An American woman has come forward claiming she is the eight-year-old Pennsylvania girl who disappeared from a bus stop in 1985.
Cherrie Mahan was last seen on February 22, nearly four decades ago, in Winfield Township, Butler County, after getting off a school bus about 100 yards from her Cabot home. The unidentified woman asserted in a May 23 post on the Facebook group ‘Memories of Cherrie Mahan’ that she is the missing girl, who would now be 47. However, she did not provide a picture, so her appearance remains unknown.
Cherrie’s mother, Janice McKinney, expressed skepticism about the woman’s claim. “I truly believe she thought in her mind that she was Cherrie. It did not look anything like Cherrie at all,” McKinney told the Butler Eagle. A spokeswoman from the Pennsylvania State Police informed DailyMail: “We are investigating this woman’s claim to be Cherrie Mahan.”
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“I talked to the police they are investigating this is very hard on me please be aware I see everything,” McKinney posted. The heartbroken mother mentioned that this is not the first time someone has claimed to be her now-adult daughter, as many tips have surfaced over the years.
McKinney noted that many people reach out around the anniversary of Cherrie’s disappearance and in August, the missing girl’s birthday month.
“In February and August, I expect craziness. This just hit me differently,” McKinney told the Butler Eagle. “I didn’t even see it. Someone called me and told me about it.”
She shared how every day is already difficult without her daughter, but unwarranted claims add to her pain.
“If you wanted your 15 minutes of fame, you’ve already blown it,” she said. “People are mean, they are cruel, but this affects me really crazy. It’s gonna be 40 years since Cherrie’s been missing.”
What keeps her sane is the belief that if her daughter is dead or alive, she is being cared for.
“I’ve always felt that she was ok. If she was dead, she is in heaven with my parents and my brothers,” the mother said.
“If she is alive, someone was taking care of her. I don’t know why I feel that way.”
She previously told KDKA News that she remembers waiting with her husband Leroy for Cherrie to run up the family’s driveway after getting off the school bus that day.
“Leroy’s like, ‘Do you want me to go down and pick her up?’ and I said no, it’s a beautiful day, she’ll come running right up over the hill because she wants to go. But then that never happened,” McKinney said.
Despite the time that has passed, McKinney has not found the closure she needs nearly four decades after losing her beloved child.
“There’s something somebody missed somewhere, and somebody knows,” she said.
