Maybe I grew up in a bubble, but I always kind of thought of Sedalia and all of Mid Missouri as a crimeless area. I know that's silly, but when I was a kid, and even in my teen years, I didn't hear much about crime in our area.

For some reason I have really taken an interest in crime shows and unsolved cases, things like that. You can imagine, I watch a lot of Dateline. Maybe it started with Unsolved Mysteries as a kid. So it got me to thinking; how many of these cases of missing persons do we have? I found quite a few, but I'll focus on five here.

1. Dana Bruce.

https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/
Missouri State Highway Patrol
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This one is probably one of the most famous cases. Basically from what I understand, she went out for the night, was seen leaving with a guy in a red truck, and never heard from again. She had two little ones left at the babysitter, and huge red flags went up. It's been almost ten years now - still no sign. Every time something strange happens around here, like when they found body parts in the county - everyone wonders if it's Dana Bruce. I hope not. I mean, it's been long enough that I think she didn't run off of her own decision. But I hope she's okay. Maybe we'll find out someday.

2. Timothy Gibson.

https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/
Missouri State Highway Patrol
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This one I don't know as much about, to be honest. Apparently he'd gone to the hospital here in Sedalia, and then just.....nothing. Nobody ever heard from him again. That was back in 2015. I wonder why I haven't heard about this one before. Do we as a culture just want to find missing women more? Do we assume that men can't be kidnapped or taken?

3. Angela Hammond.

https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/
Missouri State Highway Patrol
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This one is older, back in the 1990's in Clinton. This one is also quite a bit scarier. Angela was four months pregnant and had been talking on a pay phone with her boyfriend, Robbie Shafer, when she noticed a suspicious man circle the block several times in a green Ford pickup truck. After driving around the block, it pulled up beside her. The man got out and used the phone before getting back into his truck. He took out a flashlight and flashed it around the area, looking for something. Angela asked him if he needed to use the phone, and he replied that she could carry on and he'd try it again in a minute. Then, out of nowhere, there was a scream from Angela. Robbie dropped the phone and got in his vehicle to save her. He drove towards the pay phone, then the abductor's truck sped past in the other direction. Somebody (possibly Angela) yelled out Robbie's name from it, then he threw his car in reverse and damaged his transmission. He followed the truck for two miles before his transmission failed as he turned right. The truck got away. She has not been seen since.

4. The Springfield Three.

https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/
Missouri State Highway Patrol
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This one was in the nineties, as well. Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall graduated from Kickapoo High School on June 6, 1992. Streeter and McCall had been seen at around 2:00 am on June 7, when they were leaving one of the graduation parties they had gone to that night. They wanted to spend the night at a friends's house, but there were too many people there. They went to Streeter's (and Levitt's) home to turn in. Police determined they were in fact there at some point, because their jewelry, clothing, purses, the family Yorkshire Terrier and their cars were all present at the house the following day. Sherrill Levitt, Suzie's mom, was last seen roughly 11:15 p.m. on June 6 when she talked with a companion on the telephone about painting an armoire.

McCall's folks reached police in reference to their little girl's vanishing from Levitt's home over 16 hours after the ladies were most recently seen, and other stressed loved ones called and went to the home the next day. Police later assessed that the scene had been ruined by ten to twenty individuals who went by Levitt's house. Upon the officers' entry, the scene hinted at no struggle, aside from a smashed patio light that had been harmlessly cleaned by friends. Police additionally noticed Levitt's bed had been slept in. Sherrill Levitt and Suzanne Streeter were proclaimed legally dead in 1997. However, their case documents are still formally recorded under 'Missing'.

5. Rodney Lee Wagner.

He doesn't have a poster from the official Missouri site. This one is maybe not a case of a missing person, but a person who doesn't want to be found. Wagner, who was from Versailles, was missing approximately 7 years before he was reported missing by his ex-wife. His drivers license and all documentation has expired. He has Missouri probation and parole felony warrants for his arrest. Nothing further is known about his disappearance - nobody knows what he was wearing, where he was last seen, where he was headed, nothing. It almost sounds like his ex was avoiding him, and then looked up seven years later and realized something was wrong. If he fell off the grid, he did it really, really well. If there's something more sinister at play.... who knows.

If you have any information on any of these cases, please do reach out to law enforcement.

Investigatingly yours,

Behka

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