Real Name: Cherrie Ann Mahan
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Location: Cabot, Pennsylvania
Date: February 22, 1985
Bio[]
Occupation: None
Date of Birth: August 14, 1976
Height: 4'2"
Weight: 68 pounds
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: White female with Brown hair and hazel eyes. Cherrie's ears are pierced. Cherrie has a dog bite scar on her left arm, which was also previously broken below her left shoulder, but had healed. Cherrie has a cowlick on the right side of her hair, which was slightly longer at the time of her disappearance than is depicted in photos shown of her.
Case[]
Details: Cherrie was last seen just after getting off of her school bus with three other students at around 4:05 P.M. on February 22, 1985. She had to walk approximately 150 yards from the bus stop to the dirt driveway of her family's home on Cornplanter Road in Cabot. Her stepfather heard the bus and waited for Cherrie to come up the driveway, but she never did. He then went looking for her, and when he could not find her, he called the police. And Cherrie hasn’t been heard from since. Although the FBI believe her to be deceased, there have been several unconfirmed sightings of Cherrie.
Suspects: Several of the students in the back of the bus said that a green or light blue 1976 Dodge van with a skier on a snowcapped mountain peak mural on its side was following the bus as it got near the bus stop. There was also a small blue car in the driveway of one home near the bus stop. It is unknown if either car's owner had anything to do with Cherrie's disappearance, but the vehicles have never been located.
Extra Notes: This case first aired on April 23, 1986 as part of Missing... Have You Seen This Person? Special #3.
Results: Unsolved. In 1998, Cherrie's family had her declared legally deceased so a car insurance settlement Cherrie had won could be put into a trust fund for her brother. In 2011, police looked into a tip that Cherrie was alive and living under another name in Michigan. However, DNA testing confirmed that the woman was not Cherrie. In 2018, her mother received a letter from someone who claimed to know the identity of Cherrie's killer and the location of her body. She gave the letter to authorities; however, it is not known if anything came from it.
Links:
- Cherrie Mahan on Wikipedia
- Cherrie Mahan on The Charley Project
- Cherrie Mahan on the NCMEC website
- Missing 8-Year-Old on Utility Bills, Spaghetti Boxes - April 21, 1985
- TV crew retraces Cherrie's steps - March 18, 1986
- Millions of Cards in Pursuit of Missing Children - July 14, 1996
- Cherrie's death official, mother's memory eternal - November 4, 1998
- Third-grader stepped off school bus, disappeared June 10, 2009
- 25-year-old case of Cherrie Mahan lends hope to others - February 22, 2010
- Tip could be 'crucial' lead in Cherrie Mahan case - January 19, 2011
- Investigation continues in case of Cherrie Mahan, missing for decades - July 18, 2014
- Cherrie Mahan case still open 30 years after she disappeared - February 22, 2015
- 30 years later, memorial service remembers missing 8-year-old girl - February 22, 2015
- Pennsylvania child Cherrie Mahan still missing after getting off school bus in 1985 - February 15, 2019
- Anonymous letter could shed light on decades-old disappearance - February 22, 2019
- Cherrie Mahan's Mother Still Searching 35 Years After Disappearance - February 18, 2020
- Episode 5: Cherrie Mahan - August 26, 2020
- Cherrie Mahan's disappearance hits 38-year mark - February 23, 2023
- Websleuths Discussion forum