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

[Missouri Mule]

If the perp/perps were out "a considerable amount of time" the night of the crime (which is obvious, you don't kidnap 3 women, kill them and conceal them in 20 minutes) it tells me it was either someone who lived alone and wouldn't be missed, soméone who could sneak out undetected by family or roommates, or someone whose lifestyle meant they were often out late at night or didn't come home on a regular basis. Or a transient. This is what is so frustrating about this case. But I can't help but believe it was someone who knew Sherrill

My personal opinion is that Suzie was the target. Sherrill was there from about 11:30PM on.

The single perp scenario is possible. However only one such person who could have done that. This will be highly controversial, and it is my personal opinion. A cop could have done that. Even some of the cops have floated that possibility.

I located a diagram of the house layout. Sherrill's bedroom faces the street. Suzie's bedroom was next to the carport. It was her bedroom where the blinds were cracked.

 

[Missouri Mule]

Let me muddy the water here although I don't want to.

In 1977 a school teacher,Tonya Dye, went missing from the Southern Hill's sub-division. Ironically it happened on June 7, 1977. Her body was found down near Kimberling City some time later.

I lived there myself although I believe we moved there a couple months later. Her brother was the long time weatherman on KOLR and later on KY3 television. I do not believe her murder has been solved.

Some have opined that the same month and date signify some kind of connection, possibly an unknown serial killer. One suspect is serving a life sentence for the murder of Jackie Johns in 1985. He was apprehended on an attempted kidnapping in Springfield and served three years for that crime. He is also suspected in other murders including this crime. As a point of interest. I saw him many times in the state office building. Next door was the old Heer's department store where Sherrill worked for a period of time before the hair salon relocated.

 

[Kittycat01]

Interesting, I have never heard of the Tonya Dye murder. I tried googling it and didn't find anything. It is odd the date. That might truly be significant. What were the detail's of the Dye murder? Was she removed from her residence as well?

 

[DD Byrd]

Were the police called to any of the after-graduation parties? One spies Suzie and/or Stacy and follows them home?

 

[dexter75]

Interesting, I have never heard of the Tonya Dye murder. I tried googling it and didn't find anything. It is odd the date. That might truly be significant. What were the detail's of the Dye murder? Was she removed from her residence as well?

Same
I'd be interested in the details as well.
TIA

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[Missouri Mule]

Interesting, I have never heard of the Tonya Dye murder. I tried googling it and didn't find anything. It is odd the date. That might truly be significant. What were the detail's of the Dye murder? Was she removed from her residence as well?

Try googling Tonya Dye murdered found Kimberling City.

 

[wfgodot]

Try googling Tonya Dye murdered found Kimberling City.

That's a not uninteresting thread.

 

[barefootpoet]

I don't know if drugs were involved but there was one person questioned that swore Sherrill was heavily involved in cocaine... even named the guy she got it from and he was brought in to take a lie detector test, which he passed.

Like many, I always find myself coming back to this case over the years. I lived through the town experience here in Springfield and I still find myself driving around thinking about places they might be.. even still checking wooded areas and such. Like many, I have a lot of personal theories as to what happened from talking to people who were involved and just collecting information over the years. I'm still inspired to figure it out... all the more, every time I see Janice on TV. It genuinely breaks my heart to know the pain she's had to deal for such a long time.

So this if my first post here. One thing I'll mention because I never see it mentioned on forums and I've always felt the answer seemed obvious. How did the perp get in at around 3am?

The light cover was broke on the same night but the light still functional. Obviously, this had to play into what happened. So.. If you're outside the door of these 3 at around 3am trying to figure out how to get in, knocking isn't going to work, right? You need something to make them curious. You can't run to one of their cars and do something there or you risk one of them seeing you run across the yard, since the cars are in view out the window. Knocking both the light and cover out with a big sound would be a bad option because it would have made them instantly scared. I doubt they would have opened the door... probably called 911 right away because "somebody's out there and they've knocked out the light!", but if you unscrew the globe and drop it while ducking down out of sight? You create a sense of curiosity... a little fear too, no doubt.. but the girls are inside asking "what was that? Did something fall?" They try to look out the window and the light is still on which makes them feel a little better. They wait a bit and don't hear/see anything else. Their cars seem undisturbed. "What the heck was that?!"

I don't think the original door had windows (the remodel shows it does) so they couldn't see anything that was happening on the porch (but regardless he could have ducked below out of sight to the side of the door). He waits while their curiosity gets the best of them, probably reassuring each other that something must have fallen off the house or something... and they slowly crack the door to take a look.. and then he (or "they" but I still feel it was a single person) simply pushes it on open, only needing to defeat the strength of one woman who wasn't ready for someone to push their way in. The other 2 are likely standing there in shock while there's now a gun pointed at all 3.

Years ago, I heard the glass was swept from the middle of the porch and people kept talking about how odd that seemed in this case. That makes this scenario even more likely.. and, it gives us a look into the perp. He is calm and cool, comfortable in the shadows of someone's home in the middle of the night, even before committing a crime of this magnitude. I don't know about you but if this is my first time doing something like this, my heart would be beating so fast I couldn't think. I would never be able to take my time and unscrew a globe on a porch to make this happen, or even be calm enough to think up something that clever at that point. He was experienced - maybe even enjoying this a little bit. Sounds a bit psychopathic and like someone who has seen the inside of a prison before because he wasn't scared or very nervous at all. It also means he knew who was in there.. 3 women that he knew he could over-power. He must have either followed one of them or been waiting - but he was fully aware and had no qualms about taking control of the situation.

Anyway.. I'll catch up with the rest of this thread this weekend to see if I've missed anything I haven't heard before. I'm only on page 10 so have some reading to do...

I'd expect the perp would have cut the phone line if they was concerned about a 911 call.

 

[Missouri Mule]

I am rapidly moving to a single perp scenario. I am reviewing about 43,000 posts on another forum. The one I am most interested in is a poster who said affirmatively there was no tangible evidence. How would anyone except the killer throw that? And I would note he put tangible in all caps.When I posted that old post he immediately surfaced with two new posts. Been suspicious of him for a long time. He was always 'fishing" so to speak.

I'm thinking of a government contractor working with police files.

Could be 1,000% wrong but it is my current thinking.

Do not know his true name.

Do not like any of the other "usual" suspects.

I am thinking we could be looking at a serial killer. This is not a new theory. There are a number of unsolved murders in the Ozarks. Has to be considered as viable theory.

 

[4SAM]

Missouri Mule....are you talking about the Topix talk? I live here in Springfield, what other Ozark cases do you think this is connected to? Is there anything I can try and track down for you?

 

[Missouri Mule]

Missouri Mule....are you talking about the Topix talk? I live here in Springfield, what other Ozark cases do you think this is connected to? Is there anything I can try and track down for you?

Certainly the Tonya Dye seems ripe for re investigating. There is the Kelly Workman case, the Debbie Lewis case, some outlying murders yet unsolved. Many have been blamed on Carnahan but it has not been proven he did those crimes. In Clinton there is the Angela Hammond case. In Nevada, Missouri, there is the Cheryl Kenney case. Possibly most interesting is the matter of the body of a school teacher whose body washed up on Galveston Bay, Texas, which may seem unrelated. This is near the "killing fields" of I35 near League City, Texas. I don't have her name right now. Oddly enough she was from Chillicothee, Missouri originally.

I wouldn't spend too much time just yet as I will need to compile a complete list of missing people. That may take awhile. Please bear with me.

One of the older posts just caught my eye last night and it also provoked an immediate response from the individual I am interested. You may have seen the post. The original post said, as though proven, that no "tangible" evidence would surface regarding these women. Just struck me as unusual, and provocative. It is almost as though he took pleasure in proving the case would not be solved.

The problem with Topix is that there are so many trolls and disrupters. Many people choose to stay off there for that very reason. I know several of the posters by actual names. Many I do not. Some call the site "Toxic." I wouldn't argue with that characterization.

I will say this. I have been in regular contact with someone who was a close personal friend of Sherrill. Two of my co-workers were among her clients. I can't find anything that would suggest she was, as some have suggested, had anything to do with drugs. And I don't believe her daughter did either. The public statements by the police have never, to my knowledge, said anything otherwise. So what is the elusive motive?

The grave robbers? I don't believe they are connected.
The son? I don't think so.
The GJ3? Possibly as they were the ones brought forth in the 1994 federal grand jury. Two are in jail and one is on the street. I'm not convinced they could have done this without violence and cannot imagine why they would be let in the house under any circumstances.
Cox? Why would he be allowed in the house? I can't think of any reason.
Garrison? Ditto.

Could someone have followed the girls home from the last meeting place in Battlefield? That is possible. But the first crime scene (where they were taken from) tends to rule that out. So how did the perp get into the house?

What I find intriguing is that if Sherrill was the target, why not take her before the girls arrived nearly four hours later? Possibly she was taken. We don't know.

Why Suzie then? That is a somewhat complicated question. I can't go into information that I can't corroborate but there were a couple of scenarios which seem quite plausible.

We can logically rule out burglary as the money was left behind.

Let me think on this a little longer and I'll try to round up those names. I'm sure someone has a list somewhere.

 

[Veritas88]

The more and more I read about this case, the more I shudder to think of all the vile people that could have possibly done this crime. It's just so terrifying to think of the monsters in close proximity to any one person in any given time. I've been reading this forum for awhile know and I have to say. My hat is off to any and all of you all who has formulated a theory. I've read as much as I can get my hands on and still feel so confused.

 

[Missouri Mule]

I have been accused of many things and obsessing is one of those things, i don't really mind because I have been. What I never could understand is how the police officer said he had nothing to work with and a population center of about a quarter million people. Surely I reasoned, someone has to know.

Yet 25 years have passed and we are stuck seemingly without any hope of a solution. I am the same age as Sherrill would be if she were alive. I know nothing that would point at an obvious solution. Every scenario under the sun has been put forth. Many people have resorted to personal attacks as though that might effect a solution. So it becomes personal. I hate that.

Getting back to the case itself if all of the usual suspects can and evidently been eliminated the only real option is the unthinkable. A random serial killer. The Dye case tends to show that possibility.

I would harken back to what is known about such murders such as the BTK killer in Topeka Kansas and the master serial killer, Ted Bundy.

A poster on another forum asked his children what could account for this crime. The response was the thrill of "the kill." As hard as it may be to believe there are some totally evil people in this world who would kill another for a perverted need to fill their unmet needs. Almost all serial killers are male. One could extrapolate these senseless murders have a sexual component.

Is this what happened? I wouldn't rule it out. Do I have a suspect? Yes. I just don't know his true name.

 

[kat913]

I have been accused of many things and obsessing is one of those things, i don't really mind because I have been. What I never could understand is how the police officer said he had nothing to work with and a population center of about a quarter million people. Surely I reasoned, someone has to know.

Yet 25 years have passed and we are stuck seemingly without any hope of a solution. I am the same age as Sherrill would be if she were alive. I know nothing that would point at an obvious solution. Every scenario under the sun has been put forth. Many people have resorted to personal attacks as though that might effect a solution. So it becomes personal. I hate that.

Getting back to the

What if it does have to do with those home invasions I suggested before...that would explain why he was not "caught" in MO....he traveled and did what he did....alone and very brazen .

 

[Missouri Mule]

What if it does have to do with those home invasions I suggested before...that would explain why he was not "caught" in MO....he traveled and did what he did....alone and very brazen .

The person I have in mind travels frequently, is quite wealthy and has openly bragged he knows how to dispose of bodies. Of course he could have been making it up but his other posts open up the real possibility of a serial killer; a very intelligent killer who would know how to do this without being caught.

The only thing that flies in the face of this theory is the reported sighting of an unkempt person across the street who was scoping out the house and smoking cigarettes. This went on for a considerable period of time. Although this was reported to the police the information I have seen is that it was not acted on. No way to know if he was connected.

Whoever it was had to be someone who was trusted and could get into the house or kidnap them outside the house. Alternatively if he had a key and evidently one was missing as told to me personally by a police officer working the case back in 1992 it is possible he simply let himself into the house. The best information is that the house had new locks and presumably two keys would be fitted to each door. So if the key was missing from Suzie's key chain, and if two keys were made for both doors, where did it go?.

 

[Jennibee]

Do we feel that the answer machine deleted messages would have held some importance? What about the obscene calls?


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[4SAM]

I just find it hard to believe that 3 women, not petite I should say, would willingly go with someone that they did not know. If there was 1 guy with a gun, couldn't the other 2 girls have "taken" him. I see these women as independent, strong minded women. She ran her business, the daughter was doing well in school, just graduated, I just don't see them going with a stranger. It had to be someone that they knew or more people were involved in order to get 3 women out of that house and not alert neighbors. MOO.

 

[DD Byrd]

I think it's a combination...either a known person or authority figure came to the door. At that point, a gun point blank to the temple of the one closest to the door would squelch "take him" instincts, "I don't want him to shoot my daughter, friend, mother." And add in the physical shock factor the women may have been paralyzed by fear and submissive.
....
If there were two assailants, one initially in the shadows, even more so.

But I also think a total stranger (cop, fake cop, gas man, fake gas man, etc.) could have gotten in. Door opened a crack (to check out broken light or other strange noise)....pushes in with gun, game over.

 

[Missouri Mule]

With a storm door? Opened in opposite directions.

 

[DD Byrd]

I think the element of surprise negates how far each of the doors was open. WE know they should have been been cautious, they were possibly just opening a door. MM, you seem to be zeroing on keys and doors. So...if not the son, if not an ex of Suzie's, who else would be given a key?