Sheriff believes foul play involved in 9-year-old girl's disappearance

STELLA, Mo. -- Investigators believe foul play was involved in the disappearance of a 9-year-old girl who was last seen in her home late Friday or early Saturday.

Rowan Ford is a fourth-grader at Stella Elementary School. Stella is a town of fewer than 200 people near Neosho, Mo., in the southwest part of the state.

She was getting ready for bed around 8:30 p.m. Friday when her mother, Colleen Spears, left for work at a Wal-Mart store in nearby Purdy, the mother told authorities.

Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said the girl's stepfather, David Spears, was at home with the girl until he and two male friends decided to go out together around 10:45 p.m. David Spears told investigators that he looked in on the girl in her bedroom before leaving, and she was sleeping.

Copeland said no signs of a crime were found at the home, and no charges had been filed by Sunday night.

"But we have every reason to believe there is foul play involved," the sheriff said.

David Spears did not return home until around midnight, Copeland said, and Spears said he did not check on the girl before he went to bed.

The girl was not home when Colleen Spears returned home from work around 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."

When the mother woke up David Spears, he said he did not know where the girl was, Copeland said. Later, Spears told the mother that Rowan might have woken him up sometime during the night and said something about going to see a friend, but he wasn't sure.

Colleen and David Spears spent much of Saturday looking for Rowan and eventually reported her missing at 6:50 p.m., Copeland said.

Volunteers and law enforcement officers searched Sunday for the girl in woods near her home using a helicopter, horseback and all-terrain vehicles, but with no luck.

Copeland said Colleen Spears is in shock, but the stepfather has been "less than cooperative."

"She's very upset," Copeland said of the mother. "She's been very cooperative with us. She doesn't know where her little girl is."

The sheriff said David Spears later told investigators that he left home a second time during the night Rowan disappeared.

Spears called his mother sometime after 1 a.m. Saturday and asked to use her vehicle, Copeland said. She took it to him around 1:30 a.m., then stayed at his house while Spears used her vehicle for about 5 1/2 hours, the sheriff said.

Copeland declined to say what Spears told investigators he was doing with the vehicle.