Keeping hope alive: Siblings remember missing woman 45 years later
SCOTT CITY, Mo. (KBSI) – Keeping hope alive: Wednesday, April 17 marks 45 years since Cheryl Anne Scherer vanished from a gas station in Scott City, Missouri.
In that time much has changed except the unwavering faith her close-knit family has that one day they will find closure and Cheryl will find peace.
Her sister Diane and brother Anthony sat down with FOX23 News Anchor Holly Brantley to talk about their beloved sister and put out a call for answers in a story you will only see on FOX23 News.
“Life can change very quickly,” said Diana Scherer-Morris.
Nineteen-year-old Cheryl Anne Scherer was a fiery red head with big eyes and according to her family an even bigger heart.
“She liked to sew, she loved animals. We’d sing. Just a normal girl her life changed,” she said.
Cheryl was the prom queen with countless friends. She was a hard worker, and someone her bosses at Rhodes Pump Your Own in Scott City called a model employee.
That gas station is the last place anyone would have seen her alive that authorities know of on April 17, 1979.
“She was just an ordinary girl going to work that day… Just like the rest of us do… How that could happen that quick?,” said Diane.
She remembers the last time she saw her sister.
“It was that morning,” said Diane. “She always got up early because she had the 6 to 2 shift. She always had to turn the light on to get her clothes and we shared a room. And so just seeing her that morning and telling her goodbye and have a good day and that was it,” she said.
Only hours later, life as she knew it would change for her and her older brother Anthony, a junior at Kelly High School.
“We were in PE and we got a note,” said Anthony. “One thing I really remember about that day is all the people that were already at our house. We never dreamed this was the beginning of what actually happened.”
They learned their mother had gotten a call from Cheryl discussing plans for the evening to cook dinner and sew, but not long after that their mother, Libby Scherer got another call. This time the call was from law enforcement telling her Cheryl was missing.
“She had no enemies that we know of,” said Diane. “She was just a normal 19-year-old girl. It’s hard to say.”
Police believe sometime before noon Cheryl was kidnapped. Her purse and checkbook were still inside the gas station.
Her car was in the lot with the keys inside.
Four-hundred and eighty dollars was missing from the gas station register.
“We don’t know what happened and that’s one reason we keep being her voice and keeping her name out there,” Diane said.
She shared she remembers Cheryl’s boyfriend and friends searching backroads and networking with truckers to relay information about the search.
“Years ago there were no cell phone, no cameras, there was no internet or anything like that,” said Diane.
“They would make copies of flyers of Cheryl being a missing person. We would fold them and sit around the table and put them in envelopes and send them out to all area law-enforcement,” she said.
Another element of that day making it harder to get leads was lack of witnesses.
The usually busy IGA grocery store not far away happened to be closed, making family and law enforcement wonder if the apparent robbery and kidnapping was planned by someone local.
People who lived in Scott City at the time reported to police they stopped at the gas station around lunchtime that Tuesday to fuel up or buy things like cigarettes, but there was no sign of Cheryl — only the sound of sirens and eventually the sight of multiple police officers and sheriff’s deputies pulled from other duties to look for Cheryl.
“It was one of those things you always thought happened somewhere else,” said Anthony.
Over the years, leads came and went including speculation she’d been kidnapped and killed by serial killers Otis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas.
At one point the Scott County sheriff called in a psychic.
In 2019, federal and state authorities searched a field near Benton.
All brought no sign of Cheryl, but her family refuses to give up.
“You never lose that hope,” said Diane.
Sunday, Diane and Anthony gathered with the community of Scott County for a remembrance.
Tuesday, state and local leaders stood with the family to declared the week of April 17th ‘Scott County Missing Person’s Week’ to raise awareness about Cheryl and others.
“There is a God who does care even though we haven’t found her yet,” said Diane.
“That strength is what gets us through every day. We have faith and we are asking that if there is anyone holding information that could help us to find her they will come forward. The ultimate goal is to be able to find her and have her remains brought to us,” said Diane. “That is if that’s what it is we have her at the cemetery where we already have a tombstone with her name on it between Mom and Dad. Give us some more facts then maybe we really can find her.”
Sheriff Wes Drury says they still get leads and won’t rest until they get the piece of information they need to give the family closure.
“We still get calls,” said Drury. “I don’t care if it’s double information. You turn the stones, you keep turning them. Apparently we missed something because she’s not here.”
He says the case is personal to many people in the close knit community.
“Something happened to her nobody wants to have happen to their family. They deserve closure and peace” said Sheriff Wes Drury.
“This is a common goal for the community because I don’t think there’s a person in this world that doesn’t want to see this family have peace. I grew up not far from where she was abducted. I’m only two years behind Cheryl in age. This could have happened to us just as easily as it happened to them.”
Sheriff Drury says anyone with information should call law enforcement immediately. “I think we have come to a realization that this may not be a rescue as much as it may be a recovery. I think in our minds know we will take either one, we just want to bring her home.”
Leaders in Scott County and her family have proclaimed the week of April 17 as Scott County Missing Persons Week – keeping hope alive for Cheryl and every family out there still searching for someone they love.
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