In the early hours of June 7, 1992, three women vanished from a small home on East Delmar Street in Springfield, Missouri, leaving behind one of the most troubling and enduring mysteries in American true crime. Sherrill Levitt, her daughter Suzanne “Suzie” Streeter, and Suzie’s friend Stacy McCall disappeared without any sign of forced entry, struggle, or escape. Their belongings, purses, keys, cigarettes, clothes, remained neatly arranged inside the house. The porch light globe was shattered but intact, almost carefully broken. The family dog paced nervously. And from that day to this one, not a single confirmed piece of physical evidence has surfaced. The case of the Springfield Three remains a haunting study in how people can vanish from within the safety of their own home.
The night before the disappearance had been ordinary. Suzie and Stacy had graduated from Kickapoo High School that evening and spent hours celebrating with friends. Their plan was to sleep at a friend’s house, but overcrowding prompted a last-minute change. They instead drove to Suzie’s home shortly after 2 a.m. Sherrill, who owned the house, had spent the evening painting furniture and was believed to have gone to bed around midnight. No neighbor reported anything unusual, no screams, no suspicious vehicles, no disturbance, only a sense the next morning that something was deeply wrong when the women did not appear as expected.
By mid-morning, worried friends arrived at the home and unknowingly compromised the crime scene. They cleaned broken glass from the front porch, entered the unlocked house, and moved personal items. One friend even answered the house phone and described receiving a disturbing, sexually explicit anonymous call. Another call of similar nature came moments later, heightening the sense that someone had been watching the home or monitoring movements inside. Yet these calls were never traced, and investigators are unsure if they were connected or coincidental.
Inside the house itself, police found almost too little. Sherrill’s bedroom appeared undisturbed, with her reading glasses laid neatly on the nightstand. Suzie and Stacy’s belongings were stacked on the floor as though set down for the night. There were no signs of a struggle, no blood, no forced entry, and no indication that any of the women had left on foot or by choice. Their cars remained parked outside. What investigators did find was a sense of deliberate removal, as if the women had been taken quickly and quietly, perhaps by someone they knew or felt comfortable letting inside.
One of the most discussed suspects was a convicted kidnapper and violent offender named Robert Craig Cox. Cox lived in Springfield at the time and worked for a local utilities company. In interviews years later, he made provocative statements implying he knew the women were dead and “would not be found.” Despite his cryptic remarks, authorities could find no physical evidence tying him to the scene, and his claims often conflicted with known timelines.
Another theory focused on a man imprisoned in Texas who claimed to have helped bury the women in a concrete parking garage in Springfield. Investigators searched records and interviewed construction workers but found no credible evidence supporting the claim. The tip was eventually dismissed, though it continues to resurface in public speculation. Private investigators and amateur sleuths have repeatedly called for ground-penetrating radar scans of various parking structures throughout the city, but none have produced actionable results.
There is also the unsettling angle involving Suzie’s ex-boyfriend and his family. Suzie had testified against him in a case involving the break-in of her mother’s home, leading some to believe retaliation could have played a role. However, investigators determined that the individuals involved had solid alibis and no links to the disappearance. The lead, like many others, dissolved under scrutiny.
One reason the Springfield Three case remains so confounding is its blend of openness and precision. Whoever took the women did so without leaving a trace, in a residential neighborhood, in a short window of time. Some investigators believe the women may have been lured out of the house, perhaps by someone claiming an emergency — and then abducted outside. Others think the perpetrator entered quietly while Sherrill slept and ambushed the young women before gaining control of the house. The lack of disturbance supports the idea that the attacker had both confidence and a plan.
Over the years, hundreds of tips have come in from across the country. Cadaver dogs have alerted at multiple sites, but none of those areas yielded remains. Dig sites, wells, farmland, and outbuildings across the Ozarks have been searched. None have produced evidence. Digital enhancements of old photographs, interviews with psychics, anonymous letters, and deathbed confessions have all entered the case’s orbit, each producing more questions than clarity.
Today, more than three decades after the disappearance, the Springfield Three remain officially missing. The home where they vanished has long since passed to new owners, but its place in true-crime history is indelible. The city marks their anniversary each year, and detectives still revisit the case with new forensic technologies whenever feasible. DNA comparisons, new offender databases, and digital case mapping have offered hope, but the fundamental problem persists: there is no physical crime scene, no recovered objects, and no confirmed sightings after June 7, 1992.
The Springfield Three endure as one of the nation’s most unsettling missing-persons cases not because of dramatic clues, but because of the absolute void left behind. What happened inside that quiet home on Delmar Street may never be fully known. But as forensic techniques advance and investigators continue to probe the delicate traces of the past, the hope remains that one day the silence surrounding the Springfield Three will finally break.
Sources & Further Reading:
– Springfield Police Department missing-person reports and case summaries (1992–present)
– FBI ViCAP case bulletins related to the Springfield Three
– Interviews with friends and family published in local and national media
– Missouri State Highway Patrol missing-person archives
– Documentary analyses and investigative reports from regional true-crime researchers
(One of many stories shared by Headcount Coffee — where mystery, history, and late-night reading meet.)
