MO MO - Cheryl Scherer, 19, Scott City, 17 April 1979

Originally posted by rccook555

Cheryl Ann Scherer
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/338dfmo.html

Missing since April 17, 1979 from Scott City, Scott County, Missouri
Date Of Birth: August 19, 1959
Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'1; 100 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Red long hair; blue eyes.
Marks, Scars: Scherer has a mole near her navel. She has a dark brown-colored birthmark between her shoulder blades

Scherer worked at Rhodes Pump-Ur-Own Station self-service gas station in April 1979 in Scott City, Missouri during a robbery. She was considered a model employee. She was at work on April 17, 1979 when she was apparently abducted by unknown suspect(s) between 11:40 - 11:50 AM. Scherer's car, keys and purse were left behind in the store. Approximately $480 was missing from the cash register. There were no witnesses the day she was kidnapped. Although it happened in the middle of the day, there was little traffic in and out of the Scott City Plaza where the service station was located because the major store in the plaza, an IGA grocery, was closed.
Scherer was a college student working to put herself through school. She had just paid her car insurance and had a boyfriend.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1529554.html

Missing woman's case still open for Scott County Sheriff's Department officer
Friday, April 10, 2009
By Michelle Felter ~ Standard Democrat


BENTON, Mo. -- For nearly 30 years, Lt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff's Department has followed up on every possible lead to learn what happened when Cheryl Anne Scherer disappeared April 17, 1979.

And he and co-workers will continue working until they find answers.

"It's not something that over the years we've pushed off to the side," he said.

"As long as I'm here, I'm going to keep working on it."

A prayer service will be held at 7 p.m. April 17 at St. Denis Church in Benton, for anyone wishing to mark the 30th anniversary of Scherer's disappearance.

Bledsoe recalled responding to the scene of the then-19-year-old's abduction at the Rhodes 101 Stop in Scott City, when he was a road officer.

"It was just a chaotic situation," he said.
snip

more here
http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/index.php?showtopic=7768&st=0&

These photos which look like Cherly Anne Scherer were found by police in convivcted serial killer Rodney Alcala's storage unit

alknon said:

These photos which look like Cherly Anne Scherer were found by police in convivcted serial killer Rodney Alcala's storage unit

Click to expand...

Is LE aware of the resemblance of these pictures to Cheryl?

To Steadfast: I e-mailed them (LE) before I posted the photo's here.

Wow, I think that is her.

:bump: for Cheryl, missing 34 years this month.

Snipped:

Scherer was last seen working her shift at Rhoades Rhodes Pump-Ur-Own Station self-service gasoline station in Scott City, Missouri on April 17, 1979. She disappeared from the station sometime between 11:40 and 11:50 a.m. Scherer's purse and checkbook were at her workplace upon investigation later in the day, and her car was parked in the parking lot with the car keys inside.

Click to expand...

Cleveland case gives hope in local missing-person cases

[snip]

Meanwhile, Lt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff's Department also draws hope from the Cleveland case as he continues to search for Cheryl Ann Scherer, who was 19 when she disappeared from the Scott City gas station where she was working April 17, 1979.

"I was a rookie deputy when this thing happened back in '79," Bledsoe said. "I've kind of gotten attached to this case, because I've been working it so many years that I get excited when I see something like this happen."

Scherer's parents submitted DNA to a database nearly 10 years ago in hopes of finding her, and investigators have interviewed serial killers thought to be in the area at the time of Scherer's disappearance, but thus far, their efforts have come up empty, Bledsoe said.

"She -- in broad daylight -- just disappeared," he said. "Cheryl had a very good family life, she was very close to her parents, and, as a matter of fact, had just spoken to her mother before coming up missing."

Investigators suspected a stranger traveling nearby on Interstate 55 might have abducted Scherer, but there isn't any evidence to confirm that, Bledsoe said.

More: http://www.semissourian.com/story/1966887.html

This reminds me of the case in Iowa, I think of the girl who was kidnapped from a Sunoco station, I think it was. Very odd.

Balloon release for woman abducted in 1979 -

http://www.kfvs12.com/story/25234904/balloon-release-for-woman-abducted-in-1979

Her poor mother...

http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/25234904/balloon-release-for-woman-abducted-in-1979


The Balloon Release 2014





Some further pictures of Cheryl Scherer -




.

Just came across Cheryls case. Did anything ever come of those photos Alknon?
How strange to just vanish like that, but i guess its a quiet area and with the big store next door closed on the day it could have just been a spur of the moment abduction.
Or she could have taken the money out the register and ran away with someone. but from what ive read she was happy in her life. but i guess you never know.
There may have just been no one else around and the guy has robbed her and then told her to get in his car

I don't think she ran off. I think she was grabbed and killed. There was a epidemic of women disappearing from service stations, convenience stores in the late 70s, early 80s.

Age progression at age 58 circa 2017

Distinguishing features and clothing/jewelry updates also available at link.
[ Having trouble bringing that info over to thread, sorry!]

View attachment 127687



http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/scherer_cheryl.html

Bumping for Cheryl.

Cheryl Ann Scherer

Dig comes up empty in search for 40-year-old cold case clues

Investigators in southeast Missouri dug for evidence this past week hoping for clues in an unsolved crime from four decades ago, but once again, they came up empty.

The Southeast Missourian reports that it was the latest disappointment in the 40-year-old disappearance of Cheryl Ann Scherer, a cold case that has baffled law enforcement and left Scherer's family struggling to find closure.

The Scott County Sheriff's office said little after the dig on Monday, other than the focus was on a field near a county road. The sheriff's office, the FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol all participated.

"Unfortunately, nothing was located during the search," the sheriff's department said in a brief news release, which didn't disclose what prompted the dig at that location.

Diane Scherer-Morris, Scherer's sister, said the investigation did not occur on "our family farm or any relative's farm."

iulia said:

Dig comes up empty in search for 40-year-old cold case clues

Investigators in southeast Missouri dug for evidence this past week hoping for clues in an unsolved crime from four decades ago, but once again, they came up empty.

The Southeast Missourian reports that it was the latest disappointment in the 40-year-old disappearance of Cheryl Ann Scherer, a cold case that has baffled law enforcement and left Scherer's family struggling to find closure.

The Scott County Sheriff's office said little after the dig on Monday, other than the focus was on a field near a county road. The sheriff's office, the FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol all participated.

"Unfortunately, nothing was located during the search," the sheriff's department said in a brief news release, which didn't disclose what prompted the dig at that location.

Diane Scherer-Morris, Scherer's sister, said the investigation did not occur on "our family farm or any relative's farm."

Click to expand...

More interesting info at the link: The sheriff thinks the killer may have been Henry Lee Lucas. He was known to be in the Scott County area around that time and he once claimed to have kidnapped a woman off I-55 somewhere between St. Louis and Memphis. Lucas had described the location where he left her body, but LE didn't find anything.

"We want to keep her name out there. We really feel someone knows something and we need whoever is holding that information to come forward. And for us to have closure, and more importantly, for her to have peace." -Cheryl's sister Diane Scherer-Morris


The scene was chaotic when Cheryl Anne Scherer disappeared April 17, 1979.
Scherer, a 19-year-old whose family lived on a farm in old Illmo, Mo., was abducted during an apparent robbery of the Rhodes Pump-Ur-Own-Service station where she worked on Main Street in Scott City. Approximately $480 was missing from the cash register.
Systems such as the Amber Alert and DNA profiling didn't exist then as they do today, and while more recently some of Scherer's parents DNA has been used to create a profile of Cheryl to put into CODIS, a DNA database, at the time of the crime investigators had the odds against them.
Although it happened in the middle of the day, there was little traffic in and out of the Scott City Plaza where the service station was located because the major store in the plaza, an IGA grocery, was closed.
Still, over the years, there have been two close leads. Most recently, investigators looked into Timothy W. Krajcir, who confessed in December 2007 to nine murders, including five in Cape Girardeau and two in Southern Illinois, during the 1970s and early 1980s. But following interviews, they again came up empty, Bledsoe said.
There was also a close lead in 1984, when Sheriff Bill Ferrell interviewed convicted serial murderers Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole. The two had traveled on Interstate 55 between Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis the day Scherer was abducted and told Ferrell they killed a girl and dumped her body around Crystal City, Mo. No body was found, and to Ferrell's knowledge, no other girl was reported missing between the two cities during that time, either. Also, when the pair was shown a photo of Scherer, Lucas denied it was the girl he had killed. Both men have since died in prison.
Cheryl Anne Scherer was a college student working to put herself through school, and at the time of her disappearance she had just paid her car insurance and had a boyfriend.
It was late morning on April 17, 1979, when Scherer was working, and two hours before her shift ended she called her mother, Olevia Scherer, to chat, inquiring about what was for dinner. Her mother later said the conversation was normal and Scherer was in a good mood. Twenty minutes later, her cousin drove past the station and thought he saw someone inside, but couldn't tell whether it was Scherer. Five minutes later, another station employee found the station unattended.
Scherer's purse and checkbook were at her workplace, and her car was parked in the parking lot with the car keys inside. Authorities believe that Scherer was abducted by person(s) unknown after a robbery. There were no witnesses to her apparent kidnapping.
Scherer was considered an excellent employee; she had been working at the station for about fifteen months prior to her abduction and always arrived on time. It is not believed that she staged the robbery in any way.
Last Known Location Map
Hair Color: Red/Auburn
Head Hair Description: Shoulder length
Eye Color: Blue
Single ear piercings
Dime sized mole on her back between shoulder blades. Small mole 1/2 inch from navel.
Height: 5' 0" - 5' 1" (60 - 61 Inches)
Clothing: Light blue slip-on sweater with white trim; Dark sky blue windbreaker with a hood trimmed in white, zipper front with a thin white lining; Medium brown corduroy pants
Jewelry: Tiny pierced earrings; Silver ring with tiny diamond; Yellow gold necklace with a one inch cross

NCMEC Number: 1302188
NCIC Number: M671744483
View Poster
NamUs #MP3859

• Dentals: Available
• Other: DNA available.

LITTLE ELSE IS KNOWN AT THIS TIME.
If you have any information please contact:
Benton County MO Sheriff's Office
Phone: (573) 545-3525
Agency Case Number: 80-0025
or click here to email information
or Submit an Anonymous Public Tip
See other cases: click here on mobile to return to units
See other cases: click here from your desktop to return to Units
BOLO on the go
with the Spread Awareness Now - Missing Map
Did you know that Spread Awareness Now is available across social media platforms?
Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe to us on
Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube!