A woman has come forward online claiming she is Cherrie Mahan, a girl who disappeared nearly 40 years ago when she was just 8 years old. But the child’s mother insists it’s not true.
Cherrie was last seen getting off a school bus about 100 yards from her home in Pennsylvania on Feb. 22, 1985, according to a bulletin from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In May, a woman shared a post in a Facebook group claiming she is Cherrie, CBS affiliate KDKA-TV and USA Today reported.
In the same Facebook group, Janice McKinney, Cherrie’s mother, said she contacted Pennsylvania State Police about the post, saying she does not believe the person who wrote it.
“I talked to the police, they are investigating,” McKinney wrote, per USA Today. “This is very hard on me so please be aware I see everything.”
The individual who made the post has since been banned from the page, moderator Brock Organ wrote on Thursday, May 30.
“If it was really her, she could present herself at any police office and arrange for a DNA test without reaching out to people online and making aggressive claims,” Organ wrote. “That is what a reasonable person would do.”
Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Bertha Cazy told the Butler Eagle that “they have not made contact” with the woman who made the claim “from the contact information she provided.”
“I truly believe she thought in her mind that she was Cherrie,” McKinney told the Eagle. “It did not look anything like Cherrie at all.”
Three other women have come forward over the last 40 years claiming they were Cherrie, but were not, according to KDKA-TV.
A $5,000 reward is still available for anyone who may have information that could lead to an arrest in the case.
A blue 1976 Dodge van featuring a mural of a mountain may be involved in Cherrie’s disappearance, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
