Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Two Teen Girls and Mom Disappear From Family Home, Only Clue is Broken Porch Light

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

Police have been searching for a missing Mom and two teens from Springfield, Missouri for twenty years. The Springfield Three are friends Suzanne Street, Stacy McCall, and Streeter's mother, Sherrill Levitt. The women went missing from Levitt's home. All of their personal belongings, including cars and purses, were left behind. Police say there were no signs of a struggle other than a broken globe on a porch light.    Joining Nancy Grace Today: Nicole Deborde Hochglaube - Criminal Defense Lawyer (Houston TX), Former Prosecutor, Twitter: @debordelaw, HoustonCriminalDefense.com  Dr. Shari Schwartz - Forensic Psychologist specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy (Miami Beach, FL), Panthermitigation.com, Twitter: @TrialDoc, Author: "Criminal Behavior" and "Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology" Rick Bookout - Former Springfield Police Officer (first officer on scene) Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan" Anne Roderique-Jones - Writer and Host, Podcast: "The Springfield Three: A Small-Town Disappearance" anneroderiquejones.com, Instagram: @anniemarie_, Twitter: @AnnieMarie_ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The so-called Springfield Three. That sounds like a gang of some sort. No. The Springfield Three, anything but wrongdoers. They are three women, including two teens, that vanish seemingly without a trace. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. The Springfield Three. Three words that still haunt law enforcement.

Take a listen now to our friends at NBC. Friends and family of 19-year-old Suzanne Streeter and 18-year-old Stacy McCall say it's not like them to just leave and not tell anyone where they're going. She calls and lets me know where she's going to be. She's never missed work. She's very conscientious young woman. We're questioning everybody at this time, friends, relatives, anyone that has any information, anyone that may have seen them last, neighbors.

We've done neighborhood canvas. We're just checking every league we can at this time. Checking every league, canvassing neighborhoods. How can three women just disappear? Two of them teens, Suzanne Streeter, just 19. Stacey McCall, just 18. And Suzanne's mother, Cheryl Leavitt. A mother and two teen girls just vanish. No sign of them anywhere. You know, very often to Joe Scott Morgan, joining me, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and star of a brand new hit series onart, Body Bags with Joe Scott Morgan, we every day hear of a new missing person. But rarely do you see a mom and two teens just vanish.

How can that be that you have three people that are just living their lives and suddenly they're gone or vaporized into the air? And no one has seen or heard from them since that moment in time. You know, even though they may have been seen doing activities earlier in the day that gave you a hint that everything was normal in their life, the next morning they're completely gone

and no one ever hears from them again. It's highly, highly unusual. Let me go to Nicole DeBoer, Hodge Globe, high-profile defense lawyer joining us out of Houston, former prosecutor. She's now at HoustonCriminalDefense.com. highly highly unusual let me go to nicole debord hot to globe high profile defense lawyer joining us out of houston former prosecutor she's now in houston criminal defense.com nicole uh you and i both tried at least i prosecuted you've done defense and prosecution work missing people kidnapped people murder sometimes that don't have a body to describe for the jury, but three at once, including two teen girls and one of their mother, Suzanne's mother.

That's very unusual. It's very, very unusual. It almost makes you wonder whether or not they knew the person that was interfacing with them right before their disappearance or ultimate death, because trying to overpower three people is an unusual thing to be able to do, even if you're armed, you know, with no commotion being overheard by neighbors and no clue being left behind. So it's a very unusual case. These are very difficult for the prosecution. Now, a lot of comparisons have been made to the two little girls, Abby and Liberty, Abigail and Liberty, that went missing in Delphi and their bodies later found murdered.

But those were two young girls, very young, as in tweens. But these are two older teens, 18 and 19, plus their grown mother. That's a very big difference. Joining me is Rick Bookout, former Springfield police officer. There's a big difference in abducting little children like 12, 13, as opposed to an 18-year-old, a 19-year-old, and one of their moms in her 40s. That's true. The only thing that I can think of is, if you're a parent, you might understand a little better, but I've heard there must have been more than one person. One person could have gotten them out of the house. I don't know. I tend to think that if you're a parent and

someone has a gun to your child's head, you're probably going to be quiet. You're going to do whatever they tell you to do. I could see that. We also have cases of an entire family disappearing or an entire family being killed. But like you just heard, former cop Rick Bookout state, parents will do a lot if somebody's got a gun to their child's head. So how do two teens and one of their mothers just vanish? The location, Springfield, Missouri. Take a listen to Maddie Scheisler, NBC. The last time anyone saw Susan Streeter or Stacey McCall was over the weekend at this house in Battlefield.

The girls had gathered here with some friends after graduating from Kickapoo High School on Saturday. They left here early Sunday morning. They said they were going to the other girl's house and they were going to be spending the night there. And they called me in the morning so we could go to Whitewater. And they never called me in the morning, so I called them, and I called, and I called, and I called, and I got no answer. So I went over there, and they went there. You are hearing Maddie Scheisler at NBC, and you are also hearing Friends of the Missing Girls. Joining me right now, a special guest, writer and host of The Springfield Three,

A Small Town Disappearance, Ann Roderick-Jones. Ann, thank you for being with us. Tell me about the day that these three women just vanished. Well, two of the girls were graduating, which was Stacy and Susie. So they had graduated from Kickapoo High School that day. And then they were going out to do what children normally do or teens normally do after graduation, which was to go to some parties. And they'd spent the evening doing that, a seemingly normal celebratory day. And after the parties, they had intended to stay at one friend's house and ended up going over to susie's house where she lived with her mother and that was presumably about 2 15 in the a.m

and by the morning um no one was found out at the house even though all three cars were there and their purses were there along with their keys okay I want to let that soak in. Ann is joining us, really an expert on this, along with Rick Bookout. Ann, tell me that one more time. They graduated that day from Kickapoo High. They planned to go to different senior parties, and were all going to stay at one girl's house overnight, correct?

They were. They had actually changed plans a couple of times and Stacy had called her mother to let her know that they were changing their plans. So we're going to stay at some friend's house. And then ultimately, early in the morning hours, they changed their mind and went over to Susie's house on Delmar Street where she lives with her mother. Hmm. I wonder why the change of plans. But that said, I mean, I could see them getting carjacked, say, on the way from one home to the next. But then you also have the mother, Cheryl Levitt, Suzanne's mom, vanish as well. Guys, take a listen to our friends at NBC.

This is Suzanne Streeter's mom, Cheryl Lovett. She's also missing. Last seen at her daughter's graduation ceremony at Hammond Student Center on Saturday. She lived in this house on East Delmar in Springfield. That's where police found the three missing women's cars. Authorities say there was no sign of a struggle. In fact, the front door was unlocked. The TV was on. Their clothes were still there. Their purses and personal items untouched. Now, as I recall, but the porch light was broken.

No sign of a struggle inside the home. I want to go back to former Springfield, Missouri police officer, the first officer on the scene. Rick Bookout is with us. Rick, tell me about when you got the call to go to the scene. I was working third shift, and that started at about 9.30 p.m. Attended briefing, got my equipment, got my car and headed out. And as I recall, that was probably the first call for service that I had pretty shortly after going into service. When I got to the house, there were lots of people there. People in the yard, people in the house, people going in and out of the house. And there were some adults, some parents there,

and had told me that they were concerned because I think the girls were supposed to stay at someone else's house, and then they were all going to get up early the next morning and go to a water park in the Branson area the next morning. But there were too many people in the house. So they weren't going to be able to stay there as they had planned. So Susie had known Stacy. They had grown up. I think they had been friends since grade school. And she said, well, just come home with me. We'll stay at my house and then we'll get up and go meet everybody in the morning. And someone had mentioned to me about the, it was actually the globe of the porch light. As I recall, the porch light worked. It was just the globe had fallen. And they said it was broken on the steps of the front porch.

And I said, well, where's the glass? And they said, oh, well, we cleaned it up and threw it in the trash. So just from there, I tried to, you know, interview the teens that were there and the parents to get an idea of what was going on. Who called in their disappearance? As I recall, Stacy's mother had called. So Stacy's mom, Janice McCall, that's where they were supposed to stay that night, and instead they went over to Suzanne's?

I think that the house where they were planning to stay was actually out in the county somewhere. And so they had decided to just go back there. And there had been some time elapsed since, because the other kids, the next morning had gotten up and tried to call them and they got no answer. So they went ahead and went to the water park, spent the day, came back, went to check on them, and they still couldn't find them. So they went to the house, and no one was home. So, you know, some time had gone by before they called Mrs. McCall and said, hey, you know, we don't know what's going on. And she's like, well, we need to call the police. You know what? It was the home of's like, well, we need to call the police. Yeah, you know what?

It was the home of Janelle Kirby, another one of their friends. They were going to stay there and then decided to go stay at Suzanne's house. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace and roderick jones joining me writer and host of the podcast is springfield three a small town disappearance and they were supposed to stay at janelle kirby's home so was there a big distance between janelle and su's home? You know, I would say there's probably a 15-minute drive between where Janelle lived and where they ended up, which was at 1717 Del Mar, a little bit closer to the downtown area of Springfield. I'm just trying to get my head around the logistics. I'm wondering, did someone see them headed over to Suzanne's home? It's a 15-minute drive.

Would that have been time? But it was late. Was it late at night when they decided to spend the night at Suzanne's? It was. It was about 2 in the morning. And so they had went over to Janelle's initially, and she had a lot of people in town. Of course, the girls had graduated that day, so there were family members there. And because there wasn't enough space, they ended up driving over to Susie and Cheryl's house.

And something that we talk about on the podcast is that Janelle's mother heard Susie say to Stacey, follow me to my house. She said, okay. And that was the last that anyone had heard of them. They both presumably drove their cars over to Del Mar Street and presumably went to bed. Their clothes had been, you know, removed and folded that they had been wearing that day. There were washcloths with makeup in the bin. So presumably they had been to bed that night. So they made it there. You know, those details are so important in this case. To Dr. Sherry Schwartz joining me, forensic psychologist specializing in criminal behavior, you can find her at PantherMitigation.com. She's the author of Criminal Behavior and Where Law and Psychology Intersect.

Dr. Sherry, thank you for being with us. You know, commenting on the case, analyzing the case, it's all about logistics, timelines, forensic evidence. But when Ann Roderick-Jones just said the clothes they had worn to graduation, the graduation parties, were neatly folded up. The makeup wipes were found where they had taken off all their makeup from the night. It suddenly struck home. And it makes me think of my little girl, Lucy, when she comes back from one of her little school get-togethers of her getting ready for bed. And that indicates to me they made it all the way to Suzanne's safely and, just like Ann says, got ready for bed.

But it really humanizes these two teen girls, doesn't it? It certainly does. And it shows very clearly that they were alive, right? Seemingly when they got home, that they were doing what most women, young and old, do. Take your makeup off for the day, relax, get yourself ready and go to bed. And so that might make family members or anybody who went into the house not think there was any emergency. A question to either Rick Bookout, former Springfield police officer, who's the first on the scene, and Ann Roderick-Jones, who has created an incredible podcast about the Springfield Three.

Where was Suzanne's dad, Don Leavitt? Did he live in the home as well? I know that he was not living in the house, that Cheryl was a single mother. She was from the Seattle area and she had moved to Springfield just a few years prior, I believe, and decided to bring her daughter with her.

And they lived in that home, just the two of them on Del Mar. She was a hairstylist and she worked at a local salon. So the dad wasn't living in the home, my guess is he was back in Seattle. And, you know, Nicole DeBoer Hotzglobe, high profile criminal defense attorney out of Houston, you know where I'm headed. The first thing you do is look at all the mails connected to the crime scene. Absolutely.

And, you know, it'll be curious to hear what details they collected and ultimately now with the benefit of time, how those details line up with what we can determine is forensically accurate. Things have changed quite a bit since the time of this original scene investigation. So let's go over what we know. Where do these two teen girls and one of their moms disappear? Where do they end up? It's baffling to me we're not getting any evidence out of the home. Take a listen to Frances Watson, KYTV. I saw her graduate Saturday night and now she's gone. Inside the house, nothing seemed to

be out of place. No personal items were missing. Their keys and purses accounted for. Their cars parked in the driveway. The three women seemed to have vanished without a trace. This area here just looks like the tip maybe of a finger. The community joining the police department in the search following every lead. We're looking for anything. We're not just looking for these three. We are exploring all avenues at this time. I'm Mrs. McCall, and this is my daughter. You know, I'm just thinking this through. Back to Rick Bookout, former Springfield police officer, the first on the scene,

the missing Springfield Three. So tell me your recollections of the scene. So the mom's car and both the girls' cars were there. Yeah, that's correct. It appeared that everything was normal when they arrived. Nothing out of the ordinary. They parked their vehicles, had gone in the house. It looked like they turned on the TV, were getting ready for bed. As Ann had mentioned, at least Stacy had taken her shorts off. She had taken her jewelry off, put it in the pockets of her shorts. There might've been some medication in there as well. Folded these items and it disappeared as if they were just getting ready to go to bed without any hint of anything wrong.

And there were, talking about the crime scene itself, there were so many people in the house, in the yard, in and out, back and forth. Any crime scene there might have been was pretty well damaged by that time. Contaminated and destroyed. Two things just jump out at me. Speaking of destroying a crime scene, you mentioned earlier Rick Bookout, first cop on the scene. The glass from the broken globe on the porch light had been cleared off the porch. What evidence could have been yielded from that globe?

Well, it's hard to say. You know, if there were any pieces large enough, I think there might have been some fingerprint evidence that might have been obtained from that. We didn't have the luxury of DNA at the time. There might have been some fingerprint evidence that might have been obtained from that. We didn't have the luxury of DNA at the time. The media had reported things like the house had been cleaned. And I don't know that that was necessarily the case. I think they probably got that from the statement. You know, when I said, where's the broken glass?

And they said, well, we cleaned it up. And, you know, I guess in all fairness to the kids, they had no idea, you know, they had no idea that something like this had happened. Well, Rick Bookout, what can you tell me about a message on the answering machine allegedly being deleted? Well, I was told while I was there that they said, hey, by the way, you know, don't know if this means anything, but there were some disconcerting messages on the answering machine. And as I recall, I mean, it's been a long time ago, but as I recall, there was one that I listened to that it just sounded like a random obscene phone call. Wasn't specific to anyone. And then someone had said, well, there were others, but they had been deleted. Normally, I would say it was a rando, but in conjunction with them disappearing, I would take a second look at it. Now, another thing, a friend, one of their friends, Kirby and her boyfriend visited the home after the two failed to show up as they were

supposed to you know to go to the water park upon arriving kirby found the front door unlocked entered there were no sign of the springfield three each woman's cars parked outside the glass lampshade on the porch light shattered, the light bulb intact. That's what happened. Kirby and her boyfriend innocently cleaned up the glass, not really realizing anything was gone. But also, the dog, Streeter's dog, a Yorkshire Terrier named Cinnamon, was highly agitated. And while they were there, Kirby answered the phone and called it a strange and disturbing call from an unidentified male who made sex innuendos. Now that's happening the morning that they're noticed to be gone i find that highly coincidental joe scott morgan well there there are many coincidences along along with this uh you know i'm sitting here thinking

uh you know you've got three women who and two of which had been at parties earlier in the evening you know who would have had an awareness that they were at the parties, leaving the parties? And then at the last minute, there's like this decision, apparently, to sleep at the house from which they disappeared. This is not initially in the plan. So when you have this kind of, and it looks to me like there's not like a sense of forced energy with this. You know, like, you know, we're going to grab you and pull you out of the house kicking and screaming.

You've got people that have changed out of their daily wear. My question is, are their shoes still in the house specifically to the individual that doesn't live in the house? Did they walk out of the door barefooted? Because you have to assume that the only pair of shoes that they would have had would have been the ones that they walked in there with. And the broken glass is interesting to me because I would really want to know, and Officer Bookman had mentioned that the light was still functioning. I think that's correct. Was this an attempt to knock out the light

so that no one could see their face? Maybe perhaps a perpetrator when they came to the door? I think that that's kind of an interesting point. And how are you going to wrangle three, three, not just one, but three people and get them out of the house? And there's other, it looks like there's other residences in the immediate vicinity

of this location so i don't know to me it it uh it seems as though somebody would have had to have very specific intimate knowledge of their comings and goings we may know about a secondary crime scene take a listen to our frenzy k-o-l-r a clerk at this south side convenience store says he saw sheryl levitt early on the morning the three women disappeared, looking for her daughter and two friends. Police have been unable to confirm that report, though. Did Levitt make a call a short time later from this nearby store? Police can't confirm that either, but are trying to obtain records from payphones in

the area. Were the three women in this restaurant early on that morning? A waitress says she served them, but no one else has come forward to substantiate that. Wow. So a clerk at a convenience store says he saw Cheryl Levitt that morning looking for her daughter and friends. We also have a waitress claiming that she served them. What do we know about that, Ann Roderick-Jones?

Well, I think during this entire time, there were so many theories that were coming up. The police were chasing so many leads. So, you know, you did have that theory of, you know, a gas station clerk at one point and then the waitress at Georgia Steakhouse, which was a place that I went growing up. It was a 24-hour coffee shop, kind of, you know, divey diner place. And it was really close to the house on Del Mar. So, you know, it certainly could have been plausible. That was one that was looked into. There were some theories of a green van. There were certainly so many theories and certainly so many tips that were called in at this time

that I believe it was hard to keep them straight and it was hard to probably suss all of them out. True. But about those two tips, let's talk about how we could prove it. If there was not a surveillance video camera in the diner or at the convenience store, what about receipts, Joe Scott Morgan? What about that? Would that be a way to prove it? Or if a credit card was used or a receipt where three people were dining, so you've got three breakfast orders, wouldn't that go a long way to proving whether it was true or not?

A lot of that would be dependent upon how sophisticated the register was at that particular time. Think back to that period of time. If it's a cash and carry kind of business, they're not using credit cards or anything else. Maybe they're just writing out a receipt. I don't know that anything would necessarily have been available digitally, certainly, or a record of that. That would be a place to start, though, because it gives you kind of foundationally something numerically, you know, that you can go on, that you can kind of pinpoint that place in time.

You know, this is a world that's completely free, completely free of cell phones and all of that kind of digital information that we deal with today. You know, I have never been to, let's just say Waffle House, where the waitress didn't write down on a pad what was being ordered. And then that would be attached to a receipt. So I'm not quite sure how that can't be in existence. I mean, you know, to you, Nicole DeBoer Hodgeglobe,

handwritten receipts are just as good as digital receipts. They may not have the time on them, but I find it hard to believe that that story, at least, that the mom was having breakfast with the girls early, early in the morning, and there's not a receipt of that. I would agree. I think that's definitely an excellent place to start. The problem is the passage of time and what people thought was relevant then when they weren't quite sure what they were looking at versus what they thought or think now could be useful are two very different things. And with the passage of so much time, you just don't know what is still available. The only way to find out is to ask.

There were leads. Take a listen to our friend C.K.O.L.R.10. Police have made much of identifying this composite sketch. A woman saw the transient-looking man in the neighborhood near the Leavitt home around the time the women disappeared. But no one else has confirmed those sightings, and no identification has been made. Police are also trying to track down a brown, older model Dodge van like this one. It was reportedly seen in the area early on the morning the women disappeared, but again by only one person and the report is so far unsubstantiated.

Leads that were generated at the time but seemingly have all gone cold. These women never seen again. The case seemingly stymied. Take a listen to Francis Watson, KYTV. For nearly two weeks, police and citizens in Springfield, Missouri, have been haunted by a mystery. That mystery only deepening as time went by. Tips about a suspicious-looking van in the area around the time of the disappearance put authorities on high alert. All the agencies in the area are working very hard to try to locate these people in these vans. All leads, no matter how incredible, hunted down. Lead number 15,416. There's buzzards flying over some silo or something and they would send people. Rick Bookout joining me, first cop on the scene. Rick, tell me about how crazy it was at the time these three women go missing, the search for them.

Well, it was certainly full throttle. Every resource available, and even ones that came in was documented and officers were sent to investigate. And it didn't matter where it was, whether it was in our jurisdiction or not. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm thinking about the timeline, Joe Scott Morgan. So the girls get to the home. Everybody jump in if I've got it wrong around 2 a.m. And then they're reported missing the following morning, I guess around 9-ish when they didn't show up to go to the water park. So you've got a seven-hour window.

And I also can't help but wonder about neighbors, how easy it would have been to get the girls and the mom over to a neighbor's house as opposed to struggling to get all three of them into a vehicle because obviously they were taken in a vehicle unless they went to a neighbor's home. How do you marshal them to get them out of the door? You know, threat of force, I think, is really the only way that that could potentially be accomplished. If you're going to throw a firearm up in these three women's face, you know, keep in mind, two o'clock in the morning, you're in a daze. I don't know about you guys, but I am. You know, you come walking into this environment or I'm going to kill you right here to get them out of the door. And you're right. There has to be a motor vehicle involved in this.

And how do you get them into that car? And relative to the neighbors, did they see anything that was out of the ordinary relative to a car that would have pulled up in there and when you i've seen the images from the scene nancy regarding the two cars that were there it's almost like a looped driveway you think about well are you going to walk them across the front lawn into a waiting vehicle is there a back way to get them out of the house? Is there any evidence that that could have occurred? Or did you pull up right to the door and, you know, you get them into the vehicle and then spirit them off into the night? And, you know, by that time, seven hours downrange, you could be anywhere heading out of Springfield in any number of different directions.

Then evidence or tip comes forth about a parking structure. Take a listen our friends at KY3. The parking structure at Cox Health's South campus was examined with special equipment after rumors circulated that the women were buried there though nothing was found. An anonymous mail caller told KY3 that inside this newspaper stand was a note with possible clues on the women's whereabouts. It was found in an envelope and they'd cut the words out just like in the movies. Over the years, tips continue to trickle in, not only to police, but to our station. These handwritten letters mail to KY3 with vague details and theories about what happened here on Del Mar Street.

Sending tips or information to a TV station is thought unheard of. Everyone's familiar with BTK, Bind, Torture, Kill, Serial Killer, Dennis Rader, who would actually engage in conversations and communications with local media. So do you recall, Rick Bookout, the search of the Cox Health Medical Center based on a tip the three women were buried there? Yes, I remember that. And if I could back up just a minute to the neighbors. Another officer and myself at the time that evening, we canvassed the neighborhood,

all the neighbors on the street behind, next door, across the street, and no one saw or heard anything. And logistically, talking about the vehicle parked in front of the house or in the loop. This house was only about a half a block away from a major business roadway. And so the east side of the house was a privacy fence. On the other side of the privacy fence was a parking lot to a business. That would be my guess where if there was a vehicle involved, it would have been parked there. Yep, I think you're right. And we've seen that before where a person will enter through a fence to get into a yard, but coming from a major thoroughfare or, like you're saying, a business.

What are your other thoughts on them being spirited away? How did it happen, Rick? Well, you know, I wish I knew. It's always been my opinion that this broken globe, I think it was broken on the way out rather than on the way in. But that's just my opinion. Broken on the way out. Why do you say that? Well, if it were broken on the way in, and as the gentleman stated, they may not have had shoes on. I don't think they're going to walk three barefooted people through broken glass.

And if it were broken on the way out, you have to say, well, how would that have been broken on the way out? It could have been broken if somebody was carrying something. Or struggling. Yeah, yeah. And the fact that the bulb itself wasn't broken, just the globe. Because you're right, that is a very common thing. People don't want to be seen. They'll disable the bulb. And it wasn't.

So, I mean, I think it was just knocked loose. I'm not sure anybody did it intentionally. But, again, just my opinion. Now, cops say they are making progress. Are they? Take a listen to our friends at KOLR10. Police say they have made significant progress since the three women turned up missing. They've sifted through items inside the East Del Mar home.

Analysts continue looking at everything from fingerprints to financial records in the hunt for clues. They've put together background reports on Stacey McCall and Susie Streeter. Two detectives flew to the Seattle area, hoping to complete a profile of Cheryl Levitt's life. But many of the most dramatic leads mentioned publicly by police so far have been based on thin or unsubstantiated information. To you, Ann Roderick-Jones, star of The Springfield Three, a small-town disappearance podcast, what can you tell me about Robert Craig Cox? So Robert Craig Cox was from Springfield, Missouri. He was an army ranger

and he was later accused of killing Sharon Zellers, who was found in Orange County, Florida, when he was staying there with his parents in a day's end. He was not convicted of that until 11 years later. And then when he was on death row for Sharon Zellers, there wasn't enough evidence to convict him. It was reversed and he went free. It was reported during that time that he was free.

He lived in Springfield, Missouri before then later, you know, just avoiding, basically avoiding prison. He ended up going to prison later for kidnapping. He claimed that he had an alibi the night that the three women went missing. It was from his fiance and they said that they were at church. And then it later turns out that his fiance recanted her statement. He's in a Texas prison. He says that he knows where the women are. He knows where they're buried and that he won't say until after his mother is dead and his mother is still alive at this time. Tell me about the case of Sharon Sellers. So Sharon Sellers was a young woman. She was getting off work later in the evening and her body was found that night. It was decomposed. It just so happened

that Robert Craig Cox was visiting Florida during that time. I believe he was visiting from California where he had lived and he was staying with his parents at a day's end. He came back bloodied. Part of his tongue was bitten off. At the time, there wasn't enough evidence to convict him, but he was convicted 11 years later. He sat on death row. And then in the state of Florida, there wasn't enough evidence, and the conviction was reversed, and he went free. And ends up right here in town where the girls go missing. Anne Roderick-Jones, what do you make of the girlfriend's recantation? Well, you know, her daughter actually reached out to me after listening to the podcast

and just listening to the episode about Robert Craig Cox and was like, you know, I think I need to call in and talk about this. She had never spoken about it, but her mother was the one who was engaged to Robert Craig Cox and they all lived in the home together. And her mother was the one who was engaged to Robert Craig Cox. And they all lived in the home together. And her mother currently has Alzheimer's. So, you know, we weren't able to get an interview with her. But her daughter told me that her mother did recant that statement. At the time, she was really in love with Robert Craig Cox. He was incredibly charismatic and had convinced her to say that they were at church together. To Rick Bookout, the former Springfield police officer first on the scene, what do you make of this guy?

Do you think he is the killer? Well, you know, I don't know. I mean, I really don't know. I've talked to detectives who have gone down and interviewed him, and, you know, they're just not real sure either. Good question to Ann Roderick-Jones. What does this guy have to say, Robert Cox, that could not be gleaned from media reports? You know, it's a great question, and I'm not sure that he does. I tried to get an interview with him and wasn't able to do so. He wasn't interested in it.

But, you know, it certainly could be sensationalizing this, which is, you know, why we just told the story from the facts that we had. Certainly didn't want to sensationalize this tragedy. And it seems that, you know, he could he could certainly be doing so. forensic psychologist, it wouldn't be the first time that an inmate sought to enhance his reputation or notoriety by claiming responsibility for a notorious crime. Absolutely. It happens fairly frequently, unfortunately. And when I first heard that this person has claimed responsibility, it makes me wonder what kind of privileges they're getting or, you know, in non-technical terms, street cred in the prison for claiming responsibility, because I find it curious if they're looking for attention, why he wouldn't agree to be

interviewed for the podcast. And he, of course, was in Springfield at the time of the disappearance. And very, very curious, police went to speak to him immediately after the disappearance. As of right now, no resolution. If you have or think you have information about the disappearance of these women, please dial 417-864-1810. Repeat, 417-864-1810. Repeat, 417-864-1810.

Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.