WINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — Police said an initial review of fingerprints suggests a woman claiming to be Cherrie Mahan is not the girl who disappeared in rural western Pennsylvania 39 years ago.
Pennsylvania State Police are investigating a recent online post and voicemail from a woman claiming to be Mahanan 8-year-old girl who was last seen getting off a school bus in Butler County in 1985. Police said they were unable to reach the woman at the phone number or address provided, and no one from law enforcement has been able to contact her again.
Police said they were able to obtain fingerprints from the name left by the caller. Police did not provide further details on how they obtained the fingerprints, but said an initial review indicates she is not Cherrie Mahan.
If the caller decides to make themselves available to law enforcement again, police said their claim will be investigated.
Mahan disappeared after her school bus dropped her off at the bottom of the hill near her home on Cornplanter Road in Winfield Township on February 22, 1985.
(Photo: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
People who saw her get off the bus said they saw a blue or green van behind and a blue sedan in the area. These vehicles and the drivers have not been identified or located.
“It's like a black hole opened up and he fell into it,” his mother Janice McKinney told KDKA-TV on the anniversary of his disappearance this year.
Mahan would have turned 47 today.
“Not knowing is really what sucks in your life. It just hits you every day and for the last 39 years, that's been the hardest part of my life,” McKinney said.
Three other women over the years have claimed to be Mahan. There is still a $5,000 cash reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest, solving the case or finding Mahan.
