It’s not Cherrie

As I suspected, the woman they were looking at in Michigan is not, after all, Cherrie Mahan. Cherrie is still missing and it’s been 26 years now.

Cherrie Mahan maybe alive?

Per Jamie: this article says the police are looking into a theory that Cherrie Mahan, an eight-year-old girl who was abducted from her bus stop in 1985, may be alive and living in Michigan. They have talked to the woman and she doesn’t think she’s Cherrie, but DNA tests are in progress.

I think a girl of eight, if she was kidnapped, might not remember that much of her previous life. I mean, she might remember enough to realize something was wrong, but not enough to realize she was an abduction victim. It depends on the circumstances, I guess. But Eva Marie Fiedler was six when her mother abducted her and moved her across the country and changed her name, and she had no idea of any of this until the police found her decades later.

I doubt the lead is viable. But it’s possible. With cases like Carlina White, it feels even more possible. So let’s hope for Cherrie.

Cherrie Mahan case lends hope to others?

I saw this news headline and a two-page article with much the same headline: that the disappearance of Cherrie Mahan twenty-five years ago today “lent hope” or “lends hope” to others.

I cannot fathom what it is about Cherrie’s case that inspires hope. The girl has been missing for twenty-five years. The police have no leads, no suspects, nothing to indicate her whereabouts or fate, even though she was missed within minutes with a good vehicle description besides. It’s been a quarter of a century and the cops are nowhere closer to solving the case than they were the day she disappeared. What’s hopeful about that?