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

[burblestein]

Is it possible to insert a state tag in the header, so that the new reader doesn't have to go to Wikipedia to find out the locale?

 

[wfgodot]

So glad this thread's beginning to roll again as this is one of the most interesting unsolved cases.

 

[sony12]

Just saw this on disappeared. So did they never get approval to dig up the area in the parking garage? The episode ended right when they said they were about ready to go forward with it in 2010.

There really isn't much to go on with this case at all.

 

[sony12]

Though I doubt after twenty years any of these women are still alive I would think though that if someone were to have buried them out in the country somewhere animals would have dug them up by now. Then again I guess if they dig the grave deep enough animals likely would never be able to get to it.

 

[gaia227]

I drove by the Delmar house today. I was just passing through, avoiding Glenstone traffic, and wasn't even thinking about it until I got to the end of the street. I turned around and stopped outside the house. Of course another family lives there now, probably one of many who have occupied that house over the years. I wondered if the current residents are even aware that 3 women were taken from that house in the middle of a hot summer night 24 years ago? I've had the women on my mind since then and thought I'd check out thread. I haven't visited here in awhile and was happy to see it is still active and many of the old faithful posters are still participating.

 

[gaia227]

No, they did not get approval. Police maintain there is not any evidence to support the theory so they can't jusify the time and expense.

 

[ella971]

The pocketbooks in the room together remind me of when someone is coming over and you want to put your bag in a safe place. Anyone have this thought?

 

[tarheelslim]

The pocketbooks in the room together remind me of when someone is coming over and you want to put your bag in a safe place. Anyone have this thought?

I don't know if the photo that was released of the bags was the way they were originally arranged, but if I'm remembering it correctly it looked like they were very close to the front door?

 

[gaia227]

The way the purses were arranged, at least in the photo released, doesn't seem normal. 2 teenage girls get home at 2am and methodically place their purses in a line like that instead of taking them into Suzi's room? Seems unlikely. I think the intruder may have collected their purses, perhaps to search them for money, was looking for something specific or simply because he wanted to make sure none of the women had ID on them then he placed them there all lined up. The thought of that gives me the creeps. I've always wondered how long the abductor(s)were in the house and how they managed to not leave any trace behind. Although I'm sure they did leave forensic traces which were lost in the compromised scene or just missed by LE.

 

[tarheelslim]

I think the intruder may have collected their purses, perhaps to search them for money, was looking for something specific or simply because he wanted to make sure none of the women had ID on them then he placed them there all lined up.

I think looking for money is the one thing we can rule out because there was a massive amount of cash left.

 

[Missouri Mule]

I think looking for money is the one thing we can rule out because there was a massive amount of cash left.

Agreed. What else was in the house the perp(s) would want?

 

[Jennibee]

Drugs? IMO just speculation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[wfgodot]

^ this

 

[gaia227]

I think looking for money is the one thing we can rule out because there was a massive amount of cash left.

Touche. Good point.

Drugs would be the next best guess.

 

[monkeymann]

The way the purses were arranged, at least in the photo released, doesn't seem normal. 2 teenage girls get home at 2am and methodically place their purses in a line like that instead of taking them into Suzi's room? Seems unlikely. I think the intruder may have collected their purses, perhaps to search them for money, was looking for something specific or simply because he wanted to make sure none of the women had ID on them then he placed them there all lined up. The thought of that gives me the creeps. I've always wondered how long the abductor(s)were in the house and how they managed to not leave any trace behind. Although I'm sure they did leave forensic traces which were lost in the compromised scene or just missed by LE.

Ok lets try and keep the facts of the case accurate here. The purses were originally found at the foot of the stairs of Suzie's room. There wasn't a massive amount of cash in them. There was Approx. $700.00 in Cash & Checks. LE never said how much money each of those accounted for.

They weren't looking for ID's.

And the people that showed up at the house that night, moved the purses prior to police arriving. The picture of the purses do not accurately depict were the purses were "In Situ".

 

[monkeymann]

Drugs? IMO just speculation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There are several reasons the purses could have been gone through, or appeared to have been gone through. The purses could have just been dumped there by someone trying to stage the crime scene. They could have been dropped there in a last minute panic by the perps. The purses could have been gone through by the perp looking for drugs, keys to the house or the cars, Identifying information that might link the perp to the 3MW. Those seem like the most obvious.

 

[monkeymann]

In August of 1992, the Spfld-News Leader published a list of issues that Law Enforcement that were either Resolved, Unresolved, or Inconsistent.

One of the issues that really stood out to me was an Inconsistency regarding the ware bouts of one of the first responders who was a male, who had gone over to the Delmar early that next day Sunday June 7th, 1992. Law Enforcement had issues with his in ability to recall, or he was giving conflicting statements, about his ware bouts between the hours of 7am-9:30pm. They don't talk about this issue much because it was only published the one time and it I'm not sure that anyone this forum had read that. Personally, I think they might call that a "Clue"!!

 

[Missouri Mule]

Offhand, I can't recall if this has come up before. However, I can say this much. Not too long after this crime took place, I contacted the SPD and naively asked if they would consider volunteers to help work the case. I had absorbed this case and had some angles I wanted to explore. In any event I was put in touch with an officer who was working the case and in the course of the conversation he told me something that at the time seemed inconsequential.

He said that Suzie did not have a key to the side entrance. I don't recall if I thought it or someone else said it, or even if he said it as it has been nearly a quarter century since the conversation took place but the initial thinking was that it was because Sherrill had concerns about whether Suzie was careless and had left that door unlocked. She did have a key to the front door as I understood the officer. (She would have had to have a key to one of the doors to enter when Sherrill was not home.)

Since it is not not possible to recall exactly how that went down as to the reason, I am nevertheless confident of what I was told. But beyond the possible security concerns I would posit an alternate theory (see below) and that is that since the doors had dead bolts on them, it was only possible to lock the front door from the inside absent a key. (It surely wasn't a double keyed dead bolt one would expect.) However, if the key to the side entrance was not found with Suzie's possessions is it not plausible that final exit was from the side entrance instead of the front door. That would have required a key to lock it from the outside. To my knowledge we were never told that both doors were unlocked.

Is it not reasonable to think that the perp could have walked through the house to ensure that the side door was locked and then merely left through the front door and left it unlocked since he had no way to lock it from the outside, not having a key. I could be wrong in one respect. Did each door have its own dead bolt lock and key or were both doors keyed alike? Does anyone know? The officer did identify the key as belonging to the side dead bolt. If that is true, then each door had its own key and one key would not unlock the other from the outside.

On factor to be considered is that someone coming to the house locked the side entrance for whatever reason and it too was unlocked. Another factor is that that door was double keyed and could only be locked by a key although that is a fire hazard and not generally recommended from what I have been told.

My thinking is this. I believe there is good reason to believe the front door was deliberately left unlocked. While that is counter intuitive it would also be logical that if the perp (I use the singular for simplicity) somehow knew police procedure and had it in his mind to permit people coming to the house to come inside and destroy whatever forensic evidence was available. We can almost certainly be sure that the crime scene itself was staged. As the detective said in one of the programs the crime scene did not look "right." (Paraphrased)

If the crime scene was in fact staged and if the door was deliberately left unlocked, is it not plausible that this crime was also planned by someone (unknown at this point) who had some unknown motive to want these women gone, for whatever reason? We can logically rule out burglary as the money was left behind. There is some reason to believe that items within the house were taken perhaps with the intention of removing any connection to the perp. It was said this was "sexual assault" but I've never seen anything that would back that up. If anyone has good information that it was sexual assault, it would be appreciated so that could be factored in. I don't know what that would have been other than some kind of evidence in the bedroom but I would also think DNA evidence would have been left.

I haven't commented much recently but wanted to throw this out for discussion. While some of my conclusions can not be proven to be fact such as the exit of the perp and whether the door was deliberately left unlocked, I can categorically state that I was told by a police officer (who I will not name) that the key was missing from Suzie's effects.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

MM, I think you are correct about what the front door being unlocked tells us. That was the door of exit. They just pulled it shut. Why would they bother to lock it? Susie and Sherrill were not coming back. If we had any illusions that the women left voluntarily, the unlocked door ends them. If Sherrill was security conscious, she would never leave a door unlocked voluntarily, especially in the middle of the night. If the women were being abducted, they would likely not have asked the abductors to lock up. So whatever happened, that door was the exit point. My first thought is that leaving the door shut, but unlocked was an artifact of the nature of the crime--herding three women out a door and into a van. Pull the door shut. Who cares if it's locked because no one is coming back. It's actually more of a mystery if the door is unlocked because the cars are in the driveway and the purses in the house. It's as if the three women just walked down the street.

I'm thinking the door could cut either way for the perps. If it had just been Suzie and Sherrill, no one would have come looking for them, other than to call and maybe drive over and knock. So it might not even matter if the door were locked. If an average person knocks on a door and gets no answer, they don't try to open it. Now, I've beaten up Janelle and Mike a good bit over opening the door. But they know the family and had social plans for that morning, saw the cars, and assumed Suzie was home. That's especially likely because the shattered porch light glass was still there--surely that would have been cleaned up as soon as someone saw it when leaving the house. So when no one answered the door, they opened it up to "yoohoo" in order to find out if Suzie and Stacy were going to the water park. If anything, finding the door LOCKED and the cars in the driveway and no one answering the phone might have triggered more alarm in the kids and the McCalls. If they COULDN'T get in the house and the cars were there, they would know right away that something was very wrong.

The side door key issue is another thing. Are you thinking that someone else had Suzie's key? And got in the house that way? It would explain a lot if the perp had a key.

 

[Missouri Mule]

MM, I think you are correct about what the front door being unlocked tells us. That was the door of exit. They just pulled it shut. Why would they bother to lock it? Susie and Sherrill were not coming back. If we had any illusions that the women left voluntarily, the unlocked door ends them. If Sherrill was security conscious, she would never leave a door unlocked voluntarily, especially in the middle of the night. If the women were being abducted, they would likely not have asked the abductors to lock up. So whatever happened, that door was the exit point. My first thought is that leaving the door shut, but unlocked was an artifact of the nature of the crime--herding three women out a door and into a van. Pull the door shut. Who cares if it's locked because no one is coming back. It's actually more of a mystery if the door is unlocked because the cars are in the driveway and the purses in the house. It's as if the three women just walked down the street.

I'm thinking the door could cut either way for the perps. If it had just been Suzie and Sherrill, no one would have come looking for them, other than to call and maybe drive over and knock. So it might not even matter if the door were locked. If an average person knocks on a door and gets no answer, they don't try to open it. Now, I've beaten up Janelle and Mike a good bit over opening the door. But they know the family and had social plans for that morning, saw the cars, and assumed Suzie was home. That's especially likely because the shattered porch light glass was still there--surely that would have been cleaned up as soon as someone saw it when leaving the house. So when no one answered the door, they opened it up to "yoohoo" in order to find out if Suzie and Stacy were going to the water park. If anything, finding the door LOCKED and the cars in the driveway and no one answering the phone might have triggered more alarm in the kids and the McCalls. If they COULDN'T get in the house and the cars were there, they would know right away that something was very wrong.

The side door key issue is another thing. Are you thinking that someone else had Suzie's key? And got in the house that way? It would explain a lot if the perp had a key.

What I can tell you is that I was told by the officer that she didn't have a key to the side door. That's all I can state with certainty. I think the key was taken in order to lock the side door. It would have been impossible to have locked the side door without the key unless the perp walked through the house and locked it from the inside. There had to be a reason that she did not have that key. That is the only thing that I know of that was taken from the house unless she never had it at all (Sherrill having taken it from her). And it is possible the perp had the key. That is entirely plausible.

I look at somewhat differently than most people. I believe it may have been the plan all along to leave that front door unlocked. We know, with almost certainty, that the crime scene was staged. If, as I believe, the plan all along was to abduct these women (Suzie and Sherrill), it would be logical to think that all kinds of alarm bells would go off if the door was locked as one would expect. The first responders would have come to the home with the doors locked and the cars in the driveway. It would be logical think the women were still inside the house. But instead the friends said to themselves, they are nearby just as reported -- not that anything is terribly wrong. And they went looking for them.

What would they do? What would anyone do? Suppose that we have friends or neighbors who have their cars in the driveway and all the doors locked? They are not answering the door nor their telephone even though the plans were to go to Whitewater that morning? One might think that there was some gas leak or something that would pose a life or death danger if not immediately remedied. Or there was foul play among the inhabitants. The police would have been called and the crime scene would be undisturbed. Any forensic evidence would be there to be examined. Or the first responders would have left with question marks in their heads -- what is going on here? Doesn't compute. I think if they thought it through they would have called the police. As it turned out the police weren't called until about 12 hours later. Locked door brings the police much sooner. If the perp was familiar with crime investigation, he would have known that.

As an example, I know of an older lady who lives by herself. I also know that police cars come to her house fairly frequently. Although I don't know the details, it is almost certainly a "wellness check" as relatives can't reach her. They live far away and have no ability to check on her personally. So they call the police. If the women cannot be accounted for, the only other assumption that they left in someone else's car. That was certainly not in the plans. At some point the friends and the family would start really worrying and at the time the police would have been called in. The bottom line is the crime scene would be undisturbed. Therefore I believe the door was deliberately left open knowing the friends would contaminate the crime scene. It is the smart play.

It is always prudent to consider that there is no law against up and disappearing if done voluntarily. While the friends and family would have had all kinds of thoughts if they called the police they might not have shown up until the next day. They are not going to break down the door to get in. So while perhaps 24 hours would have elapsed, when the police did come, the crime scene would have been undisturbed. It wouldn't have matter. The crime scene would have been pristine. The perp didn't want that. So he left the door opened, believing the crime scene would be disturbed. In his wildest dreams he couldn't have imagined the crime scene would be so corrupted as it was. The one thing he could not take a chance on was that the crime scene would be undisturbed. That is why I believe he had knowledge of police procedure and factored that into his plans. It was brilliant.

As to the broken globe, it might simply have fallen due to age and being loose. I do believe that happened when Stacy was forcibly taken from the house. I believe she was the last one out. The women were likely in the van and incapacitated. Stacy left the house clad only in her top and panties. I don't know that a broken globe on the porch would have resulted in forcibly entering the house by the police. I tend to doubt that. That was more likely than not not a part of the plan. It just happened.

The most important thing is that had the door been locked the crime scene would have been undisturbed. That, more likely than not, would have led to a quick resolution of this case.