The Springfield Three--missing since June 1992 - #4

Some good discussion today and analytical views that might explain what took place. I appreciate Hurricane's on-target analysis of certain events that we know or believe took place that night.

It is highly likely that the van was indeed parked in a shaded area and the shadows easily have been misinterpreted as rust. And the colors can easily be seen differently due to the nighttime lighting which distorts the daytime colors seen.

Hurricane has touched on something that I have puzzled over since 1992 and that is the two colors; white and green. We can be relatively certain that both colors were seen by different people. We can deduce that it is unlikely but not impossible that two different vans were used during the planning stage and the actual crime. It is more likely than not that the van did have a cheap paint job, if a second van did not exist. Then we have a probable explanation of the paint color discrepancy if that is true.

I recall also that, and I am going on memory because I no longer have the original newspaper articles, the direction of the vehicles of the girls were in question but not Sherrill's vehicle. (to my knowledge) One has to puzzle again over why the vehicles would have moved at all and if they were moved, how did they not have any forensic evidence as apparently the house didn't have either? I don't know of any particular reason that comes to mind why they would have needed to have been moved, unless the girls came home, left and then returned home a second time. The time line does permit that possibility as we have what is effectively a four hour time window of opportunity of approximately 2:30 AM until 6:30 AM.

If they did leave, why did they leave? And if they did leave, it must have been true that Sherrill's vehicle had to have been parked in the garage the first time as entry could otherwise only have been gained from the west side of the circular driveway; if the driveway was blocked. Since the vehicles ultimately were facing eastward, this argues against their going out since the driveway was not blocked at the time the crime scene was found. However, if the cars were parked westward during an earlier sighting, it also means that the driveway was not blocked. Since they were found facing eastward, and we know that the driveway was unblocked I'm not seeing why the cars would have been deliberately moved. One would have to assume that the girls had to have gone out of the driveway subsequent to arriving home the first time, if the vehicles were in fact seen in different directions at different times. There is no logical reason for the cars to have been moved by the perpetrators that I can fathom. Perhaps Tanglewood has a possible scenario which posted as I wrote this.

tangledweb said:

So, would the second witnesse's observation line up with the first witness's observation or conflict with it? How were the cars parked differently? Different than the first witness's account that they were facing east?

Could someone have moved the vehicles after the women got home or used at least one of them to transport the women to a different location and then returned the vehicle back to the home?

Maybe when the girl's came home they did park behind Sherrill's car knowing that they'd be leaving early in the morning before Sherrill needed her car. Maybe someone Sherrill knew (and the girls also maybe knew) used the ruse sometime after bartime that he needed a ride home because he was too drunk to drive. Maybe it wasn't a ruse and wasn't planned or maybe it was. Why else would they have opened the door at that time of night?

The girls then moved their vehicles to the new location in front of the house so Sherrill could get her vehicle out, Sherrill then drove (or attempted to drive) the unknown person where he (they) wanted to go, something happened that wasn't supposed to happen (an argument that got out of hand maybe). The unknown person(s) then used her car to drive back to the house sometime after the other two had already gotten ready for bed, used Sherrill's front door key to enter the house, took them while they slept and when he got back after securing them elsewhere, he parked Sherrill's vehicle farther up in the carport, replaced the keys (and maybe her purse) with the other purses and then left the home on foot or got a ride.

This scenario could explain how he/they managed to overcome three women by separating them and then taking the other two who were probably half-asleep by then when taken and easily overpowered.

So, who would Sherrill have known and trusted? The perp doesn't necessarily have to be a stranger nor does the motive have to be sexual. The perp(s) was/were known to the women and once he/they crossed the line this was the reason they had to be disposed of.

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I don’t believe that the cars were moved. But I do believe that Suzie parked differently that night from the way she normally did because of Stacy following her home in her car.

Think of their normal weekday routine. Sherrill may have started work at 8:00 a.m. or possibly as late as 9:00 a.m., and worked until 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. Suzie would leave home for school in the morning before Sherrill left. If Suzie worked a few evenings after school each week at the movie theater then she would be the last one to arrive back home at night. A witness who was either a neighbor or possibly the paper carrier said that when Suzie parked in the semi-circle part of the driveway her car was always facing west. Suzie’s friends are on record as saying that most of the time Suzie would park in line behind Sherrill’s car. I am making the assumption that Suzie normally parked in line behind Sherrill’s car on the nights that she worked or was the last one home at night, because she knew that she would be leaving before her mom the next morning. I’m assuming that the times that she parked in the semi-circle were the times when she arrived home before Sherrill did or when she knew that Sherrill would be leaving first in the morning such as on Saturdays when Sherrill worked but Suzie was out of school. She wanted to keep from blocking her mom from access to the carport or from blocking her in.

Think of the combination driveway as a lower case letter “h” printed backwards. Because of Glenstone being one of the major north-south streets just a block or so to the east I’m assuming that most of the time Sherrill and Suzie would be coming in from that direction. With Stacy following, Suzie chose to enter the semi-circle part of the driveway from the western entrance. Stacy followed her in and to a stop, facing east. This allowed plenty of room for Stacy’s car and did not block Sherrill’s car in the carport regardless of what was supposed to happen on Sunday morning. If Suzie and Stacy planned to ride to Branson with someone else such as Shane Appleby, then it would not be necessary to move the cars again so that Sherrill would not be blocked in. The cars could stay as parked until they returned from Branson.

As the late Paul Harvey would say but when considering the location of this person's whereabouts it is interesting. I had heard he may be a suspect in several killings as today's N/L reports. Coincidentally he would have been about the same age as Suzie and Stacy in 1992. Has an interesting history in the area. It is not altogether clear to me when he actually lived in the area.

Of some interest is that it is more probable than not that the women were taken in an easterly direction (Strafford?) toward the area where he lived. (An outside possible suspect)
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[FONT=arial, helvetica][FONT=verdana,arial]August 11, 2009
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[/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Dead man linked to 4 killings[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Serif]Sheriff dug deeper after Revak's jail suicide.
[/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
Chad Livengood
News-Leader

[/FONT][/FONT] [FONT=arial, helvetica]Ava -- A Douglas County man who committed suicide after being charged in the death of a Mansfield woman is now suspected in the deaths of three more women in two different states.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica]Christopher E. Revak, 36, of Ava, committed suicide July 26 after being charged the day before with second- degree murder in the 2007 death of Rene Marie Williams.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica]After Revak killed himself, Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase said he began to search into Revak's background.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica]The sheriff found missing women cases in two other states where Revak had lived that matched the details of the 29-month-old case involving Williams' disappearance.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica]After talking with authorities from the other states, Degase said they suspect Revak may have played a role in the killings of three other women, whose deaths date back 14 years.[/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Degase declined to identify the states where Revak is suspected in other killings. Investigators from one state recently visited Douglas County and interviewed Revak's relatives and acquaintances, Degase said.[/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica]
[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica]Authorities from the second state may soon be traveling to the area to meet with the sheriff, he said...[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica](Snip)[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica]Public records show Revak also has lived in Strafford, Ozark and Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., dating back to 1993. He moved to southwest Missouri from Wisconsin in 2000, police said.[/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Revak was a volunteer firefighter in Strafford from 2001 to 2003, said Strafford Fire Chief Jerry Schiman.[/FONT]

(Snip)

[FONT=arial, helvetica]http://www.news-leader.com/article/20090811/NEWS01/908110369/-1/NLETTER01/Dead-man-linked-to-4-killings?source=nletter-news[/FONT]

I've been out of town for a while and I am pleased to see some new contributors with some well reasoned, well written analysis. As always, we have limited information that does not seem to lead to one and only one conclusion to the exclusion of all others. Instead we have facts (and some "facts" we aren't so certain of) and all we can do is consider various scenarios consistent with those fact and try to arrive at the most probable). We can test our "theories" by subjecting them to each other's critique. All we generally get is "relative likeliness".

SkewedView, I have considered it extremely unlikely that an organized /sociopathic predator would do anything but abort mission when he found a third, unknown car in the driveway. I agree with you that it is possible that he did some snooping around and found the back door open and the mystery guest an opportunity, not a threat.

From what I have read, the "temporary strangulation" trick makes a better parlor game than a reliable means of temporarily restraining a victim. If the perp needed to restrain them while he moved his van into position, they must have been tied up, and I would expect them to struggle to free themselves while he was gone. This would probably leave some mess and disruption, but we can't be sure.

Hurricane, I agree that the placement of the cars may have been situational and how they parked on weekdays when the pattern of school attendance/work would be predicable; they would follow an established parking routine. On days that were different, it is reasonable that they would park in a manner that would work for the following morning. We will probably never know how they were actually parked.

To me, the main significance of the purses set down togethere is that the perp was obviously aware of them and I don't think it takes a criminal genius to figure out that purses usually have money in them. I think it is unusual for a sexually motivated crime like this not to involve a little opportunistic larceny. I also believe that is very likely that the misalignment of Suzi's Blinds is related to the crime. "Cracking" the blinds in Suzi's room would give a good view of a car entering the driveway behind Sherrill's car and misaligned blinds do make a room look messy and are easily straitened. They could have been like that for weeks, for all we know, but they are very consistent with Suzi waking up to a car entering the driveway and "cracking" the blinds to see who it was. These two "fact" tend to tilt me toward the possibility that Suzi and Sherrill knew the perp.

Mule, you are strong on Cox and there is certainly no reason he couldn't have done it. The problem with starting with a suspect and working backwards is that it often leads you astray. It is like the old multiple choice questions in school. If you couldn't figure the answer from the question, you go to each possible choice and considered the possibility that it was correct. The trouble is that most answers seemed at least a little "possible" and there was the "e) none of the above" that would really mess you up.

At this point, the best chance of solving the case it renewed publicity plus the release of more information from the case file. Perhaps someone will come forward with some new information. Ultimately there might be a death bed confession or some kind "deal" that could break this case but otherwise it will likely remain unsolved.

kemo said:

Mule, you are strong on Cox and there is certainly no reason he couldn't have done it. The problem with starting with a suspect and working backwards is that it often leads you astray. It is like the old multiple choice questions in school. If you couldn't figure the answer from the question, you go to each possible choice and considered the possibility that it was correct. The trouble is that most answers seemed at least a little "possible" and there was the "e) none of the above" that would really mess you up.

Click to expand...

Kemo: I'm not wedded to Cox. I just can't figure out any way to eliminate him and so far as I know none of the individuals that were in the home that day should be eliminated either, however, they would obviously be low on the suspect list. We know too little to make any final judgments and no new information is forthcoming from the SPD. If anyone can produce someone else who is a better suspect then I am all eyes and ears. That is also why I posted about Revak today. He ought to be added to the list in my opinion. But again, we know too little. Until and unless the SPD is more forthcoming with information for the public we are merely blind men groping in the dark in my opinion. The only way I know how to deal with any problem is to gather all possibilities and then eliminate them one by one until the irreducible minimum is attained. At this time anyone's guess is as good as mine.

I don’t know anything about Revak or the murder of Rene Marie Williams except what appears in this article. But I think before he can be included in the suspect pool on the 3MW case we at least ought to know where he was living in 1992. Anyone else see a conflict in this statement?

Public records show Revak also has lived in Strafford, Ozark and Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., dating back to 1993. He moved to southwest Missouri from Wisconsin in 2000,

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Did he grow up in southwest MO? Or did he come to MO for the first time in 1993? Or was it 2000?

The sheriff found missing women cases in two other states where Revak had lived that matched the details of the 29-month-old case involving Williams' disappearance.

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There must be a similarity between these three cases. If Revak was guilty of all three cases then he obviously had a method of operation. Does anything in those three cases resemble the 3MW case?

Hurricane said:

I don’t know anything about Revak or the murder of Rene Marie Williams except what appears in this article. But I think before he can be included in the suspect pool on the 3MW case we at least ought to know where he was living in 1992. Anyone else see a conflict in this statement?

Did he grow up in southwest MO? Or did he come to MO for the first time in 1993? Or was it 2000?

There must be a similarity between these three cases. If Revak was guilty of all three cases then he obviously had a method of operation. Does anything in those three cases resemble the 3MW case?

Click to expand...

I read it several times and I didn't read that he could not have been in the Ozarks before 2000; only that he moved to Missouri in 2000. These two possible situations are not mutually exclusive.

As I said, we don't know enough about him to draw any firm conclusions. I only posted it because it came to my attention today and I thought it was interesting in view of the area where he lived and worked. He could have been involved and since we have no way to know which suspects are viable suspects all we can really do is speculate anyway. I said he was an "outside" possible suspect meaning that it was only speculative and not likely based on what we know at this point in time.

Having said that I would not at this time put him at or near the top of my likely suspect list. I would still put Cox there as I've seen nothing to exclude him as the best suspect.

I believe he graduated from Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin in 1990, I cant seem to find when he came to Missouri.

Trooogrit said:

I believe he graduated from Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin in 1990, I cant seem to find when he came to Missouri.

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So then that would indicate to me that there is a 3 yr window that hasn't been accounted for; 1990-1993. Could he have been in the military during that time?

If in the military it would have made him 21yrs./22yrs old at the eldest. Probably not likely if he was an EMT for Strafford area during this similar period. Q. Which system did he work for? Skaggs, Cox, St. J., CMH, Freeman, etc.? Probably doesn't matter much except to continue a tangent. Another tangent is from one of the other sites that mention a farm south of Ava, x amount of miles, etc. etc. This was one of the "psychic" sites which I don't place much knowledge concerning; I just recall it being posted somewhere before. Maybe Foresenic Astrology? I don't remember.

dale417 said:

If in the military it would have made him 21yrs./22yrs old at the eldest. Probably not likely if he was an EMT for Strafford area during this similar period. Q. Which system did he work for? Skaggs, Cox, St. J., CMH, Freeman, etc.? Probably doesn't matter much except to continue a tangent. Another tangent is from one of the other sites that mention a farm south of Ava, x amount of miles, etc. etc. This was one of the "psychic" sites which I don't place much knowledge concerning; I just recall it being posted somewhere before. Maybe Foresenic Astrology? I don't remember.

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Well he was 36 yrs old when he died on July 26th, making him 19 yrs old back in June 1992. He wasn't a volunteer fireman until 2001-2003, having no bearing on the 3MW case.

What needs to be determined is where he was during 1992.

Revak is being discussed on WS's Deidre Harm thread:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4039732#post4039732


True Crime Report states: Revak moved to Missouri 9 years ago, but his friend made it clear that Revak still had friendly ties in Wisconsin Rapids.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2009/08/did_christopher_revak_murder_d.php

Wisconsin Circuit Court Access also shows that Revak once lived in both Wisconsin Rapids & Pittsville, WI, as did Diedre Harm. Deidre was found outside Rapids (Blueberry Ridge?) on the way to Pittsville.

Pittsville is just outside Rapids, as is Buena Vista, where Janet Raasch was found:

New technology could solve 18-year-old murder case:

http://www.wrn.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=3E32F98C-3AB5-4E81-B2DDB72D36A65716

June, 2002 article:

Portage County and State investigators are hoping new technology will help solve an 18-year-old murder case. Portage County Sheriff Stan Potocki and Wisconsin Attorney General James Doyle announced today that investigators are exhuming the body of Janet Raasch. Raasch was a missing UW-Stevens Point student whose body was found by hunters along Highway 54 in the Town of Buena Vista in 1984. Investigators say she was strangled and no arrests were ever made. The Portage County Sheriff’s Department and the State Department of Justice’s Cold Cases Unit are working together to investigate the death. They were scheduled to exhume the body this morning from St. Paul’s Cemetery in the Marathon County Town of Hamburg. Investigators say they have received new information that may lead them to determine who is responsible for Raasch’s death. DNA testing did not exist when Raasch’s death was originally investigated.

Click to expand...

People Search shows a 37 year old Christopher Revak as having lived in:

Sauk City, WI
Prairie Du Sac, WI
Bolivar, MO
Springfield, MO
Fort Leonard Wood, MO
Waynesville, MO
Rolla, MO
Wisconsin Rapids, WI

It shows a 36 year old Christopher Revak as having lived in:

Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Strafford, MO
Greene County, MO
Fair Grove, MO
Ozark, MO

I don't know whether they are the same Christopher Revak since they don't list the middle initial.

tangledweb said:

Revak is being discussed on WS's Deidre Harm thread:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4039732#post4039732


True Crime Report states: Revak moved to Missouri 9 years ago, but his friend made it clear that Revak still had friendly ties in Wisconsin Rapids.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2009/08/did_christopher_revak_murder_d.php

Wisconsin Circuit Court Access also shows that Revak once lived in both Wisconsin Rapids & Pittsville, WI, as did Diedre Harm. Deidre was found outside Rapids (Blueberry Ridge?) on the way to Pittsville.

Pittsville is just outside Rapids, as is Buena Vista, where Janet Raasch was found:

New technology could solve 18-year-old murder case:

http://www.wrn.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=3E32F98C-3AB5-4E81-B2DDB72D36A65716

June, 2002 article:



People Search shows a 37 year old Christopher Revak as having lived in:

Sauk City, WI
Prairie Du Sac, WI
Bolivar, MO
Springfield, MO
Fort Leonard Wood, MO
Waynesville, MO
Rolla, MO
Wisconsin Rapids, WI

It shows a 36 year old Christopher Revak as having lived in:

Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Strafford, MO
Greene County, MO
Fair Grove, MO
Ozark, MO

I don't know whether they are the same Christopher Revak since they don't list the middle initial.

Click to expand...

Christopher E. Revak DOB 08/14/1972

STRAFFORD, MO 65757
OZARK, MO
WISCONSIN RAPIDS

CHrisopher J. Revak DOB 02/07/1972

An EMT might have access to drugs that could knock out or disable victims while he carried them to a van...

Trooogrit said:

Christopher E. Revak DOB 08/14/1972

STRAFFORD, MO 65757
OZARK, MO
WISCONSIN RAPIDS

Christopher J. Revak DOB 02/07/1972

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Both Christopher Revaks are cousins.

tangledweb said:

Both Christopher Revaks are cousins.

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That's kind of interesting. Didn't the Hillside Stranglers have some kind of relationship going?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillside_Strangler

Missouri Mule said:

My goodness gracious! Who would have thunk it?

What is also interesting is that an attempted kidnapping occurred near that Ingram Mill Road address some years ago. That was solved, the perp was convicted and sent to the slammer. He also is now in the slammer on another charge. No known connection, but very interesting. The Huisentruit angle is extremely interesting. Good find!!

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The Huisentruit case is 14 years old. I can bet that team is going to be stopping off in Mason City, Iowa on their way back. If not, they should.

Christopher E. Revak, 36, of Ava, Mo., was charged the day before he died with second-degree murder in the 2007 death of Rene Marie Williams. Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase told the News-Leader in Springfield, Mo., that Revak might have played a role in the killing of four women in multiple states during a time period that dates back as long as 14 years...

Wisconsin Rapids Police Chief Kurt Heuer said an investigation team, made up of members of the Sheriff's Department, Police Department and state Division of Criminal Investigation, went to Douglas County, Mo., to see what they could learn...

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http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/article/20090814/WRT0101/908140614/1982

BTW, after checking further, Revak was way too young to be involved in the Janet Raasch murder in 1984 and is definitely ruled out there.

FTR, here's a photo of Revak at 18 years old:

I wonder if that mug shot of 18yo Revak was shown to Janelle, etc? Could he have been at the graduation or the diner?

Do not post names and addresses of people not involved in this.