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.
Hutchinson teeth, congenital syphilis.
Not impossible. Hard to say, though from this photo.
A LOT of younger kids have teeth that look quite a bit like that.
And if you end up getting a tooth chipped (not uncommon), all the more so.
The photo with the fancy background is probably from Wal-Mart where the mom works. The latest one posted is the school picture from this year.
A lot of younger kids have congenital syphilis.
Another side benefit of the sexual revolution...
Yeah, my own son had teeth that looked similar until we got him braces. No diseases involved... he is very healthy.
No, I’m talking kids like one who is a close relative. Who definitely does NOT have congenital syphilis.
It’s the SHAPE of the incisors, not the POSITION that I noticed. The notches and overall screwdriver shape.
And a lot of kids simply have crooked teeth. I think braces have been around and used since LONG before the sexual revolution. I think your drawing a lot of conclusions with virtually zero evidence.
You say that like it's a bad thing...
Breaking News!!
An arrest has been made. They are declining to say who was arrested at this time, but it was a man from Wheaton Missouri. They are saying that there WAS apparently a kidnapping and murder. They state that more arrests in Barry County (next county east) may be forthcoming.
I am going to look into a few things, then will brb with what I discover.
“Hutchinson’s teeth”
Interesting.
I’ve never heard of that condition.
Googling around, I found another symptom is keratitis.
Her eyes look clear to me.
The plot thickens.
One of daddy’s drinking buddies? (Not saying the stepdad had anything to do with it, but might have been how he met Rowan in the first place)
I hope the get all the perps, and fry them.
(Darling Daughter managed to cut her lip all the way through on her first solo attempt)...
What’s your source? (Radio, I’ll bet.)
Man FR is way ahead of the curve on this one.
Local News stations have just reported it.
One hope that I have is that they discover that the murder took place in Newton or Barry county, rather than here in McDonald County. If they are unable to determine where the murder took place, then the venue will be in the county where the body was found, which is McDonald County.
Our county prosecutor is unbelievably incompetant. She is a dyke who got elected by running on a BS campaign issue.. claiming that the county was wasting money paying for a special prosecutor to prosecute the Levi King murder case. The reality is that it costs the county nothing for a special prosecutor, because the state reimburses the county. The good ole boys at our courthouse made an issue of how the former prosecutors office was overbudget.. but the reason he was over-budget was that when the state reimbursed the money, rather than putting it back into the prosecutors budget, the County Commision put it in the general fund. Our current prosecutor has NEVER argued a case before a jury in her life. She is currently trying to get the Special Prosecutor (who has put 13 men on death row) kicked off the Levi King case since her issue about it being a waste of money was her only issue for election. She has used the arguement that Mr Finnical is a special ASSISTANT prosecutor, and that gives her the right to fire him. However, the courts appointed Mr. Finnical as Special Prosecutor, not a special asst prosecutor, thus she has no such authority. She has filed this petition twice and been turned down by the courts both times.. and she is trying again.
Another motivation she has for doing this is she is good buddies with a former judge who is now working in her office. This former judge was, for about 16 years, our public defender, who got his ass kicked by Mr Finnical everytime they met in a courtroom.
Anyway, to give an example of her stupidity, she is supposed to be representing the county in civil matters as well. Since the state only pays for Special Prosecutors, and not Special Assistant Prosecutors, if her filing to get Mr Finnical reclassified as a special ASSISTANT is upheld, it will mean the county will have to reimburse the state the $30,000+ that the state gave the county for a special prosecutor. Further, she began this BS after Mr Finnical spent a year preparing and was ready to go to trial. As a result, the Levi King case has been held up for more than another year. And she claims that our FORMER prosecutor was wasting money?
She is unbelievably stupid.
Anyway, I’d hate to see this stupid woman get this case.
An arrest has been made in the murder of Rowan Ford.
There will reportedly be details of arrest and charges at a news conference in Neosho at 8 pm (about an hour from this post) (source:www.ky3.com)
Unbelievable. Yeah, I’m with you. I hope McDonald Co doesn’t get the case.
KSGF in Springfield still doesn’t have the arrest story as of a few minutes ago. They were simply reporting she had been found.
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