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