Woman's disappearance still a mystery 43 years later

Forty-three years after a Scott County woman went missing while working a day shift at self-service gas station, her family, law enforcement and community members continue to ask the question: What happened to Cheryl Anne Scherer?

"It's one of the biggest mysteries in Southeast Missouri," said Paul Dirnberger with Rhodes who was Scherer's work supervisor at the time of her disappearance on Tuesday, April 17, 1979. "... It's a blank for everyone. What could have possibly happened to her?"

On that particular day, Scherer, the 19-year-old daughter of Olevia "Libby" Scherer and the late Ray Scherer, went to work at Rhodes Pump-Ur-Own Station self-service gas station in Scott City, Missouri, like she had done over the last year. Around 11:20 a.m., she spoke with her mother by phone. Scherer and her mother talked about what was for supper and how Scherer was going to do some sewing when she got home.

Sometime shortly between 11:40 a.m. and 11:50 a.m., Scherer was apparently abducted during a possible robbery with $480 taken. Her purse, keys and car were left behind.

Dirnberger, who was 24 at the time, said on that day he was at Rhodes' main offices at the Dutchtown, Missouri, exit off Interstate 55 when he was alerted they had received a call that no one was at the Scott City station just before noon.

"They let me know about it, and so I went down there [to the station at Scott City]," Dirnberger recalled. "When I got there, the door was halfway open and nothing was really out of place at all -- but she wasn't there."

Within a few minutes or so, Dirnberger said, Scott City Police officers arrived along with then-Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell and an FBI agent from Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

"Of course, they had the usual questions, and nobody had any answers," Dirnberger said. "At the time, all we sold were gasoline, cigarettes and a few snacks through the window. It was not a walk-in convenience store at all."

Dirnberger pointed out it was well before the time of security cameras or any type of technological service equipment to keep an eye on the place.

"So the cash register drawer was open and there was some change in it," Dirnberger recalled "At that time, 95% of our business was cash and personal checks. Credit cards weren't used much at all. There was nothing that indicated a struggle at all."

Located less than a mile from Interstate 55 and just feet away from the railroad tracks, the station sat where the current Rhodes convenience store exists on Main Street today, Dirnberger said.

Most of the station's customers were local residents, Dirnberger said.

"You would get a few [customers] off the interstate, and at that time there were only three stations in Scott City," Dirnberger said, adding Larry's Store 24 was Scott City's closest gas station to the interstate.

There were no witnesses to Scherer's apparent kidnapping. However, around 11:40 a.m. Scherer's cousin, a school bus driver, drove past the station and thought he saw someone inside, but couldn't tell whether it was Scherer. Five minutes later, another station employee arrived for duty and found the station unattended. Both the cousin and employee have since passed away.

That particular day, which Dirnberger remembered as being a gorgeous spring day, very little traffic was coming and going on Main Street into the Scott City Plaza where the major business was the IGA food store. On this Tuesday morning, the adjacent IGA was closed due to the funeral of the store owner's mother, Katie Uhrhan.

The idea that Scherer would have ran off on her own was quickly laid to rest by authorities and those who knew her. Scherer paid her automobile insurance before her disappearance.

"She was just a sweetheart, and there was never any reason to question her character and honesty," Dirnberger said.

He said he's always remembered something the FBI agent said at the scene.

"He said: 'This is not good. The fact that her purse is here. No woman goes anywhere without taking their purse. Somebody took her,'" Dirnberger recalled.

Scherer, a 1977 graduate of Thomas W. Kelly High School near Benton, Missouri, was last seen wearing a light blue slip-on sweater with white trim, a dark blue windbreaker with a white-trimmed hood and brown corduroy pants. She had on tiny, pierced earrings, a silver ring with a small diamond and yellow-gold necklace with a one-inch cross. She has red hair, blue eyes and a dime-sized mole between her should blades and a small mole half an inch from her naval.

Scherer's sister, Diane Scherer-Morris, said her family waited by the phone, hoping and praying for a call from Scherer herself or law enforcement saying she was found, but that call never came.

In 2003 submission of DNA samples from Scherer's parents to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, was completed. CODIS blends forensic science and computer technology into an effective tool for solving crimes. Two different age progression pictures of Scherer in 2000 and 2017 were created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Throughout the years, Scherer's family has never given up hope as their faith carries them through each passing year of not knowing what happened, her sister said. Prayer services, balloon releases and remembrance ceremonies have been held in her honor to keep the public aware of her story.

Around May 2012 the family started a Facebook page in Scherer's name as a platform to reach people and attempt to find answers.

"This, in turn, gets people talking and has brought in a few calls to law enforcement and a few have reached out to us with information," Scherer-Morris told the Standard Democrat in December 2020. "Nothing yet has led us to her, but people are talking, and we remain hopeful and praying that the person or persons who know the truth will come forward and share what they know."

Scherer's father passed away in 2005, but her mother and two younger siblings, Scherer-Morris and Anthony Scherer, continue to keep her name out there, pleading with anyone who has any information to come forward.

Several people have told her family their own theories of what they think happened to Scherer, but no one has brought forth any proof.

Serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole and along with Toole's niece and nephew have claimed they were in Scott City that day. Ferrell even went to Texas in the early 1980s to interview Lucas, who denied remembering Scherer after being showed her photo. However, according to the "Lucas Report," Toole, Lucas and the niece and nephew were not even in the area that day; they were in Florida.

Scott County Sheriff Wes Drury said Scherer's case remains open, and his department follows up on any leads they receive as did his predecessors.

"People are still talking about her and that's the good thing about it because everybody lost a piece of their security when she was abducted at such a young age years ago," Drury said.

Like the Scherer family, Drury said he thinks someone knows something.

"You never forget and always remember and hope that something else comes up," Drury said about the case.

In 2019, local, state and federal officers spent 12 hours digging in a bean field off Scott County Road 329 near in an effort to find evidence in Scherer's case. Drury said they did not find anything of significance.

"We continue to pray every day and for her family, too," Dirnberger said. "Everyone that knew Cheryl and that was involved in that day wishes there was something they could do but no one knows what."

The Scherer family is not giving hope.

"We have to keep her name out there to keep people talking," Scherer-Morris said early this month. "Someone knows what happened that day, and we need anyone withholding information or keeping a secret to come forward. We just want to find her."

Anyone with information about this case should contact Drury or the Scott County Sheriff's Office or Drury at (573) 545-3525. For more information, see the Facebook page: "Cheryl Anne Scherer."