The Springfield Three case from 7th June 1992 would have to be one of the most eerie, inexplicable crimes in history - that's if there even was a crime committed at all. Every possible scenario and motive is ruled out by another factor in the case.
For example:
1. If Sherrill Levitt was the target, the perpetrator/s would have had hours to abduct her alone that evening.
2. If her daughter Suzy Streeter was the target, it seems odd to strike that night, as she had gone out celebrating her high school graduation, and initially was not supposed to return until Sunday evening, following a trip to Branson. Anyone watching her would not likely have sat up waiting that long in case she returned.
3. If Suzy's friend Stacy McCall was the target, would the perpetrator have struck at an unfamiliar location, abducting two other women at the same time?
4. If both Sherrill and Suzy; or Suzy and Stacy had both been targets, with Stacy and Sherrill respectively in the wrong place at the wrong time, there are the same problems with times and logistics.
Then there's the problems with how the abduction, if this is what happened, took place:
1. There was no sign of forced entry at the house, no signs of violence. The house was 'lived in tidy', not ransacked or too clean, as though somebody had been cleaning up evidence.
2. Neighbors neither saw nor heard anything odd during the night.
3. The house was a small, single story dwelling open to the road, ruling out the possibility that somebody may have been hiding inside or behind vegetation.
4. The girls had taken off their make-up and gotten into bed. If somebody had used their return to the house to get inside, they would not have done this.
5. If the girls had walked in on a crime in progress, they again would not have changed their clothes, taken off their make up and gone to bed.
6. The porch light was broken, but the light was still shining when Suzy and Stacy's friends Janelle and Mike arrived mid-morning to see what was going on. If the perpetrator/s had wanted to turn off the light and ensure the cover of darkness, all they would have to do is turn it off once entry to the house was gained. That's if the broken light had anything to do with this at all.
7. A confidence trick seems to be the most likely way the person/s responsible got inside the house, for example a fake policeman or a frantic young man banging on the door begging to be let inside to call an ambulance as his wife was in breach labor. But in this case, the perpetrator/s would have wanted the light to be on, so that the women would see there was no danger and open the door. A dark porch would have roused suspicions.
8. The way the house was left was decidedly eerie, with the three women's purses in a row, unlocked, television on showing snow and all personal effects left behind. If the person/s responsible wanted to divert attention away from the house, why didn't they take keys, cigarettes, medication, purses etc. to make it look like they had gone out and failed to return?
9. If the women left willingly with their abductor/s, why didn't they dress (in the case of Stacy, who would have been in her nightwear) and take their purses with them?
10. Eyewitness accounts - the alleged sighting of Suzy driving a van on the Sunday morning, the women eating at a 24-hour-restaurant in the early hours of the morning with 3 men and a frantic Sherrill Levitt racing around Springfield looking for her daughter - are unconvincing at best. Yet nobody has come forward to say that they were these people, and eliminate them once and for all.
And then there's a question of motive, all of which that were mooted look unconvincing and unlikely. And even if one of these motives was correct, there are the same problems with the house, timing and logistics. If the crime was a random crime committed on the spur of the moment (e.g. the girls were followed home), would those responsible target an unknown house where there could be men or weapons? Robbery looks out, as cash, jewelry and electronic goods were left behind. A cult abducting three women at random is too far-fetched.
Did the women stage their own disappearances? Highly unlikely. Sherrill Levitt had a good job as a hair stylist, Suzy had secured a hairdressing apprenticeship and Stacy was starting college in the fall with her friend Janelle. Sherrill was not the type to up and leave without notice, and there were no problems with the girls running away in the past. Staging a disappearance is very difficult. And how could Sherrill, Suzy and Stacy all be involved in such a plan? In the unlikely event that Sherrill and Suzy planned their disappearances, how does Stacy fit in? If it was Suzy and Stacy planning to run away (also unlikely), how does Sherrill fit with this?
I don't know if this case will ever be solved, which must be terrible for their families and friends.
reply
share
bpitt311
10 years ago
This is an amazing breakdown of factors in the case. Thank you! It gives me chills to think that an abduction having taken place may be just as unlikely as a voluntary disappearance. The question remains: what the $#&Q@ happened that night, and where are these three women?
A question: what do you make of the prank call that Janelle received when at the house the next morning? And what about the answering machine message that (I believe) Stacy's mom ended up erasing? More specifically, do you think these were clues as to what happened that night, or random events?
I tell you what, this might be one of my Top 5 "Wish I Were A Fly On the Wall" cases, because it is just so baffling.
reply
share
emuboy
10 years ago
I don't know what to make of the prank call Janelle received while at Sherrill Levitt's house, nor the message that got erased. They may just be random things not connected with the case, but this case is so full of small random factors that may or may not have anything to do with the disappearances, which must have made it so frustrating for the police.
And the way the house was left would have been frustrating for people such as Janelle who were trying to locate the women on the first day of the vanishings. The house showing signs of a break-in, forced entry, violence or ransacking closets and drawers would have set off a red flag straight away, and she would have called the police.
But the eerie appearance of the house would not have set off a red flag, but an orange one. Something seemed wrong there, but then again there could have been a logical explanation. Sherrill, Suzy and Stacy could have turned up an hour later, having been driven to the hospital emergency ward by a neighbor after Suzy tripped and fell against the porch light and cut her hand, with Stacy wearing clothes borrowed from Suzy, Sherrill having forgotten to lock up in their haste to leave.
reply
share
bpitt311
10 years ago
My gut tells me that at least the prank call or the answering machine , one or the other, was involved in the disappearances. The fact that the disappearances happened so cleanly and silently points to a deranged capacity for plans that could involve taunting and mystifying.
You are so right that the circumstances under which the house were found -- with nothing out of place -- would not have alerted anyone to a possible crime scene. Sort of like how the McStay family's house seemed undisturbed, but we are now learning that four people were bludgeoned to death in there? Goes to show that many things are possible, but with varying degrees of probability.
I wonder if a killer/s could have somehow overpowered Sherrill at the front door, maybe incorporating the broken porch light as a distraction. Then they perhaps took Sherrill to her bedroom and subdued/killed her, and then closed the door and turned off the lights to make it appear that she had just "gone to bed." Perhaps the killer got information that two teenage girls would be by in the morning, and wanted to wait around for some more victims.
Anyhow, maybe that's why the girls got as far as taking off their makeup and going to bed: the killer waited in Sherrill's room until it was deemed safe to attack?
I haven't heard much about the layout of the house (did Sherrill even have her own room separate from Suzy?). If anyone wants to enlighten me, that would be great.:)
reply
share
emuboy
10 years ago
I agree; the answering machine and prank phone call seem too much of a coincidence not to be connected in some way with the case, but if the prank call was connected, one assumes that the abductor/s were miles away by then, the women possibly still alive. How would they know that people would be at the Delmar Street house at that particular time, and why would they also leave a message if it was connected with the case? What would be the motive?
I don't know the layout of the house in great detail, only from what I have seen watching documentaries on the case, only that it was very small but Suzie had her own bedroom.
If the abductor/s broke the light and used this distraction to overpower Sherrill, get inside the house and hold her hostage until Suzie returned home to abduct her too (unlikely due to the small size of the house), what of the transportation used to do this? An unfamiliar car or van parked nearby might have attracted attention, something the person/s responsible would surely wish to avoid? And would the presence of Stacy, unplanned and an unknown quantity (for all they knew she could have been a martial arts expert or carried a gun in her purse), have thrown the person/s responsible? Also if the light was broken when the girls returned, I imagine it would have caused at least some concern in Suzie, enough to check that her mother was okay and that the house was secure, and to clean up the glass.
I have never known of another case with so much contradictory evidence, with every theory looking unlikely thanks to another factor in the case. For example, what if this was a situation similar to the one in the classic John Fowles novel "The Collector", with a single abductor insanely obsessed with one of the women, planning to kidnap her and keep her in his basement? Such a perpetrator would want to abduct his target alone, and even if in his twisted way thought she would love him if he also abducted her daughter (Sherrill target); mother or friend (Suzie target) or friend (Stacy target) to keep her company, surely he would baulk at taking three women and simply re-plan his abduction for another time?
If this case was an abduction/murder, it would not only make the list of the strangest disappearances of all time, but the most bizarre murder mysteries too.
reply
share
Stratego (31075)
5 years ago
You brought up some good questions and points that I have also considered myself.
The possibility of some stranger randomly picking this house in the middle of the night to abduct the inhabitants seems extremely unlikely. So does the possibility of a stranger, who happened upon the girls previously, waiting up all night for them to unexpectedly return. Then again, it doesn't make much sense either for someone familiar to pay them a visit that late at night when the girls had not planned to spend the night there. So does it seem most likely that someone followed them home from the party that night? Maybe he vagely knew the girls, maybe he overheard that the 3 women would be alone or maybe he watched them for a while from outside before making his move?
The porch light does seem like an enigma. It seems too strange for it not to be connected to the case in any way, more strange than the prank call, IMHO. Is it perhaps possible that the abductor smashed the light to lure them outside (perhaps hoping that the bulb would be broken as well)?
reply
share