Imagine this: you’re a teenager who just graduated high school. You spend the night celebrating with friends, laughing, talking about the future. When it’s over, you and your best friend head back to one of your houses to sleep. You picture the comfort of being home, safe in your own bed. But when morning comes, instead of laughter, there’s silence. No one answers the phone. The house looks normal, but something feels wrong. And when you step inside, you realize three people—your friend, her mother, and another girl—have vanished into thin air.
No break-in. No signs of struggle. Just gone.
This isn’t a movie plot. This really happened. And more than thirty years later, the mystery still has no answers.
This is the strange, dark, and chilling story of The Springfield Three.
June 6, 1992
It began in Springfield, Missouri, on the night of June 6, 1992. The city was buzzing with excitement—it was graduation weekend. Hundreds of teenagers were celebrating the end of high school with parties across town.
Among them were two best friends, Suzie Streeter, age 19, and Stacy McCall, also 18. They had been inseparable all through high school. That night, they bounced from one graduation party to another, eventually deciding they’d had enough of the noise and the crowds.
Originally, they planned to spend the night at a hotel in Branson with friends. But the hotel was packed, and their parents weren’t too sure about the idea anyway. So instead, the girls decided on something simple—they would crash at Suzie’s house, where her mother, Sherrill Levitt, lived.
It was just after 2 a.m. when they made their way to Suzie’s small home at 1717 East Delmar Street. Sherrill, 47 years old, was already home, relaxing. She had spent the evening redecorating, talking to friends on the phone, and winding down for the night.
By all accounts, it should have been an ordinary summer sleepover. But it wasn’t.
Because by the next morning, all three women were gone.
The Discovery
On June 7, the girls’ friends grew concerned. They had planned to meet early that morning to go to a water park. When Suzie and Stacy didn’t show, their friends called and called, but no one answered. Eventually, a few of them went over to the house.
What they found was unsettling.
The front porch light was broken, with glass scattered on the ground. Inside, the house was strangely tidy—almost too tidy. All three women’s purses sat together neatly in the living room. Their money, IDs, and keys were still inside. Suzie’s and Stacy’s cars were parked outside.
It looked like they had never left.
But the women weren’t there.
The friends noticed more odd details. The TV was left on, and the beds looked as if they had been slept in, but quickly abandoned. And then there was the dog—a little Yorkshire terrier named Cinnamon—pacing anxiously in the house, clearly distressed.
Even stranger, the phone lines had been tampered with. Someone had listened to the answering machine messages and even erased one. One friend who visited the house claimed she heard a “strange, disturbing message” on the machine before it vanished forever.
From the outside, nothing screamed violence. But the silence, the broken light, and the eerie neatness suggested something very, very wrong.
The Investigation Begins
When police were called in, they were immediately overwhelmed. The house had already been entered by multiple friends and family members before detectives arrived, and in the process, any possible evidence may have been trampled or moved.
Still, investigators tried to piece together what happened.
The first major clue was the broken porch light. Did someone smash it to lure the women outside? Or was it broken during an abduction?
Then there were the purses. Why would three women leave their wallets, money, and cars behind voluntarily? It suggested they had either been taken suddenly—or trusted the person who came to the door.
Detectives also interviewed neighbors. Some reported seeing a suspicious green Dodge van in the neighborhood that night. Others said they heard a scream around 3 a.m., but nothing was ever confirmed.
And then… the trail went cold.
The Suspects
Over the years, several suspects have been investigated, but none conclusively linked to the disappearance.
One of the earliest was Robert Craig Cox, a convicted kidnapper and suspected murderer. Cox had been living in Springfield at the time of the disappearance. In later interviews, he hinted he knew what had happened to the Springfield Three, but he refused to give details, claiming he would reveal the truth only after his mother died. She’s still alive, and Cox has never provided answers.
Another suspect was Steve Garrison, who confessed to being involved while in prison for unrelated charges. But his story was inconsistent, and no evidence supported his claims.
And then there was the theory involving local crime figures. Some believed the women had stumbled into something dangerous—maybe drugs, maybe organized crime—and were silenced. But again, no proof ever surfaced.
The biggest problem with every theory was the same: there was no crime scene. No blood, no struggle, no forced entry. Just three people who ceased to exist sometime after 2 a.m.
The Search
For months after the disappearance, police, volunteers, and even psychics searched tirelessly. Flyers with the women’s faces plastered the city. Helicopters scanned the countryside. Divers explored local lakes.
At one point, tips led investigators to a farm 50 miles away. They dug and searched but found nothing. Another tip sent them to a parking garage, where ground-penetrating radar suggested possible anomalies beneath the concrete. But permission to dig was never granted.
The frustration was unbearable. Every lead seemed promising, but each one ended in disappointment.
As years passed, the case grew colder.
The Haunting Details
What makes the Springfield Three case so disturbing are the little details that never quite fit.
The erased answering machine message—what did it say? Who erased it? Could it have been the killer?
The neatly placed purses—were they arranged that way by the women, or by someone else after the fact?
And the dog—left unharmed, confused, and restless—was that mercy, or carelessness on the part of whoever took the women?
Theories multiplied. Some thought the women were lured outside by someone they knew, possibly under the pretense of an emergency. Others believed an intruder entered while they were sleeping, controlling them so quickly and effectively that no one had time to scream.
But without evidence, all anyone had was speculation.
Decades of Silence
The case has remained unsolved for more than thirty years. Police still receive tips, but nothing conclusive has ever emerged. In 1997, the FBI officially added the case to their missing persons list, but even with national attention, no answers came.
Families of the victims have lived with the torment of not knowing. Sherrill’s relatives lost a mother and sister. Suzie’s friends lost a bright young woman with her whole life ahead. Stacy’s family never got to see her become the teacher she dreamed of being.
In 2019, the Springfield Police Department announced they had received over 5,000 tips in the case—but not one led to the missing women.
Today, the house at 1717 East Delmar is gone, demolished years ago. In its place is an empty lot. But for many in Springfield, the memory of that house is like a scar that never healed.
Why This Case Still Terrifies
The Springfield Three case is chilling because it’s the ultimate nightmare: people vanishing without a trace from the place they should feel safest—their own home.
It wasn’t a dark alley. It wasn’t a dangerous trip abroad. It was a normal night in a suburban neighborhood, a mother and two young women celebrating life. And then… nothing.
The absence of evidence makes the case even more terrifying. With most crimes, there are clues. But here, the emptiness is the clue. Whoever did this knew how to erase three lives in one night without leaving a fingerprint. That takes planning, control, and boldness.
It also leaves the door open to endless possibilities. Were they abducted by someone they trusted? Did a stranger strike at random? Were they victims of a larger criminal conspiracy?
The lack of answers has haunted Springfield for decades.
Closing
The Springfield Three—Sherrill Levitt, Suzie Streeter, and Stacy McCall—vanished in the middle of the night in June 1992. To this day, not a single confirmed clue has explained what happened.
Their purses remained. Their cars remained. Their little dog remained.
But the women themselves? Gone.
And maybe that’s why this story continues to terrify—because if three women can vanish without a trace from a quiet home in Missouri, it means it could happen anywhere, to anyone.
The mystery of the Springfield Three isn’t just an unsolved case. It’s a hole in reality. A question with no answer. A door that closed one summer night—and never opened again.
That is the strange, dark, and mysterious story of The Springfield Three, a case that still echoes in Springfield and far beyond, three decades later.
