Wash. State woman reported murdered...but she says she's alive

(CBS/AP) KENNEWICK, Wash. - Thankfully, reports of Cheri Schumann's demise are greatly exaggerated.

Schumann would like everyone from the Kennewick High School class of 1971 in Washington State to know she is very much alive - contrary to a report that she was among classmates who had been murdered.

A story in Saturday's Tri-City Herald about Kennewick High's reunion focused on seven classmates who were slain out of 80 who had died. Schumann - now Cheri Taylor - was one person name as a victim.

But Taylor lives in Mill Creek, north of Seattle, with her husband and four children. She says she's happy, healthy and not at all ready to be buried.

Reunion co-chairwoman Debra Blum told the newspaper the initial report of Taylor's premature demise came by email, apparently from another classmate. Blum says she used other sources to verify it.

Blum says another classmate also listed in Saturday's story - Leo Marcel - also wasn't murdered. But he did die in 2004 after a lengthy illness.