When creating an age progression image, forensic artists take into consideration the person’s bone structure and features as well as age patterns seen in their biological relatives, such as wrinkles, weight gain or hair loss. With missing adults, factors such as smoking, alcohol use, and chronic illness are taken into account to predict aging. Age progression has been in use since 1989, and is now largely done using computers. The process relies largely on the know-how of the forensic artist. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
It’s "half art and half science."
20 years ago, Stacy McCall, Suzanne Streeter and Sherrill Levitt disappeared from an east Springfield home without a trace. The three women are still missing, and no one has ever been charged in connection with their disappearance. Age-progressed photos offer a look at what McCall and Streeter might look like today. Both women would be in their late 30's. If you have any information regarding this case, you can contact the Springfield Police Department at 417-864-1810.
New eyes could eventually solve case of Springfield's 3 missing women
Posted: Tue 8:03 PM, Jun 07, 2016 |
Updated: Tue 10:31 PM, Jun 07, 2016
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. It is a mystery, a story many know that remains without an ending. Today marks 24 years since three women from Springfield vanished: Stacy McCall, Suzanne Streeter, and Streeter's mother, Sherrill Levitt.
On Tuesday, fresh flowers rested near a memorial to the two teens and mother. Like those fresh flowers, Stacy McCall's mother tells KSPR she feels fresh leads, technology and investigators can still bring her daughter and the other two women home.
"I look at Stacy and I think she's not 18, she's 38. It's heartbreaking," McCall said in an interview with us on the 20th anniversary four years ago. "Twenty birthdays and twenty Thanksgivings and Christmases and so many times that we sit around the table wanting her nearby."
Today she echoed heartache and also glimmers of hope.
"I want people to know I am not in denial, I still believe if there's one in one-hundred chance my daughter is alive I"ll take it," she said on Tuesday over the phone. "I want my daughter. I don't even care about an arrest, I just want my daughter."
Now 24 years of looking, hoping, praying and searching take a toll, and yet family and police say they will never give up. They say neither will Springfield.
"The community wants answers," McCall said in the previous interview. "Three women were taken from our community never to be seen again."
On that June day in 1992 the McCall family made the first worried call to police.
"There are those few cases that just haunt you," said Mark Webb. Webb is now the Bolivar police chief. In 1992, he was with Springfield P.D.
"Instantly within the first paragraph you knew this wasn't a typical missing person case. I knew this is going to be bad," said Webb.
McCall and Streeter just graduated high school. They'd been to a party and were last seen around 2 o'clock in the morning. The two girls were headed to Streeter's home where she lived with her mom, Levitt. When police arrived they there were no signs of struggle. The women's purses, clothes and money were left behind. It looked as though the ladies had been kidnapped.
"We get calls weekly," said Springfield Police Lt. Culley Wilson.
Lt. Wilson oversees detectives on the case. He says there are some new eyes on it.
"That always can uncover things we haven't seen before," said Wilson. "It's fresh. They may see it in a new way."
He says hope is very much alive.
"We've done interviews around the state in the last year. Some leads have promise. We still have persons of interest," said Wilson.
Meanwhile, as Janis McCall says, this is not a day she celebrates.
"There's a big hole here," said McCall.
Investigators want to fill that hole.
"I am confident our law enforcement will solve it," said Wilson. "I am confident in our dedication and our abilities. Tomorrow could be the day someone brings us that piece of information that locks it all up."
Webb offers this advice to any law enforcement who finds the mystery in their hands: "Never give up. You have to go to work on this and treat any piece of information like it's the glue we've been waiting for to crack this case open."
McCall asks people who speculate to stick to the facts and stay away from so many rumors that she feels have sensationalized the case.
The reward fund for prosecution of those responsible now sits at $42,000.
Anyone with information into the disappearance of the three women should contact the Springfield police department or Crime Stoppers of Greater Springfield.
On Tuesday, fresh flowers rested near a memorial to the two teens and mother. Like those fresh flowers, Stacy McCall's mother tells KSPR she feels fresh leads, technology and investigators can still bring her daughter and the other two women home.
"I look at Stacy and I think she's not 18, she's 38. It's heartbreaking," McCall said in an interview with us on the 20th anniversary four years ago. "Twenty birthdays and twenty Thanksgivings and Christmases and so many times that we sit around the table wanting her nearby."
Today she echoed heartache and also glimmers of hope.
"I want people to know I am not in denial, I still believe if there's one in one-hundred chance my daughter is alive I"ll take it," she said on Tuesday over the phone. "I want my daughter. I don't even care about an arrest, I just want my daughter."
"The community wants answers," McCall said in the previous interview. "Three women were taken from our community never to be seen again."
On that June day in 1992 the McCall family made the first worried call to police.
"There are those few cases that just haunt you," said Mark Webb. Webb is now the Bolivar police chief. In 1992, he was with Springfield P.D.
"Instantly within the first paragraph you knew this wasn't a typical missing person case. I knew this is going to be bad," said Webb.
McCall and Streeter just graduated high school. They'd been to a party and were last seen around 2 o'clock in the morning. The two girls were headed to Streeter's home where she lived with her mom, Levitt. When police arrived they there were no signs of struggle. The women's purses, clothes and money were left behind. It looked as though the ladies had been kidnapped.
"We get calls weekly," said Springfield Police Lt. Culley Wilson.
Lt. Wilson oversees detectives on the case. He says there are some new eyes on it.
"That always can uncover things we haven't seen before," said Wilson. "It's fresh. They may see it in a new way."
He says hope is very much alive.
"We've done interviews around the state in the last year. Some leads have promise. We still have persons of interest," said Wilson.
Meanwhile, as Janis McCall says, this is not a day she celebrates.
"There's a big hole here," said McCall.
Investigators want to fill that hole.
"I am confident our law enforcement will solve it," said Wilson. "I am confident in our dedication and our abilities. Tomorrow could be the day someone brings us that piece of information that locks it all up."
Webb offers this advice to any law enforcement who finds the mystery in their hands: "Never give up. You have to go to work on this and treat any piece of information like it's the glue we've been waiting for to crack this case open."
McCall asks people who speculate to stick to the facts and stay away from so many rumors that she feels have sensationalized the case.
The reward fund for prosecution of those responsible now sits at $42,000.
Anyone with information into the disappearance of the three women should contact the Springfield police department or Crime Stoppers of Greater Springfield.
They were here, then suddenly they were nowhere. And with the passage of time, it looks like they will be nowhere forever.
Three Springfield women were apparently abducted on June 7, 1992. They have not been seen since.
Friends Suzanne Streeter, 19, and Stacy McCall, 18, had their lives in front of them. The day before they disappeared, they had graduated from Kickapoo High School.
The young women were last seen about 2:15 a.m. June 7 at a graduation party. They left and are believed to have gone to the home of Suzanne's mother, Sherrill Levitt. They planned to go to an amusement park the next day.
But they did not. Police believe, instead, someone took them against their will that night/early morning.
Relatives found Levitt's house in disarray. Not suspecting abduction, they cleaned things up. Investigators wish they had not done that.
The women's purses and other possessions were left behind. Nothing apparently was stolen.
Which leads to the question: How do three people vanish from the face of the Earth?
"That has been the question ever since," says Darrell Moore, who was first assistant in the Greene County Prosecutor's Office back then. "That is still a good question — one that we do not know the answer to."
Moore later served as Greene County prosecuting attorney for 12 years. He is retired.
"Obviously, with the passage of time, the odds are not good that they are alive," Moore says. "But we really don't know. You would think that if they are dead that their remains would at some point be found — perhaps by a hunter in a field."
McCall's mother, Janis, remains in Springfield. She created the website One Missing Link, a nonprofit that assists families with missing persons. I was unable to reach her for this story.
Lisa Cox, a police spokeswoman, tells me the case has generated 5,000 tips over the years. Investigators have compiled over 27,000 documents.
"The case has never been suspended and has always been assigned to at least one of our detectives who follows up on the ongoing, incoming tips," she says.
Cox would not say if there was, perhaps, a new wrinkle to the investigation. Even if there were, she tells me, the department would not reveal such information this week because investigators most familiar with the case were unavailable.
Springfield investigators have sought help. From 2010 to 2012, they reviewed the case and for three days in 2012 presented that information to a panel of 25 criminal-justice investigators assembled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
I asked Cox what the department learned from that review.
"Several recommendations by the panel were incorporated into the ongoing investigation," she says in an email. "Those recommendations received are not items we can publicly release."
A $42,000 reward remains in place for information that leads to prosecution.
In recent years, Cox says, the department gets about 100 tips a year. Some are from people who claim to be psychic.
In addition, she says, the department continues to receive tips already determined to be unsubstantiated.
Moore tells me of the tip that the women's bodies were buried in the foundational concrete of a Cox Hospital parking garage at South National Avenue and Primrose Street. The tip came from someone who either claimed to be a psychic or claimed to have a dream or vision about the case, Moore says. He can't recall the specific details.
"It was in the category of — 'My dog is psychic and he is telling me there are bones there.' It was along that line," he says. "If we had sought a search warrant based on that we would have been laughed out of court."
In another instance, he says, a psychic called to say the bodies were in a blanket buried near water.
"People have dreams and visions," he says. "I'm sure they mean well. But it was a waste of police resources."
Moore recalls two times when search warrants were granted to dig for bodies.
One tip was that the bodies were in a cave or some type of depression in Webster County, he says.
The other tip was that they were buried in an abandoned farmhouse in Barry County.
"The allegation was that a green van was involved," Moore says. "The tip was that the van and the bodies were buried on this property."
Investigators tore up the flooring of the house and dug. They dug outside, as well. Nothing was found.
It is not an established fact that a green van was involved, Moore says.
"There were people who insisted there was a green van and we could not totally discard it," he says.
Moore still prays for justice for McCall, who worked at a health club, and for Streeter, who had a job at a movie theater; and for Levitt, a beautician at New Attitudes Hair Salon, which is still at 210 E. Sunshine St.
Many criminals eventually tell stories of their crimes, he says. Or perhaps, relatives of the person who did it have long been suspicious and are finally ready to come forward.
"I still think there is one or more people out there who know what happened," he tells me.
These are the views of Steve Pokin, the News-Leader's columnist. Pokin has been at the paper three years and over the course of his career has covered just about everything — from courts and cops to features and fitness. He can be reached at 836-1253, spokin@gannett.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or by mail at 651 N. Boonville, Springfield, MO 65806.
If you have information
Contact Springfield police at 417-864-1810, 911, spdmail@springfieldmo.gov, SPD Facebook, or Crime Stoppers, which says it grants anonymity — http://www.springfieldmo.gov/1971/Crime-Stoppers
Three Springfield women were apparently abducted on June 7, 1992. They have not been seen since.
Friends Suzanne Streeter, 19, and Stacy McCall, 18, had their lives in front of them. The day before they disappeared, they had graduated from Kickapoo High School.
The young women were last seen about 2:15 a.m. June 7 at a graduation party. They left and are believed to have gone to the home of Suzanne's mother, Sherrill Levitt. They planned to go to an amusement park the next day.
But they did not. Police believe, instead, someone took them against their will that night/early morning.
Relatives found Levitt's house in disarray. Not suspecting abduction, they cleaned things up. Investigators wish they had not done that.
Which leads to the question: How do three people vanish from the face of the Earth?
"That has been the question ever since," says Darrell Moore, who was first assistant in the Greene County Prosecutor's Office back then. "That is still a good question — one that we do not know the answer to."
Moore later served as Greene County prosecuting attorney for 12 years. He is retired.
"Obviously, with the passage of time, the odds are not good that they are alive," Moore says. "But we really don't know. You would think that if they are dead that their remains would at some point be found — perhaps by a hunter in a field."
McCall's mother, Janis, remains in Springfield. She created the website One Missing Link, a nonprofit that assists families with missing persons. I was unable to reach her for this story.
"The case has never been suspended and has always been assigned to at least one of our detectives who follows up on the ongoing, incoming tips," she says.
Cox would not say if there was, perhaps, a new wrinkle to the investigation. Even if there were, she tells me, the department would not reveal such information this week because investigators most familiar with the case were unavailable.
Springfield investigators have sought help. From 2010 to 2012, they reviewed the case and for three days in 2012 presented that information to a panel of 25 criminal-justice investigators assembled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
I asked Cox what the department learned from that review.
"Several recommendations by the panel were incorporated into the ongoing investigation," she says in an email. "Those recommendations received are not items we can publicly release."
A $42,000 reward remains in place for information that leads to prosecution.
In recent years, Cox says, the department gets about 100 tips a year. Some are from people who claim to be psychic.
In addition, she says, the department continues to receive tips already determined to be unsubstantiated.
"It was in the category of — 'My dog is psychic and he is telling me there are bones there.' It was along that line," he says. "If we had sought a search warrant based on that we would have been laughed out of court."
In another instance, he says, a psychic called to say the bodies were in a blanket buried near water.
"People have dreams and visions," he says. "I'm sure they mean well. But it was a waste of police resources."
Moore recalls two times when search warrants were granted to dig for bodies.
One tip was that the bodies were in a cave or some type of depression in Webster County, he says.
The other tip was that they were buried in an abandoned farmhouse in Barry County.
"The allegation was that a green van was involved," Moore says. "The tip was that the van and the bodies were buried on this property."
Investigators tore up the flooring of the house and dug. They dug outside, as well. Nothing was found.
It is not an established fact that a green van was involved, Moore says.
"There were people who insisted there was a green van and we could not totally discard it," he says.
Moore still prays for justice for McCall, who worked at a health club, and for Streeter, who had a job at a movie theater; and for Levitt, a beautician at New Attitudes Hair Salon, which is still at 210 E. Sunshine St.
Many criminals eventually tell stories of their crimes, he says. Or perhaps, relatives of the person who did it have long been suspicious and are finally ready to come forward.
"I still think there is one or more people out there who know what happened," he tells me.
These are the views of Steve Pokin, the News-Leader's columnist. Pokin has been at the paper three years and over the course of his career has covered just about everything — from courts and cops to features and fitness. He can be reached at 836-1253, spokin@gannett.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or by mail at 651 N. Boonville, Springfield, MO 65806.
If you have information
Contact Springfield police at 417-864-1810, 911, spdmail@springfieldmo.gov, SPD Facebook, or Crime Stoppers, which says it grants anonymity — http://www.springfieldmo.gov/1971/Crime-Stoppers
Twenty years later family and friends are searching for answers in the case of three missing women
Video: KSPR33Family, Friends Gather to Remember Springfield's Missing Women
Video: 20 years Gather to Remember
(Springfield, MO) -- Thursday marks 20 years
since the disappearance of Stacy McCall, Suzie Streeter and Streeter's
mother, Sherrill Levitt.
The three vanished from Levitt's home on East Delmar some time between 2:30 a.m. and dawn on June 7, 1992. The search for them has never stopped.
Thursday morning, families of the women gathered with friends, law enforcement officers and members of the community to remember the women and encourage anyone with information to come forward, even after two decades.
The candlelight vigil Thursday morning brought together those who loved them, those who searched for them and those who've worked to solve the mystery of their disappearance, at the Victim's Memorial Garden at Phelps Grove Park.
"We're just grateful to this community for coming out here and still remembering them," says Sarah Beeson, Streeter's cousin. "It's just, it's therapeutic to come out and talk about them."
"She loved life and she loved people," said Janis McCall, Stacy's mother. "She loved children, so I know wherever she is, she is surrounded by children and has that loving feeling."
KOLR/KOZL's Special Coverage of the 20th Anniversary Here
Janis and Stuart McCall talk about Stacy
Deb Schwartz, Sherrill Levitt's sisters, thanks the community
for remembering her sister
The three vanished from Levitt's home on East Delmar some time between 2:30 a.m. and dawn on June 7, 1992. The search for them has never stopped.
Thursday morning, families of the women gathered with friends, law enforcement officers and members of the community to remember the women and encourage anyone with information to come forward, even after two decades.
The candlelight vigil Thursday morning brought together those who loved them, those who searched for them and those who've worked to solve the mystery of their disappearance, at the Victim's Memorial Garden at Phelps Grove Park.
"We're just grateful to this community for coming out here and still remembering them," says Sarah Beeson, Streeter's cousin. "It's just, it's therapeutic to come out and talk about them."
"She loved life and she loved people," said Janis McCall, Stacy's mother. "She loved children, so I know wherever she is, she is surrounded by children and has that loving feeling."
KOLR/KOZL's Special Coverage of the 20th Anniversary Here
Janis and Stuart McCall talk about Stacy
Deb Schwartz, Sherrill Levitt's sisters, thanks the community
for remembering her sister
Sherrill Levitt's Sister Describes Her Strength (Ozarks: link no longer available)
(Springfield, MO)--Much of the focus on Springfield's three missing women was on the two high school girls who vanished at such a young age. But the third victim, Sherrill Levitt, overcame much in her life and perservered.That was the message from Deb Schwartz, Levitt's sister. Schwartz traveled to Springfield for Thursday's anniversary vigil.
Schwartz wanted to thank the community for coming together every year to remember the three women, and for keeping the investigation alive.
Schwartz fought back tears as she described the difficulties Sherrill had overcome in her life, her commitment to her daughter, Suzie, and how much she misses her.
Schwartz said Levitt had just bought the little house at 1717 E. Delmar shortly before the women disappeared, and took great pride in fixing it up. She talked about Levitt's devotion to Suzie and the strong bond the two shared.
She encouraged the crowd to remember the joyful things about the women and about people in their own families.
Janis McCall Reflects on 20 Years of Missing Women Case
(Springfield,
MO) -- When a child disappears from a parent's sight, even for a minute,
feelings of panic and dread can set in quickly.
When
the child reemerges, parents may feel silly, like they've overreacted. But in
Janis McCall's case, her daughter Stacy never reemerged. For 20 years, she's
waited and wondered.
"Since Stacy disappeared, I expected her back every day. Every day. Then it got to be every week. And then every month. You know, any time now. And when Elizabeth Smart was found and she'd been gone nine months, I said, 'Okay, if she can be gone nine months, I have hope for Stacy.'
"It had been over five years, but I thought, 'Okay, she can still come home.' Then a few years ago when Jaycee Dugard was found, and she'd been held for eighteen years -- at that time Stacy had been gone seventeen years. And I thought, 'Okay, I can make this because Jaycee was found.
"I see her at 18. I see her as going out at night, with the yellow t-shirt and flowered shorts and brown sandals. And I see her, asking her, as she's holding the cake -- the graduation cake -- and asking, 'Do you want to cut this cake now before you leave and she said, 'No, I want to cut it tomorrow. Don't you eat any of it before I get here.'
"So for years we kept her cake in the refrigerator. In the freezer, thinking she would be home and we could cut that cake. You know, I expected her back any minute. When we went to Suzie and Sherrill's house, somebody said, 'Well, you want to make a pot of coffee and I said, 'No. I don't want her to walk in here any minute, Sherrill, and say, 'What are you doing in my house, making coffee?' Because I expected them to walk in.
"It didn't dawn on me until law enforcement was actually filling out their missing persons report and they said, 'Can you get dental records? I didn't immediately have a sense that there was something wrong. I actually was pretty darn perturbed and angry at her. I thought, just because you turned 18 and just because you graduated high school does not give you the right to upset the apple cart and do all this stuff that you know is not allowed.
"And at first I was gathering up things, went out to her car, was going to take her car. I figured, well, that's one way to get her to call me. She didn't call me before like she was supposed to. Then it dawned on me, when I sat in that car and I started to drive off, that Stacy didn't leave there and leave that stuff there. Stacy wouldn't have left her purse. I think they were taken from that area and I have no idea why and I have no idea where. I wish I did.
"I can remember going to a big event, around a track, and I saw long, long hair and I thought that's Stacy's hair. And, you know, it's really kind of strange for that person because you go down and stand next to them and say, 'Excuse me,' and she turns around and it's not Stacy. And I say, 'I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else. I thought you were someone else.'
"Sometimes I think I hear her voice. She had a definitely little twang to her voice, and it was bubbly, and I can hear her saying things and get silly and laugh and I think, 'Is that her?' Wouldn't that be wonderful just to hear her voice and have her there, or have her call me and say, 'Mom, I'm home.'
"My husband had a dream, and he doesn't dream about her. And I don't dream about her. I had a couple of dreams, but they were early, early in the investigation and her disappearance. But he said he was out washing the car and all of a sudden she appeared. He said she introduced him to her husband. And he was a French man and she said, 'I couldn't get back before, but here's my husband so-and-so and we wanted to come back and say hi.' And that was a crazy dream, but I haven't dreamt that. Sure I hold out hope. Nobody can take that from me -- is hope."
"Since Stacy disappeared, I expected her back every day. Every day. Then it got to be every week. And then every month. You know, any time now. And when Elizabeth Smart was found and she'd been gone nine months, I said, 'Okay, if she can be gone nine months, I have hope for Stacy.'
"It had been over five years, but I thought, 'Okay, she can still come home.' Then a few years ago when Jaycee Dugard was found, and she'd been held for eighteen years -- at that time Stacy had been gone seventeen years. And I thought, 'Okay, I can make this because Jaycee was found.
"I see her at 18. I see her as going out at night, with the yellow t-shirt and flowered shorts and brown sandals. And I see her, asking her, as she's holding the cake -- the graduation cake -- and asking, 'Do you want to cut this cake now before you leave and she said, 'No, I want to cut it tomorrow. Don't you eat any of it before I get here.'
"So for years we kept her cake in the refrigerator. In the freezer, thinking she would be home and we could cut that cake. You know, I expected her back any minute. When we went to Suzie and Sherrill's house, somebody said, 'Well, you want to make a pot of coffee and I said, 'No. I don't want her to walk in here any minute, Sherrill, and say, 'What are you doing in my house, making coffee?' Because I expected them to walk in.
"It didn't dawn on me until law enforcement was actually filling out their missing persons report and they said, 'Can you get dental records? I didn't immediately have a sense that there was something wrong. I actually was pretty darn perturbed and angry at her. I thought, just because you turned 18 and just because you graduated high school does not give you the right to upset the apple cart and do all this stuff that you know is not allowed.
"And at first I was gathering up things, went out to her car, was going to take her car. I figured, well, that's one way to get her to call me. She didn't call me before like she was supposed to. Then it dawned on me, when I sat in that car and I started to drive off, that Stacy didn't leave there and leave that stuff there. Stacy wouldn't have left her purse. I think they were taken from that area and I have no idea why and I have no idea where. I wish I did.
"I can remember going to a big event, around a track, and I saw long, long hair and I thought that's Stacy's hair. And, you know, it's really kind of strange for that person because you go down and stand next to them and say, 'Excuse me,' and she turns around and it's not Stacy. And I say, 'I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else. I thought you were someone else.'
"Sometimes I think I hear her voice. She had a definitely little twang to her voice, and it was bubbly, and I can hear her saying things and get silly and laugh and I think, 'Is that her?' Wouldn't that be wonderful just to hear her voice and have her there, or have her call me and say, 'Mom, I'm home.'
"My husband had a dream, and he doesn't dream about her. And I don't dream about her. I had a couple of dreams, but they were early, early in the investigation and her disappearance. But he said he was out washing the car and all of a sudden she appeared. He said she introduced him to her husband. And he was a French man and she said, 'I couldn't get back before, but here's my husband so-and-so and we wanted to come back and say hi.' And that was a crazy dream, but I haven't dreamt that. Sure I hold out hope. Nobody can take that from me -- is hope."
janis-mccall-reflects-on-20-years-of-missing-women
Investigator Recalls How Missing Women Case Quickly Got Out of Hand
(Springfield, MO) -- Mark Webb is now the police chief in Marionville, Missouri.
In 1992, he was a young Springfield officer assigned to help investigate the case of the Three Missing Women.
He remembers how quickly the story went nationwide, and some of the abilities of local police to handle the investigation became complicated.
"Once the command of the police department realized the seriousness of this, then you had activation of federal agencies and Highway Patrol. People were being called in because you were contacting people where the people were last seen -- at the parties, there were a lot of people at the graduation party."
In 1992, he was a young Springfield officer assigned to help investigate the case of the Three Missing Women.
He remembers how quickly the story went nationwide, and some of the abilities of local police to handle the investigation became complicated.
"Once the command of the police department realized the seriousness of this, then you had activation of federal agencies and Highway Patrol. People were being called in because you were contacting people where the people were last seen -- at the parties, there were a lot of people at the graduation party."