Woman Says She's Kid Who Vanished in 1985

Surely not every Facebook comment is to be believed. But police in Pennsylvania are eager to determine the truth of one particular comment in which a woman claims to be Cherrie Mahan, who vanished from Pennsylvania as an 8-year-old in 1985. The woman made the claim on the "Memories of Cherrie Mahan" Facebook group, of which Cherrie's mother Janice McKinney is a member, on May 23. McKinney believes the claim to be fraudulent, reports the Butler Eagle. "This is very hard on me," she writes in the public group. Still, state police are hoping to positively identify the woman behind the claim.

She is the fourth woman to claim to be Cherrie, reports CBS News. Cherrie—the first person featured on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's "Have you seen me?" circulars—was last seen getting off her school bus in Pennsylvania's Butler County on Feb. 22, 1985. She was dropped in a rural area just 500 feet from her driveway along with other students, per the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. At the time, police said a bright blue 1976 Dodge van with a mural of a mountain skier seen near Cherrie's driveway may have been involved in the disappearance. Though Cherrie was legally declared dead in 1998, a $5,000 cash reward remains available to anyone with information that helps solve the case. (More missing person stories.)