Posted on 11/08/2007 3:34:54 PM PST by McCoMo
9-year-old Stella girl missing
By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
STELLA, Mo. — Law officers and volunteers spent several hours Sunday searching in vain for a 9-year-old girl who disappeared from her home in Stella late Friday or early Saturday.
Rowan Ford was last seen inside her home at 777 Grove St. about 10:45 p.m. Friday, Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said. She is the daughter of Colleen Spears and stepdaughter of David Spears, and is a fourth-grader at Stella Elementary School, Copeland said.
Investigators found no signs of a crime scene at the Spears residence, and no charges had been filed by Sunday night in the missing-person case, the sheriff said.
“But we have every reason to believe there is foul play involved,” Copeland said.
He said the girl’s mother left the house about 8:30 p.m. Friday to go to work at the Wal-Mart store in Purdy. She told investigators that her daughter was getting ready to go to bed at the time, the sheriff said.
Copeland said the stepfather and two of his male friends were with the girl at the home until they decided to go out together about 10:45 p.m. The stepfather told investigators that he looked in on the girl in her bedroom before leaving, and she was asleep.
David Spears did not return to the house until sometime around midnight, when one of his friends dropped him off, the sheriff said. Copeland said Spears told investigators that he did not check on Rowan again before going to bed.
The sheriff said the girl was discovered missing when her mother returned home from work about 9 a.m. Saturday.
“Her daughter didn’t greet her like she normally does,” Copeland said. “So she went to her room, and she wasn’t there.”
The mother then woke up the stepfather, and he told her he did not know where the girl was, the sheriff said. The stepfather later told the mother that Rowan might have half-awakened him during the night and mentioned something about going to a friend’s place, but he could not be certain because he is a sound sleeper, the sheriff said.
Copeland said the house apparently was left unlocked throughout the night. He said the Spearses spent the better part of Saturday looking for Rowan at various acquaintances’ places in the Stella area before reporting her missing to the Sheriff’s Department at 6:50 p.m.
Investigators canvassed Stella for witnesses who might have seen any suspicious people or vehicles during the night and came up empty, Copeland said. He said they also checked for registered sex offenders living in the vicinity and did not find any.
Law officers and volunteers combed some woods near the girl’s home Sunday on foot, horseback and all-terrain vehicles. A Missouri State Highway Patrol helicopter aided the search effort from above.
Copeland said the girl’s mother has been in shock.
“She’s very upset,” he said. “She’s been very cooperative with us. She doesn’t know where her little girl is.”
Copeland described the stepfather as “less than cooperative.” He said Spears later acknowledged to investigators that he left the home a second time during the night.
Copeland said Spears made a phone call to his mother sometime after 1 a.m. Saturday and asked to use her vehicle. She took it to him about 1:30 a.m. and stayed at his house while he left in the vehicle for about 5 1/2 hours, the sheriff said. The stepgrandmother told investigators that she never checked on Rowan while she was there watching television in the living room, he said.
The sheriff declined to say what Spears said he was doing while he had his mother’s vehicle.
The stepfather and mother could not be reached for comment Sunday night.
Description Investigators are uncertain what 9-year-old Rowan Ford may have been wearing when she disappeared. She is described as being just under 4 feet tall and weighing 62 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. A photograph of her was released to the media on Sunday.
They are poor folks. Not online. So no worries on that part.
Is someone staying with her? Please say yes...
I’ve NOT read the whole thread...
Oh never mind......I’m going to have my post pulled anyway. I don’t want others to go down that path...
Horrible...Prayers for the Lord’s Comfort to be with All who Loved Rowan, and for His Justice to Overtake the Murderer.
I dunno what family she has around here. He was a local, but I believe she is a transplant to the area. If she has no family around here, she is still not alone. This is a pretty tightknit community, and there is a very strong outpouring of support for her.
She used bad judgement, obviously, in hooking up with this creep. If the guy were another Tom Selleck or Brad Pitt, I might understand a bit.. but this guy is just a white trash slob. His clan is not the most respected around these parts by any means. Anyway, lonely people do not always make the soundest judgements. I have a brother who is a walking, breathing testament to that fact.
Terrible price to pay for such a poor choice.
BTTT
Ok...thank you....
Dr. Laura talks about this all the time. Divorced, single, widowed moms...BE A MOM till those kids are grown...forget the dating till then.
AND I'M NOT SAYING THAT ALL STEP-DAD'S ARE BAD! You're right about lonely people, making poor choices...this is just all so horrendous.
Could there be ANY more red flags surrounding the stepfather? He and his buddies home alone with her, they all go out, she’s never seen again? And he makes up a hokey story about being sleepy and partially remembering her coming to him in the night to say she was going out with a friend?? Helloooo? Nine-year-olds don’t make dates with friends at 4 am, nor do they go out at that time.
Dr. Laura is right on this one. Mothers should stay married to their children's fathers unless the man is abusive/addicted/adulterous, and they should make every attempt, if divorced, not to marry again or bring another man in to live in the home with the children.
Of course, there are good stepparents. But people who don't TRULY vet their future spouse THOROUGHLY and have FAMILY MEMBERS vet him as well, should not re-marry.
The story he told about going out with friends has been verified. What is suspicious is the thing about how he returned, then about an 2 hours later borrowed his mom’s car for 5 1/2 hours, and is not telling what he did during that period.
My personal suspicion is that he returned home, drunk or wired up on something... did something to the little girl he shouldn’t have, and then killed her and tried to dispose of her. Or, it is possible that he returned to find her dead from some other cause and thought that he needed to dispose of her because simply leaving the kid alone and something happening to her would be enough to get him in deep trouble. The second is a possibility, but I am leaning towards the first scenario.
I have little doubt that his mother is involved in it more than just letting him borrow a vehicle. I think it is highly likely that she knows exactly what happened, and aided in covering it up.
I gotta get off here a while. I get to thinking about what must have happened that night, and it is just too disturbing... makes my skin crawl.
Later peeps. Will update ya when I know more.
Here is another thing “we” as a society used to have. A belief that it was necessary and important to raise our children until they were adults.
Now, society believes we don’t need loving parents around our children for more than an hour or two a day, busy hours in which there is no time to really allow the child to osmose morality and social truths from his loving family.
In the 60s and prior decades, a mother was at home.
Humans need about 16-18 years of intense parenting in order to mature.
I was reading the thread in order -— I am devastated with you that she was found dead.
It sounds very much like your scenario. Although a hopped on meth guy probably would not have the conscience to check on the little girl and find she’d died of other causes — I tend to believe he WAS the cause.
It must be all the more horrific being right there in the neighborhood. I am sorry for the family and all concerned.
depending on the curves/hills, could be more than that. If it was highway driving, he could easily do 110 miles in 2 hrs round trip.
AM SO SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT THIS UPDATE! May God help her family, and justice be served ASAP.
I know exactly what you mean. God bless the folks in that town for being so supportive.
cow...I’ve got to go find this thread.
Latest details...
Police have ruled the death a homicide. They are declining to comment on any suspects.
She was found in a shallow cave (not, as previously reported, that it was a sinkhole).
She was found by a McDonald County Deputy whom I know, but I will not release his name as the police do not wish that disclosed at this time. He was on his way to report for duty this morning, and recalled a small cavern which was on the way, so he stopped and checked it out, and there discovered the body.
The step-fathers mother says that David Spears is “pretty torn up. He’s extremely distraught. He’s been crying quite a bit”.
I bet he is...
McDonald County Sheriff Don Schlessman released the name of the deputy, and one other deputy, unintentionally and some news services did run them, but I am not going to repeat them here. The deputy did not desire it to be released and I am going to honor that request. Most of our deputies are good guys, in spite of the fact that our sheriff is an incompetant.
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.
His ‘news interview’ was shown on the 6pm news tonight. I saw it on KMBC. I was not impressed with his performance, and of course, he didn’t address where he was during the 5 1/2 hrs hours he was gone in his mom’s car. He had tears in his eyes.....and sounded like he was getting read to cry. He looks scared about SOMETHING in my opinion, and it looked like he was fearing for his own future.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.