Not my area geographically (I'm in Leeds) but big black cat sightings follow a very similar pattern worldwide and that pattern is worth paying attention to. Third sighting in a month at the same location suggests a territory, not a one-off animal passing through.
Few things worth documenting if anyone gets close enough - size relative to known objects in the same frame, gait, tail length and whether it curls upward at the tip. That last one rules out a lot of misidentification cases. Black dogs get reported as cats more often than people think.
Over here we get the Beast of Exmoor reports and similar, and the serious researchers always say the same thing - the consistency of sightings in a defined area is actually more credible than a single dramatic encounter. So three in a month near the Ozarks? That's worth taking seriously. Anyone managed to get trail cam footage yet or contacted the local wildlife authority to see if they have any records?