Woman claims to be Pennsylvania girl missing since 1985; girl's mother knows better

The mother of an 8-year-old Pennsylvania girl missing since 1985 has contacted police about a woman claiming to be her daughter.

Cherrie Mahan was last seen on Feb. 22, 1985 after getting off the school bus about 100 yards from her home in Cabot, 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Last month, nearly 40 years since the disappearance, a woman created posts in a Facebook group dedicated to the little girl called Memories of Cherrie Mahan. In a May 23 post, the woman said she was Cherrie, a claim that made national headlines but one that girl's mother says she didn't believe for one second.

Janice McKinney, Cherrie's mother, posted in the Facebook group that she has contacted Pennsylvania State Police, and told the Butler Eagle newspaper that she believes the post was fraudulent.

"I talked to the police, they are investigating," McKinney wrote in the public group, which has of late included much speculation about whether the woman could be telling the truth. "This is very hard on me so please be aware I see everything."

Here's what to know about the case.

Woman claiming to be Cherrie Mahan banned from Facebook group, post deleted

The woman claiming to be Cherrie has been blocked from the Facebook group and her posts deleted, with group administrator Brock Organ writing that she had been "harassing and bullying" other members and that no one in the group − particularly McKinney − should be subject to that.

"Some people say, 'But what if it was really her?'" Organ wrote. "This has an easy answer: if it was really her, she could present herself at any police office and arrange for a DNA test without reaching out to people online and making aggressive claims. That is what a reasonable person would do."

He asked group members to "please continue to pray for the family."

Memories of Cherrie Mahan | Hi Friends, I received notification that a group member was harassing and bullying | Facebook

Pennsylvania State Police did not respond to USA TODAY's request for information on Tuesday.

An agency spokeswoman, Trooper Bertha Cazy, told the Butler Eagle that they're investigating the woman's claim that she's Cherrie but that "they have not made contact with her from the contact information she provided."

The department is working with an out-of-state agency to try to find the woman, she said.

Cherrie Mahan's family remembers disappearance 39 years later

In February, Cherrie Mahan's family marked the 39th anniversary of her disappearance. Every year McKinney, prays in the same spot where her daughter disappeared.

McKinney told KDKA-TV that she vividly remembers the day her daughter disappeared and a conversation she had with her husband before Cherrie got off the bus.

"Leroy's like, 'Do you want me to go down and pick her up?' And I said 'No, it's a beautiful day, she'll come running right up over the hill because she wants to go (to her friend's house).' But then that never happened," McKinney told the station.

There were few leads beyond a suspicion that a bright blue 1976 Dodge van with a mural of a mountain and a skier could be involved in the disappearance, according to the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children.

"It's like a black hole opened up and she fell in," McKinney told the station.

Authorities told the station that Mahan's case is not considered cold, but is still "active" because they still receive tips.

Cherrie's mother addresses claims by several women over the years

The woman claiming to be Cherrie last month is not the first. Three others have claimed to be McKinney's daughter over the years, KDKA-TV reported.

"People are mean, they are cruel, but this affects me really crazy," McKinney told the Butler Eagle.

When the latest woman's claims popped up, McKinney said told the newspaper that she knew immediately that it wasn't her girl, saying: "It did not look anything like Cherrie at all.”

She still holds out hope that one day, she'll know what happened to her daughter, and told the paper that she hopes all the detectives who ever worked on the case will sit down together and go over everything again.

“There’s something somebody missed somewhere, and somebody knows," she said.

She told KDKA-TV that "the not knowing is really what sucks the life out of you."

She continued: "It just beats you down every single day and for the past 39 years, this has been the hardest part of my life."

Anyone with information about Cherri's case can call police at 724-284-8100, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at missingkids.org, or Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or p3tips.com.

Ahjané Forbes is a reporter on the National Trending Team at USA TODAY. Ahjané covers breaking news, car recalls, crime, health, lottery and public policy stories. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X (Twitter).