PA-Cherrie Ann Mahan - 8 years old at time of disappearance

[mindys]

This case has been on my mind and in my heart for the last 19 years:


Cherrie Ann Mahan - Missing from Butler, Pennsylvania

At 4:05 P.M. on February 22, 1985,the above described child exited her school bus, in company with three other Students. She had approximately 100 years to walk to her residence, but did not arrive home. When she failed to arrive home, her father immediately began a search with negative results, and then notified the state police. A blue or green van, with a painting on the passenger side with a mountain scene with a skier coming down the mountain, was following the bus. There was also an unaccounted for blue colored car in the area at the time of the disappearance.

Please see Cherrie's picture then and what she may look like now:

http://doenetwork.bravepages.com/255dfpa.html

[mindys]

More, including a slightly different age progression pic, under photo's M-R, click the second picture in the top row from the right:

http://www.operationlookout.org/Missing_Kids/index.htm

[mindys]

Nation's Largest, Most Successful Missing Child Recovery Program Highlighted In Smithsonian Exhibit Honoring America's Postal Workers

. . .

"Also in attendance were Janice McKinney and her son Robert. Janice is the mother of Cherrie Mahan, the first child whose photo was featured on ADVO's missing children cards and who, tragically, remains missing."

http://www.forrelease.com/D20031008/nyw014.P2.10082003114142.22960.html

[LinnieB]

Mindys
I was just thinking about her the night before last !! I was sitting here with my daughter and we were looking through the missing photo's of people from Pa and I was showing her Cherrie's Photo, I remember this like it was yesterday and I remember that van so clearly !! Thanks for posting this. :blowkiss:

[mindys]

Mindys
I was just thinking about her the night before last !! I was sitting here with my daughter and we were looking through the missing photo's of people from Pa and I was showing her Cherrie's Photo, I remember this like it was yesterday and I remember that van so clearly !! Thanks for posting this. :blowkiss:No, I'll tell You, what's weird, I was just going to PM you and see if you remembered her. Why do we never hear about her locally, even on the anniversary of her disappearance which we just had. Grrrr. Those eyes, her sweet face.

She deserves so much more than to forever to be a cold-case. PLEASE anyone who is reading that has the power and resources, take another look at Cherrie's case.

[LinnieB]

No, I'll tell You, what's weird, I was just going to PM you and see if you remembered her. Why do we never hear about her locally, even on the anniversary of her disappearance which we just had. Grrrr. Those eyes, her sweet face.


Wow !! :eek:

I know what you mean, For years they would always mention her and the anniversary ...now unfortunately you never hear about her... :confused:

I remember I was standing in the kitchen watching t.v that day when she was taken, I was just so shocked that she was soooooooooo close to home...How very sad...Poor baby

I love the age progression photo of her ! Wonderful job they did !

[mindys]

This age progression pic is probably the most accurate, the other one didn't seem quite right to me:

http://www.operationlookout.org/Missing_Kids/albums/M-R/Mahan.Cherrie.1097.jpg (http://www.operationlookout.org/Missing_Kids/posters/1/1097.pdf)

[LinnieB]

This age progression pic is probably the most accurate, the other one didn't seem quite right to me:

http://www.operationlookout.org/Missing_Kids/albums/M-R/Mahan.Cherrie.1097.jpg (http://www.operationlookout.org/Missing_Kids/posters/1/1097.pdf)



Yes ! Thats the one I was refering to. :(

[mindys]

From 2002:

Take Cherrie Mahan. She's been gone 17 years. The Butler County girl, the first to appear on an ADVO card, vanished after stepping off a school bus near her home around 4:30 p.m. Feb. 22, 1985. Police believe someone following the bus in a van with a ski scene decal scooped up the girl.

She was 8 then. Her 26th birthday is in August.

"For the first couple or three years I didn't want to go on," said her mother, Janice McKinney. "I just wanted to die and be done with it. Then, I don't know what happened to me. A peace came over me the third year. I told God I can't cry any more. I can't hurt any more."

McKinney finally had her declared legally dead in1998, the year Cherrie would've turned 22. She wanted to release money saved in Cherrie's name to the girl's younger brother. After Cherrie disappeared, Mc-Kinney was invited to speak at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's headquarters in Alexandria, Va. There she met Vince Giuliano, the ADVO vice president who started the "Have you seen me?" card campaign.



http://www.post-gazette.com/nation/20020317missingkids3.asp

[mindys]

In the 13 years since she vanished into that place where little girls are always 8 years old and mothers walk forever with huge rips in their souls, Cherrie Mahan's absence has been measured in things missed.

She was absent for what would have been her high school graduation in 1994. She wasn't there nine years ago when her brother was born. Yesterday, she missed her own death.

After waiting six years longer than law requires, Cherrie Mahan's mother walked into a courtroom and surrendered to a reality she can barely speak about. Cherrie Mahan is now, in the official books of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, dead.

"This is not over," Janice McKinney said, fairly choking on her words. "We'll always look for Cherrie. If nothing else, she'll always be in our hearts."

There long ago ceased to be any other plausible spot to look for Cherrie. After she stepped off a school bus and never made the remaining 150 yards to her house, police scoured her neighborhood in the Butler County town of Cabot.

Car tracks were photographed. They led nowhere. Fliers blanketed the region. Family friends were asked pointed questions. Janice and LeRoy McKinney, Cherrie's mother and stepfather, were given the obligatory lie detector tests.

The only certainty to emerge was that Cherrie could not be found.

Three months ago, after Janice McKinney decided to hand over to a charity for missing children the $50,000 once intended to reward the person who found Cherrie, she telephoned her lawyer, J. Stevenson Suess. Would he do some final paperwork on the case?

Before she had vanished, Cherrie won a $3,500 settlement from an insurance company after her arm was broken in a traffic accident. The money had been sitting in a bank, waiting for her. Janice McKinney decided the time had come to give that money to the child she can still find, her 9-year-old son Robert, the brother Cherrie never met.

It took 15 minutes for Judge Thomas Doerr to hear McKinney's petition yesterday. He duly noted the bare facts: Cherrie Mahan was born Aug. 14, 1976. On Feb. 22, 1985 she got off her bus along Cornplanter Road in the town of Cabot. After that, she has been neither seen nor heard from, despite a search that stretched across Western Pennsylvania.

With so much evidence of things not seen, Pennsylvania's law holds that, on Feb. 22, 1992 -- after the necessary seven years had elapsed -- Cherrie Mahan died.

What happened to her is anyone's guess.

"I was outside on the porch," LeRoy McKinney recalled yesterday. "I heard the bus comin' down the hollow. I heard the kids gettin' off."

LeRoy McKiney said he was about to go down the 150-yard driveway leading to their place when Janice told him: "No, it's a nice day. Let her walk."

After 10 minutes, LeRoy and Janice McKinney began to worry. He went to the bus stop. All he noticed were some tire prints and utter silence. School mates later told investigators Cherrie had gotten off the bus. In the ensuing months, the only lead anyone had was that a van with a mountain scene painted on its side had been noticed around the neighborhood. It was never found.

Years followed. Janice and LeRoy McKinney tortured themselves with thoughts of what might have happened. Eliminating suspects one by one, police questioned the McKinneys. They questioned friends, too, and some of them fell away.

"I don't know if they were mad," LeRoy McKinney explained. "They just wanted nothing to do with it."

Doerr, a thin, 42-year-old judge with thick, curly hair and wire-rimmed glasses, was noticeably shaken by his own ruling yesterday. He won't comment on any case before him, but does admit to remembering the desperate days in which a community looked for a Cherrie Mahan. His own daughter had been born just two years earlier.

"I'm sorry to see you here, ma'am," he told Janice McKinney, then closed the proceedings.

The statute under which Cherrie was declared dead takes its pedigree from colonial times, when men often went to war or into the woods to hunt and never returned. Common law, passed down from the British, held that, after seven years without any word, the spouse left behind could remarry and society could safely assume the missing one had died.

It became the basis for a popular myth still afoot today: that if a couple lives together for seven years, they are, by default, in a common-law marriage.

A judge can entertain a declaration of death in less than seven years if the missing person was involved in some perilous activity. Suess gave the example of a balloonist who tries to cross the Atlantic and isn't heard from again.

All Cherrie Mahan was doing, though, was what thousands of children do every day: getting off a school bus to walk up her driveway to home. It should have taken five minutes.

Robert McKinney, the brother born four years after Cherrie vanished, was in school yesterday, and thus not on hand to see the sister he never knew declared dead, years after she passed away.

"He doesn't understand, other than he has a very overprotective mother. This child's not going anywhere without me," Janice McKinney said.

There was never a funeral service for Cherrie Mahan, because her mother could never bring herself to do anything but continue to hope, even when hoping was the thing that hurt most, because there was no clear way to stop.

"When people die, you have a body. You kiss 'em in the face, you put them in the ground and you say goodbye," she said. "That's something I never had."


gazette.com/regionstate/19981104close2.asp (http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19981104close2.asp)

[mindys]

From the Director of ADVO:

"If we can find one person who knows something, maybe we can bring Cherrie home".

[mindys]

Oh Wow, when you can find Cherrie mentioned its a big deal, this is a good one:

Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children Act

. . .

"Mr. Speaker, I think a lot of good work has been done on this bill;
and I would like to laud Members on both sides of the aisle for this
work.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a private,
non-Federal corporation that was founded back in 1984; and they have
helped over the last 15 years to recover over 40,000 missing children.
I first worked with them back in 1985. They were one year in existence
at that time. And I was a news reporter working back in Pennsylvania.
One afternoon after getting off the school bus near the town of
Cabot, Pennsylvania, 8-year-old Cherrie Mahan disappeared, never to be
seen or heard from again. There was a police bulletin which went out,
went all over the Nation, looking for a van with a ski scene on the
side. That is what they believed the people were driving who they
thought abducted Cherrie.

That was never proven. The van was never found. But a very quiet,
rural community was upended. The family was upended. This 8-year-old
girl had just gotten off the bus on her way home, never to be seen,
never to be heard from again. Where do they look? Where do they turn
to?

And finally, the people from that community found the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children. People in the community worked
together. They searched. They looked for clues. They put out every kind
of feeler they could trying to find out who knew about this young
girl's abduction. And they collected money for a reward. All told, they
collected from their hard-earned dollars $58,000.

Last October, when it was determined that Cherrie was not going to
come back and she was declared legally dead, that $58,000 was presented
by me along with those people, the friends and neighbors of Cherrie
Mahan, a $58,000 check, to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children so that that money could be used as a resource to
help establish computer networks across this country to find runaway
kids, to find kids who have been abducted, and to help fight against
violence in our schools.

In return, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
gave an $8,000 TRAC system, called Technology to Recover Abducted Kids,
back to the Butler State Police Barracks in Butler, Pennsylvania. And
they hoped that if they ever have to see another sad situation like the
tragic disappearance of Cherrie Mahan, that the community will be
better prepared, that they will be better armed with this new
technology, and that we in the Federal Government can be a partner in
that, making sure that the resources are there so that the sadness that
the Mahan family has had to live with will never be felt by other
families across this Nation."


http://groups.google.com/groups?q=cherrie+mahan+disappearance&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=1999CRH3513Ap1%40us.govnews.org&rnum=1 (http://groups.google.com/groups?q=cherrie+mahan+disappearance&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=1999CRH3513Ap1%40us.govnews.org&rnum=1)

[Juliana]

It is so heart-breaking - the pain and the emptiness that these families have to endure. What causes someone to want to take another person's child? How could someone look into a child's eyes and hurt him or her? I just do not understand. I wish there was something I or someone could do.



IMO

[mindys]

It is so heart-breaking - the pain and the emptiness that these families have to endure. What causes someone to want to take another person's child? How could someone look into a child's eyes and hurt him or her? I just do not understand. I wish there was something I or someone could do.



IMOJuliana, thanks for reading and posting on this thread. It's only going to take one voice, one day. I KNOW the Lord can move mountains, there's some really big one's here.

Remember her face. Remember her name.

[babylove]

Thank you for posting her story MIndy, I can't do much to help bring her back, but knowing her story, and reading about her life, hearing her mothers words, my heart just aches for her... in some small way I I feel am remembering her. I would want people to do the same for me, don't forget her. Your a great lady Mindy, let me tell you that much. :blowkiss:

[Up2theminute]

I couldn't find this at first. :doh:

Anyway, I wanted to ask you (mindy) if you remember who it was who gave the account of seeing the car with the skiing mountain mural and the other car that is listed. The bus driver? The kids on the bus? The parents? I was just curious where exactly that eyewitness account originated.

[mindys]

I couldn't find this at first. :doh:

Anyway, I wanted to ask you (mindy) if you remember who it was who gave the account of seeing the car with the skiing mountain mural and the other car that is listed. The bus driver? The kids on the bus? The parents? I was just curious where exactly that eyewitness account originated.I couldn't find this either and I thought all the information was going to be lost, it had built up! I still didn't find the thread until I googled Cherrie's name.

Up2 that is a VERY GOOD QUESTION. And I want to know for sure. I believe it was the other children, I'd like to get the answer. Linnie do you remember for sure?

I have been meaning to go to our Library and look through the local paper from that time that is saved on microfilm. Your interest Up2 is going to move me now.

[pugsley]

Mindy or Linnie,
Do you remember if they ever mentioned the father? Was he questioned if he was alive at the time??

[LinnieB]

Mindy or Linnie,
Do you remember if they ever mentioned the father? Was he questioned if he was alive at the time??


Hi Pugsley
For some reason I keep thinking it was the children that gave the description of the Van...The scene on the side that is...I will check into this further.. :confused:

[pugsley]

Hi Linnie,
That was "up2theminute" that asked about who gave the description.

My question was does anyone know anything about her natural father. There is only a "stepfather" mentioned. I wonder if he has been questioned at all if he was alive at the time of her disappearance.

Thanks, Pugsley

[imamaze]

The Charley Project Cherrie Ann Mahan (http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/mahan_cherrie.html)


Cherrie Mahan (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=601805&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US)

DOB: Aug 14, 1976
Missing: Feb 22, 1985
Age Now: 32
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 4'2" (127 cm)
Weight: 68 lbs (31 kg)
Missing From:
PITTSBURGH
PA
United States


ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

[imamaze]

Here are a couple articles I found from 2005...


What Happened to Cherrie Mahan? (http://www.wpxi.com/target11/4217338/detail.html)

A child vanishes into thin air. Not one piece of evidence as to her disappearance is ever found...More...


Trapped in Time (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_306303.html)

Shirley Mahan has one wish she would like granted before she dies: To know what happened to her granddaughter, Cherrie Mahan.

"If I just knew if she was dead or alive, it would help," said the 77-year-old grandmother who lives in Clinton Township.

Cherrie was 8 years old when she disappeared while walking home from her Winfield bus stop on Feb. 22, 1985. She was never found...More...

[pittsburghgirl]

There is a Cherrie Mahan thread on the Cold Case board that includes links to a few articles. I also posted a suggestion to look at Google maps to see how easy it would be for a pervert to pull Cherrie into a van and be on an interstate highway that would lead to NY, WVa, Ohio, or Canada.

I'm glad people still think about this case. It was one of the first that I remember that likely involves someone following a school bus.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48095&highlight=Cherrie+Mahan

[Julessleuther]

This reminds me of the case in Virginia where the two sisters were taken from their front yard after being dropped off by the school bus. They were found several days later in a local river. I cannot remember their names, but will look around. Either before or after these girls were taken, there was another girl taken from the same area, I think her name was Sophia Silva or something like that, and LE found that both cases were connected. I think that LE caught the killer of these crimes, I wonder if he was in the Pittsburgh area in the 1980's.

I found them, they are the Lisk sisters--Kristen and Kati. Their killer was Richard Marc Evonitz.

[chaddylex]

I remember this case as if it were yesterday. I was about the same age as Cherie when she disappeared. I remember seeing it on the news. I grew up about an hour away from Cabot, PA (were she lived) , but I was still scared. We had a man that lived a few blocks away from me that had a skier painted on his van, and it gave me the creeps...

I think her case is what got me interested in finding missing people.

I hope one day she can be found to give her family peace.... (it's almost like she vanished into thin air.)

[pittsburghgirl]

Let me ask the obvious question: Was this guy who had the skier van checked out by LE? And which direction are you from Cabot? (I live in Pittsburgh, as you can see from my "name.")

[theforgotten]

I remember hearing about this case years ago. I can't believe she's still missing. My heart goes out to her family. I can't imagine what it's like to have to declare one of my loved one's dead. Hopefully, someday soon we will have answers.

[NewMommy09]

So glad to see Cherrie's case here.

Has anyone ever noticed how much Cherrie looks like celebrity Anne Hathaway?
I'm sure that doesn't mean anything, but Cherrie may look very much like Anne today. It might help for people to keep Anne in mind when "looking" for an older Cherry.

I hope Cherry is found one way or another so her mom can finally start to try to heal.

[pittsburghgirl]

I remember this case as if it were yesterday. I was about the same age as Cherie when she disappeared. I remember seeing it on the news. I grew up about an hour away from Cabot, PA (were she lived) , but I was still scared. We had a man that lived a few blocks away from me that had a skier painted on his van, and it gave me the creeps...

I think her case is what got me interested in finding missing people.

I hope one day she can be found to give her family peace.... (it's almost like she vanished into thin air.)

Just to bump this post, hoping that chaddylex can answer.

My husband mentioned Cherrie just the other day. So even non-sleuthers remember her and wonder what happened. If you look at the abduction site on a google map, you can see how easy it would have been for someone to abduct her and get away.

[chaddylex]

I just read an article on Cherrie in our local paper about a month ago and it was on the local news.. (Pittsburgh channels). It's been 25 years since she went missing! Where in the heck is she??


Pittsburgh girl, I am Southeast from Cabot I live in Westmoreland County, south of Greensburg. I kept telling my mom that the guy that lived a street up had a skier van.. (which she knew) but I kept telling my mom that that man could have taken her... I think she thought I was crazy...heck I was 9 yrs old. The guy that owned the van was a grandfather of a girl I was in Girl Scouts with. Not sure if he still lives there or not, I should ask my parents. I am not even sure of the last name anymore. I doubt my parents would know either.

I am going to call my mom at work and ask her... will update!

[chaddylex]

Ok, so I called my mom and asked her if she remembered the Cherrie Mahan case. She said yes... I asked her if she remembered the guy that lived a street above us that had the skier van...she said no. I told her she should have listened to me 25 yrs ago when I was 9 that I could of had a lead to a missing persons case...geez. I remember just like it was yesterday... I was so persistant with my mom to call it in! She doesn't even remember... Geez she's not that old not to remember... So now she has no clue who I am talking about or the guys name. I'm not hallucinating....seriously.

[Aphra]

Chaddylex, you should contact the police with what you know, especially if you can remember which house the guy lived in. They can track who lived in that house at that time through public records really easily (although if it was a rental it may be harder). Who knows...your information may help crack the case.

[carbuff]

I think you should call it in. The worst that happens is they laugh at you and tell you you're crazy.

I have the oddest feeling that I've seen that van somewhere, too. But not PA. Can't place it, though...

[chaddylex]

Well, I thought about calling it in especially if my mom would have remembered it... (but she doesn't remember the van) I would have no idea what to say.. "Hello when I was 9 yrs old in 1985, a man lived a road up from me with a skier painted on his van." Has it been ever linked to the Cherrie Mahan case up around Butler PA?.. Do you think I would sound like I was crazy? I am not too sure which house the guy lived in... I know he was a girl's grandfather that I know.. I haven 't seen the girl in years. She moved away when we were in Jr High... and her mom died in a fire.

[Mr. E]

Well, I thought about calling it in especially if my mom would have remembered it... (but she doesn't remember the van) I would have no idea what to say.. "Hello when I was 9 yrs old in 1985, a man lived a road up from me with a skier painted on his van." Has it been ever linked to the Cherrie Mahan case up around Butler PA?.. Do you think I would sound like I was crazy? I am not too sure which house the guy lived in... I know he was a girl's grandfather that I know.. I haven 't seen the girl in years. She moved away when we were in Jr High... and her mom died in a fire.

Don't worry about how it sounds. Just think about what you will be doing to help. Even if nothing pans out from this, it's a lead, and in a cold case leads are few and far between. What's the worst that can happen? The police will check it out and nothing will come of it. What's the best case scenario? The memory you have from 1985 will spark a new, fresh, hot lead on the disappearance of a little girl.

[carbuff]

Well, I thought about calling it in especially if my mom would have remembered it... (but she doesn't remember the van) I would have no idea what to say.. "Hello when I was 9 yrs old in 1985, a man lived a road up from me with a skier painted on his van." Has it been ever linked to the Cherrie Mahan case up around Butler PA?.. Do you think I would sound like I was crazy? I am not too sure which house the guy lived in... I know he was a girl's grandfather that I know.. I haven 't seen the girl in years. She moved away when we were in Jr High... and her mom died in a fire.

Yes, that would be pretty much what you'd say. I think I'd mention what town you lived in up front, so they know you're from the area.

I was joking about thinking you're crazy, which I shouldn't have done. They're very unlikely to think that. The worst that happens is that they check it out and it doesn't lead anywhere, like any other tip. But it might be the break they need.

And now that I think about it, somebody's grandfather is really high on the list of the kind of person who would commit a crime like this.

[chaddylex]

Carbuff,

I didn't take offense about you saying I'm would sound crazy...I was worrying about sounding crazy myself..lol. I am just worrying about it sounding credible since I was only 9 years old at the time, but I can still see that van like it was yesterday. I can't believe no one else thought about that van back then, heck Cherrie's case was plastered all over the news.. (and I always watched the news, since I was like 5)..

Would I call the State Police? I will have to look to see who is listed as a contact for her case I guess...

I might even ask my Grandma and see if she remembers the van. (she lived nearby also) Heck she's 82, but she has a good memory.

[carbuff]

Chaddy, The doe network lists these contacts: Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, Butler Station, 724-284-8100
OR
Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Missing Persons Unit
717-783-5524

It might be worth asking your grandmother. The other girl's grandfather was probably closer to her age, and she might remember him better. I imagine your mother was thinking, "Oh, goodness, it couldn't possibly be a nice man like that."

[chaddylex]

I talked to my grandma. She remembers the case, but doesn't remember the van either. She was throwing out last names of people that lived on the street even from when she was growing up... she said she has no clue who lives there now. The street only has probably about 6 houses on it. I might ride by later tonight or tomorrow and get a count of houses and house numbers and then do google search to see if they list the people's last names. If I see that it might spark a last name.

I am going to look for an email address first to see if I can contact the PA State Police, I still feel weird about calling... If I can't find an email address, I will call..

[carbuff]

I feel weird making phone calls too. Email is much better.

The best place to look for information about who owns property is in the city or county registry of deeds. Most places have that on line these days and it's public information. It will definitely show the current owner and usually shows all the deed transfers too.

[chaddylex]

I was thinking that too carbuff.... I am going to go onto the county's website to look up deed info.

[carbuff]

Let me know if there's anything you want me to help you with.

[chaddylex]

When I have more time tomorrow I will call the PA State Police, I didn't have any luck with the deed search. Thanks Carbuff, I will let you know!

[pittsburghgirl]

Chaddylex, I couldn't find an email for Pa State Police Troop D in Butler. I would think they would at least have an email contact line.

But in my poking about, I found a disturbing post about the van on a blog that you can find through Facebook. The woman posts in a response that she and her husband know who owned the van. She's from Kittanning PA; all a kidnapper from that area would need to do is go down and straight over to RT 28, a limited access 4 lane highway or go north and get on 422, another highway that is not limited access. Someone who knew the area could do the whole trip in under 1/2 hour on back roads. She says, however, that the PA State Police are not interested in the tip. Who knows?

Anyway, your input can only help.

Here's the Facebook link. It's a public page. http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=54386594288&topic=9953

[chaddylex]

Thanks Pittsburghgirl for the FB link. THat is very disturbing, wonder why those people that owned the van in Kittanning ever been looked into? Heck Kittanning is much closer to Butler/Cabot than I am.

I am south of Kittanning, a little town called Scottdale.... I wish I knew this guys last name at least. I don't even know if he's alive. I am going to ride up the street he lived on tomorrow after I get off work to see if it jogs my memory any...

[NewMommy09]

Here is the link for Cherrie's NCMEC page and poster.
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=601805&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US
1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)

Chaddylex,
You may find it easier to call this tip in to them. They take missing childrens cases and tips very seriously. This way you would not have to deal with law enforcement grilling you or acting like you are making something out of nothing. NCMEC would turn the tip over to LE for investigation. I was hoping they had an email address to turn tips in, but I haven't found one yet.

I hope this helps.

[NewMommy09]

OK, here you go Chaddylex.

Here is the link to Cherrie's case on NAMUS.
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/2478

The following people are listed as contacts for Cherrie's case and there are email addresses for both of them.

Managed By
First Name Frederick
Last Name Evans
Email namus.04@findthemissing.org
Phone 219-363-2579

Regional Administrator
First Name Todd
Last Name Matthews
Email namus.11@findthemissing.org
Phone 931-397-3893

ETA: make sure you check out the sketches on this site of the van under the images tab (there's also another (younger?) picture of Cherrie here). Even if the van you are thinking of doesn't match exactly, I would send this in as a tip. But if it's a perfect match, I hope you will do this ASAP.

[chaddylex]

ETA: make sure you check out the sketches on this site of the van under the images tab (there's also another (younger?) picture of Cherrie here). Even if the van you are thinking of doesn't match exactly, I would send this in as a tip. But if it's a perfect match, I hope you will do this ASAP


I don't quite remember the exactly how the skier was portrayed on the van, but I DO for a fact remember the van was blue with a skier painted on it.


After I get out of my meeting here at work, I am going to email the guy that is listed on the namus site. I just feel so weird calling LE.

Will let you know if I hear anything back!

Thanks everyone!!!

[chaddylex]

Ok here is the email I just sent to the Cherrie's Namus Contact people [
Hello,

I am from a town about an hour south of where Cherrie Mahan went missing (xxxxxxxxxx, PA). I was 9 years old at the time. A man that lived a few blocks away from me owned a blue van with a skier painted on both sides. (He lived on xxx xxx xxxxxxxxx) I am not sure of this man's name, but I do know he was already a grandfather in 1985.

I remember Cherrie's case all over the local news (Pittsburgh). I also remember telling my mom about the guy who lived close by with the blue van. I think she blew it off because I was young and back then you really didn't hear about child abductions.

This has bothered me for a long time, and I didn't want to call the State Police because I was afraid they wouldn't take this tip seriously after all of these years.

I wasn't sure if this was ever looked into. I figured it couldn't hurt to submit this because it's been 25 years since she went missing and she still hasn't been found.

Please let me know what you think.

Thank you for your time.

[carbuff]

Nicely done. Congratulations!

[NewMommy09]

Chaddylex,

You are an angel for submitting that. I pray it helps bring about answers in Cherrie's case.

[chaddylex]

A gentleman from Namus just called me and we had a lengthy conversation. He stated that he has submitted the info I sent him about the skier van and it will be looked into. Since I submitted it to NAMUS and it is a govt agency, LE has to look into it....:dance:


He said he will let me know on the outcome!!!


He also said that receives so many leads about different cases a day, and they have to look to see if they are credible to submit to LE.

[passionflower]

Lots of cases are solved by the tiniest of clues and from young children's memories as they grow older!
Thanks so much for doing this..........you never know!!!

[carbuff]

Nice work, Chaddy!

It makes me wonder how many other missing person cases have a kid somewhere saying, "But Mom..." and mother saying it's nothing... Kids do exaggerate and imagine, but they also notice things their parents don't.

[chaddylex]

The gentleman I spoke with actually solved a case himself and he did say that many cases that go cold get solved by things people remember years later.

I also told him about the Cynthia Day case that I submitted to LE (and are waiting for either the DNA or Dentals to see if the UID are a match).

Some people are quite amazing!!! (including all of you on here) Trying to find missing people and to give UID's a name.

[pittsburghgirl]

Great work, chaddylex! And now you know you've done your bit for Cherrie. Just think--all these years and you've thought about it. Maybe there's some hope! Certainly, the case couldn't be any colder than it is now.

[pittsburghgirl]

Nice work, Chaddy!

It makes me wonder how many other missing person cases have a kid somewhere saying, "But Mom..." and mother saying it's nothing... Kids do exaggerate and imagine, but they also notice things their parents don't.

And children are looking at the clue and not thinking how Mr. So-and-so is a great guy and couldn't possibly be a child molester.

[chaddylex]

Cherrie Mahan's case is the whole reason why I joined this website... it has haunted me since 1985!!! I hope if my little memory of the guy with the van doesn't pan out that someone else can bring closure to this case!!

[Djane]

Thanks Pittsburghgirl for the FB link. THat is very disturbing, wonder why those people that owned the van in Kittanning ever been looked into? Heck Kittanning is much closer to Butler/Cabot than I am.

I am south of Kittanning, a little town called Scottdale.... I wish I knew this guys last name at least. I don't even know if he's alive. I am going to ride up the street he lived on tomorrow after I get off work to see if it jogs my memory any...

Hi chaddylex :wave: Thank you for remembering Cherrie, it's hard to believe it's been 25 years since she went missing. My memory is a little rusty, but in regards to the van, I think LE checked out every van in the area. There was suspicion that it was possibly painted and sold because it stood out like a sore thumb. The police probably did follow up on that tip, it just didn't pan out.
I am local to the area, so if there is anything I might be able to help you with please let me know.

[chaddylex]

Hi Djane,

I figured they probably checked out the guys van that lived near me, but everytime i would see it after her abduction it would freak me out. ( and I think my mom thought I was a freak of nature..lol)

The guy that I spoke with from Namus said he would sumbit the lead and if it was already looked into he would let me know.

[carbuff]

That's good -- at least you'll know.

Gotta admit, I've always wondered whether the van wasn't a red herring, whether something happened to her when she got home. She has that old-for-her-years hollow-eyed look...

[pittsburghgirl]

There was another well-known case that followed a similar line, the Nicole Bryner case. Her mother reported that she was abducted from the Giant Eagle supermarket, but in fact the live-in boyfriend murdered her.

I always wonder if the parents aren't involved, but there is also the case that many of these dirtbags do follow school buses, looking for opportunities. And as I have said before, here and on the Cold Case thread for Cherrie, the geography is very favorable to an abductor, who could literally be on first, isolated back roads, and then on four-lane highways that link to major interstates, going east-west and north-south. Getaway would have been very easy.

[quote]Timothy Widman confessed in 1986 to killing his girlfriend's daughter, Nicole Bryner, on March 9, 1982. With the child's mother, the late Melody Childs, he buried the body in a wooded lot in Brookline, he told police. Police searched unsuccessfully for the body, and without it prosecutors could not pursue the case.
Mrs. Childs insisted from the day of Nicole's disappearance that her daughter had been abducted from a South Side supermarket.
Mrs. Childs was charged with hindering apprehension and lying to police in 1986. Her charges also were dismissed. She died in June 2001 following back surgery in a Texas hospital, her family said.
Until the day she died, Mrs. Childs maintained her daughter was abducted from the Giant Eagle, Mrs. Childs' family said.
[snipped for space]
The new case against Mr. Widman, 51, appears to have been built not on new information, but rather on case law that has changed since Mr. Widman was originally arrested in 1986.
At that time, prosecutors could not charge someone with murder unless a body was found.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06271/725734-53.stm

[chaddylex]

Pittsburgh Girl,

I do remember hearing about the Nicole Bryner case... so scary so close to home...


I don't remember hearing if Cherrie's family was investigated for her disappearance (but then I was only 9 yrs old )... do you know if they were throughly investigated?