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Cherie Barnes

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Real Name: Cherie Nicole Barnes
Nicknames No known nicknames
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Date: January 7, 1987

Bio[]

Date of Birth: July 30, 1984
Height: 4'0"
Weight: 80 lbs.
Characteristics: Biracial (Caucasian and Black) female with brown hair and eyes.

Case[]

Details: Two-year-old Cherie Barnes is the daughter of twenty-year-old Elizabeth Ann Turek Vasser. When Cherie was born, Elizabeth was living in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1985, Elizabeth met twenty-four-year-old Larry J. Vasser. He had been paroled in March after serving eight years for armed robbery. The two married on November 29, 1985. Shortly afterwards, he reportedly forced her into prostitution. At one point, she was arrested on prostitution charges in Nashville.
Elizabeth's family believes Larry "held a power" over her, as if he was brainwashing her. They believe she was afraid of him. According to her aunt, Pat Hager, Elizabeth once asked her grandmother for $6,000 to keep Larry from killing her.
In October 1986, Cherie, Elizabeth, and Larry moved to St. Louis, Missouri. That was the last time Elizabeth's mother, Janice, ever saw them. While in St. Louis, Elizabeth worked as a prostitute on Independence Avenue. On December 1, 1986, she disappeared from their St. Louis home.
Cherie disappeared just a few weeks later. She was last seen in Kansas City, Missouri, with Larry on January 7, 1987. Elizabeth's family members did not report them missing at the time because they believed Elizabeth wanted to "be on her own". However, as time passed, Janice became more concerned about the lack of contact. She tried to report Elizabeth missing in Nashville, but police told her that Elizabeth was married and had left of her own free will. Kansas City also refused to file a report.
In March 1994, Pat received a call from another sister, Geneva, who remembered seeing a newspaper article about an unidentified woman being found in the Mississippi River near the Interstate 270 bridge in St. Louis. The woman was pulled from the river by a fisherman on February 4, 1987, two months after Elizabeth was last seen. She was nude and had drowned.
At the time, Geneva had no reason to believe Elizabeth was the woman. After the call, Pat contacted St. Louis police about the possible connection between Elizabeth and the unidentified woman. Sgt. Joe Burgoon began looking into the case. He and other investigators soon confirmed that the body was Elizabeth's.
After Elizabeth's body was identified, police tried to determine Cherie's whereabouts. They located Larry in prison; he had been convicted of armed robbery and burglary in Kansas City in 1988. He was serving a fifty-year sentence. Sgt. Burgoon interviewed him; he claimed he last saw Elizabeth on December 17, 1986, when she got into a car with a man in Kansas City. He denied killing her.
Larry also told Sgt. Burgoon that he knew where Cherie was located. He said she was "safe" and "being looked after" by his family members and was living under a new name in the Kansas City area. He says she may not even know she is missing. However, he refused to disclose her exact whereabouts or say who she was with.
Sgt. Burgoon discovered that Larry had told his probation officer in 1988 that his wife had been strangled in 1986. He also learned about a woman who claimed Larry had abducted her in Kansas City in 1987. She remembered seeing a little girl in the house that matched Cherie's description. Larry was never charged in that case, or in the cases of Elizabeth and Cherie. Sgt. Burgoon checked with several of his family members, but was unable to locate Cherie.
After his interview with Sgt. Burgoon, Larry sent a letter to Elizabeth's elderly grandmother, saying he would send her family photographs of Cherie and a tape recording of her voice, but only if she paid him $500.
Larry will remain in prison until at least 2028. Elizabeth's murder has never been solved. Cherie's whereabouts remain unknown. Her family hopes she is still alive and that they will one day see her again.
Suspects: Larry Vasser is the prime suspect in Cherie's disappearance. He claims she is alive and with family members; however, he refuses to reveal her exact whereabouts.
Cherie's biological father lives in Los Angeles, California; he is not considered a suspect.
Extra Notes:

Results: Unsolved - Police have looked into the possibility that skeletal remains found in a suitcase in Skaggs Creek, Glasgow, Kentucky, were Cherie's. The remains were found on August 20, 1989, but at the time, the age, sex, and race of the individual could not be determined. Later examinations determined that the remains most likely belonged to a young Biracial girl, around the age of two-and-a-half, who died between 1986 and 1987. This description matches Cherie.
Photos of the suitcase were shown to Cherie's aunts. They identified the suitcase as being part of a set that once belonged to Elizabeth. A facial superimposition of a photograph of Cherie and the skull was also conducted. It showed that the remains were consistent with Cherie's features. Based on the evidence, the remains were believed to be hers. However, DNA testing has not been conducted because they have been unable to collect DNA from the remains.
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