Posted on 11/07/2007 11:31:44 AM PST by Luke Skyfreeper
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Rowan Ford, 9, has been missing from her home in Stella since Friday evening. If you have any information about her, please call the Newton County Sheriff's Office at 451-8300 or 451-4242. COURTESY PHOTO |
Foul play is suspected in the disappearance of a 9-year-old Stella girl who has been missing from her home since late Friday night.
Rowan Ford, 9, was reported missing at 6:50 p.m. Saturday by her mother and step-father Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said Sunday afternoon. The girl was last seen at her home at 777 Grove St. in Stella at 10:45 p.m. Friday night.
Copeland said the mother, Colleen Spears, last saw the girl at about 8:30 p.m. Friday when she kissed her goodnight before leaving for work at Wal-Mart in Jane.
Copeland said the stepfather, David Spears, and two friends remained at the home until about 10:45 p.m. when they left the home after David Spears checked on the girl, who was still asleep.
"They leave the house unlocked and left a 9-year-old girl by herself," Copeland said. "They cruise around a while, then took one guy home in Wheaton. The other guy brought the step-dad back home around midnight. He failed to check on the girl at that time."
Around 1:30 a.m., Copeland said, David Spears called his mother to ask if he could borrow her car to go somewhere.
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"She comes over, gives him the car and goes into the living room, failing to check on the girl," the sheriff said. "About 7 he returns and again fails to check on the girl."
Colleen Spears came home from work at about 9 a.m. and notices something amiss. Usually, on Saturday mornings, the girl greets her mother. But this past Saturday, there was no hug or kiss, no shout of elation that Mom was home.
"She checked the girl's bedroom, and she was not there," said Copeland. "She woke her husband up - he's a very sound sleeper - and he told her she may have gone to a girlfriend's house in the night, he didn't know.
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"They hope she's at a girlfriend's house, and waited all day Saturday for her to call. She doesn't," Copeland said.
The couple then began searching for the girl, notifying the sheriff's department of her disappearance shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday night.
"The mother is extremely cooperative with us. She's real distraught over his missing daughter," said Copeland. "The step-dad, he's not cooperating very well. From our investigation, we have every reason to believe foul play is involved. We don't have a suspect at this minute, but we haven't eliminated anyone from being a suspect, either."
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Deputies and volunteers were out Sunday searching on foot and on four-wheelers. A group of volunteers were out on horseback looking for the missing girl, while Stella residents fanned out to help. A Missouri State Highway Patrol helicopter took to the skies to aid in the search, Copeland said. Tracking dogs were able to follow the girl's scent to outside the home, but the trail then stops, as if she entered a motor vehicle at that point, Copeland said.
"We started in the house and yard, then broadened our search to the city of Stella, then broadened it to other wooded areas," the sheriff said. "The helicopter was able to search a large, large area.
"We have no reason to think she's out wandering around. This little girl was asleep in bed and within an hour and 15 minutes later, she was abducted? The odds are big for that kind of stuff."
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The search was discontinued late Sunday because of darkness, and was to begin anew this morning. Copeland was in meetings this morning and could not be reached for comment. A sheriff's department spokeswoman saisd the search continues today for the missing girl.
Miss Ford is described as being 3-feet 11-inches tall and weighing 62 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Authorities are uncertain what she was wearing at the time of her disappearance.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Newton County Sheriff's Office at (417) 451-8300.
Thanks. Sounds like a little PC maintenance is in order :)
Absolutely, a fine job of keeping us informed. Hats off to you. And when you find more information please let me know. This is a sad story.
I was thinking the same thing. That was in Calif., correct? And the parents were partying or something?
This story reads exactly like hers.
Wonder if they will find a convenient ‘neighbor’ to blame this on???
I thought the same thing.
They were partying at the house (hidden in the garage).
Then the mother went out with her friends.
The dad was a ‘heavy sleeper’, and the story was that David Westerfield (who was also at the same bar as the ‘mother’) came driving home drunk, stopped, walked into the Van Dam house, past the dog, past the other child (a boy) , killed the girl, took her out to his motor home, then drove her all over California, raping and killing her multiple times. Absolutely no trace of him ever being in their house was ever discovered. Matter of fact, police could not find ANY fingerprints in her room. NONE.
The ‘dad’ offered to help police look for her. He formed his own group later, and ‘found’ some evidence in a place police had already searched.
There was blood on the sidewalk at the Van Dam home, on on the side of the garage, but police (friends of the Van Dams) said it must have been from the dog (but never tested it).
The parents were smoking pot and snorting cocaine, going to sex orgies, and had a porn operation running out of their garage, but the neighbor had some anime porn on his computer, so he is currently serving life for a murder that there was absolutely no proof of.
Two of the detectives who ran the case had also been ‘reprimanded’ for giving false testimony to obtain convictions for their ‘boss’, the prosecutor, who was running for re-election at the time.
P.S. The father, asked about the loss of his daughter, said, “I’ve still got the boys”.
He also said it was “stupid not to give the whole story” to investigators the first time, but he was afraid they would suspect him in Rowan’s disappearance because he had left her alone.
Funny, the Van Dams made the EXACT SAME STATEMENT.
Yikes.
The $4500 was more likely an ER bill for when he was taken there after his DWI crash.
I’ve heard no news of a crash. And the hospital thing was back in 2003.
Apparently the DWI thing is still in process. He was charged with DWI and operating a vehicle on the highway without a valid license in February. The next court event appears to be scheduled for the 26th of this month.
“Trucks don’t have a trunk”
Very rarely has so much truth (and sinister implication) been conveyed in so few words.
I may have to steal it.
Could be. Speaking as a mother - I would have thought the sheet missing from the bed where the child was supposedly last seen sleeping would have caused alarm enough for a mother to notify LE long before she notified them - 10 hrs. after she learned her child was gone!
DWI’s often involve at least a small crash. Or perhaps they noticed him driving erratically, stopped him, found him to be very drunk, and had an ambulance take him to the hospital. At the very least, I would think a trip to the hospital would be needed for a blood alcohol test (though not $4500 for just that, I hope!). But if somebody was seriously drunk — i.e. just too drunk to be safely stuck in the holding pen at the local jail or police precinct, I would think sending the perp to the hospital for a while would be standard practice. Look what happened to that alcoholic relative of the Gotbaums who was detained at an airport after a drunken rage, and was found dead a few minutes later.
what a lousy stepfather!
he could have had the child concealed outside before his mother got there
Yeah. But the hospital bill was several years ago.
If you really want to know the timeline, here it is:
Niccole Smith divorced her previous husband around Feb. 2002.
The hospital sued David Spears for $4,300 in June 2003.
Not quite 2 years after that (April 2005), Niccole Smith sued David Spears for child support, and it was made retroactive to January 2005.
Spears appears to have married Colleen around late 2004 (”3 years” ago).
Spears was arrested for DWI in February of this year.
So the hospital lawsuit has nothing to do with the February DWI. It’s all speculation, but $4,300 sounds about right to me for the cost of a labor and delivery in a rural Missouri hospital... and it fits in with the timeline.
I’m guessing (ONLY a guess here) that Spears and Smith got together around the time Smith and her husband split. If they promptly had a baby, that would fit the hospital timeline (assuming he was recognized as the responsible party for the financial liability to the hospital). Then, around January of 2005, they split and Spears got together with and married (then or a bit later) his present wife.
Amazing what you can find out (and also speculate about) on the web...
I have a feeling that woman was denying reality about a number of things.
I think you’re right!
Good research.
Let’s face it, the guy’s a bum and a very good suspect.
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