State Police Ask People With Information About Cherrie Mahan's Disappearance To Come Forward
WINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) - Almost 35 years later, Cherrie Mahan's mother still lives in Butler County, and she wants to know what happened to her daughter.
After KDKA's report of a new revelation from Cherrie's mother, KDKA's John Shumway reports police received dozens of new tips.
Thirty-five years after her daughter 8-year-old Cherrie Mahan got off her school bus in rural Butler County and disappeared, Janice McKinney can tell you time does not heal the wound.
"I think about her all the time, I pray for her every night, I pray for her every morning," Janice says.
Janice McKinney feels like she has nothing to lose in her search to find out what happened to her daughter. She shared with us that Cherrie was the result of rape when Janice was 16.
"I never left that house without her, we were always together, we grew up together, she was my life," Janice says.
She told John Shumway no one believed her claim of rape, and to this day she feels Cherrie's biological father knows something about who took Cherrie.
"Not him personally, but the people that he knows, yes," she says.
John Shumway went back to the state police today about Cherrie's biological father.
They say he's a person of interest.
Since KDKA's report aired last night at 11, Trooper Jim Long says, "We've gotten a ton of tips, it's been very effective and as of now, we're still trying to work our way through them, cause even as we are speaking now, I would not be surprised if we got a couple more."
And police are hoping in there somewhere, they'll find the answer to Cherrie's disappearance.
When 8-year-old Cherrie got off the bus that day, Janice says she didn't just evaporate
"I truly believe that there is someone out there that knows exactly what happened," she says.
Trp. Long says they may not even realize it.
"What a person might think may be insignificant, that may be the piece that we're looking for," he says.
Now, 35 years later, Janice McKinney just wants to know.
"It's like your heart has been snapped half and it will never go back together again," she says.
"It's heart breaking for anybody. What I hope what people get from this piece is people actually see the pain she's living through," says Trp. Long.
"If they have information and they've been holding it for all these years, that they see what this woman has been living with her entire adult life and come forward and give that information to us."
The state police in butler are waiting for your call.