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.
Local Springfield news is reporting that she has been found dead in a sinkhole about 10 miles away from her home. No arrests as of yet.
Thanks - hadn’t seen that.
Oh, my goodness...I’ve been fearing news like this. Bless her little heart.
http://www.kspr.com/news/local/11145571.html
Officers find Rowan Ford’s body
By Brad Belote
Story Created: Nov 9, 2007
Story Updated: Nov 9, 2007
OZARK, Mo. (AP) - A law enforcement official says a 9-year-old southwest Missouri girl missing for a week has been found dead.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the body was found today in a sinkhole in eastern McDonald County.
The source said the body of Rowan Ford was found on private land near Powell, about 10 miles south of her hometown of Stella.
Rowan was reported missing Saturday after her mother, Colleen Spears, returned home from a night shift at a Wal-Mart in a nearby town and found the girl gone.
Rowan’s stepfather, David Spears, told investigators he last saw the girl asleep in her room around 10:45 p.m. Friday before he left her alone and went out with friends.
Search is over. Little girl has been found, deceased, roughly ten miles from her home.
Missing Mo. girl found dead
By Marcus Kabel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/09/2007
OZARK, Mo. (AP) — A 9-year-old southwest Missouri girl missing for a week was found dead Friday in a sinkhole in eastern McDonald County, a law enforcement official said.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because authorities had not yet made an official announcement, said the body of Rowan Ford was found on private land near Powell, about 10 miles south of the girl’s hometown of Stella, a village of about 200 people.
Rowan was reported missing Saturday after her mother, Colleen Spears, returned home from a night shift at a Wal-Mart in a nearby town and couldn’t find her daughter. Rowan’s stepfather, David Spears, told investigators he last saw the girl asleep in her room around 10:45 p.m. Friday before he left her alone and went out with friends.
Colleen and David Spears spent much of the day looking for Rowan at the homes of acquaintances where they thought the girl might have gone, then reported the girl missing at 6:50 p.m.
Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland has said David Spears told authorities that he left the girl alone when he went out on Friday night and did not check on her after his friends dropped him off at midnight.
Spears also later told authorities that he called his mother sometime after 1 a.m. Saturday and asked to use her vehicle, Copeland has said. She took it to him about half an hour later, then stayed at his house while her son left in her vehicle for about 5 1/2 hours, Copeland has said.
Copeland also has said that Spears has not been able to explain what he did in those 5 1/2 hours.
Spears, who has been staying with his parents, has said it was wrong for him to have left the girl alone.
Sad news update: They’ve found little Rowan’s body in a sinkhole about 10 miles from her house. #144 and #146.
What a fine looking human being.
Missing girl is dead
by KY3 News and The Associated Press
NEOSHO, Mo. -- Law officers say a 9-year-old girl missing for a week has been found dead. Sheriff Mick Epperly of neighboring Barry County says the FBI called him Friday morning to tell him about the discovery.
Another law enforcement official, speaking anonymously because neither the FBI nor the Newton County sheriff has released the information, said the body was found early Friday in a sinkhole in eastern McDonald County. The source said the body of Rowan Ford was on private land near Powell, about 10 miles south of her hometown of Stella. The sheriff's department said a news conference would provide more details but didn't give a time for it.
The McDonald County coroner told a reporter for The Joplin Globe that he went to the scene to confirm that Rowan is dead. He then turned the site over to the Newton County Sheriff's Department and other investigators.
Rowan's mother and stepmother reported her missing on Saturday after her mother, Colleen Spears, returned home from a night shift at a Wal-Mart store in a nearby town and found the girl gone. Rowan's stepfather, David Spears, told investigators he last saw the girl asleep in her room around 10:45 p.m. Friday before he left her alone and went out with friends.
I am betting that they will find drugs in her body during the toxicology test. If the reports of the stepfather being involved in meth are true, he may have given her an overdose and killed her, panicked, got his mother’s car and drove to the neighboring county to dump the body..........Just my speculation, may not be true, but possible....
Damn.
I bet they can find tire tracks from the borrowed car near the scene as well.
Step dad did it.
What are you hearing on the ground there?
Agreed on the damn.
I’m not surprised, though. The more I read about this case, the more I felt that young Rowan Ford was dead before I ever learned her name.
People can fall into sinkholes and die by accident. I will be extremely surprised, though, if this isn’t ruled a homicide, and quickly. First of all, 9-year-olds don’t wander 10 miles away from home, even ones who are on a long leash. Especially not alone. And unless I’m extremely mistaken, I saw a photo of her bicycle in the front yard of the Spears home.
And if they do go wandering off somewhere, they don’t generally take along a sheet from the bed, either.
So I envision this turning into a homicide investigation, very shortly. Homicide investigations have persons of interest, and suspects. And I think we all know who’s going to appear up at the top of that list.
There was a sheet missing from her bed??!! I hadn’t heard that. OMG.
Saw the mother on a video clip saying some not nice things about the husband.
i'm sure lots of people have had positive experiences with step-fathers but the numbers show more abuse and violence happens at their hands than actual fathers. just because it may not be pleasant to hear doesn't mean it ain't true.
and further more, it seems that this type of violence occurs more in homes with spare car parts in the front yard (as in this case). mom works hard, step-dad drinks hard. awful combination. i hope this poor child didn’t suffer too much. and i hope this “man” suffers forever (if guilty).
i’d speculate step-dad and his drinkin’ buddies had some ideas and things went bad.
The saddest thing in this whole story is that every adult in this little girls life failed her.....
mom,
step-dad,
step-dad’s buddies,
step-dad’s mom......
All these people, and not one of them cared.
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