The Vanishing of Cherrie Mahan: A 40-Year Unsolved Mystery | Forensic Files

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Brit. >> And the story I have for you today
begins at exactly 4:10 p.m. in Cabbat, Pennsylvania. That's the time when 8-year-old Cherry Maym gets dropped off
by her school bus. Come rain, snow, or shine, it is always there near the end of [music] her family's gravel driveway.
And Friday, February 22nd, 1985, was no different. The big yellow box parked on the side of the road, right on schedule,
and opened its accordion doors to deposit Cherry and her big backpack on the one place a kid should be safest.
But something happened to Cherry after those bus doors closed. And somewhere in the 500 ft between the road and her
home, Cherry disappeared. And she hasn't [music] been seen in over 40 years. But in the last few months, our team has
been in [music] contact with a man in prison who says that he holds the answers and he agreed to meet with us to
share what he knows. Only one thing was different from the routine Cherry Maym followed on February
22nd, 1985. That Friday was the one day neither Cher's mother or stepfather were there
to walk her from her bus down the long drive to their front door. It was a nice day, 40°. Her mom, Janice, could see the
road from their window. She could hear the bus on the gravel as it pulled up. Like, what could possibly happen in your
own driveway? So, [snorts] she told her husband Leroy they could skip meeting Cherry at the stop. And every day for 40
years, I bet her stomach churns as she replays that decision. I mean, it was so small, but it changed her life forever.
Janice hears the bus come and go, and they wait. But when minutes go by and Cherry doesn't walk through the door,
Leroy heads out to the front of the trailer to check on her. Now, he doesn't spot her out front, so he walks to the
end of the driveway, thinking maybe she's stopped to chat or play with a friend, but she's not there either. And
as he stares up and down the two-lane back road, surrounded by woods on either side, the first seed of the stomach pit
that he'll come to live with begins to grow. Now, Leroy doesn't want to waste any more time. So, he gets Janice and
they hop in their car to literally chase this bus down because maybe Cherry missed her stop. Maybe she had never
gotten on the bus. Please have one of these things be what happened. >> But she didn't. The bus driver tells
them yet she was on this bus and she just got off at her house not too long ago. They're not talking themselves out
of a panic now. Like Cherry is the kid who lives by the rules. So this is not like her. She wouldn't have just
wandered off. And she even had a sleepover planned for that night that she was super excited about. Like she
would be here if she could be. So they go right back to their trailer to call 911.
Officers get there pretty quickly, like within [music] 10, 20 minutes, and they do a preliminary search of the area.
Even though it's warm, there is still some snow on the ground, so it's a bit easier to see if there are any
footprints or anything. But they don't see any suspicious ones or any that might suggest which way Cherry walked
when she got off the bus. They also aren't seeing any of her belongings either, like her blue backpack that
should stand out in the winter woods. But they don't find that or any of the clothes she was wearing, which was a
denim skirt and leg warmers with gray and beige boots. And by the way, not even just in the preliminary search do
they not find these. From what Janice told us, police end up searching the 5m radius around the home, even using blood
hounds to try and track Cher's scent. And they also searched the surrounding woods with helicopters. Local volunteers
joined the searches as well. So, it was a fullblown effort, >> but there were still no signs of Cherry.
>> And have police already talked to all the kids on the bus to see if they saw anything like when she was getting
dropped off? >> They don't do that immediately. And that's coming from Janice. I would love
to give you the playbyplay from police, >> but but but Pennsylvania State Police
weren't willing to talk to us for this episode, and all of our records requests were denied because they said it's an
active investigation. But Janice's impression was that they first thought Cherry was a runaway. And
then when they changed their minds about that, they then zeroed right in on Leroy
and Janice themselves, questioning them for hours individually. And it wasn't totally unwarranted. I mean, you have to
start closest to the missing person, parents, if it's a missing child. And Janice and Leroy definitely had things
to look at. Janice told our reporter that both she and Leroy struggled with substance use disorder. And Leroy has
post-traumatic stress disorder from the Vietnam War along with other struggles with his mental health. And Leroy was
also part of a local motorcycle gang at the time. So, I don't know if they were thinking like the couple did something
or maybe like just that they were hanging around in bad crowds who might have done something to their daughter.
But to get to the bottom of it, police asked them both to take a polygraph and they agree and they both passed with no
signs of deception. However, according to Janice, they were still treated like suspects. Though, I will say they didn't
let the investigation stop there because they start widening that circle. And the
next closest connection to Cherry is her biological dad, who Janice tells us is also allegedly connected to a motorcycle
gang. >> Oh, >> this is a different motorcycle gang though than Leroy. >> Okay. >> But Janice says that he was like pretty
high up in this motorcycle gang. And even though him doing something to Cherry didn't really make a whole lot of
sense because truly he never even really wanted much to do with his daughter, like they still got to check this out.
>> And interestingly, according to the Pittsburgh Press, when they do go and check, this dude is super adamant that
not only did he have nothing to do with this, he's like, I'm not even her father.
>> Oh, >> yeah. So, I'm assuming there are a lot of investigative steps that I'm not
privy to in order to get to this next part. But all in all, police end up ruling him out because there is nothing
connecting him to her disappearance. Now, in the early days of all of this, police don't name any suspects, and
Janice couldn't think of anyone she knew who would have wanted to hurt her daughter. Cherry was a sweet, bright
young girl. I mean, she was Janice's everything. To kind of put it in perspective, she
had her at 16. So like they grew up together. They were always with each other. I mean, the only times they
weren't was when Cherry was at school or when Janice had to go to work early and
she would drop Cherry off before school with like a babysitter down the road. >> But while she wasn't suspicious of
anyone she knew, that didn't mean that there wasn't someone to be suspicious of. Someone that Cherry was actually
suspicious of shortly before she disappeared. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
>> Janice tells police that they only lived in this home for the last 6 months or
so. Before getting this trailer, they actually lived in Janice's mom's house, which is like 20 minutes away in a town
called Saxonburg. She said at first when they moved, like Cherry was super excited to have her own room and
bathroom. Like, I mean, >> the dream >> the dream for a young girl. But after a few months in her new room, something
changed. Like, Cherry went from being excited to afraid because she told her mom that she was afraid someone was
watching her from her bedroom window. was someone watching her from her bedroom window?
>> Well, Janice never saw anyone. And at the time, she thought maybe it might have just been like new home jitters,
but it was enough for Janice to take her concerns seriously, so she moved Cherry
into a smaller room closer to Janice and Leroy. And she bought her blackout curtains. Like, I mean, she did
everything she could. But that didn't change how scared Cherry was. Even in that small room, she was sleeping on the
floor. No pillows, no blankets. >> Oh, almost like she was hiding. That's what I'm envisioning, right? And it's
heartbreaking because this was going on for a couple of months and she was afraid like this up until she
disappeared. So, it's at this point when police are hearing this that they finally go talk to the other kids on
Cher's bus. Maybe she told them more than she told her mom. Now, that ends up being a no-go. None of the kids know
about someone watching her, but they are able to give police some other information. important like I bet you
wish you talked to them first information. One of the kids who was on the bus tells
police that there was this like blue green van following behind the school bus the day Cherry disappeared. Now I
have come to learn that blue green vehicles are like a dime a dozen in the mid80s. But this one was ultra specific.
This kid said that it had a painting of a person skiing down a snowy mountain side on the passenger side of the van.
>> Uh yeah, you don't see paintings on the sides of vans every day. >> I've seen that. Never. [laughter]
I I heard it's like a I was actually doing a little like chat GPT like googling with this and apparently it was
like a big thing in the 70s and 80s. But like I'm not talking a small painting. After getting more witness confirmations
of this van, they actually have a picture drawn and they include it in the missing person's flyers put out on
Cherry, but there is an interesting line in the description written above it. So,
it says possible vehicles involved in abduction. Yeah. Blue or green van with mountain scene on passenger side. Know
that, >> right? >> Also, a small blue vehicle seen in the area. >> Seen in the area by who? So, reporting
only says that it came from a witness, but I don't know who that witness was, though. It might have been a local woman
named Debbie [music] Burke who lives nearby. She was actually parked at the spot that Cherry got off. Like, um, she
was parked in her car waiting for her own kids to come off the bus. [snorts] >> Oh, I I guess I was picturing Cherry
getting off the bus by herself, but there were like other people around when she got off the bus.
>> Yeah. So Cher's bus dropped off a group of kids at one spot. Some of them would
walk to their homes nearby. Some parents waited around for them to be dropped off
and would pick them up. >> It was like a bus stop situation. >> Truly. Yeah. So I don't know if she's
this witness who saw the blue car in the area. But she says she did see Cherry was maybe even the last [music] to see
Cherry. >> Wait, could it have been her car that people saw if she's like parked there
waiting? >> No, I checked on this. The reporting didn't say what color her car was, but I
do know for a fact that the blue car was definitely separate from hers. Now, to go back to what she saw, so Debbie told
police at the time that she was sitting in her car waiting for the bus. She saw Cherry get off like she did most days
and according to an NBC News article, she said that the kids all played for a little while and then Cherry walked past
her car in the direction of her home and then Debbie drove off with her kids. Did
she see the mountain skiing van situation? >> She did. She saw the same van the kids
did. And she even saw it trailing the bus beforehand in her mirror. I guess she was like parked on the side and
waiting and could see like the bus pulling up. But like it wasn't weird to her that a van was behind the bus. I
mean, it's not like it was doing anything other than driving down the road. >> It's just like whatever car is behind
the bus that day >> and when the bus stops, everyone has to stop, right? So like she didn't think
much about it. So, it didn't like stop or do anything that made her think it was like after
>> suspic Right. It stopped with the bus, but then it just kept going down the road.
>> No, again, stopped on the bus stop and that's it. But it didn't like pull over
or anything. She didn't see Cherry interacting with anything. >> It wasn't notable other than it was just
like whatever car was behind the bus that day. And to be fair, I mean, this van could theoretically have pulled off
into a driveway or something before Cherry got off and waited until Debbie left, but Debbie doesn't mention
anything like this. She just says she didn't see Cherry get into the van. And like when Janice hears this, she's like,
"Well, what I know is that Cherry would never have gone off willingly with strangers or left with someone without
permission." So her mom thinks if someone did take her, van or no van, it had to have either been someone she knew
or someone who took her by force. >> Do they know someone who drives a van with a painting on it?
>> That's what I was about to say next. They don't know anyone who drives that kind of van.
>> So then we're looking for a a stranger, >> which means that the circle around
Cherry is now infinitely wide. >> Yeah. >> And that's when local police bring in
the help of the FBI. And they start by looking into other disappearances where a blue or green van was either involved
or seen nearby. >> Okay, but what about the blue car? >> You know, I'm not sure if they pursued
the blue car or not. For some reason, it just kind of stops being reported on. It
seems like their sights are totally set on this unique van. And maybe that's because they do actually find
disappearances and incidents involving possibly similar vans, but they're never the van. And there are never any
incidents that they end up definitively linking to Cherry. >> Okay. Outside of the other abductions
though, did anyone recognize just the van? I mean, it's feels like a really unique van.
>> Well, police said at the time that they were getting thousands of tips that they
had to sort through, but out of all of that, there was one van that was on police's radar. Apparently, it belonged
to a woman named Donna Patterson. Her van was blue with a painting of a skier going down a mountain on the side of it.
>> Uh, sounds familiar. >> And she lived just 5 miles from where Cherry disappeared. Now, according to
the Pittsburgh Press, police looked into this van, but on the day and time of Sherry's disappearance, it was
apparently parked at a local steel corporation where Donna's brother-in-law worked. I guess he used the van that day
and he was there working. So when police confirm his alibi, they just rule him out and Donna and her van. But that
didn't stop people from harassing Donna. She said that she constantly saw people
like taking down her plate number. And she says she got pulled over by police who thought that this was the vehicle
connected to Sherry's disappearance. But Donna said that she was not going to stop driving the van or even paint over
it to stop the constant attention, which I think is what I would have done. >> Yeah. Immediately. So, okay, it's not
Donna's van. That means police think there are two of these vans with these paintings on it in town.
>> Or there's another one out of town or this van's not connected at all. >> But there does have to be another one
who was driving that road that day because it's not just like Donna and her family are saying they weren't involved.
Like police are saying their van wasn't on the move when Tererry's bus stopped like at the bus stop.
>> I know. I even wondered like could someone have access to his keys while he's working? Like unless there is video
surveillance of this van parked the whole time. >> Was the van there the whole time?
>> Yeah. And I'm not saying there isn't. Like I just don't know. And this is where like these are one of those things
where I tend to spiral. I want to like map out the drive to work. What shift he was on. Like talked to every person who
worked with him to see like >> how long it would have taken him to get to where where Cher's bus stop was and
back and like >> Yeah. who had access to your keys. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. Again, all police say this
is not their van. And also I go back to maybe the van isn't connected at all. >> But then why isn't someone coming
forward saying like, "Hey, it was just me. Like I was just driving like that's my route to XYZ."
>> I'm just I'm grasping here. I'm trying. And listen, I don't know if they just
like take the alibi for it or if they even process the van forensically. I would think so if they ruled it out,
>> right? >> And especially I think that because I do know that they processed some vans that
were kind of similar looking at that time, even if the van wasn't spot-on. But I go back to they never found the
van and they never found Cherry. Even despite some pretty big campaigns, like when her picture was featured on a rerun
of NBC's Adam, which was about six-year-old Adam Walsh's abduction, Cherry was actually the first missing
child to have her picture printed on a postcard and sent around the country as part of the Have You Seen Me direct mail
flyer program. And she was one of the first missing children whose missing person's poster was placed on a milk
carton. >> That was a program that started the year she disappeared. And according to the
Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Nickmick is putting Sherry's information in different hotels in Canada and Mexico,
even the UK. So they're not ruling out that she was taken out of the country because
>> again, how infinitely wide is a circle when you don't have much to go off of?
You can't rule anything out. But by 1998, Cherry's case is ice cold. >> And that is when Janice has Cherry
legally declared deceased. She says she isn't moving on or giving up looking, but I mean, she had another child and
she says she needed to come to terms with the fact that Cherry likely wasn't alive.
>> And over the next 30 years, she did her best to deal with that. But in 2018, her
entire world was upended when she received a letter in the mail. And on a single sheet of wide ruled notebook
paper, someone had handwritten in block letters all the answers that she had been seeking for over 30 years. And it
was signed Pastor Justice. Now, I can't read you the note in its entirety because it has specific names
that we don't want to share, but we will put a redacted version of this letter up
on the blog post and on social media for this episode if any of the listeners want to go take a look. Basically, it
says that Cherry was killed by friends of her biological father. And these friends are part of a Quaker cult who
helped quote make Cherry disappear for at least the guy Janice claims is Cher's biod.
>> And like the motive for this was allegedly all to like evade him paying child support. Now, the anonymous writer
gives specific details on where Cher's remains are in a place called the Lock 8 dam, which is about 25 miles or like 40
minutes away, give or take. >> And interestingly, they ended the letter saying, "I pray you find some peace
after you find her body." Now, Janice told our reporter that she has no idea who these friends are that is like
referenced in this letter, and she's not even familiar with the area that they're
talking about. Well, and also since when are Quakers kidnapping and murdering people, let alone kids. I mean, they
aren't >> right >> like they are known to be pacifists, right? >> You if you say so. I don't I don't know
enough. But like >> here's what I'll say is like and maybe because they haven't gotten anything in
so long, police at least kind of seem to take this letter seriously, right? It's
something when they've had a lot of nothing for decades because she shows them this letter and they actually do go
out and search this area, but unfortunately nothing comes of it. So, it is another dead end.
>> I mean, or an incredibly cruel prank, >> which honestly probably that because
there is no evidence that anything in that letter is true. But I don't know if this letter unleashed something or what.
But after this, in the same year in 2018, she gets this phone call at work. The person on the other end of the line
thinks that she might be Janice's longlost daughter. Now, Jerry would have been in her early 40s at this point. And
so, as you can imagine, like Janice, she has spent so much of her life like like
deciding what she has to live with, right? Like, so she's immediately skeptical. She's like not convinced. I
have to imagine she like can't even let herself believe it. >> It sounds like a nice moment that you
want to be excited for, but you also have to like steal yourself. >> You can't get your hopes up at like
>> Yeah. >> anything or everything at this point. >> Yeah. Because the fall back down if it
is not them could be worse. Like >> you're undoing all the healing and forward momentum that you've made over
the years. And she had a good level of skepticism because when police compare this caller's fingerprints to Cher's
>> Wait, how do they have Cher's fingerprints? >> They have them on file because they were
actually taken at her elementary school. So like yeah, super useful. I don't know
if they do that anymore, but like probably should. But when they do this, they determine that this woman isn't
Cherry. >> And even though, right, like even though she was skeptical, like Janice is still
devastated because you tell yourself not to get your hopes up, but you still that
little like spark, right? >> Yeah. You still get your whole you like you wish that it could be true that she
would finally be reunited with her daughter, but this let down is a reminder of the fact that she may never
know what happened after her daughter got off the school bus that February day or who was responsible.
But let this be a lesson. Even in the coldest of cold cases, never say never. Because in 2023, nearly 40 years after
her daughter went missing, leads come straight to Janice in the most unexpected place.
What I'm about to share with you has never been reported on in this much detail before, and it names a person who
has never been connected publicly to this case before. According to Janice, one day in the spring of 2023, she went
to her local VFW to have a drink. It was a regular spot for her. She knew most of
the locals who came in there. But on this night, when she's sitting at the bar, she sees this man that she doesn't
recognize, and he's just staring right at her. So, finally, she's like, "Hey, man. What's the deal?" And the guy just
responds with her name, but it's like a question. like he knows her, but he wants to be sure. And it turns out he
does know her. She knows him. He's someone that she grew up with, but she didn't recognize him at first because
she hadn't seen him since they were like little kids. Now, our reporter actually
spoke with this man and he asked that we keep him anonymous because what he told
us, the bomb that he dropped on Janice that day could put him in danger. He said that he knows one of Janice's
neighbors, the one who lived across the street from them [music] at Janice's mom's house before they moved to that
trailer. The guy's name is John Montgomery. Now, this is a name that Janice knows well. Cherry often played
with other young kids over at their house. And after Cherry disappeared, Janice says some of the family members
would even check in with her weekly for updates. This guy says he knew Jon well,
too. And John and another man were abusing Cherry before she disappeared. And he believes that they might be
involved in her disappearance. And in that moment, Janice's world is spinning because this is completely new
information. I mean, she didn't have so much as an inkling like anything like that could have been happening to
Cherry. She told us that a lot of the hallmark signs of abuse, like a sudden change in behavior or fear of being in a
room with like certain people, like she didn't see that in her daughter, the only thing she ever noticed was that
fear that someone unknown was watching her after she moved away from the house that was across the street from the
Montgomery house. >> And do you know how long it had been going on before she moved or before she
went missing? >> No, I I have no idea how long the alleged abuse was going on before she
disappeared. the our source didn't have like a timeline for that. >> And how does he even know about this?
>> So, I have to keep some of the details back to protect his identity, but I can
tell you he didn't always know this. So, it's not like he's like kept this secret
for decades. And he had tried to go to the police. But here's the scoop. So, >> he was from the area, but he had moved
away. And around 2010, he moved back to Pennsylvania. It was after he moved back
that he learned about John and this other guy abusing not just Cherry, but he says other kids in the neighborhood
as well. And the other guy, he actually named that other guy, but that is someone that we can't name at this
point. Now, when he learned about the abuse, he wasn't necessarily connecting it to Cherry's disappearance right away.
But one day, he said he saw this old missing person flyer of Cherry with the blue car and the van that we talked
about. And that's when he realized that John Montgomery would have had access to
a similar blue car around the time that Jerry disappeared. And so this is when he said he went to police because this
is obviously a major revelation. And according to him, they took him seriously, even set him up with a wire
to go confront John. But he said while he was wearing the wire, John denied involvement and he basically blamed the
other guy. He also told us that police talked to John and this other guy, but I can't confirm any of that from police
directly because like I said, they wouldn't talk to us. Though, I will say that authorities did tell a WPXI
reporter, Rick Earl, that they did interview neighbors about Cherry's disappearance, but no one has ever
confessed to anything related to Cherry. >> So, what about the other kids, though?
Did they in investigate any of that? >> That's the thing. I don't think so. It seems like when our source talked to
police, it was the first they were hearing of any of these allegations. So, they hadn't been independently reported.
Like these kids, even as adults, hadn't come forward to them. And we even went and checked court records and we didn't
find any record for John or this other guy. So, nothing went through on the legal side. And I don't know how much
police went looking for victims. >> Right. Now, John died in 2022, so I can't ask him. And our attempts to reach
this other guy were unsuccessful. So, do we think it's true and no one ever reported anything or
I don't know. I mean, for the guy to have no record and this be in his history is kind of kind of wild to me.
>> It's wild, but it's not unbelievable if this is true. I mean, we know that some
adults don't report their abuse. And for children, those numbers skyrocket. I mean, there's often a lack of
understanding of like what is happening to them or like they're afraid of getting in trouble because even if they
realize like what is happening is wrong. Often they blame themselves or they they
get convinced that it's their job to protect their abuser. >> Right. >> And especially if it's someone they
know, their abuser will often tell them like, "Oh, I'm going to get in trouble or like this is going to happen to me or
to you." And like I think that could fall in line with what police ended up telling CNN in 2011 that they ended up
saying that Cherry was likely abducted by someone she knew really well. Literally, a Pennsylvania trooper said,
quote, "I believe this person had the ability to basically lure Cherry to their vehicle without her giving it a
second thought prior to her disappearance." End quote. So, it's totally possible for someone to operate
like this [music] and not have a record, >> right? Possible. But did he like how do you even go about
trying to run this down to find the truth of what happened? >> Well, you need cooperation,
>> right? Which finally came this year. That's why we're able to report this. >> So, when Janice found this out, that was
2023, remember? Like, she didn't know what to do. I mean, she didn't have a good relationship with investigators on
the case, so she felt isolated from what police had going on. And so, she didn't
even tell anyone else. Plus, we know that the guy who's telling her this already tried to go to police.
So, like, what's she going to do, right? So, she kind of just held it in for a couple of years. But in 2025, Janice
confided in her friend Bailey. She basically told her like, "I'm at my wit's end. like I all I want is answers
at this point and I feel like I am so close but still just out of reach. And bless friends like Bailey, she sees this
as a cry for help and she just jumps into action. Bailey starts pushing law enforcement to look into leads. She
creates a Facebook page called Find Cherry Mayhem and even starts a team called Cher's Angels that ends up
working with a private investigator, this guy named Steve Ridge. And Steve pledges $100,000 for anyone who helps
with finding Cher's remains. And so while Steve is doing his thing, Bailey starts looking into John Montgomery,
trying to find anything linking him or that other guy to child sex abuse. So she's searching all avenues. And one of
those is on meganlaw.com, which is a website that keeps track of sex offenders. And to be honest, she doesn't
really know what she's looking for, but I think she's like trying anything. And it almost is like this feeling for her
of like, I'll know it when I see it. Right? >> So, she's looking around like in the
area of both the house that Cherry disappeared from and her grandma's house that she lived in in Saxonburg.
And suddenly, she sees the name William Montgomery, John Montgomery's son. Now, he goes by
buddy, and he'd already done time in prison by the time she came across him. And that actually is where he is right
now for failing to register as a sex offender. He was locked up in 2022, and we don't know when he's getting out, but
the max sentence for the failure to register is 54 months. So, it's likely that he'll be out sometime by the end of
next year. And we actually found his previous record. So in 2004, he plead guilty to sexual assault, corruption of
minors, endangering the welfare of children, and indecent assault. He ended up cutting a deal with prosecutors, and
according to news reports, >> I'm not going to like this. >> Instead of getting 75 years in prison,
>> okay, >> he got about 2 years behind bars and 10 years probation. >> Okay, I'm going to have to skip past that so I
don't see red. Did he live at the house across from Cher's grandma at the time Cherry was living there? So, I am not
exactly sure where he lived at that time. But what I can say is that we interviewed several people who lived in
the area at the time who say that Buddy was definitely around then. So, I don't know where he lived, but he was
definitely around there and he was in his early 20s when Cherry disappeared. >> So, Bailey finds this. She of course
gives it over to police, >> but she and Janice haven't seen much come of them running down any potential
leads. >> So that's when Janice decides to take matters into her own hands. And at the
beginning of April this year, she just wrote to Buddy in prison. She asks if she can come and talk to him about
Cherry because she is trying to figure out what happened and she wants closure after 40 years. and she acknowledges
that his dad wasn't the greatest guy and says, "Listen, I'm sorry for all that you have been put through and have
seen." And it worked because less than two weeks later, Buddy actually responds to her.
Buddy's first letter back to Janice is pretty vague. He basically just says he wants to help. So Janice writes him back
asking like, "Okay, put me on your visitation list." Because >> again, she just wants to get in front of
this guy. >> But it's weeks before he responds. A letter does eventually come in miday and
he apologizes for the delay. He said he actually had a heart attack and he's been in the hospital, but he still wants
to talk to her. And so she just keeps sending him short messages asking, "Okay, great. I want to talk to you,
too, but when can I come see you or when can we at least talk on the phone?" >> Yeah.
>> But she says that Buddy just keeps like dodging her. So at the end of June, Janice schedules a visit to the prison
anyway, but when she gets there, Buddy won't come out. And I guess Janice tries to schedule another visit, but before
that one happens, Buddy writes her this message. And he sends it to the person that is helping Janice communicate with
him in prison. And I'll read what I can from it. I just received word that Janice had made arrangements for a
contact visit on Saturday. So, please let her know that I will not accept it until I have a chance to set things up
the way I want it set up. >> And how exactly is that? she found out. So he lays out those terms in more
letters. He says he wants his story televised [music] for his own protection. Now mind you, we started
communicating with Janice like while this was all unfolding. >> I was going to say just as a reminder,
this is happening a few months ago. >> Yeah. So Buddy wants a news organization. Happy to help. Like put us
to work, Janice. So, we even sent Buddy a letter of our own in April, though I'm
not sure if he received that one because he didn't respond to it. So, in late July, we decided to try again. And we
wrote to him on the prison email system asking if he would speak to us about the
case because his name had come up. And we sent him a list of questions, like a few times actually, about the things
that we've heard. And he finally responded with this. After reading your questions, I am so
disgruntled over the fact that you are hearing these lies and would want nothing other than an opportunity to sit
down with you and talk. Great. So, we kept pressing for that opportunity to talk for a phone call,
but he kept avoiding us like he did with Janice. So in the meantime, we tried to
verify a specific lead that we heard about and we wanted to talk to somebody who knew Buddy. So first was the lead.
So the PI, Steve Ridge, had gotten a tip from someone locally who knew the Montgomery's.
They told him that a backpack that may or may not have been Cherries was allegedly submerged in a pond somewhere
on the 28 acre Montgomery property sometime after Cher's disappearance. Interesting if true. So, we tracked down
the person who gave Steve that tip. They did say some similar things to us, >> but the details they gave us about what
actually happened were pretty hazy and for legal reasons. For now, I can't talk about it. And I'm not sure if the
Montgomery property was ever searched in connection with Cher's disappearance, which I think is like an interesting
fact. >> Yeah. >> So, TBD on the backpack, we're still looking into that. I can tell you a
little bit more about what we found when we tracked down a former friend of Buddies. [music] His name is Mike. Now,
he lives in the area. Says he's known Buddy for a really long time. and he'd gone to meet Buddy at his house one day
and he walked up on him having a conversation that I don't think Mike was supposed to hear. I can't tell you the
full details of this alleged conversation, but in it, Buddy was mentioning Cherry
on the phone with someone. And when Mike confronted him about it, he says that Buddy told him his dad John quote chose
her and then went on to say that his dad was involved in her disappearance. Now,
there are a lot more details that Mike provided and he says that he told police about this incident as well, but again,
I have not been able to confirm this with cops myself >> because they didn't want to talk to us.
Got it. >> We did though ask Buddy about all of this [music] first about the backpack
and if he knows anything about it, he said f no in not so bleeped out terms. And in another more recent letter, we
actually asked him about the Mike allegations, whether he was involved in Cher's disappearance and everything that
came up in our reporting of Cher's case. And he basically in a letter said he was
going to send us a letter that he was going to be very direct in. >> Okay. >> And we were like waiting, holding our
breath, like even put off doing this recording cuz that's what I was waiting for.
>> I literally just got it in the mail yesterday. It is like eight pages long. So, I'm going to give you the
highlights, but for my nosy nellies, I will be posting it on the blog post, probably heavily redacted. But here's
the like hottake part. He says, quote, "I also want to make it very clear to you, especially those who
are formulating such moronic lies and whoever else thinks slash believes that I may have had anything to do with
the disappearance of Cherry Mayhem to go straight to the enslavements of hell." End quote. And then in another part, he
says that we will find the truth when quote, "The right questions are asked to those within his my father's little
circle. I was never part of this circle." End quote. So, a lot of the letter was really
vague. Like, the gist of it, though, is that he says he never met or spoke to Cherry and he didn't even know that
Janice had moved from across the street of the Montgomery house. >> So, he's like, I wouldn't even have
known where to to get her. Yeah. Where she was being dropped off after school. So, I still don't feel like I have a
full grasp on what it is he really knows, if anything. >> But he says he didn't go to police or
Janice with the information he still says he has because he doesn't want to spread a false narrative,
>> which >> I don't understand that. >> I don't understand what that means either. And he added in the letter that
he will talk to us, but he still has terms. He says he wants to be interviewed on live television while
hooked up to a polygraph exam. And listen, I'm like still trying to make this happen. I like I does like a live
stream count. I don't know. But like I am still unable to like nail this guy down and actually set a time with him.
[music] And we had to move forward and put this out there. And this is where we actually need help from our crime
junkies. someone out there knows more about Cher's disappearance and can maybe help corroborate some of the stuff
>> that I've heard that our reporters have gotten that we haven't been able to share in this episode. So, this is where
we need your help, crime junkies. Someone out there knows more about Cher's disappearance and maybe you can
help corroborate some of the stuff that we weren't able to share in this episode, right? Like even if you've
talked to police before, we are trying to figure out what happened. There's a lot that we've been told that our
reporters have found that we couldn't put in this episode without corroboration. So, if that's you, if you
know something, even if you've talked before, please email us tips at audiochuck.com.
We want to help Janice find closure. I mean, she just wants to know what happened to her daughter and where she
is. And I know we talked about some heavy topics in today's episode, child molestation, sexual assault, and it's
all hard to digest, but what I hope we can take away from this beyond finding closure for Janice is that we need to
protect our kids from strangers, but also from the people they know. I mean, Cherry was always with Janice, always
checked in, and she was still taken so close to home. If you are a victim of child sexual abuse or any kind of sexual
abuse, I want you to know that there are resources available for you. RAIN has national sexual assault hotline
available 24/7. You can call them, text, online chat, even send them a WhatsApp message. It's free, confidential, and
always available. So, we're going to have those resources linked out in our show notes. And if you need immediate
help, remember to text hope to 64673. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website,
crimejunkiepodcast.com. >> And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkie podcast. We'll be back next
week with a brand new episode. [music]

On February 22, 1985, 8-year-old Cherrie Mahan stepped off her school bus in Cabot, Pennsylvania, just 500 feet from her home, and vanished without a trace. Her mother could see the road from the window and hear the bus on the gravel, but in the moments it took Cherrie to walk down her family’s driveway, she disappeared forever. Despite massive searches, flyers, and national campaigns, Cherrie has never been found.

In the early days, police questioned her parents, looked into her biological father’s connections to motorcycle gangs, and investigated tips about a suspicious blue or green van with a mural that was spotted trailing Cherrie’s school bus. Over the decades, theories swirled, from cult involvement, to family feuds, and even anonymous letters and phone calls claimed to know where Cherrie’s body was hidden. But each lead seemed to collapse into more frustration and heartbreak for her mother, Janice McKinney.

Then, in 2023 and 2025, shocking new allegations emerged claiming that neighbors, including John Montgomery may be involved. Soon after, William Buddy Montgomery, a convicted sex offender currently serving a prison sentence, began exchanging letters with Janice… Buddy has denied any involvement…. but investigators, private eyes, and Cherrie’s family continue to chase down these new leads in hopes of finally uncovering the truth.

Nearly 40 years later, the disappearance of Cherrie Mahan remains one of America’s most haunting unsolved cases. If you or someone you know has any information about Cherrie’s disappearance or can corroborate things in this episode, please email tips@audiochuck.com. If you are a victim of child sexual abuse or any kind of sexual abuse, you can contact RAINN’s national sexual assault hotline by calling 800-656-HOPE (4673), by texting HOPE to 64673, or by online chatting at hotline.RAINN.org. Their services are free, confidential, and available 24/7.

Key Episode Moments 0:00 - 1:05 — Case Intro 1:06 - 3:59 — Cherrie Vanishes After Bus Drop-Off 4:00 - 6:17 — Parents & Biological Father Investigated 6:18 - 10:22 — Cherrie Said Someone Was Watching Her 10:23 - 13:52 — The Painted Van Lead 13:53 - 17:43 — National Search & Dead Ends 17:44 - 21:36 — Anonymous Letter & False Hope 21:37 - 27:43 — 2023 Neighbor 27:44 - 31:32 — Buddy Identified 31:33 - 36:13 — Prison Letters & New Allegations 36:14 - 40:27 — Buddy Denies Involvement 40:28 - 40:48 — Outro --------

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About Ashley Flowers Ashley Flowers is the top female podcaster in the U.S. and the host of Crime Junkie, the #1 podcast among women and the #1 true crime podcast globally. As the Founder of audiochuck, she has built a top-tier podcast production company that has garnered over 2.6 billion downloads, captivating audiences with its gripping storytelling through 10+ chart topping podcasts. Ashley and her team are dedicated to creating responsible true crime content that respects victims and their families.

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Check out these other great crime channels: @kallmekris This Cold Case Is Absolutely Horrifying... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJh2YzpU2jU @KendallRae Her Mother Was Told She Died In A House Fire But The Truth Is Shocking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2_-a7oVrH0&t=389s @EleanorNeale The Night Out that Ended in Murder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu7o-nfux-E&t=2s @annieelise Singer D4vd, 4 Infants Found in House of Horrors, Chad Daybell is BACK & Kids Locked in Storage Unit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i384B84tGjw

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