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.
“the two worst words in the life of any child: “step-father”
‘What an obscenely stupid statement.’
Bump.
I feel another potential banning coming on.
The word in the local grapevine is that WHO he was with is part of what he is being less than forthcoming about. If investigators have no names of these friends he was allegedly with, they can hardly polygraph them.
Personally, I tend to think that if he is not directly involved with the disappearance, then the reason he is not being forthcoming is that he was probably hunting up some dope and does not want to tell that to the cops. I know the crowd he hangs with, and they are all a bunch of the local methheads. Seems like half the kids around here in his age group are dopers.
The stepfather had access and the time to rid himself of any evidence. Why didn’t the mother report her missing as soon as she got home from work? Talk about fishy. This story stinks of foul play. MY money is on the stepfather with his mother’s compliance and assistance. Disgusting.
Prayers for this poor child of God.
“Mom knows it too or he’d still be sleeping in her house which he’s not been since the incident”
I dunno. Even if Mom does not think he was directly involved, do you think she would be really anxious to have him around if, because of his negligence, the little girl was abducted? I would think that, whether he was direcly involved or not, his ass would be in dutch with her.
I know! If it weren’t for my mother’s stepfather (her father died) I wouldn’t have had the fabtabulous grandfather I did. I couldn’t have loved him more.
And my children adore my stepfather. We got off to a rocky start in my late teens, but I love him dearly now.
Look, whether you believe it or not, a lot of people in this region simply do not recieve local news broadcasts, due to the hills we have around here. Sure, there is radio, but most do not listen to that much either... and unless you want to listen to one of the high wattage stations that broadcast wall to wall classic rock, with NO NEWS, then forget it. These hills do not make for good radio reception.
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).
I wonder if you would feel the way you do if it were YOUR kid missing...Or if you would feel it appropriate that the MSM focus on a girl who has been missing for months on the other side of the globe?
Thats nice to hear.. unfortunately it does not seem to be the case with most step parents.
My wife was raped by her step-father numerous times from the age of 10 until 15.
I lift up to you Lord this missing child who's loved ones are hurting in her absence. Lord I pray for the guidance of Law enforcement and child find agencies accross the world to have the man power and be instilled with the knowledge to help all they can in this cases and enabled this child to be found.
I pray that while her loved ones wait for news regarding them that they will be comforted by you Lord, let them cast their cares upon you and not carry the burden themselves, give them a type of peace that passes all understanding during the difficult minutes and or days ahead.
I pray that their loved one will be found unharmed Lord. As always Lord we pray all things according to your will in
Jesus name.
Amen
Will update if I hear any further news. This is very close to home, and we are familiar with the people involved (in fact, the car I drive was bought from the “step-father’s” dad)... so word will come around if there are any developments. Right here in town, ya can’t even fart without everyone in town knowing.
I am blessed to have both my father and my step father in my life. Like you, I hated my stepdad at first, pretty natural chain of events. Once I grew up a little, I found I had a friend like no other.
I think the key to the case might be what desperate excuse he told his Mother to get her to drive the car over to him. THAT had to be a whopper!
Take care, sw
Look forward to updates. It doesn’t sound good for that sweet little girl...LE doesn’t sound very optimistic that they’ll find her alive. Praying.
“what desperate excuse he told his Mother to get her to drive the car over to him”
Hard to say. I dunno if the cops have had any more luck getting any real info from her either. Knowing SOME of the families around here... he may have told her he would pick up some dope for her too.
Do not get me wrong, most folks around here are decent people. But we do seem to have more than our share of scumbags too.
As for you, you seem to not have a particularly firm grasp on reallity, at least as far as information management/distribution/technology is concerned.
Welcome to FR!
There are many thousands of FReepers with a truly diverse range of expertise and/or interest in every conceivable topic/subject of humanity, related to the USA.
I’m not particularly faulting you for trying to stir up national interest in a local matter you find particularly compelling.
(that would be very hypocritical on my part)
I just fail to see how or why Rowan’s probable fate can be altered/helped in any way by posters on this website.
What do you want “us” to do, specifically?
Assuming you have read the homepage.
And believe it or not, if it were MY CHILD missing, under these circumstances, the very last thing I would want is international media exposure to friviously dilute the serious investigations of my local and regional police resources.
What we want is her face to be seen by as many people in the four-state region as possible. Coverage by the major networks would aid in that... probably doubling the number of people in our area who are aware of the situation. Further, there is no evidence yet that she is even still in the four-state region. Without hard evidence to indicate otherwise, it would be foolish to rule any possibilities out. It is not inconcievable that she might currently be a couple states away, in which case such coverage would be a BIG help.
What I would like people to do, is do as I did. Write to the major networks and demand they give coverage to this. If they can spend 30 minutes over the course of the day covering a girl who disappeared months ago.. they can give 3 minutes to put this girls picture on the television.
Oh dear...hope they find this little girl. God bless her.
Who calls their mother at 1:30AM, makes her get up, drive her van to him, and borrows it for a 5 1/2 hour drive in the middle of the night? I think his mom should be looked at as well. That’s just abnormal and yes, suspicious as he**.
yeah, the sound sleeper who ‘may have’ been awakened during the night turns out to have called mom, then used her car for 5.5 hours .. that has a lot of credibiity. And every 9 year old gets up and decides in the middle of the night to visit friends. Unfortunately the cops have to widen their search to a 2+/-hour radius of the home to find the poor child’s body.
I join in urgent prayer for this little girl!
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.