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 girls 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 didnt greet her like she normally does, Copeland said. So she went to her room, and she wasnt 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 friends 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 Sheriffs 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 girls home Sunday on foot, horseback and all-terrain vehicles. A Missouri State Highway Patrol helicopter aided the search effort from above.
Copeland said the girls mother has been in shock.
Shes very upset, he said. Shes been very cooperative with us. She doesnt 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 mothers 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.
Please ping me too..when you find out who was arrested. Thanks.
Thank God! My Whole Heart is Praying for the Lord to Avenge this Little Child! May Justice Come to the Filthy Piece of Excrement who Destroyed her Sweet Life.
Thank you SO much for this ping!!!
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.
I wonder if it will end up being a friend of the step-father.
First, prayers for this child and her family, how horrific. I can only hope she did not suffer.
Second, you mentioned the “good ole boys”. Man, does that hit a nerve ~ I grew up in the Lake Ozark area, and I know just what you mean.
MOgirl
Sorry I forgot to put your names on the last post I made, so check out post #124.
Another case she has dealt with that you may have heard about was a church “commune” sort of group on the east side of the county. The “minister” and others were charged with rape and child molestation. She just dropped all the charges this week on that case.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16088928
I am going to be moving all further updates and comments over to another thread, which I was unaware of when I started this one. Sorry about that folks. Come on over there and join us if ya want to stay updated. (If ya see the screw up I made in making this post.. putting it in the other thread, you will understand why I am going to just one thread. Sorry once again)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1922380/posts?q=1&;page=199#199
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1922795/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1921739/posts
Damn!! Will it ever stop??????
God rest her little soul. And may her killer rot in earthly hell and burn forever!
Nana
I join in earnest prayer for all the family and loved ones!
“National news coverage would reach a LOT more folks right here in the region that it happened in. As for internet access.. yeah I have it.. like maybe 3% of our population does (if that).”
It seems the 3% is you, the murderous perps, and other assorted lowlifes.
You, of course, being the lone “good guy” there.
hmmmmm
If I could even figure out what you are trying to say, then I might respond more than this. But on the other hand, I do not really care about your opinion anyway. Have a nice life.
BTTT
BTTT
BTTT
Oh, man... talk about the guilt this guy is going to have for the rest of his life.
Well it sounds like he’ll have lots of time in prison to reflect on that, assuming other inmates don’t shorten his sentence considerably.
Yeah someone directed me to the update thread. What a monster. I haven’t been listening to the news.
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