On April 17, 1979, 19-year-old Cheryl Scherer disappeared from her workplace in Scott City, Missouri. Nearly half a century later, her family has still not given up on finding her.
Cheryl was last seen at the Rhodes Pump-Ur-Own gas station on April 17. It was only a few miles away from her family’s home. That day, she was working the 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. shift.
The gas station was tiny and did not have an attached convenience store. Besides gas, it only sold cigarettes. One person worked there at a time.
A couple of hours before her shift ended, Cheryl called her mother, which was something she usually did when work was slow. They had a normal conversation, and Cheryl seemed to be in a good mood. She talked about what she planned to make for dinner and mentioned wanting to do some sewing later.
Her cousin drove past the gas station 20 minutes later and saw someone inside, but he couldn’t tell whether it was Cheryl. Another station employee arrived about five minutes later and found the station unattended.
Cheryl’s belongings were still at her booth, and her car was in the parking lot with the keys inside. Approximately $480 had been taken from the station’s money bag.
Authorities believed that someone had robbed the place and abducted Cheryl. She disappeared from the station sometime between 11:40 and 11:50 a.m. Extensive searches were conducted, but no sign of her was ever found.
On the day she went missing, Cheryl’s two younger siblings, Anthony and Diane, were picked up early from school by a deputy from the Scott County Sheriff’s Office. When they got home, they learned that Cheryl was missing.
The siblings spent a lot of time together outdoors, playing games at the rural farm they grew up on. Cheryl graduated from Thomas W. Kelly High School in 1977.
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She was also prom queen. What Anthony remembers most about his sister was her love for animals. Diane shared a room with Cheryl and recalls her doing typical teenage things.
When Cheryl went missing, the Scherer family received support from their community. A lot of people, including Cheryl’s friends and boyfriend, searched for her in the surrounding area. Diane’s parents wouldn’t let her join the search, but she did help pass out missing person posters.
Foul play was likely involved in Cheryl’s disappearance. In the 1980s, the police looked into serial killers Otis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas.
They sometimes worked together and claimed to have killed more than 100 people between them. They also admitted to kidnapping and killing a girl in the area who matched Cheryl’s description. They told authorities where they disposed of her remains.
However, there was not enough evidence to charge them for Cheryl’s disappearance. In addition, they had a history of confessing to crimes they did not commit. Both men died in prison.
Authorities also considered the serial killer Timothy Krajcir, who confessed to the murders of nine women between 1977 and 1982.
When questioned by the police, he denied killing Cheryl. He is now 80 years old and is incarcerated at the Pontiac Correctional Center in Illinois.
It’s possible that Cheryl could have been the victim of a serial killer who targeted redheads. In the late ’70s and ’80s, several red-haired women were found dead along highways in Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
Investigators think Cheryl’s abductor was a truck driver and have identified a suspect. They are hopeful that DNA collected from the scene of the crime in 1979 will be able to be tested using the technological advancements of today. Her case remains unsolved.
At the time of Cheryl’s disappearance, she was about five feet tall and weighed 100 pounds. She had red hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a light blue pullover sweater, a dark blue zip-up windbreaker, brown corduroy pants, a silver ring with a tiny diamond, a yellow gold necklace with a small cross pendant, and tiny earrings.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
