New eyes on the case of Springfield's 3 missing women
Posted: Tue 8:03 PM, Jun 07, 2016
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. It is a mystery; a story many know that
remains without an ending. Today marks twenty-four years since three
Springfield women vanished: Stacy McCall, Suzanne Streeter, and her mother,
Sherrill Levitt.
On Tuesday, fresh flowers rest near by 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 twenty-year
anniversary. "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 today 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," said McCall in a
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 Chief of Police. 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 Lt. Culley Wilson of
Springfield Police.
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 Lt. 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
Lt. Wilson.
Meanwhile, as Janis McCall says this is not a day she
celebrates. "There's a big hole here," said McCall.
Now investigators want to fill that hole.
"I am confident our law enforcement will solve
it," said Lt. 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," said Lt. Wilson.
Chief 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."
Janis McCall asks people who speculate to stick to the facts
and stay away from so many rumors she feels have sensationalized the case.
The reward fund for prosecution of those responsible now
sits at 42 thousand dollars.
Anyone with information into the disappearance of the three
women should contact the Springfield police department or Crime Stoppers.
http://www.kspr.com/content/news/New-eyes-on-the-case-of-Springfields-3-missing-women-382172711.html
