Investigation continues in case of Cherrie Mahan, missing for decades

Twenty-nine years ago, high school senior Chris Birckbichler watched media accounts of 8-year-old Cherrie Mahan's disappearance from Cabot, Winfield Township.

In the intervening years, a huge local and national search hasn't uncovered evidence about the girl's fate, but just like her family, investigators aren't giving up.

Now, Birckbichler is an experienced investigator with the state police's Butler station. He's re-checking some of the properties where tipsters insist her remains are buried.

This week, a volunteer group's search dogs and the trooper combed a site off Winfield Road.

The dogs didn't find anything related to the Mahan case, but Birckbichler saw an earthen mound that didn't fit with the surrounding terrain.

“It looked unusual,” he said.

On Thursday, six Mercyhurst College forensic anthropologists and graduate students arrived to check the mound, just to make sure.

“There was nothing there,” the trooper said.

Mercyhurst professor Dennis C. Dirkmaat didn't make the trip, but said his crew didn't find anything in the test pit they carefully dug.

“If they had found bone or something, they would have started a detailed dig using forensic and archaeological methods,” he said in a phone interview from the Erie college.

Birckbichler is not deterred. Despite the age of the case, new information is still coming in.

“Each time someone writes about the case or puts in on TV, we get new tips,” he said. Each one is checked.

Birckbichler said he is going over some of the older information and will revisit key sites like the one this week.

Enduring mystery

Cherrie's mother, Janice McKinney of Saxonburg, has been praying for an answer.

“It seems my knees are flat,” she said. “Praying is all that I can do.” On Aug. 14, her daughter would be 38, McKinney said.“This February it will be 30 years,” she said, “and I want to do something special. Maybe we will have a prayer vigil at the church.”

The 4-foot-8-inch, 68-pound Cherrie Mahan hasn't been seen since she stepped off a school bus at her usual stop at Cornplanter and Winfield roads in Winfield, on Feb. 22, 1985.

It wasn't far from her family's home at the foot of a steep, wooded driveway.

The search quickly went national. People seemed captivated by the bright-eyed Cherrie.

The FBI got involved, and network TV news did stories.

The Alle-Kiski Valley girl was the first face on a national direct-mail campaign seeking missing children sent on behalf of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Those mailers reach at least 84 million people, which often lead to tips that solve cases.

“This is one of our original cases,” said Bob Lowery, vice president of the center's missing children division.

“A case like this touches the core of the entire community,” he said. “Cases where you don't really have firm information are the toughest cases for law enforcement,” he said. “There were no witnesses, no crime scene. There was an absence of facts.In 1985, he said, “We didn't have Amber Alerts, surveillance cameras and other things that help to find kids.”

Children are the most vulnerable when they are going to and from school, he added.

Almost 5,000 pages

Lowery said the center is gratified that state police and others haven't given up the search even though the case is nearing its third decade.

Birckbichler said some of the tips deserve another look.The Center for Missing and Exploited Children still gets leads every time Cherrie's case is mentioned.

Lowery said there were 17 phone calls or emails received after ads placed in Pennsylvania and other states last month and 29 generated by fliers posted at Wal-Mart stores in March, Lowery said.

During the past 29 years, troopers have written more than 4,900 pages of reports about the Mahan case, according to Birckbichler.

That doesn't include dozens of photos and related information.

The FBI and local police and search agencies also investigated, and many have taken a second or third look.

State police will look at some of the evidence again just in case.

“Maybe this time,” Birckbichler said, “it will be it.”

Chuck Biedka is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-226-4711 or cbiedka@tribweb.com.