Missouri - The Springfield Three--missing since June 1992 - #7

[MooseMeMuch]

It has been speculated before that maybe the perp(s) was/were known by either Sherrill and Suzie, or by Suzie and Stacy....it's possible somebody was in that house and Cinnamon may very well have been ok with it.

Case and point....my wife and I have two big American Akitas that live in the house. We live on a corner lot, and our bedroom window is near where some of the neighborhood mailboxes are located. One night at 2am, an unfamiliar Kia minivan stopped there to top off his coolant. Our male went balistic. However, my brother keeps a lawnmower at my house, near this same corner of the house. He keeps weird hours himself, and can pull his pickup into our driveway, walk to the back gate, let himself in the yard, get his mower, load it up and leave....the dogs don't even acknowledge he was there. Sometimes, a neighbor simply walking by on the side road will get the dogs upset....and it's usually the same guy. Other people can come and go with no problem.

My point is, dogs have a sixth sense about people....depending on who may have possibly been in Sherrill's room (purely specilation if ANYBODY was there or not), Cinnamon might not have picked up on any danger until after the situation changed....

Entire (lengthy) post is speculation and my opinion only.

-Curtis

Good point and IMO dogs have different barks...the 'there's a serial killer at the door' vs 'mommy's home!!!'

 

[MooseMeMuch]

Mr. McCall and Bartt don't seem to like being in the limelight.

Mrs. McCall basically seems to 'carry the load'....they (Bartt, Stuart and Levitts) let Mrs. McCall do the heavy lifting which, in my opinion, is a shame.
The 25th memorial service, was Bartt there?
Stuart was there and related a sweet story concerning Stacy as a little girl. IMO, he needs to do more, his story made her 'real' and broke my heart. Made me FEEL something.

You could tell it was painful for him, those associated with the perp(s) need to experience and hear another person's pain. Surely the perp(s) don't live in a bubble, they have family and friends etc. who aren't immune to another's pain. 26 yrs....stories and feelings can change.

I have often wondered if Janelle's mother could be covering for her daughter. Will J's mom be the one with a deathbed confession? Who knows. At this late in the game, anything's possible.

 

[SweetMeat]

Unless LE is withholding information we know Suzie and Stacy made it to Sherrill’s because their cars were there and people at the party said that’s where they were going.

That’s where I have an issue. I think it would be more plausible for someone(s) that knew the girls were supposed to go back to Suzie’s house to use that knowledge to cover the initial act. Whether the girls got to the house and left again or the cars, clothes were brought back and staged when they came to get Sherrill is just more speculation on my part, like everything else in this case.

 

[Talullah]

Does anyone remember the cashier at a gas station saying Sherrill came in about 1:30-2 am looking for Suzy? I read this at another forum and/or a news story published soon after they disappeared.
I think that like George’s, LE was too dismissive of this-almost like nothing to see here, keep moving.
Did LE get and discuss Sherrill’s phone records? I’ve read so much it’s hard to keep up with who said what and where.

 

[SweetMeat]

From what I remember local calls didn’t show up on phone records not sure if local calls could be retrieved at a later time.

I’ve never heard about the gas station thing.

 

[Talullah]

Clipping from The Springfield News-Leader - Newspapers.com
The gas station is mentioned here.

 

[Talullah]

The Missing Three
More gas station information

 

[Talullah]

Independence Examiner Archives, Jun 18, 1992, p. 5
One more

 

[SweetMeat]

Interesting. I had never heard anything about Sherrill out looking for Suzie before.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

Several random thoughts:
1. The killer(s) either weren't in the house prior to the girls arriving at the house or he/they were well-known and not seen as a threat by Suzie.
2. If she were asleep when the girls got to the house, Sherrill would almost certainly have been woken up because the dog would have barked when someone came into the house. So it might be that everyone was up and the lights were on for a while after the girls got there.
3. Lots of ways intruders could have gained access to the house--the "dog was out of the yard" ruse or just one of the girls going out to the car to get something.

 

[Talullah]

LE overlooked a lot in favor of the ugly van, serial killers and parking garage.
I smoke. Cashiers where I buy cigarettes could pick me out of a line up. Sherrill probably bought cigarettes at the same store. It’s what smokers do.
Most interesting is the cashier said Sherrill was looking for 3 girls-Suzie, a blonde and a brunette. Why would a parent leave home at that time of the morning-when Stacy and Suzie allegedly made it to Sherrill’s-to look for her daughter at a convenience store?
Who was the brunette? If nothing else it should’ve made the George’s sighting more believable. Sherill was a regular at each place.
It’s insane that LE seemed dismissive of sightings by people familiar with Sherrill.
I’d love to know if Janis McCall found the sightings at all believable.

 

[SWMOgirl]

I also don't believe it was a random crime ,
in my opinion it was a kidnapping-assassination invited by someone, Maybe the perps were already there, even if they didn't they had a contract that they had to carry out that specific night ,the order was to make the women disappear and not just to kill them and leave them in the house ( Stacy was just in wrong place) then the police will have a difficult to understand what is the motive and that would make the criminals more likely to escape justice , and that's what unfortunately happened until these days.

First time poster--long time lurker
BLUEGIRL1991--this has been my theory (almost exactly) for a really long time.

I live in a "suburb" of Springfield, work in Springfield & have lived here my entire life. I was a freshman in high school when this happened and it still haunts me to this day.

 

[Valiant]

As for the van sighting - is it completely incomprehensible to believe the perp forced Suzie to drive? The whole speech that was heard does sound completely cliche for what the average person would believe a hostage/kidnap situation to be, but it's hard to completely discredit it either way. One abductor may have wanted to subdue the two other women, but more than one perp and there's no way any of them were going to be put behind the wheel. I have no idea how those vans were designed, either - especially in terms of the divide between the driver/passenger seats and the back portion. It's very likely the sightings are genuine, but perhaps with a little fiction added into the mix. One thing we can be sure of is that the van would've attracted little attention at that hour on a Sunday morning - even in the summer.

The vans were manufactured without a divider between the passenger and cargo compartment.

 

[Valiant]

I've mentioned this before but that "van" was extremely ugly and unquestionably unique. If someone in my neighborhood or town drove that thing I'd most definitely recall it. And there was no creditable leads or tips. Also the witness waited a couple of weeks to report the sighting and had to undergo hypnosis to recall the details. The fact that LE had openly accepted and investigated tips from every nutty Medium and Psychic in the Ozarks that had a "dream" or "vision" doesn't give any assurance of "vetting" and that this lead was at all credible.

This type of van was fairly common in its day, produced in a few variations (different lengths, window configurations) from 1964-1970, probably averaging 30k-40k sales per year.
While they weren't common on the streets by 1992, there would still be examples around. Most weren't the longer version, probably why they had trouble finding the display van.

 

[Lavinia]

It WAS extremely ugly wasn't it, now that you mention it...and the split front window? I may vaguely remember seeing a van with one but I may need to go under hypnosis...

With the 2 wks deal...maybe the public figured somebody would find them.... or their bodies.

And yeah, let's believe psychics over eye witnesses. Why not?
IMO...it's going to have to get 'messy' before there's a closure. As in dig deeper into each woman's life plus their family and associates.

And it's always McCall who they rely on, where the hell is Bartt? Never see his face, he said he wants 'justice'...does he? IMO he's just layin' back expecting the McCalls to do all the 'work'.

Also, use that reward money to hire a GOOD private investigator, as in one with the highest rate of success. Don't know who that'd be offhand though....

I know this is a bit of a delayed response but here are two photos of the van the police reconstructed and had on display:

 

[MooseMeMuch]

following

 

[MooseMeMuch]

This type of van was fairly common in its day, produced in a few variations (different lengths, window configurations) from 1964-1970, probably averaging 30k-40k sales per year.
While they weren't common on the streets by 1992, there would still be examples around. Most weren't the longer version, probably why they had trouble finding the display van.

Interesting info......so would a car 'hobbyist' be the type to still be interested in owning this type of van? I'm not an expert on car/van parts but would it need 'Mopar' parts to keep it running?
I ask that because searching for Mopar parts was Larry Hall's hobby, along with Civil War re-enactments.
SPD strongly disagrees w/ this being connected with Larry Hall and I hesitate to mention him b/c I'm thinking their abduction was done by a 'friend' vs stranger.
But anyway! Thanks for this valuable info

 

[MooseMeMuch]

LE overlooked a lot in favor of the ugly van, serial killers and parking garage.
I smoke. Cashiers where I buy cigarettes could pick me out of a line up. Sherrill probably bought cigarettes at the same store. It’s what smokers do.
Most interesting is the cashier said Sherrill was looking for 3 girls-Suzie, a blonde and a brunette. Why would a parent leave home at that time of the morning-when Stacy and Suzie allegedly made it to Sherrill’s-to look for her daughter at a convenience store?
Who was the brunette? If nothing else it should’ve made the George’s sighting more believable. Sherill was a regular at each place.
It’s insane that LE seemed dismissive of sightings by people familiar with Sherrill.
I’d love to know if Janis McCall found the sightings at all believable.

I guess maybe Stacy could have been sort of a blond....I think Janelle's hair was darker than Stacy's....99.9% sure Sherrill knew the 3 girls were supposed to be together that night....with the Branson trip and all so she would 'assume' they would stay a trio throughout the night. That's a lot of assumin' on my part though. hmmm

And if you go to the same store to buy 'smokes' the cashier knows what brand to grab off the shelf as soon as you walk in the door. Correct?
----I love Red Vines and the local $ Sense lady buys them esp for me! Lol So 'regulars' are just that, known by the proprietors or waitresses. SPD/LE how they irritate me so...I'm with you Tallulah. The public tried to help.

 

[Valiant]

Interesting info......so would a car 'hobbyist' be the type to still be interested in owning this type of van? I'm not an expert on car/van parts but would it need 'Mopar' parts to keep it running?
I ask that because searching for Mopar parts was Larry Hall's hobby, along with Civil War re-enactments.
SPD strongly disagrees w/ this being connected with Larry Hall and I hesitate to mention him b/c I'm thinking their abduction was done by a 'friend' vs stranger.
But anyway! Thanks for this valuable info

This style of van, especially the ones without windows, was really marketed to the delivery and contractor/tradesman crowd. Grated at 22-25 years old many would have been worn out, rusted, and scrapped. But it wouldn't be any different than someone having a 1995-1996 van today, which are probably still in use by many contractors and the like. Work vehicles often get handed down from an original purchaser (who may be a larger company) down to smaller business or individual contractors. They also can make a decent improvised camper.

It makes you wonder - if a van was selected for the crime meaning they planned all along to haul at least one person away (rather than the van just being the vehicle someone happened to be driving). The side doors (passenger side only) could make it easier to sneak a person (or a body) into the van without someone seeing as much.

I would say for mechanical parts, you wouldn't necessarily need factory Mopar parts. NAPA or any other parts store would have had the parts to keep it running. It's an interesting connection though, for sure, with a parts collector.

 

[MooseMeMuch]

Valiant.....Plymouth/Dodge......aaaaaaah Lol Mopar! We do need your expertise!