A woman claims to be a Pennsylvania girl missing since 1985. Fingerprints prove otherwise, police say.
A police investigation has revealed that the woman claiming to be an 8-year-old Pennsylvania girl missing since 1985 is likely not the missing child according to DNA.
Forensic fingerprint analysis showed that the woman claiming to be Cherrie Mahan, who was last seen on Feb. 22, 1985, did not match the ones of the missing girl’s, according to a press release from the Pennsylvania State Police provided by the department's Public Information Officer Trooper Bertha Cazy on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Mahan disappeared after getting off the school bus about 100 yards from her home in Cabot, 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Last month the woman claimed to be the missing girl in a Facebook group called Memories of Cherrie Mahan, a group dedicated to the little girl.
Janice McKinney, Cherrie's mother, posted in the Facebook group that she had contacted Pennsylvania State Police, and told the Butler Eagle newspaper that she believes the post was fraudulent.
"I talked to the police, they are investigating," McKinney wrote. "This is very hard on me so please be aware I see everything."
Here's what police said about the investigation.
Mother knows best:Woman claims to be Pennsylvania girl missing since 1985
Pennsylvania State Police investigate woman claiming to be Cherrie Mahan
After receiving a report that a woman was claiming to be Cherrie Mahan in a Facebook group, the Pennsylvania State Police opened an investigation, the press release said.
In addition, police said a voicemail was left with the Pennsylvania State Police from the same woman. On the recording the woman provided her address and telephone number for investigators to contact her. However, when officers reached out to the number and visited the address provided, the woman could not be found.
The woman who has made the claim that she was Cherrie Mahan has not contacted authorities since making the post on Facebook or leaving the voicemail, police said.
Authorities said the fingerprints of the caller was in the database. In the investigators initial review, they found that the caller and Cherrie Mahan’s fingerprints did not match.
If the woman decides to speak with authorities, she can contact the Pennsylvania State Police or other local agencies where they will investigate her claim, police said.
Woman claiming to be Cherrie Mahan banned from Facebook group, post deleted
The woman claiming to be Cherrie has been blocked from the Facebook group and her posts deleted, with group administrator Brock Organ writing that she had been "harassing and bullying" other members and that no one in the group − particularly McKinney − should be subject to that.
Memories of Cherrie Mahan | Hi Friends, I received notification that a group member was harassing and bullying | Facebook
"Some people say, 'But what if it was really her?'" Organ wrote. "This has an easy answer: 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. That is what a reasonable person would do."
He asked group members to "please continue to pray for the family."
Cherrie's mother addresses claims by several women over the years
The woman claiming to be Cherrie last month is not the first. Three others have claimed to be McKinney's daughter over the years, KDKA-TV reported.
"People are mean, they are cruel, but this affects me really crazy," McKinney told the Butler Eagle.
When the latest woman's claims popped up, McKinney told the newspaper that she knew immediately that it wasn't her girl, saying: "It did not look anything like Cherrie at all.”
She still holds out hope that one day, she'll know what happened to her daughter, and told the paper that she hopes all the detectives who ever worked on the case will sit down together and go over everything again.
“There’s something somebody missed somewhere, and somebody knows," she said.
She told KDKA-TV that "the not knowing is really what sucks the life out of you."
She continued: "It just beats you down every single day and for the past 39 years, this has been the hardest part of my life."
Anyone with information about Cherri's case can call police at 724-284-8100, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at missingkids.org, or Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or p3tips.com.
Ahjané Forbes is a reporter on the National Trending Team at USA TODAY. Ahjané covers breaking news, car recalls, crime, health, lottery and public policy stories. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X (Twitter).
