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Heat [music] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
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[music] Twitter @ True Crime Garage. Tonight we are drinking Spotted Cow by New Glaris Brewing Company. Garage grade
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finest Wisconsin hops. They even gave a little nod to the farmers out there adding a hint of corn. It's a naturally
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cloudy beer. I love cloudy beers. [music] Captain and Spotted Cow was brought to us by these little cowboys
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and cowg girls. First up we have Sofus in San Jose. Next, San Jose. >> And this one cracks me up, Captain. This
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is from Dylan. Dylan says, "Thanks for covering the Ted Bundy case. The communication students at the University
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Portland and Mihon in Indiana. And the last stop for the flying garage ship is where else but [music]
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>> parts unknown of course >> where we say hi and thank you to Nick. And maybe I shouldn't bring this up but
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it's going to be a little awkward if we got too many Nicks in here and I was here first. I was I'm [music] just
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them while you can. >> And thanks for checking out the Boys on the Tracks four-part series that we did.
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If you have not done that yet, check it out. It's great binging material. >> All right, that's enough of the
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business. Everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
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>> [music] [music] [music] >> Friends and family of 19-year-old Suzanne Strereer and 18-year-old [music]
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Stacy McCall say it's not like them to just leave and not tell anyone. on where they're going.
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>> She calls and lets me know where she's going to be. She's never missed work. She's [music]
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a very conscientious young woman. >> We're questioning everybody at this time. Friends, [music] relatives, anyone
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that has the information, anyone that may have seen him last, neighbors. We done neighborhood canvas. We're just
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checking every lead we can at this time. >> The last time anyone saw Susan Strereer
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or Stacy [music] McCall was over the weekend at this house in Battlefield. The girls had gathered here with some
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friends after graduating from Kikapoo High School on [music] Saturday. They left here early Sunday morning.
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>> Uh they said they were going to the other girls' house and they were going to be spending the night there [music]
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and they called me in the morning so we could go to Whitewater and I called they never called me in the
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morning so I called them and I called and I called and called and I got no answer. So I went over there and they
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weren't there. >> This is Suzanne Streeter's mom, Cheryl Lovevet. She's also missing. Last seen
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at her daughter's [music] graduation ceremony at Hammond Student Center on Saturday. She lived in this house on
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East Delmare in Springfield. That's where police found the three missing women's cars. Authorities say there was
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no sign of a struggle. In [music] fact, the front door was unlocked. The TV was on. Their clothes were still there.
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Their purses and personal items untouched. >> Her [music] jewelry and things were left
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in her purse. Her makeup is there. an 18-year-old girl that's very proud about the way she looks, wears her makeup, and
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looks nice, and she doesn't go out just wearing a t-shirt and her underpants. >> Springfield police [music] have notified
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law enforcement agencies in the surrounding area and in neighboring states, [music] hoping someone will have
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an idea of what happened to these three women over the weekend. In Springfield, Missouri, I'm Marty Schustler for NBC
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News. June 6th, 1992 in Springfield, Missouri, we have Stacy McCall and Suzanne Strereer had just graduated high school
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and they were going around to some different graduation parties at their friends houses. Now, they were they had
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a school event which was going to be one of those sober type lockin graduation parties. They decided they didn't want
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to go to this. They were planning much bigger things. They were out with with a bunch of their friends and one of their
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friends was Janelle Kirby. Now, the girls were planning to go to a hotel and stay the night that night.
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>> Mhm. >> They were planning a big day the next morning. The idea was that they would
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stay the night at the hotel, which was right by the White Waters Waterpark and Silver Dollar City, which is an
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amusement park. So, they wanted to stay there and join with what what sounds to be like friends or many people from
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their school at the water park or the amusement park the next day. For whatever reason, this plan falls through
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and now they're going to go to plan B, which they're going to stay at Janelle Kirby's house. So, back to Janelle's,
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right? But the girls, Stacy and Suzanne, they don't end up staying the night there either. Now, it it sounds like
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Janelle already had a full house with several out of town relatives staying at her home. Yeah, it seems like they were
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planning on st staying at Janelle's house, but because a family member kind of just dropped by unexpectedly,
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>> their house was packed and they would had to sleep on the floor and so they kind of thought, well, we don't want to
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sleep on the floor. Let's go over to my mother's house. So, they decide to go to
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Susie Strereers's house. And now, Susie lives with her mother, Cheryl Levette. Cheryl is divorced from Suz's father. I
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I don't know the date of the divorce, but it sounds like it might have been somewhat recent to 1992 because Cheryl
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had just recently purchased the home that they were living in, and the two had been living there only a short time.
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>> Right. >> So, Stacy and Susie leave Janelle's place around 2 am. They were last seen
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on Battlefield Road around 2:30 a.m. But it is believed that the two arrived safely at Suz's and Cheryl's home. This
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is on East Delmare Street. Now, earlier that night, Cheryl was last heard from around 11 or 11:30 p.m.
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>> She had stayed at home that night, and we know she was we she was safe because
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she had spoken to a friend on the phone, and the call had lasted or ended until about 11:00 11:30 that night. The next
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morning, people are going to start trying to make contacts with people because they have that big day at the
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water park, kind of a celebration for graduating high school. >> Yeah. So, around 8 am, friends of Stacy
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and Suzie's, they start calling Suz's house. Uh, they were still planning, even though they didn't go to the hotel,
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they're still planning on going to the water park, going to Silver Dollar City with lots of friends. Well, these
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friends started calling around 8:00 a.m. to plan the trip, but or to meet up and
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make their way to the water park together, >> right? Well, much to everyone's surprise, there's no answer at Suz's
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home. And all the friends, all their phone calls go unanswered. And some of these friends are waiting around on
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Susie and Stacy before they will leave for the water park. One of the girls that was calling was Janelle. Remember
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Janelle? Well, she she said she had called several times and even left two messages on the answering machine. So,
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after the phone calls, now I I got to believe that the friends probably were just thinking that the girls had
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overslept. We know they got in very late that night. >> Yeah. >> So Janelle Kirby and her boyfriend Mike
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decide to go over to Seuzies so they can hurry up and get everybody together and
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leave for the big gathering at the water park. >> Again, this is 1992, so it's it's way
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different than it is today. Uh you would this would be more common that people would stop by your house randomly. It
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might be a Friday night. You might never get a phone call from somebody. You would they would just swing by the house
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to see what you're doing. >> Yeah. And some of the younger people might not get this, but you know, you
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didn't back then, you didn't have a cell phone strapped to you 24/7. So sometimes
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you would make plans with people and even if you didn't hear from them, you would just follow through with those
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plans anyway, assuming that they would be where they said they would be. And and if if they weren't and you didn't
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hear from somebody, you just had to kind of carry on and hope that you bumped into them,
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>> right? I mean, I carried two cell phones and three beepers, but that's cuz I'm
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gangster. So Janelle and Mike, they arrived just after 9:00 a.m. When the two arrived, they first noticed that
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three cars are parked out in front of the house. Each of the girls, Stacy and Susie, they had their own car, and
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Cheryl's car was there as well. Janelle and Mike, approached the front door to the house, and they noticed that the
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porch light is broken. >> This is the first time that they've actually been to the house, even though
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they're really good friends, but that's because the mom just purchased the house.
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>> Mhm. And I'll describe this broken porch light real quickly because I do think
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that this is important. Mhm. >> Uh they see broken glass on the front doorstep. The casing to the porch light
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was broken. The the glass globe, but the light bulb itself, it's not broken. Uh the two of them grab a broom and sweep
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up the broken glass. They knock on the front door a few times. There's no answer, and they find that the door is
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unlocked. Now, I I kind of brush through that real quickly because there are several accounts of this part of the
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timeline. Some say that the friends knocked on the door and found it to be unlocked. Some say that the front door
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was open. I include both because this may be a detail that some want to ponder. And I was trying to decide which
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one was correct. Um I guess I could be convinced either way because I find it a little strange that the kids would clean
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up the broken glass while the door is already open. You know, it seems to me like you would kind of yell inside and
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hey, you know, >> what's going on? Yeah. Hey, [clears throat] people that I'm looking
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for, there's broken glass out front. Um, but the the accounts that state that the
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door was open, these are all kind of locals reporting this and and you know, I have a tendency of of leaning towards
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what the locals report and what we find in the local newspapers there. >> And yeah, this was a nice gesture that
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they claim that they're making, but this is also back in the day where other people's parents would yell at you.
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Yeah, I I think back then the the attitude was definitely more it takes a village to raise a child than it is
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nowadays. And and you're right, other parents, friends of your your your friends parents seemed almost like your
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parents at times, too. They would tell you what to do. They would correct you. They'd boss you.
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>> Yeah. And it was kind of their house, their rules. And also, if you got in trouble at your buddy's house, you
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normally got in trouble at your house. H well, I'm getting the vibe here in this
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story that Janelle might have been pretty close to to Suzie and therefore you remember how it was if you were
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close with your friend and and visited often and I know this was a new home, but maybe she had some kind of that kind
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of relationship with Sus's mother as well. >> Yeah, there was definitely a different
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dynamic when you had a single parent home. >> Mhm. So, they enter the home and when
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they get in there, they're calling out the girl's names and no one apparently is there. Um once inside they realized
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that the TV is left on and it's not on like a channel that you would watch. It's it's just on like the old black,
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white, and gray screen, you know, the the the fuzz is what some people would call it.
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>> Mhm. >> Uh the dog seems to be upset. Uh the dog's name is Cinnamon. Cinnamon is one
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of those uh little terrier dogs. >> Well, the dog's upset because of the bad name.
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>> Well, apparently the dog was upset enough to the point where Janelle said that the dog wanted to be held. Um they
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they would end up finding the lady's purses, all three of them, along with their cigarettes. I guess two of them
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were smokers. Uh and they find the lady's jewelry and makeup at the house as well. Um so it appears that the the
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home is empty. The dog is upset. The door may have been open or not. >> There's broken glass on the front porch.
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And it appears that not only are the women not there, but all their personal belongings that you would expect to
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accompany these women remained at the house with their vehicles as well, >> right? But you don't see any blood and
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you don't see any like other than the broken glass on that dome light. Look, for all Janelle knew, they were just
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running to the hardware store to get a new, you know, glass for the the lamp out front and then they're going to be
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back in a little bit. There was no sign of breaking and entering, >> right? So, no sign of a struggle.
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>> Right. Right. And Janelle would later tell the police that they actually assumed that the girls had just simply
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continued on with their plans of going to the water park. Uh they also stated that they that the beds appeared to have
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been slept in. Um you know, I I don't know if that means that somebody actually slept there. Some people don't.
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I don't make my bed every single day. >> You should. >> Um don't tell my mother. But like we
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said, before the time of cell phones, you just carried on with your plans and assumed people would be where they said
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they would be. So Mike and Janelle decide that they're going to leave the home and they're going to continue on
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with their plans, make their way to the water park. Uh but just as they are walking out the front door, the phone
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rings and Janelle answers the phone and she hears a male voice and the man is saying gross sexual stuff to her. Uh
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Janelle is disgusted by the caller and she hangs up the phone. As soon as she hangs up the phone, the phone begins to
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ring again and Janelle picks up the phone and again it's the same guy and he's he's kind of just picking up right
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where he left off and again it's with the sex stuff. Uh Janelle and Mike were convinced the calls were probably
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pranks. Uh Janelle hangs up the phone and the two of them they leave and they continue with their planned day of going
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to the water park and the amusement park. >> Was the guy that called Frank Rizzo?
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That's R I Zo. >> Next we have Stacy McCall's mother, Janice. Uh she had been waiting to hear
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from Stacy most of the day. >> Oh, Janice. >> She assumed Stacy was at Janelle's house
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uh unaware of the changing plans. A relative of Janice's, she informed her. Let's take a little bit of a backst step
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because when they were going to stay at the hotel the night before >> Mhm. >> a lot of the parents weren't too keen on
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this. >> No. And I I can't imagine that they would be >> that they you know our daughters just
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graduating high school and they're going to stay by themselves in a hotel room >> unsupervised. Who's know who knows
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what's going to go. >> Probably going to be a lot of boys there. >> Lots of drinking.
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>> So when those plans changed they were kind of happy that they didn't stay there.
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>> Yeah. Relieved. >> But now that but she's kind of confused on Okay. Well, why did they not stay at
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Janelle's house? Why are they staying here? So then she's cuz, you know, in the back of her head, she's thinking,
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well, what boy's house did they actually stay at? >> What boy's house or did they end up
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going to the hotel anyway, right? Um Yeah. And and you can imagine that's that's parents job, you know, when when
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your kid changes plans. And it's a big deal, I think, to go and stay at somebody else's house without informing
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your mother or father of where you're going. And and it can be, you know, >> could be dangerous.
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>> Dangerous. and it makes makes the parents worry. Uh but a relative of Janice's, she tells them that the girls
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did not uh stay at Janelle's, that they actually departed Janelle's home uh quite late in the night and that they
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stayed at Suz's instead. Now, remember, we had said that Cheryl and Susie had recently moved into the home. So, Janice
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had to track down the address of this new home, and she did this using the local phone book. Janice goes to the
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home once she's acquired the address. This would be almost 12 hours after Janelle and Mike had been there. Janice
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sees basically the same scene. You know, she arrives, the the door is unlocked. >> Uh the TV is on, all the purses, makeup,
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jewelry, they're all there. Uh, and Janice, you know, she's at this point she's overly cons, well, I shouldn't say
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overly concerned. She's very concerned about where her daughter could be. It's been almost a full day since she's heard
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from her. And so, she decides to play the messages. So, you know, remember the answering machine had the little
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blinking red light. And that light would that thing >> so much fun. >> That thing would call your name, though.
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And and for those that that don't remember the brink the blinking red light, this is how important that
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answering machine was. People you you might have plans for the evening between work and and and those plans. You would
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make a point to drive by your house just to hit that button to see who had called
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for you during the day while you were gone. And I understand that like nobody calls each other anymore, but back in
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the day it was a big deal to get your answering machine and set it up and create your answering machine message.
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>> Yeah. It was a it was a big deal. >> Yeah. And you get home from work and you
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see that blinking red light and you're like, "Okay, uh is this going to be a bill collector or is this like a friend
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that says, "Hey, let's go to get some wings and beer tonight." Well, many moons ago when we shared our apartment,
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uh, we would save all because it was your answering machine, but we'd save all the messages that we thought were
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funny. >> So, we had like this compilation tape and so we just get really drunk some
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nights and just listen to it over and over. >> Well, and we had a couple friends that
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that when they would sit at home and have a few beers, you know, if they found themselves by themselves that
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night, they they would call other people's phones and leave long messages. and and we had um one friend, the geek.
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We won't use his real name, but uh >> we've never used his real name. He's been the geek since
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>> I [snorts] don't know that that some of the friends even know his real name, but
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he used to leave the best messages and a lot of times it would just be he would call your home and then he would put his
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phone up to like the speaker on and he would just play some song and you would you you would listen to a five minute
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song hoping that there was some kind of message at some point. After about five or six of these things, you realize that
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it's just the geek leaving a a fulllength song for your enjoyment rather than any information for you at
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all. >> So, this red light was just kind of staring at her, tempting her. And uh
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Janice became nosy Nancy. >> Yeah. And that that was my thought in the beginning. My first initial reaction
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was, "Wow, this is kind of, you know, >> that's personal >> breaking the line of privacy there, uh
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listening to the messages." But on at the same time, this is her 18-year-old daughter. She's not heard from her.
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She's been told by other people that she was staying at this home. Her car is out
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front, you know, and as well as the other women's cars are out front as well. She said she had a strange feeling
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about the whole the whole scene and she decided that, you know, maybe it was a crossing the line of privacy there, but
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she took on her motherly job there. I'm saying motherly job. and played the messages.
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>> Uh when she did though, um she played the messages and accidentally erased them um rather than saving them.
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>> Great. >> Uh which this is terrible because >> Good job, Janice. >> She she recalls that there were several
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messages on there. Um some of them were from friends that were calling, you know, to try to make plans for that day.
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Uh, but one of the message was messages was also from a male caller, an unidentified male caller, and he's he's
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doing the sex stuff on the phone, um, during this message, and she said it it creeped her out.
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>> Yeah. And you'd think this is just such an odd thing to hear on an answering machine.
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>> Mhm. Well, she she unintentionally erased the messages. Um, she's freaked out at this point. and Janice using the
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landline phone at the residence calls the police department and reported all three women missing.
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>> Um that night, you know, she she can't rest at this point. Uh that night using
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photos just taken the day before at the graduation, >> right? >> Janice started making missing person's
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flyers. Uh the following day, police asked Janice if she could track down dental records for her daughter just in
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case they found something. So, you know, doesn't sound like they're very optimistic at this point, right?
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>> Uh but that's a scary request when you when you're already frightened and worried and then it gets even more real
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when the police ask for the dental records of your kid >> and you're celebrating something that is
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so big or so monumental in a young kid's life. M I mean the biggest thing that probably happens to you in high school
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is when you actually graduate. >> Well, and you're not only graduating from school, but you're also kind of
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graduating into adulthood as well at the same time. Now, I want to be clear here
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though. She called Janice calls the police, reports them missing. Uh this would be late Sunday night.
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>> Um the police do not arrive that night to to look through the house or, you know, take note of anything going on.
00:22:32
Mhm. >> And it's not until I believe the following day that later on Monday that
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they end up going to the house. Now, the police, they're they're not certain, but
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they believe that as many as maybe 10 people had been in or around the house uh before they had got there to to kind
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of make their observations. >> Right. So, this is kind of tampering the the the crime scene.
00:22:57
>> Yeah. And and it's a strange crime scene, isn't it? I mean, there's it's almost like they it's almost like they
00:23:04
just disappeared with whatever they were wearing at the time, you know. Um Stacy's mother says that that some of
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Stacy's clothes were were still at the house. Um >> yeah, it seems like all of her clothes
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were at the house except for uh t-shirt and panties or underwear. >> And so then there was also like where uh
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in the bathroom there was where they would take off their makeup. So there was like now that could have been from
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two nights before, but let's just assume that like maybe they found evidence in the trash. So it seemed like they made
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it there. >> Mhm. >> They were um you know changing and getting ready to go to sleep for their
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big day at the park the next day. And then even the mother, which would normally, you know, would have her
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smokes in the family room. She was an avid smoker. and she would smoke in the family room and then when it was time to
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go to bed, she'd take her cigarettes and go to her room and her cigarettes were in her room. So, it seemed like all
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three ladies were turning in for the night and there was some evidence of that. So, then what happened after that?
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>> Yeah, the the the people there said that the beds appeared to have been slept in.
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Maybe maybe all three of them were in their beds at some point in the night when when somebody came into the house,
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>> right? So, basically, we have this window pretty much between 2:00 and 8:00. >> Mhm.
00:24:23
>> That of what's going on. >> Yeah. And and the the other thing, too, is with with the TV. The TV's on, which
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is a strange thing, and it's on a channel that nobody would watch, you know, it's not like it's not like late
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at night, remember when the channel would just shut, you know, you would have things for viewing and then at like
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2:00 in the morning, it would just go to that fuzzy screen for a couple of hours
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and then it would pick up where it left off. That's other thing like any of the young listeners, they're going to go,
00:24:49
"What?" No, seriously, there was this time. This is showing us we should have never covered this case. This is showing
00:24:55
how old we are. >> Well, we were we were younger than uh just to throw that out there, we were
00:25:00
younger than Stacy and Susie, but we were old enough to remember all this stuff.
00:25:03
>> Yeah. But there was this time where it was like the the evening news and then
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maybe a couple shows and then about 10:00, 11:00 the the st station would just go blank.
00:25:13
>> Yeah. you know, and some of the more popular channels might might last till 2
00:25:17
in the morning, but there would be like an hour or two where it was nothing. It was just fuzz. And but but when when the
00:25:23
people that go into the house find this TV on, it's at a time where there should
00:25:27
be programming on. So, it's almost like it was turned to a channel, remember, you'd have a TV that might have 20ome
00:25:34
channels on it, but you would only actually have things to watch on seven or eight of those channels, right? Um
00:25:40
>> it was depressing time. So, it was almost like it was turned to a channel that had nothing on it ever. And the
00:25:47
other thing, too, is that I've heard that it was stated that that Stacy's clothes, not only were they there, but
00:25:52
they appeared to have been like folded up neatly like like you kind of would just before going to bed and you kind of
00:25:58
place them on the floor or on top of a dresser and they're there for you the next day cuz you're staying at a
00:26:03
friend's and you're just going to throw on the the clothes again. Um, and the other strange thing that that
00:26:10
we've seen here too is that it was stated that all three of the women's purses were all found in the same room,
00:26:17
like sitting next to one another, kind of lined up together, which you wouldn't expect to see.
00:26:22
>> A little strange. Yeah. >> Yeah. You wouldn't expect to see the girls keeping the purses in the mother's
00:26:27
room or the mother in the girls' room. >> But I think the big key piece of evidence is that there's, you know,
00:26:33
there's evidence that there's clothes left behind. So that possibly some of the girls weren't wearing fully clothed
00:26:40
so they wouldn't leave on their own. And why would you leave on their your own? All the cars are there. All your purses
00:26:46
are there. Then you got the cigarettes there. Not saying that she couldn't have another pack of cigarettes, but I think
00:26:50
all those things are telling that these girls just dis just dis they didn't disappear. And I think anytime there's a
00:26:57
M missing person case, you have to kind of go through that laundry list of well,
00:27:02
>> do we think they committed suicide? No, you there's no evidence of that. That
00:27:07
would seem kind of strange that all, you know, logically my brain is going, there's three people. They didn't just
00:27:12
go out into the field and decide to commit suicide. We never found any bodies >> or they didn't just they didn't just hop
00:27:17
in a car and decide to leave town together either, >> right? Cuz why would they do that when
00:27:21
they're and leave your purses behind and your identification and all that stuff?
00:27:26
Doesn't make a lot of logical sense. So, everything is kind of gearing towards foul play. Now, the thing here is I I
00:27:33
have read several accounts that Cheryl was a uh very hard worker um and very good at her job as well. And I believe
00:27:41
that the police may have found a decent amount of money in Cheryl's purse, cash money in her purse,
00:27:48
>> right? >> Um I have heard that it was several hundreds of dollars. So, we don't see
00:27:54
the we don't see the house being ransacked. And then furthermore, somebody didn't even take the time to
00:28:00
look through the purses to snatch the cash money out. >> Possibly not a robbery.
00:28:05
>> No, not not like a home invasion robbery situation. This is more of a I'm going
00:28:10
to go into the home and abduct these people. >> Mhm. Let's get more into that right
00:28:14
after this quick beer break. All right, welcome back to True Crime Gay Ridge. Uh, cheers, mates. We're
00:28:48
covering the Springfield 3. It's a case that I've actually heard of a lot, but mainly because listeners have said,
00:28:55
"Hey, you guys need to cover this case." >> Well, a few days go by after the disappearance of the three women. And at
00:29:03
first, there are no leads. There's nothing pointing towards answers to the whereabouts of Cheryl, Susie, and Stacy
00:29:10
until the Springfield police received an interesting tip. Uh this is a young waitress working at a place called
00:29:17
George's Breakfast. >> Mhm. Uh, this is a favorite restaurant of Cheryl and Suz's. This waitress
00:29:23
claimed to have seen the three missing women the night of their disappearance, and she states that she saw them between
00:29:30
the hours of 1 and 3:00 a.m. The police start checking into this information and
00:29:35
were able to find some of the other customers that would have been at the restaurant during these hours.
00:29:41
>> Mhm. uh to try to, you know, either help this this story, this information, or to
00:29:48
kind of dismiss it. And sadly, the waitress's statement could not be corroborated and was officially
00:29:54
considered uncredible. Um, some of those other people didn't claim to have seen them at that time. And this really makes
00:30:01
a lot of sense to me, right? Because we we have Susie and Stacy. They were said to have left Janelle's at 2 am and they
00:30:09
were spotted driving around 2:30 a.m. This is not leaving a lot of time for the three of them to have been at the
00:30:16
restaurant between the hours of 1 and 3:00 a.m. >> And anytime a person goes missing and in
00:30:21
this case it seems like there's probably foul play, we have to take a look at the
00:30:26
families. >> Yes. With with no answers to work on, the police started digging into the
00:30:31
backgrounds of the three women. They were able to shake loose some interesting tidbits that could be
00:30:37
beneficial to their case. Uh, one such possible lead was Bart Strereer, the son of Cheryl Levette and the older brother
00:30:45
by 9 years of Suzie. >> Mhm. >> Looking into his past, they were able to discover problems between Bart and his
00:30:53
mother. At one point, several years before 1992, Bart, he was eventually kicked out of the house. Yeah. Uh he
00:31:01
>> seemed like he had a drinking problem. >> Yes. He he had a frequent drinking problem. Bart would often drink to
00:31:08
excess almost daily. >> Bart was out on his own, you know, living. >> Rumor was he was going to start a true
00:31:15
crime podcast >> in a garage where he drinks beer. >> Um Bart was out living on his own for
00:31:21
almost 10 years. Um and he he ended up back in Springfield, Missouri. Uh, this would be in the fall of 1991 because of
00:31:29
a rough breakup and a falling out with his girlfriend. Once back in town, Bart tried to reconnect with his mother and
00:31:37
his sister. At some point, his sister Susie moves in with him. >> Uh, but that didn't last too long. You
00:31:45
know, it's it's it's a difficult thing to adjust to being single again. And apparently Bart had plenty of heartache
00:31:53
and this kind of resurrected his alcohol issues. >> Well, also she's just a senior in high
00:31:58
school. >> Mhm. >> And so and this was maybe a little more common early 90s, but but not super
00:32:06
common. >> Well, I wouldn't expect it to be super common. And I actually found it a little
00:32:11
weird at first when I when I found out that oh, she lived with her brother. But but then I got to thinking about the
00:32:16
situation. She was 19 when she disappeared. So she could have potentially been living with Bart once
00:32:22
she was already legally an adult, >> right? So that she didn't really need her parents to make the decision for
00:32:28
her. >> Yeah. And and we we we know that Cheryl and her recently had moved into that
00:32:34
home and we know that Cheryl went through a divorce. So once I started thinking about all of that information,
00:32:40
I started >> Not so strange. Yeah. >> Not strange because we don't know what the living arrangements would have been
00:32:45
beforehand. you know, if if Cheryl was living with a friend or living with her parents or or it was a, you know, a
00:32:51
crowded home that that Si Susie was living in, maybe she saw an opportunity like, you know, and, you know, at that
00:32:57
age, too, if you're 18 and your brother's in his, you know, he's 9 years older, so he's in his late 20s, you
00:33:03
think, oh, not it'd be cool to live with my brother, you know, >> plus he he knows where the booze is.
00:33:08
>> I can be friends with the guy, you know what I mean? And I can see a little bit
00:33:11
what it's like to live as as an adult and feel like an adult. Plus, can you imagine being a senior in high school
00:33:17
and you you don't live with your parents, you know, like you'd be the cool kid, right? So, I I don't know what
00:33:23
the intentions were, but it once I started thinking about the r the arrangements, it might not have been
00:33:28
that strange. >> I was in jazz band. There was there's no help for me to be the cool kid.
00:33:33
>> No chance. You couldn't go live with the older brother and throw parties at the
00:33:36
place. Huh. >> Right. And again, so they end up having a falling out and she goes back to
00:33:40
living with the mother. >> Yeah. It sounds like that it almost got to a physical altercation between the
00:33:46
brother and sister. Um, you know, and those those situations don't always work out, especially when you have a time gap
00:33:54
of like 9 years apart and Bart's [clears throat] been away for almost 10 years at this point.
00:33:58
>> Uh, he was Bart was considered a suspect early on in this investigation, right?
00:34:05
>> And it but he was pretty quickly ruled out. Um he claims that he was at his own
00:34:12
home that night and that he had drank too much and passed out and that was basically his his alibi. Doesn't sound
00:34:19
like a solid super solid alibi to me. >> Yeah, but I think it was uh cooperated with um neighbors. Yeah. Which which
00:34:27
makes a lot of sense because the police basically say, "Well, he was he was a suspect early on once we found out the
00:34:34
you know what was going on in their relationship, but he was quickly, you know, taken off the list of of suspects.
00:34:41
>> Um, and I think you're right and and you can actually there are interviews with
00:34:46
Bart to this day and you can you can tell he's heartbroken by this whole situation."
00:34:50
>> He's very willing to talk to any documentary. I think this was on Disappeared maybe.
00:34:55
>> Okay. um maybe a 48 hour special, but he's always involved and he can really tell like, you know, he he has a a
00:35:03
hatred to whoever he might think did this. >> So, I don't know. I I I think he was a
00:35:10
guy that maybe had a little bit of a problem with the hooch early on, but doesn't seem like he struggles with that
00:35:16
now. >> Well, and and a guy in his 20s drinking too much is not too hard to believe. And
00:35:23
on top of that, the other thing that I saw, Captain, is, you know, not only a hatred for whoever destroyed his family,
00:35:30
but the I almost feel like he's got a little bit of guilt like like he's got some guilt that he's been carrying
00:35:35
around because his sister did live with him for a while. And maybe he he thinks that
00:35:41
>> had I just not been, you know, had I been able to keep it together and keep her living with me, maybe this wouldn't
00:35:47
have happened at all or at the very least it wouldn't have happened to my sister. Well, and a lot of times when
00:35:53
you're in your late teens or or 20s, you you do have little fallouts with your parents. And so, he had, you know, kind
00:35:59
of a tough relationship with his mom and his sister. And I think, you know, he probably thought, well, look, some of
00:36:06
that stuff you're going to grow out of. >> You know, I I I couldn't tell you the
00:36:09
last I mean, it's not that my parents don't annoy the [ __ ] out of me. They do.
00:36:13
But, uh, I couldn't tell you the last time I've had a big argument with them. >> Mhm. Well, things get a little more
00:36:20
interesting here because you know the the police are still investigating the backgrounds of the three women and
00:36:26
that's when they find another lead and that lead is Suz's ex-boyfriend. This is Dustin Reckla. Now, he and his friends
00:36:35
Michael Clay and Joseph RLE. Uh they're all considered suspects because when Susie and Dustin were dating, Dustin and
00:36:44
Michael got into some trouble and they they were charged with vandalizing a mausoleum. Uh and I I apologize, I
00:36:51
misspoke. Joseph was with them as well. The the three were charged with felony in institutional vandalism.
00:36:59
>> The three broke into a mausoleum at the Springfield's Maple Park Cemetery on February 21st, 1992.
00:37:06
>> Mhm. and they were accused of stealing a skull and some bones. Now, police said
00:37:13
that Dustin sold 26 g of gold teeth fillings that he had took from the skull that they they stole out of the the
00:37:21
cemetery, >> right? >> Uh he sold this gold to a Springfield pawn shop for $30. Now, the the pawn
00:37:30
shop owner, >> maybe there should be a rule with pawn shops, like if somebody comes in with
00:37:34
gold teeth, >> you just uh you're not allowed to buy those, right? >> You know, like uh I don't know where you
00:37:40
got those. >> Or at least ask them to smile so you can verify that they have all of their teeth
00:37:45
and now you need to be concerned that >> open up your mouth, cupcake. I want to see. But we got to give credit where
00:37:52
credit is due, my friend, because the the pawn shop owner, he purchased these teeth for $30 and then he called the
00:37:59
police and said, "Guess what? This guy Dustin showed up with some gold teeth. You might want to might want to check
00:38:05
them out." >> Only out 30 bucks if it doesn't turn into something. >> Exactly. Well, what ended up happening
00:38:10
was uh Suzanne Streer ended up giving a statement to the officers investigating the vandalism. She gave the statement on
00:38:17
March 5th, 1992. And in the statement, uh, she really basically just pointed to the three boys being guilty. And of
00:38:26
course, this ended their relationship, >> right? >> Later, there were multiple later there
00:38:32
were multiple reports about Michael Clay, remember, he's one of the friends of Dustin, saying that this was after
00:38:39
the women had disappeared. He's saying, "I wish all three of the women were dead." Um, and you know, so this
00:38:47
immediately throws them under the bus. They're already under suspicion. Uh, and the other thing too here is they do have
00:38:54
an alibi for the night that Cheryl, Susie, and Stacy disappeared. It has never been confirmed, however. Right.
00:39:01
>> Uh, Dustin and Michael and Joseph said that that evening they claimed to have
00:39:06
been at a rock concert that night, but other than the word of the three boys, the police are unsure.
00:39:13
>> Right. You're creating your own alibi by saying, "Well, I was with him and he was
00:39:18
with me and we're at this rock concert >> where there's potentially thousands of
00:39:22
people, so who you know?" Yeah. Yes. Potentially could have been seen by thousands of people, but who recognizes
00:39:28
anybody that's a stranger to them at a concert, >> right? And if they were at a concert, it
00:39:32
was probably like a New Kids on the Block concert. >> Yeah. >> Oh. So, >> so basically the police, they have no
00:39:40
evidence pointing toward the boys being guilty of the disappearance. >> Well, wasn't there some other stuff
00:39:45
though, too, with the skulls up in the in the trees? >> Well, see, I didn't give a lot of weight
00:39:52
to that, and I'll tell you why. Um, you >> Well, let's explain what it is. >> You're exactly right. There was there
00:39:58
was rumors that the boys were into uh some kind of Satanism. >> And um >> and mind you, this is '92, so this is
00:40:07
around the whole uh satanic panic time. >> Oh, it's it's in the height of the satanic panic in my opinion.
00:40:15
>> And um >> this is one year before West Memphis. >> Yeah. And the thing here is, you know,
00:40:20
they claim to have been at a rock concert. So, you know, a lot of times, you know, when we look at somebody like
00:40:25
Jason Baldwin, okay, he's walking around, you know, from West Memphis 3, he's walking around daily with Metallica
00:40:32
shirts on. And we all know what those old Metallica shirts look like. They're skulls and bones. And
00:40:37
>> had a picture of Bobby Brown right on it >> and snakes and things like that. And and
00:40:42
maybe older people or people that just don't know better would would point at the kid and go, "Oh, look at the look at
00:40:47
the kid in the black shirt with the skulls all the time. He's he's a Satanist." And I think that that's maybe what we
00:40:53
see here with these three boys. Now, I would I would worry a little more because of the break into the cemetery.
00:41:00
That's a that's a very strange thing. Um, and I know boys will be boys and they and they do some dumb things along
00:41:08
the way, especially in the teenage years, but I don't I don't well, I shouldn't say I don't think I should say
00:41:15
I know. I would not be comfortable breaking into a cemetery and then handling the remains of of somebody,
00:41:23
>> right? Because let's just be clear about this for a second, right? They're not
00:41:26
digging up >> bodies. They're not digging up a casket, which, you know, would be a little more
00:41:32
effort. What they're >> They're kind of lazy grave robbers, >> but they're breaking into a place that
00:41:38
holds a bunch of caskets and a bunch [clears throat] of bodies, and then they can get into these uh compartments that
00:41:43
hold the bodies. They pull it out. Mhm. >> You got to pull it out. Then you got to
00:41:47
open up the casket. So now you're dealing with the the the odor of the dead body.
00:41:53
>> Yeah. >> Right. You got to deal with the these human remains. >> Mhm. >> And then you have to put your you got to
00:42:00
put your hand in the mouth of a dead body and you have to pull that tooth out. >> Yeah.
00:42:07
>> And it's not like you know which skull has gold teeth. So, how many >> you you might at after after holding it
00:42:16
and viewing it and deciding, okay, I'm taking this one. Um, but >> no, what I'm saying is
00:42:21
>> you're saying when you're reaching in to to pull out the >> No, what I'm saying Yeah. when you're
00:42:25
pulling that body out with that casket, you don't know. You don't have X-ray vision. So, you actually have to open
00:42:33
the casket, open up the dead person's mouth >> and see, okay, I look in. Okay, there's
00:42:39
a gold tooth. Now, I got to pull that out. But if there's no gold teeth, then we got to shut that casket.
00:42:45
>> Maybe steal jewelry while you're there, but you got to shut that casket. And then when you come back, then you got to
00:42:51
do the whole process again. And what if you get somebody that only has one gold tooth? So then you got to do that, shut
00:42:57
the casket, start the process again. It's one thing. It's one thing to >> if you had to do it, right? Right.
00:43:06
>> You don't have to do this. So I think look to me I'm not saying satanic panic.
00:43:12
I'm not saying that at all because you know you can listen to Metallica all day long. Okay
00:43:16
>> and be and be a great person. I listen I still listen to Metallica. Um not saying I'm a great person though.
00:43:24
Um, but what I'm saying is for somebody to have the capability of doing that, to
00:43:30
me, that puts them in the possibility or the realm of possibly being able to be malicious towards somebody because it's
00:43:39
a disrespectful thing to the dead person. >> Mhm. >> So, I'm just saying that I think that
00:43:44
that this is something that should not be overlooked. >> You're exactly you're you're exactly
00:43:49
right. It does go beyond the point of satanic panic and it does it does point toward somebody being comfortable
00:43:57
handling remains. Um it it sounds >> somebody that's comfortable of commit committing a crime.
00:44:03
>> Yeah. And it sounds to me like the intention might not so much have been for the gold teeth that maybe they were
00:44:09
going there to take a skull or bones or for whatever reason. Well, they ended up
00:44:14
hanging like some of the skulls like in a tree or something. >> And and I think you're exactly right
00:44:20
though. It it it's either it either takes a person capable of things that others wouldn't be capable of or it
00:44:27
takes a certain kind of stupid to go out and commit this this vandalism. >> Well, most criminals are stupid. Stupid.
00:44:34
>> Well, and the alibi itself is not that great, right? I mean, they're they're vouching for each other.
00:44:40
>> They're at a rock concert. And the the thing is here, you know, I'd like a little more information on this because
00:44:47
if that rock concert's in Springfield, Missouri, well, these girls disappeared between 2:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m., you
00:44:55
could have conceivably went to the rock concert and still carried out this crime
00:44:59
or abducted these these women. >> Well, you probably could have went to a rock concert within a 2 three mile
00:45:04
radius because, you know, let's just assume that some of these concerts would be over by 11 12:00 at night. A lot of
00:45:12
things shut down a lot earlier, you know. It wasn't like we didn't have all night Taco Bell people. It was rough.
00:45:18
>> There was no fourth meal back then. You were you had third meal and then you went to bed,
00:45:22
>> right? You skip you skip fourth meal and to jail. >> I often laid in my bed in the middle of
00:45:29
the night dreaming of fourth meal. >> Fourth meal. [laughter] >> Okay. So anyways,
00:45:36
um >> it's taco Tuesday in the garage. >> It's taco Tuesday. Um, >> so regardless of the of the alibi being
00:45:42
weak, it doesn't even matter if they were at a rock concert and and it could have been one that was the next town
00:45:48
over, you you could have been at the rock concert and still conceivably pulled out this crime, you know,
00:45:54
abducted these three women. You there was time to do so. >> So, not only is their alibi really weak,
00:46:00
but their motive is strong. I mean, all three individuals are going to be charged with this this felony.
00:46:06
>> With a felony. Yes. >> Right. And then we have three people that went missing. What's easy, you
00:46:11
know, it's a lot easier to control three people if there's three people. And one
00:46:16
thing that the Strereer family still has a question about today is, you know, there there are people that have
00:46:21
wondered, well, was was Susie supposed to, you know, testify against these guys in court? Um, you know, we we
00:46:29
[clears throat] got the one guy that says, I I wish they were all dead. >> Um, so they they look very guilty. They
00:46:35
have a motive. Uh the thing here is, you know, as far as these guys are concerned, um it doesn't really go
00:46:44
anywhere because they have no evidence. We're talking about a a crime scene where there's no evidence. On top of
00:46:51
that, police willingly admit that probably up to 10 people >> trampled through that crime scene before
00:46:57
they got there. Uh, and unless you have an eyewitness seeing these boys with with these victims or pulling them from
00:47:05
the house, there's really nothing to go on here. Now, I will say one thing in the in the defense of of these three
00:47:11
guys. They did seem to work and cooperate with the police quite a bit. They they willingly sat down for
00:47:18
interviews, told them what they may or may not know. Um, and those interviews didn't really go anywhere. Now again
00:47:25
though, there there are people that still consider them suspects and some of those people are the Springfield,
00:47:31
Missouri police. >> Yeah, I kind of wonder what these three individuals were are up to today
00:47:36
>> and and I wondered the same thing, especially after finding out that they're still considered suspects in
00:47:41
this case. >> Uh, as far I ran into some issues because I did try to I went down that
00:47:46
rabbit hole and Joseph Reedle, first of all, his last name is the same as a glass manufacturer. So, good luck. I I
00:47:53
found nothing but uh people trying to sell me wine glasses. >> Um Michael, >> did he buy any?
00:47:58
>> I fully stocked up. Uh Michael Clay has an extremely common name. Uh I came up
00:48:05
with like a hundred Michael Clays in living in the Missouri area. >> And the other problem with all this too
00:48:10
is that we don't have pictures of these suspects. So even if you found uh a person to compare the the names,
00:48:18
>> you wouldn't know if it's the same, >> right? To compare the pictures, you don't have a picture to compare it to.
00:48:22
Now, Dustin Reckla, he has an interesting last name. It's not a common last name. And I did find somebody
00:48:29
that's still living in the Springfield, Missouri area, still living in the same town. Uh, and he matches up as far as as
00:48:36
uh age goes. So, it's in my opinion, it's the same guy. Yeah, most likely. >> I have and I don't feel bad saying that
00:48:43
or or any question about saying that because it doesn't appear that he's done anything questionable since then. you
00:48:50
know, he made this this error or mistake as a as a kid and he's paid his debt to
00:48:55
society. Apparently, he's still living there and he's a family man now. He's if if that carries any weight, I don't
00:49:01
know, but he's not moved or fled the area. >> I wonder if he's sitting in his garage
00:49:06
right now listening. Hey, give us a call. Give us a call. [laughter] Uh, no. But yeah,
00:49:11
>> well, let's tell your side of the story. >> But again, some of that too is like,
00:49:14
yeah, maybe you're creating an alibi. Maybe there is a motive, but also at the end of the day, it's it's like, well, it
00:49:23
could be boys being boys, >> right? As far as >> I know that's I know that's a copout,
00:49:28
but it it should just be teenagers, early 20some year old just being young and and dumb.
00:49:35
>> Yes. And and the thing that makes them interesting though is that it's it's got
00:49:40
to be fairly difficult to abduct three people, especially if you're by yourself. I mean, it would certainly we
00:49:46
can agree that it would certainly help if the numbers were even. Three versus three,
00:49:50
>> right? But it's a lot, you know, but three versus three, no gun, one guy with
00:49:55
a gun, I'd say that's pretty even. >> Even Stephen, he says, um, another tip comes in, this one didn't come in till
00:50:02
about 9 or 10 days after the disappearance of the women. Uh, but this report is about a situation that took
00:50:09
place around 6:30 a.m. June 7th, uh, 1992. So, this is just hours after the last time the three women were last
00:50:18
seen. A woman was sitting on her front porch and she says that she saw a greenish Dodge van. Uh she she believed
00:50:26
the van to have been from the mid60s to the early 1970s. >> Those are also known as shacken wagons.
00:50:33
>> She she also said that the van seemed extremely out of place to her. It was, you know, this is an old woman that sat
00:50:41
on her front porch often and it was a vehicle that she did not recognize. She didn't identify this as a vehicle owned
00:50:47
by any of the neighbors or any of the other people that lived on her block. Uh, furthermore, the thing here is too
00:50:55
where Cheryl Levette lived, you could get to the freeway very quickly from where she lived. And this person that
00:51:03
lived on on a block, you know, a couple she lived in a in an area that if you were leaving Levette's home and trying
00:51:11
to make your way to the freeway, if you were if if a victim was driving and tried to pull in and try to delay
00:51:19
something, this might be an obvious spot to kind of turn into. If that if that makes any sense.
00:51:23
>> Mhm. This van also was reported multiple different colors. You know, some people
00:51:27
said cuz there was other reports of people seeing a van. Yeah. >> And it came out like, well, maybe it
00:51:33
wasn't green, maybe it was brown, maybe. >> Well, and and and we'll get to that, you
00:51:36
know, but but the >> It kind of reminds me of uh uh the Shaggy, you know, was the Scooby mobile
00:51:42
or >> Yeah. And it kind of looks like a Volkswagen van in a in a way as well. >> Kind of like they're kind of copying
00:51:48
that style. That that'll be on the website so you can check that out. The reason why this stood out to her was it
00:51:54
was not just a van that she didn't recognize, but she furthermore she noticed a young woman in the driver's
00:52:01
seat that appeared to be, you know, freaking out a bit and >> blonde hair, right?
00:52:06
>> Yes. And the witness claimed hearing an unidentified male voice speaking to the
00:52:10
driver saying something to the effect of back out slowly. You know, he must have
00:52:15
realized that they're they're not going toward the freeway >> and don't do anything stupid. So, she
00:52:21
claims to have heard this. Now, the delay for her reporting this was just simply that she was unaware that there
00:52:28
was anything going on. Uh, it was when she finally heard about the missing women, that's when this witness made the
00:52:36
call and told the authorities, the the woman driver, you know, and and about the van. Now, when she was shown
00:52:42
pictures of the three women, she says that the driver, in her opinion, was definitely Suzanne Streer.
00:52:50
>> Right. So, this is the blonde kind of crimped hair. I think it's what it's called. This kind of bleach blonde
00:52:56
crimped hair. Now, this would be the girlfriend of one of the three boys. >> You're exactly the ex. And so,
00:53:03
>> Dustin's ex-girlfriend. >> Just throwing this out there, just thinking out loud. Well, that would make
00:53:08
more sense because you'd put her up front >> if if they were if they were the suspects.
00:53:15
>> Yeah. And the thing here is too, you know, what the police probably start looking at at this point is because they
00:53:22
believed this tip to be very credible. >> Mhm. >> The thing here is then you have to start
00:53:29
wondering, well, do either any of these three boys have access to a vehicle that
00:53:34
matches that description, right? >> And if you can prove that they don't, then you know, like I said, they're
00:53:39
still suspects, but but maybe they come off the radar a little bit. And now rather than looking at these three boys,
00:53:46
you've got a vehicle to go look for because the woman states she gives a great description of the vehicle.
00:53:51
However, no description of the man who she heard talking to this driver, right? Because like there but there's no
00:53:58
windows on the side of this van. >> No. So, it's like, you know, it's it's very I mean, I wouldn't even call it a
00:54:04
creeper van cuz I mean, it's kind of stylish. It's a little more too stylish. It's more stylish than the creeper vans.
00:54:11
It's like a a half creeper van. >> But what I'm saying is the the driver's seat was probably one of those bucket
00:54:18
seats. It wasn't a bench seat where if if you were my victim, right, and you're sitting in the in the front in the
00:54:25
driver's seat. >> I could be crouched down behind you with a with a gun or some kind of weapon to
00:54:31
you without being seen at all by, you know, by anybody looking on. >> Well, my ears are your victim every
00:54:37
week. The thing here is the the police did think this was a credible eyewitness. So what they did was they
00:54:44
purchase a van that would be similar year, similar model to what they were looking for. Right?
00:54:50
>> They get the witness, the eyewitness to sign off on the color that the van was
00:54:54
supposed to be and they painted it that color. They parked this thing out in front of the police department with a
00:55:00
sign on it that says, you know, if you've seen any van that looks like this one, you need to give us a call and tell
00:55:05
us who owns it or where you've seen it. Or, you know, have you seen women in the
00:55:09
van? >> Right. Or maybe have you seen this van? Just go with me on this weird thought,
00:55:13
right? Okay. >> Maybe you've seen this van at a New Kids on the Block concert. >> Oh, okay.
00:55:18
>> Right. No, no, not trying to make a joke, but seriously. Okay. What concert would were these guys at?
00:55:23
>> That's a good question. So if you say they're at this concert over here at this venue, did anybody at that concert
00:55:30
report a stolen van, >> right? >> See what I'm saying? >> A stolen van or did you see a van there
00:55:36
that looked like this? Because just because these three guys committed this vandalism, this act of vandalism,
00:55:42
doesn't mean that the the they're the only three suspects. They could have had a friend or someone that they knew that
00:55:49
went along with them on on this, you know, to to go break into this house or or abduct.
00:55:55
>> Well, I'm just I'm just going off on the fact that if these guys are still suspects, right? You know what I mean?
00:55:59
Like, you know, may maybe somebody had a van stolen from the concert that they claimed that they at or that they were
00:56:06
at. And then afterwards, they're like, you know, maybe a little high, maybe a little drunk. And they're like, let's
00:56:11
let's teach that girl a lesson. Well, this move by the police to get the van, paint it the color, post the number, uh,
00:56:19
this this ends up being a good thing for the police. It it creates a bit of traction in the case and they it starts
00:56:25
picking back up. Now, a paper boy comes forward and he states that he was doing his deliveries and during that time he
00:56:32
described seeing a similar type van uh, but he says that the van he saw was brown in color. Now, he also states that
00:56:40
he saw the van when it was dark outside and could not be 100% certain of the actual color of the van that he had
00:56:47
seen. As the captain had said, over time, a lot more tips come in regarding this van
00:56:55
uh and in the color of the van changes several times uh from these different tipsters or eyewitnesses.
00:57:02
>> Yeah. A police one of the police officers said at some point the van was every color. Yeah, it was a rainbow of
00:57:09
colors. >> And and the thing is, you and I talked about this one time, uh when when you
00:57:14
have these when you have these kind of tip lines that come out and say, you know, we're looking for a green van of
00:57:20
this year to this year. >> You know, keep your eyes out open and if you see anything, let us know. And it's
00:57:27
amazing how people come out of the woodwork and they start noticing those vans all of a sudden where those vans
00:57:33
have always been there. They've always been in your neighborhood. you know somebody that drives that van. Now all
00:57:37
of a sudden you're driving on the freeway and you see a thousand of them on your way home one evening.
00:57:41
>> Well, and when I was a banker, I mean, one of the things that we had to constantly do training on was we'd watch
00:57:47
videos of, you know, burglaries. Not burg, you know, bank robberies. >> Okay. >> And uh and then they just ask you, you
00:57:55
know, they turn off the tape and go write down everything, you know, and that's all neat. That's neat.
00:57:59
>> And you'd practice that, you know, but it was surprising how bad some people were at first. So, so you you know a guy
00:58:07
comes in, he's got a mask on or doesn't or he has a hat on or whatever. And you have to write down what what color jeans
00:58:12
he's wearing, what shirt, uh how many guys there are, you know, anything you can observe. You write that down and
00:58:18
then what do they do? They take your answers and show you the the footage again. And then you're like, "Oh, got
00:58:22
that wrong. Got that wrong. Got that wrong." >> And what a lot of people do and just
00:58:26
because it's because of the type of test it is, a lot of people start trying to,
00:58:31
you know, scan the whole room for everything. Oh, >> where where here's what happens. If
00:58:36
somebody robs your bank, you've been at your bank for for a long time. So, you know your surroundings.
00:58:43
>> Okay. >> It's really about focusing on that individual. >> But still, it was amazing to me. I mean,
00:58:49
I was actually surprisingly pretty good at it. It was amazing to me how many people that I worked with where it's
00:58:55
like they kept on saying he's wearing a red hat and he's not even wearing a hat.
00:58:59
>> There's no hat at all. So, and then I also think some of this stuff too, it's
00:59:03
like with that lady saying that she saw a girl in a van, the green van. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. Some people
00:59:12
hear about something going on in their city and they just want so badly to be involved.
00:59:18
>> Right. Right. And and sometimes the mind creates images that we think that we saw
00:59:23
but we never saw. You know, maybe she saw a van and then after she saw pictures of the women, she goes, "What
00:59:29
is she taking?" Like a bunch of mushrooms. >> I don't know. I'm just saying. It was 9
00:59:33
or 10 days after the fact. >> Sometimes 9 or 10 days after a crime, you go into the field and you eat a
00:59:40
bunch of mushrooms, you start seeing green fans. [laughter] That's not what normally happens.
00:59:46
>> So, we have some persons of interest to discuss here. And I say that because they're not necessarily suspects, uh,
00:59:53
but some persons of interest. We mentioned the three young men, Dustin, Michael, and Joseph. These are suspects
00:59:59
in my mind and in the eyes of the police. But we have some interesting monsters here to talk about. Uh first,
01:00:06
let's start with Steven Eugene Garrison. Now, Garrison had told police, he works
01:00:12
his way into this case because he told police a friend of his had confessed to killing the three women and confessed
01:00:19
this to him during a drunken party. Uh he told police information unknown to the public that led investigators to
01:00:27
serve three search warrants at two sites in western Webster County. He said that
01:00:33
they would find the three women's bodies and clues about their abduction and their deaths.
01:00:40
>> He also said that a moss green van believed used to take the women would be found about 12 miles away from where
01:00:48
they would find the bodies of the of the [clears throat] young women. >> Yeah. I mean, this this seems like
01:00:52
something they have to kind of jump on right away. >> Yeah. So, so the property that was
01:00:56
searched, this is where it gets even a little more weird. Um, the property that was searched was the same site where in
01:01:03
1990 law enforcement searched for two missing people. These are not related to this case, right? Uh the property owner
01:01:10
was Francis Rob senior and he ended up pleading guilty to two counts of seconddegree murder and a case that
01:01:17
authorities say at the time was believed to have been a drug deal gone very badly. Now Steven Garrison was believed
01:01:25
enough that a gag order concerning the search was issued by a judge. Law enforcement said certain aspects of the
01:01:33
information we received fit with other private aspects of this Springfield 3 case.
01:01:39
>> Right. Right. >> This was a statement given by the Springfield police captain. And you see
01:01:45
this type of move here is is pretty rare to have a gag order on a search like this. uh law enforcement acknowledged
01:01:53
that the gag order existed but but simply said, you know, we can't tell you anything about it until the order is
01:02:00
lifted. So, we we basically what that's saying is they issued this gag order because they don't want to talk about
01:02:07
items that were found at that site. Now, do does that mean that it it it is leads
01:02:14
to the Springfield 3 or this case specifically or did they happen to be searching
01:02:19
>> case? Yeah, they were searching a site where you got a bad dude that that was
01:02:23
known to have possibly put people there before. >> Yeah. A monster. >> So, the thing here is, you know, why why
01:02:30
does this seem so important to the police? This was important enough for them to go out there and search the
01:02:35
property, right? Well, so who is Steven Garrison that gave them this information? Garrison is a terrible guy.
01:02:41
You know, this is in part why the authorities take his statements so seriously. They know what he is capable
01:02:48
of because Steven Garrison was serving 40 years in prison for kidnapping, raping, and terrorizing a female
01:02:56
Springfield college student. Uh, which he abducted in the summer of 1993, >> which would be roughly the same age and
01:03:03
roughly around the same time frame as far as like same age and also around the start of summer.
01:03:10
>> Yeah. Yeah. Same age, same time frame, uh, same victimology. Um, you know, police spent a good amount of time
01:03:18
tracking Garrison's movements. Um, and at at one time, and I don't know if this was through a person or persons that
01:03:25
knew Garrison, but authorities were looking as far as Colorado for information regarding Steven Garrison.
01:03:32
>> I mean, the two girls were walking around town, and they're both very they're both attractive uh females. And
01:03:40
I think, you know, why why they're walking around that they could have caught somebody's eye and they followed
01:03:48
them the the lady's home. >> Mhm. >> It's very possible. >> Could be could be just as simple as
01:03:53
that. Now, Garrison, Steven Garrison is quoted as saying, uh, they've never let up on me, you know, when referring to
01:04:00
the police's investigation into connecting him to the disappearance of the Springfield 3. So you have this you
01:04:07
have this terrible guy that's very capable of having a victim that fits any of these this victimology here
01:04:13
>> and he was known to be in the area. >> Yeah. And he comes out with this weird
01:04:17
statement of a friend told me when he was drunk that he did this. You know that's just a a strange statement.
01:04:24
>> Well and it might not be so much of a friend but maybe somebody that you know
01:04:28
you know as far as like sex trafficking and stuff like that. They they normally will work with each other. So, we have
01:04:34
this very odd case. Three missing women. We have Susie, age 19, Stacy, age 18. They're staying at Suz's mother's house.
01:04:43
Cheryl, age 47 at the time. >> Between the hours of 2:30 a.m. and 800 a.m., they disappear at June 7th, 1992.
01:04:52
And it's really the the crime scene is the strange thing here. All their belongings left behind. It almost looks
01:04:59
like either they left the front door unlocked or they willingly let the abductor or abductors into the house in
01:05:05
the middle of the night, >> right? No sign of struggle. And then when people come to find them,
01:05:11
>> they're getting some weird calls, sexual calls. >> And we have a couple eyewitnesses come
01:05:16
forward. We have a couple suspects early on early on. We have the brother. >> He's kind of out of the picture now.
01:05:23
Yep. We got the three boys, the ex-boyfriend, they're still kind of in the picture.
01:05:29
And then we got some bad ombres in this area. >> Yeah. And it turns out as the further
01:05:34
this investigation goes and the longer it goes on, the more that they're realizing that a lot of really bad men
01:05:41
are living in Springfield, Missouri in 1992. >> Yeah, we're going to have to get to
01:05:46
these monsters in tomorrow's episode. >> Thank you, Captain. We got so much more
01:05:51
to dive into in this very highly requested case of the Springfield 3 and we will do that tomorrow. We will see
01:05:57
you all back here in the garage tomorrow. And until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.
01:06:04
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