Police can't verify claims of woman who says she's Cherrie Mahan
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WINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- Police said an initial review of fingerprints suggests that a woman claiming to be Cherrie Mahan is not the child who went missing from rural western Pennsylvania 39 years ago.
Pennsylvania State Police are investigating a recent online post and voicemail from a woman claiming to be Mahan, an 8-year-old girl who was last seen getting off her school bus in Butler County in 1985. Police said they weren't able to reach the woman at the phone number or address provided, and no one in law enforcement has been able to contact her again.
Police said they were able to obtain fingerprints for the name left by the caller. Police didn't provide any more details on how they got the fingerprints, but said an initial review indicates that she is not Mahan.
If the caller decides to make herself available to law enforcement again, police said her claim will be investigated.
Mahan disappeared on Feb. 22, 1985, after her school bus dropped her off at the bottom of the hill near her home on Cornplanter Road in Winfield Township, about 45 minutes from Pittsburgh.
People who saw her get off the bus said they saw a blue or green van behind it and a blue-colored sedan in the area. Those vehicles and the drivers have not been identified or located.
"It's like a black hole opened up and she fell in," her mother Janice McKinney told KDKA-TV on the anniversary of her disappearance this year.
Mahan would be 47 years old today.
"The not knowing is really what sucks the life out of you. It just beats you down every single day and for the past 39 years, this has been the hardest part of my life," McKinney said.
Three other women throughout the years have claimed to be Mahan. There's still a $5,000 cash reward for anyone with information that leads to an arrest, solving the case or finding Mahan.
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