Mother still praying for the return of missing daughter
WINFIELD TWP — The weather Monday was a lot like the day Janice McKinney last saw her daughter, Cherrie Mahan.
McKinney recalled the warm, sunny day 37 years ago on Feb. 22, which led to her decision not to drive to the road from her long driveway to pick up the 8-year-old Cherrie from the bus stop after school.
On Tuesday, McKinney stood at the bottom of the driveway at 1136 Cornplanter Road, a place she seldom revisits now that she lives in Saxonburg, and prayed with a group of close friends as she watched a school bus drive by the house around 4 p.m.
“She was going to go somewhere; it was a Friday so she would have came running up over the hill, but she didn’t,” McKinney said. “I was always here to pick her up when she got off that bus. But it was a nice day. We were home. I just felt that she would be OK.”
Cherrie Mahan went missing Feb. 22, 1985, at the age of 8. She reportedly got off the school bus at Cornplanter Road, which has been confirmed by the bus driver and students who were on the bus at the time. There have been reports that Cherrie was taken into a van painted with a decal of a skier on a mountain.
McKinney and law enforcement refer to Cherrie’s disappearance as a kidnapping, and still are hoping someone will come forward with information about her.
McKinney doesn’t always make a day out of the anniversary or even recognize it, but this year, she said, the date of 2/22/2022, seemed special. She and her loved ones who attended the short prayer vigil Tuesday agreed that the date seemed special.
“It was something there that the Lord laid upon my heart that I needed to step it up,” McKinney said. “I just believe that if everybody knows, if they talk about it, somebody is going to give an answer. Because somebody knows. I don’t know who that somebody is; I just need to know.”
Over the past three-and-a-half decades, McKinney has kept up the search, and has spoken to police, politicians and national media.
Cherrie was declared legally dead in 1998, but the missing person case is still open with state police. McKinney said Tuesday that she has not spoken with investigators in at least a year.
But on Tuesday, McKinney was surrounded by only a few friends who wanted to support her and pray with her. They prayed that Cherrie was somewhere safe and sound, or just to find answers.
“We just want answers that Cherrie is walking around this earth, where she is and if she is OK,” said Trista Smith, one of McKinney’s friends. “Answers that she is in heaven with her stepdad and grandparents and her uncle.”
Some passing cars stopped when they saw the group gathered at the bottom of the driveway, and each driver remembered Cherrie’s case when it was mentioned.
Tracy Haslop, of Cabot, said she had followed Cherrie’s case since she was young, and met McKinney by chance about a year ago at a restaurant. The topic of children came up in conversation, and Haslop realized who she was talking to.
“I broke into tears and told her I had been praying for her my entire life,” Haslop said. “It’s just so weird; it blows my mind still.”
McKinney said coincidences like that give her hope that Cherrie will return.
“I so enjoy my friends just coming and being with me,” McKinney said. “That’s what gives me the strength, just knowing that if I needed anything I could count on them.”
McKinney said she was thankful for her friends and everyone who has offered support over the years. She said her hope is that someone will tell her anything they know about Cherrie.
“That’s what I’m praying for, that somebody’s guilt, that they have to tell somebody, that they want to tell somebody,” McKinney said. “I just felt that I needed to be here. That this is where it started, and this is where I need it to end.”
