he remained free. And in March of 1993, nine months after the Springfield 3 vanished, Carnahan was arrested for the attempted kidnapping of an 18-year-old Heather Starkey in Springfield,

and he was actively hunting women during the same period. Spaspicious, I think so. And it took until 2007 for justice to catch up with him because DNA evidence finally matched Carnahan to the Jackie John's murder, and in 2010 he was convicted of first-degree murder and forcible rape and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole. The pattern of his known crimes was chillingly consistent. He abducted women and left their purses and keys behind,

the same detail that made the Springfield 3 case so, strange. Three women gone, all their belongings left untouched, matched Carnahan's signature. So police investigated him in connection with the disappearance, and he was a free man in June 1992, living in Springfield, with proven predatory behavior and a history of targeting young women. But no evidence was ever found linking him to Cheryl, Susie, and Stacy, and he was never charged in their case. But of all the names that have surfaced in connection with the Springfield three, one has lingered longer and more disturbingly than any other. And that's Robert Craig Cox. So in 1979, Cox was named, quote unquote, Soldier of the Year at Fort Benning as a decorated

army ranger, a young man with a promising military career ahead of him. But somewhere along the way, something went wrong. And by the time three women vanished from a house in Springfield, Missouri, Robert Craig Cox had already left a trail of violence against women that stretched across multiple states. And it started in 1978 in Florida. And Sharon Zellers was a 19-year-old employee at Walt Disney World when she disappeared on December 30th. And Cox's family happened to be staying at a motel where her body was found. And on the night of the killing, Cox showed up at a local hospital with part of his tongue bitten off. And he was questioned, but not charged. And in 1985, he was convicted in California for kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, and

two separate incidences involving two separate women near Fort Ord. And he received a nine-year sentence and was dishonorably discharged from the army. And in 1988, Florida authorities finally charged him with the Sharon Zellard's murder, and he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death row. But on December 21, 1989, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously overturned the conviction, ruling that the evidence amounted to only a suspicion of guilt, and Cox was released in March of 1990. So by June 1992, he was living in Springfield, Missouri, and he worked as a utility locator in South Central Springfield.

And in a detail that has never been explained as coincidence or something more, he worked at the same used car lot as Stuart McCall, who's Stacey's father. And when police questioned Cox after the disappearance, he offered an alibi. He was with his girlfriend at church the morning the women vanished. But his girlfriend later recanted. And she admitted Cox had asked her to lie to give him an alibi. And she confirmed he was not with her that night. And Cox's parents said he was at their home during the relevant hours,

but they couldn't actually verify where he was or what he was doing during the window when the three women disappeared. And four years after the disappearance in 1996, In 2006, Cox sat down for an interview with KY3 reporter Dennis Graves, and what he said has haunted investigators since, saying, quote, I know that they are dead, unquote, and quote, I'll say that, and I know that. And when pressed, he repeated himself, quote, I just know that they are dead. That's not my theory.

I just know that. There's no doubt about that. unquote, and the reporter asked directly, did you abduct these women? And he said, quote, That's a frivolous question. Obviously, I'm going to say no. Unquote. Just a giant asshole. And he went further and he claimed the women were murdered by someone with prior experience, someone who knew what they were doing. And he said they were buried somewhere near Springfield. And then he made a promise that still hangs over the case. And that is that he was that he would reveal what happened after his mother dies.

But as of 2022, Cox's mother still alive. And in 1995, Cox was arrested again, and this time in Texas for armed robbery. And he had held a gun on a 12-year-old girl during a salon robbery in Decatur. And he is currently serving a life sentence with parole eligibility in 2026. So despite the circumstantial connections,

his presence in Springfield, his history of violence against women and his lies about his alibi and his cryptic statements about knowing the women were dead, police have never found physical evidence linking Cox to the crime. And official sources state that investigators on the case do not believe Cox has any credibility. And some think he's toying with them, saying just enough to keep himself in the conversation

without ever actually incriminating himself. But the question remains, how would he know they're dead? Or is he just being a, massive piece of shit human being and just toying with everybody in the victims and the victims family. It's just, I have no idea. But either way, it's extremely messed up. And some investigators have looked beyond Springfield's local criminals to a man who's hunting ground stretched across the entire Midwest. And that's Larry Duane Hall. Larry Duane Hall is a suspected serial killer believed

responsible for somewhere between 39 and 54 murders of women and girls. And they actually wrote a show about him that I highly recommend watching called Blackbird. It's probably one of my favorite miniseries. They did a really good job about it. And the guy that there's a rich guy who does drugs and he goes to jail to try to capture Larry. The whole story is extremely interesting. And honestly, I actually will maybe do a video about him because it's an extremely interesting story. But I digress.

And he traveled the region participating in Civil War reenactments and his killings correlate almost perfectly with the reenactment calendar, occurring most frequently in March, June, August, and September, and June 1992. The month, the Springfield 3, disappeared. And Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, one of the most significant civil war sites in Missouri, sits just five minutes from the Kirby residence in Battlefield, where Susie and Stacey he had originally planned to spend the night. And on June 6 to 7th, 1992,

a Civil War reenactment was held at Old Settlers Day in Pleasant Hope, Missouri, approximately 30 minutes north of Springfield. So Hall could have been in the area, though his attendance at the specific event has never been confirmed. That in letters to author Christopher Hawley Martin, Hall claimed there are several girls

buried in the Mark Twain Forest in Missouri, and he owned a Dodge van, similar to witness accounts of suspicious vehicles seen around Springfield that weekend. And Hall is currently serving a life sentence in federal prison for the 1993 kidnapping of 15 year old Jessica Roach. And he has confessed to multiple murders,

then recanted, then confessed again, a pattern that has made it very difficult to know what, if anything, he's telling is the truth. But no direct evidence links him to the Springfield 3 at the end of the day, and the connection remains circumstantial at best. just a serial killer who targeted young women, who was possibly in the area whose timeline of activity matches the disappearances. But possibility isn't proof.

But again, let me know if you want me to deep dive into that case because it is extremely interesting. But of all the theories that have circulated about the Springfield 3, none has captured public imagination or generated more controversy than the Cox Hospital Parking Garage theory. because the tip originated from an unlikely source. And according to a former Green County Prosecutor's Office Assistant Daryl Moore, the information came from someone who, quote unquote, claim to be a psychic or claim to have a dream or vision about the case. And crime reporter Kathy Bard, who covered the case extensively, received numerous calls from people who believed the same thing.

The bodies of Cheryl, Susie, and Stacey were buried beneath the South Garage at Cox Hospital in Springfield. So in 2007, Barr decided to investigate, and she invited mechanical engineer Rick Norland from Palau, Kansas, to scan a section of the parking garage using ground penetrating radar. And what he found was intriguing. Three anomalies beneath the concrete, roughly the same size in a configuration, he said, was consistent with a gravesite,

two parallel and one perpendicular. And the discovery made headlines, and for a moment it seemed like the case might finally break. open but springfield police rejected the theory and their reasoning was straightforward the parking garage construction didn't begin until september 1993 more than 15 months after the women disappeared so if bodies had been buried at the location before construction the excavation process would have uncovered them and the original tipster police noted quote unquote provided no evidence or logical reasoning behind this theory and cox hospital officials said that

said the anomalies, Norland detected, were consistent with tree roots or normal construction debris. And Norland himself acknowledged his findings were inconclusive. And former prosecutor Daryl Moore put it simply, quote, if the expert had told us the only thing the disturbance could be was bodies, we would have dug it. But he couldn't, unquote. And the parking garage has never been excavated.

And the lead is officially considered not credible. And the parking garage has not. never been excavated, and the lead is officially considered not credible. But the theory persists in online forums and armchair investigations, a testament to how desperately people want an answer, even one that comes from a psychic's dream. But as we've seen on this channel, I did a whole video about psychics finding people's bodies, and it is interesting. It's pretty interesting, so I wouldn't shake a stick at this, is all I'm saying. So among the stranger pieces of evidence in the case is a note found in a Springfield Newsleader newspaper rack at Smitty's on South Glenstone Avenue sometime after

the disappearance, and written on it was a cryptic phrase, quote, use ruse of gas man checking for leak, unquote. And the implication was clear enough. Someone had gained entry to a house by pretending to be a utility worker, knocking on the door with a plausible cover story, convincing Sheryl to let them inside and then overpowering the women once the door was open. And it would explain the lack of forced entry, and it would explain how someone got into the locked house in the middle of the night without breaking anything. And it would explain why three women might have opened the door to a stranger. But would Cheryl really have opened her door to someone claiming to be a gas company employee at three or four in the morning? And would she have let a stranger

into her home while her daughter and her best friends were sleeping in the next rooms. It seems pretty unlikely. But again, nothing about this case follows the rules of what seems likely. So the note was never definitively linked to any suspect, and it was never proven to have any connection to the crime at all. It just remains one of those many tantalizing fragments, suggestive, disturbing, and ultimately inconclusive. But at the heart of every theory lies the fundamental question, why these three women? Because the problem is that Stacy and Susie weren't supposed to be at Cheryl's house that night. The original plan was to stay at Janelle Kirby's house at Battlefield and drive to Branson the next morning to the water park. So the decision to go to

East Delmar Street was made on impulse, sometime after two in the morning because the Kirby house was too crowded. So this last minute change creates two very different scenarios for what might have happened. And the first possibility would be that Cheryl was the target. Someone came to 1717 East Delmar Street looking for her specifically. And Susie and Stacy were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Collateral victims who had the terrible luck to change their plans at the last moment. But who would want to harm her? An unknown stalker maybe, but everyone who knew Cheryl said she had no enemies or, you know, stalkers or or, or, you know, stalkers or. or lovers.

And the second possibility was that the girls were followed. And a predator driving through Springfield on graduation night spotted two women in their cars and followed them home from one of the parties. And he waited until they were inside, until the house went dark and then made his move. But the scenario raises its own problems. Because how would one person control three adult women?

And how would he subdue them without any sign of struggle, without any of them screaming, without leaving any evidence behind. And I honestly have no idea. I mean, if we're looking at the other suspects, they targeted younger women, and they were known to drive around in either a van or some sort of vehicle. So, you know, my bet would be that they were followed. But then there's the incident where Cheryl was found at a convenience store

saying she was looking for them earlier in the night before they even arrived. So maybe there was a loss of communication. maybe she thought they'd be back sooner, and they were followed, and then as soon as they all got into the house, then that happened? I'm not sure, but let me know what you guys think down below. So the investigation continued,

but answers remained elusive. And in August of 1994, a grand jury was convened to examine the evidence and hear testimony from witnesses. And Dustin Recla was among those called to testify, and so were others connected to the case. Friends, family members, people who might know something that hadn't yet been revealed.

And the grand jury proceedings were closed to the public and the testimony was sealed. So we don't have a lot to go off for this hearing. And when it disbanded in early 1995, no indictments were issued. And whatever the grand jury learned, it wasn't enough to charge anyone with the crime, as we know.

And the findings remained sealed to this day. So as months turned into years, the case that has consumed Springfield began to recede from daily headlines. And the investigation continued, and tips still came in and detectives still followed leads, but the intensity of those first desperate weeks couldn't be sustained forever.

And by 1997, five years after the disappearance, Cheryl Levitt and Suzanne Streeter were declared legally dead. And it was a formality, a legal necessity for settling estates and closing accounts, but it carried a terrible weight. And it meant that the system had given up on finding them. And Stacey McCall's family refused to take the same. step. And her mother, Janice, would not declare her daughter dead, not without proof and not without a body, and not without knowing for certain what had happened. And as the years accumulated, so did the paperwork,

and more than 5,000 tips were eventually processed. And by 2015, the department was still receiving approximately 100 tips per year, people who thought they'd seen something, remembered something, or knew something, and over 27,000 documents filled the case files, a mountain of information that has yielded no answers, which is just mind-boggling. So the investigation had become one of the largest in Missouri history, and it had produced nothing. No arrests, no charges, no bodies, and no closure. Just three women who vanished into a summer night and never came back. So the Springfield Police Department still classifies this case as open and active, and a detective remains permanently assigned to it even now,

more than three decades after Cheryl Susie and Stacey disappeared. Quote, we do call it a cold case, unquote, police chief Paul Williams said in 2022. Quote, but there's a detective always assigned to it because we do get things to follow up on, unquote, because the numbers tell the story of an investigation that never stopped but never arrived anywhere either. And a reward of $43,000 remains available for information

leading to the location of the women and the prosecution of those responsible. But it has never been claimed. And for the families of the missing, there is no cold case. There is only the absence that never ends. And Janice McCall has spent more than three decades keeping her daughter's name alive. And she has organized annual visuals. She gave countless interviews to reporters, television crews, podcast hosts, anyone who might keep the case in the public eye.

And she created the original missing persons flyer. the ones that papered Springfield in those first desperate weeks, and she never stopped hoping that someone, somewhere, would finally come forward with the truth. And in 2022, before the 13th anniversary visual, Janice suffered two heart attacks, and her health has declined in recent years, and she has stepped back from media interviews,

but her position has never wavered. Quote, until I know 100% that Stacey is deceased, I will never declare her dead. They're going to have to have to find. find some remains somewhere before I call her legally dead." So Stacey McCall has never been declared dead because her mother refuses to give up that hope. And Stuart McCall, Stacey's father, was not as fortunate. And he passed away in October of

2025 at the age of 82, and he spent the last 30 years of his life not knowing what happened to his youngest daughter. And he and Janice created one missing link, a nonprofit organization, dedicated to helping other families with missing loved ones. A way to transatlose. A way to transform their pain into something that might help others. And I looked into one missing link, but it looks like it's closed and inactive. I will do a more research. And if I find it, I will link it down below. But I did find another nonprofit that Janice McCall is actually a part of, and that is the surviving parents coalition. So I will definitely link that down below. And you can look into that and people's stories and there's volunteering and ways to donate. So I will link that down

below. Although when I tried to donate, it said it was inactive. So again, I will have to look into that more, but you can still read about other people's stories and volunteer in any way you would like. But Stuart McCall would die without any answers and without closure and without ever being able to lay his daughter to rest. And Deborah Schwartz, Cheryl's younger sister, has remained active in keeping the case visible. And she was featured in a 2022 NBC Dateline segment, still searching for answers about the sister who raised her, who cooked her dinner, and who was definitely always looking out for me. And Bart Streeter, Susie's older brother, found living in Springfield unbearable after the disappearance, and he left the city, and for years he maintained a family

blog about the case, and his daughter now manages it, carrying the torch into another generation. And the families grow older, some have passed away, and the wound remains open. But every June, people gather at the Victims Memorial Garden in Phelps Grove Park, a bench dedicated to the three women was placed there in 1997, the same year Cheryl and Susie were declared legally dead. And candles are lit, and names are spoken and the community tries to honor what was lost, even if they can never explain it. And in some Springfield storefronts, missing persons flyers still hang, faded now, the faces of three women who would be unrecognizable today if they somehow walked through the door. And the house at 1717 East Delmar Street still stands, and people drive by sometimes trying to

imagine what happened there, trying to make sense of the senseless. And for many who lived in Springfield in 1992, the case is a wound that never healed. And it changed the way people thought about their town and about safety and about the assumption that terrible things happen. Only somewhere else. And the Springfield 3 proved that nowhere is somewhere else. And that ordinary streets and ordinary towns can hold extraordinary horrors. But the Springfield 3 has never faded from public consciousness the way some cold cases do. And television keeps returning to it. In 48 hours, America's Most Wanted, Investigation Discoveries disappeared series, People Magazine investigates, NBC and Dateline and podcasts. Each new program introduces the case to a new

audience and generates a new wave of tips and ultimately arrives at the same place as of right now, and that is no answers. But if, for whatever reason, you know anything, please reach out to authorities in Springfield, Missouri. And if they were alive today, Cheryl Levitt would be 80 years old, and she might be retired from the salon, spending her days with grandchildren she never got to meet. And Susie Streeter would be 52.

Perhaps she built that cosmetology career she dreamed of, working alongside her mother the way she always planned. And Stacey McCall would be 51. And she might have children of her own by now or in a career and maybe even grandchildren, a family wondering about the grandmother who still refuses to declare her daughter deceased. But whatever happened in those dark hours of June 6 to 7th in 1992 ended their lives before they had the chance to become who they might have been. And instead, they now remain frozen in time.

But let's remember them for who they were, and that's three beautiful women who deserve justice. But that is that for the Springfield 3. Thank you so much for notifying me about this case and allowing me to talk about it. I really appreciate you guys. Let me know what other cases you want me to deep dive into down below, and I will see you guys in the next one. Stay safe out there, all right? Bye.