I’ve been thinking about this case this week, as it marks its 25th anniversary. I grew up in the area, and have lived there for most of my life, so I’m familiar with the case. And as a father of two, I think it is important to find out what happened to Cherrie on that day. This is my first post on this site, so I apologize for the length, and I hope you bear with me.
Two things really stood out to me as I look at this case, and that is the location of the road and the description of the stop. First off, for those that know the area, Cornplanter Road is really in the middle of nowhere. It isn’t a shortcut to anywhere, unless you live very close to the road, and even then it isn’t the best choice. The chances of someone from out of town traveling down this road to grab a child would logically be extremely small, especially one in a brightly colored and decorated van. The only people who travel that road are those who live close, and I think that may have been the case that day.
Second, the description of who was where at the stop is confusing. Cherrie came out of the bus with three other kids, so I’m assuming they’d all live very close to each other. She crossed behind the bus according to another mother at the stop, but students are supposed to cross in front of the bus, so that the driver can see the student at all times. If the van was behind the bus, it would be safe to assume the van would need to follow the bus out of the road, unless it would turn around and go back the way it came in. If it did that, then the mother, who would be picking up her kids also, should have noticed a van turning around if she was going up her nearby driveway. I know this is confusing, but somehow it all doesn’t make sense to what needed to happen to have the child disappear. Why would someone in a van that did not know the area grab the child, not knowing who was looking at the road or even where other local houses may be? And where does the blue car that was seen come in? Was it parked there waiting, or was it also following the bus down Cornplanter Road? These would be things that would be needed to be clear up, because these witnesses at the stop were the ones that saw the van. And considering the closest ski area is at least 2 hours away in multiple directions, having a driver in ski gear here would be extremely unlikely at best.
And one other thing about this scene...one of her friends from school in a recent story marking the 25th anniversary said that Cherrie told her she was afraid of a neighbor's dog. Would this be the neighbor that saw the van, or someone else? And where was this dog in relation to where Cherrie was...was she playing in the neighbor's yard or close enough to make the dog bark? Or did the neighbor bring the dog to Cherrie? I would like to find that out. It would suggest that she did have some contact with that particular neighbor and his dog, whether alone or with her family, and any investigator should get more details on this.
Lastly, the area around the road is pretty rural, but has several things that are interesting in this case. The whole area is undermined, meaning there are a series of mines under the whole area. West Winfield for example had an old coal mine that was used to grow mushrooms, and was one of the largest producers of mushrooms in the area in 1985. In addition, many of the local farms were larger than 100 acres, with lakes and woods that would be perfect places to hide things. If you Google the area now, for example, the newer Birdsfoot Golf Club was built from a private farm. There are many other farms that size in the area, and some may even have access points to some of the old mines. Also, there are areas that are fairly close that are desolate. For example, if you take Iron Bridge Road, just south of Cornplanter Road, it will take you to PA 128 and close to Murphy’s Bottom, which is a great place to hide things. The reason I bring this up is simple, because I don’t think the van with the ski mural made it out of the area, if it was involved in the case. I think that the persons involved in this case were local, and still may be local.
If I was the new lead investigator looking back on this case, I would first make sure I got a definite description of who was where at the bus stop, just to have that defined. That would tell you if the witnesses were actually in a position to see what they saw. Then I would look at some of the people that would have been close to the area, and make a list. I would look at those who would have lived on Cornplanter Road at the time, and would have taken the same path turning off of Winfield Road as the bus from the school. That would include all the children also. Then I would look at the roads that come off of Cornplanter (Russel & North Scenic Drives, plus Moorehead, Bauer, Leisureville & Sarver Roads). I would also look at the members of the church that Cherrie and her family went to at the time, because those people would have known where the family lived and when Cherrie got off the bus. Plus I would look at the classes around 1985 (say 84-88) for Freeport High School, which was accessible by driving a few miles down Kepple Road, located south of Cornplanter Road. The time that Cherrie disappeared would have fit in to the time frame where teenagers were driving home from school.
I think this is where modern technology comes into play. We know following these crimes that people that abuse kids usually don’t stop until they are caught, and we have 25 years to see if anyone close to the area was abusive. If someone on those lists came up on Megan’s List, for example, or as committing a crime towards children, I would want to talk to them about Cherrie. In fact, there is a person on Megan’s List that currently lives on Leisureville Road in Cabot that was arrested for a sex crime in 1991, according to the web site. He would have been 15 in 1985 if he grew up in the area, but the real kicker was one of the autos he listed…a blue 1969 Camaro. The other blue car, perhaps?
I think that chasing the van has been a dead end in this case. Looking through Google news at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette articles (the local Valley News Dispatch & Butler Eagle, which covered the case intensely, aren’t available on Google news) shows that the van story came into play only a few days after Cherrie’s disappearance, and time may not have been spent on other possibilities. If the van was involved, I don’t think it made it out of the area that day if at all, even though people may have saw it somewhere else. If it was involved in this case, I would not be surprised to find pieces of it buried somewhere on a local farm, or in a mine shaft accessible to a farm. In looking at the case, I think it was done by someone local, from everything I mentioned above, and I’d like to see the police take another aggressive look at the case for its 25th anniversary to find the person that took this little girl.
