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November 5, 2007

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.

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