Dishonorably Discharged Army Veteran Robert Cox is a Person of Interest in the Disappearance of ‘The Springfield Three’ in 1992

Robert Craig Cox, US Army

Robert Cox, US Army Veteran

Sherrill Levitt, Stacy McCall, and Suzie Streeter vanished from Sherrill Levitt’s Springfield, Missouri home on June 7, 1992. Dishonorably discharged Army veteran Robert Craig Cox was named a person of interest in their disappearance. Cox not only had a history of violence and run ins with the law but he was living in the Springfield, Missouri area at the time of ‘The Springfield Three’ disappearance and coincidentally worked with Stacy McCall’s father. While serving in the Army, Cox pleaded guilty to kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon in California. He was sentenced to nine years in prison and dishonorably discharged from the Army, ironically after being named ‘Soldier of the Year’ in 1979. Cox was also a suspect in the death of 19 year old Sharon Zellers who disappeared after leaving work at Walt Disney World on December 30, 1978. Zellar’s badly beaten body was found several days later near Orlando, Florida in an orange grove. Cox was in central Florida visiting his parents and as a result became a suspect because he was staying in a motel close to the grove. Hospital staff also reported Robert Cox to authorities because part of his tongue had been bitten off by someone else, despite his claims that he bit his own tongue off. A case against Cox was never pursued by Florida authorities due to lack of evidence, therefore the case went unsolved for a decade. But after Cox was released from prison in California in 1986, Florida authorities charged Cox with Sharon Zeller’s murder and he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1988. Although in a rare ruling, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction and death sentence arguing that prosecutors only had circumstantial evidence which was not enough to convict in a criminal case. Robert Cox was released in 1989 and then moved to Springfield, Missouri where he worked with Stacy McCall’s father. Although questioned in the disappearance of the three women, Cox has not admitted to any wrongdoing and authorities have found no evidence linking him to their disappearance. To this day, ‘The Springfield Three’ have not been found and no one has been charged with any crimes.

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Stacy McCall, Sherrill Levitt, and Suzie Streeter went missing from Springfield, Missouri on June 7, 1992.

Related Links:
The Springfield Three
Streeter Family Blog: Person of Interests
Cox Receives Death For ’78 Fatal Beating
9 Years Later, A Murder Conviction Circumstantial Case Convicts Ex-soldier Of Beating Teen-age Girl
Man Awaiting Florida Execution Is Ordered Acquitted in ’79 Killing
Court Orders Innocent for ‘Soldier of the Year’
Robert Cox: Circumstances of the Offense
Inmates freed from death row at a glance
Three Missing Women: Ten Years Later – Part 1 of 5
Pokin Around: 3 missing women; here, then suddenly nowhere
Disappeared, Investigation Discovery
Clues to the Springfield Three
The Springfield Three: Sherrill Levitt
Sleuth Won’t Give Up on Women Missing for 17 Years
Whatever happened to the Springfield Three?
The Bizarre, Tragic Disappearance of the Springfield Three
25 years after three Springfield women went missing, the tips still trickle in
BrainScratch: The Springfield Three
Disappeared- The Springfield Three


More than 15 years after the disappearance of “The Springfield Three”, clues to their location may lie beneath a parking garage at Cox Hospital. Will investigators find the answers they need to bring the missing women home? -Investigation Discovery