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.
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.
RED FLAG
If I read this right, the step-father left the house to go out with friends and the child was in bed??? What's up with that? Don't people have any sense? Unless, of course, this stepfather is somehow otherwise involved. I like to save my judgment on these things, but this does not sound good any way it is looked at.
All that info is in yesterday's thread. DOES not look good...........
Good grief.
So five hours would be, what, a hundred mile radius?
Which is exactly why his mama knows more than she's apparently telling. Sure, sonny-boy calls mama in the middle of the night and wants her to bring over her car and she does without question? Then he leaves her watching tv for 5 1/2 hours while he's out for an evening drive and she never bothers to get off the couch to get a snack or wander down the hall to the bathroom to possibly pass the child's room much less check in on her at all during that time? Sorry, but that don't fly.
Sweetliberty,
I HAVE your age on the stepdad, and a good deal more.
Full name: DAVID W SPEARS
AGE: If the court records are correct (and they appear to be, as the same date shows up in zabasearch), SPEARS TURNS 25 NEXT WEEK.
Born in 1982.
So the mom, who’s probably between 40 and 45, married a guy about the same age as her oldest child.
Really bad judgment on her part. But hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.
He previously lived in Rocky Comfort, MO, another little town just about 5 miles from Stella. (source: zabasearch)
Someone from Rocky Comfort posted in this thread the following:
I think you should put David Spears at the top of the list. He drinks heavily. So of course he sleeps heavy. I pray that the little girl is found safe. IF my daugter or son was missing I would of reported him or her missing immediately.
So it sounds as if someone from the same town as Spears has personal knowledge that he’s a heavy drinker. This is also confirmed by his February DWI (see below).
Spears has a child by someone else (a NICCOLE SMITH), as a Missouri court case resulted in a judgment for “child support ordered in the amount of $209.00 per month beginning 01-15-05 on behalf of the minor child.”
He also has a DWI from February of this year, and was court-ordered to pay about $4,500 to the hospital in Neosho in 2003. (I’m wondering whether this might have been childbirth expenses?)
Source: name search on David Spears at the following URL
http://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do?searchType=name
Note: The above info is confirmed to be the SAME David Spears who is Rowan’s “stepfather,” as the address is given in each court record, and in each case it matches the Stella, Missouri address 100%.
79 posted on 11/07/2007 4:13:30 PM CST by Luke Skyfreeper
Law officers and volunteers combed some woods near the girl’s home Sunday
And the cops are wasting their time doing that. It appears that they need to be looking about a 2 hour drive away. Does the stepfather have any relatives about that far away, or does he hunt, or have friends with farms 75 to 150 miles away?
Stepfather says he was asleep, his mother said he was gone for 5 1/2 hours in her car. hmmmmm
I absolutely believe he knows what happened. That being said, where did you come up with the mother’s approximate age?
I don’t want to jump the gun either, but it sure looks fishy.
To be safe, I’d go about 150 road miles.
You got the right guy. I have met him a couple times. He may be directly involved in her disappearance, but as I said in another post, he may not be giving a good accounting of his whereabouts because he was may have been doing a dope run with his druggie buddies. We have a bad meth problem around here.. and he is part of that crowd around here.
We cannot assume that simply because he looks suspicious, that he is the perp. If focus is too tight on him, we may miss what is really happening... and the clock may still be ticking.
He may have judged it by her picture, but in any event, he is right. I have seen them around here... even think I met the Spears kid in some of the local bars a couple times. She is roughly mid 40’s, and he is about 25.
BTW, if the article you posted is both accurate and factual, it appears the stepfather is obviously the primary and sole suspect.
Since you also state that the situation is/has received extensive local and regional coverage... Why the rant against the mostly ignored national MSM?
Are there any indications “step-daddy” transported Rowan across state lines?
Oh my. What a sad looking little girl. It’s no wonder after going over to yesterday’s thread and seeing the front yard. This is not going to have a happy ending...
Thing is.. even within a 5 mile radius, getting rid of a body would be much easier than finding one. This area is a fairly heavily wooded region, in the Ozark Mtns. Lots of caves, sinkholes, abandoned mine pits, etc.
I am a bit ticked that the MSM gives no notice of this while it harps on a missing child on the other side of the globe.
As for crossing a state line.. highly possible since Stella is about 15 miles from the Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas lines.
LOL. Were you talking about me? :-)
I’m with you. His mother knows and is protecting him. There is no way she came over in the middle of the night to loan him the car unless he was crying that he was in trouble.
Exactly.
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