Cleveland case gives hope in local missing-person cases

The discovery Monday in Cleveland of three women who disappeared more than a decade ago has lent hope to families and investigators searching for missing people in Southeast Missouri.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were found alive in a house near downtown Cleveland, where police said they had been held captive since they were in their teens or early 20s.

Three brothers were arrested in connection with the women's apparent abduction and captivity.

"Even though our case is totally different, it still pushes us to continue on, because miracles do happen, and we see that," said Martha Hamilton, whose 2-year-old sister, Elizabeth Gill, disappeared June 13, 1965, while playing in the front yard of her home on Lorimier Street.

The Cleveland case also offered a glimmer of hope to friends and family who have been searching for Jacque Waller since she vanished June 1, 2011.

Beth Gill

"We are joyful that the three kidnapped women in Cleveland have been found and will be reunited with their loved ones," Laura Long Helbig, a spokeswoman for Waller's family, said in a statement emailed to the Southeast Missourian. "This is certainly an outcome that we have prayed for, and until Jacque is found, we will never give up hope that she might also be happily reunited with her children and family and friends."

The mother of three from Jackson was 39 when she disappeared, leaving behind triplets her sister had described as the center of her world.

"She never would have left her children. Her world revolved around them," Waller's sister, Cheryl Brenneke, told the Southeast Missourian in August 2011.

Prosecutors don't think Waller will be found alive. Her estranged husband, Clay Waller, was charged with first-degree murder last year in connection with her disappearance, but her body has not been found. Clay Waller's trial is set to begin Sept. 9.

Meanwhile, Lt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff's Department also draws hope from the Cleveland case as he continues to search for Cheryl Ann Scherer, who was 19 when she disappeared from the Scott City gas station where she was working April 17, 1979.

Jacque Waller

"I was a rookie deputy when this thing happened back in '79," Bledsoe said. "I've kind of gotten attached to this case, because I've been working it so many years that I get excited when I see something like this happen."

Scherer's parents submitted DNA to a database nearly 10 years ago in hopes of finding her, and investigators have interviewed serial killers thought to be in the area at the time of Scherer's disappearance, but thus far, their efforts have come up empty, Bledsoe said.

"She -- in broad daylight -- just disappeared," he said. "Cheryl had a very good family life, she was very close to her parents, and, as a matter of fact, had just spoken to her mother before coming up missing."

Investigators suspected a stranger traveling nearby on Interstate 55 might have abducted Scherer, but there isn't any evidence to confirm that, Bledsoe said.

"We don't have anything to suggest that other than the weird nature of this particular crime," he said. "It's like she just disappeared. We have nothing to suggest that it was some stranger off the interstate. It could be somebody that still lives around here."

Beth Gill's sister said in addition to boosting families' and investigators' spirits, the Cleveland women's story could provide hope for victims themselves.

"It definitely gives hope to families of the missing, and I also think it gives hope to the missing, when there are those out there maybe being held in captivity, to come forward ... because obviously Amanda Berry knew that she had been all over the news," Hamilton said.

Fear can drive people to remain missing even when they have the opportunity to come forward, she said.

For instance, victims who have been sexually exploited may be afraid to come forward because they believe their loved ones will reject them, Hamilton said, while other victims may be dealing with survivor's guilt or concerns about their families' safety.

"It's very common with victims if, say, for instance, there's more than one victim in a crime spree, that one victim feels guilty because they were not killed, when another person was," she said.

Hamilton is optimistic her sister is alive and well.

"We've always felt that she was taken by someone who either wanted a child or who was involved in black-market babies," she said. "Because of that and because of Beth's age at the time, she probably today would have no idea who she is."

Hamilton said she is not interested in prosecuting those responsible for Gill's disappearance, and if Gill is not interested in having a relationship with her birth family, they will respect that decision; at this point, they just want to know what happened.

"We've thought through every scenario possible, including answers we don't want to hear, feeling like if you're searching for the truth, you have to be willing to accept it, no matter what it is," Hamilton said.

Bledsoe said cases like the one in Cleveland make it easier to hope for a happy ending.

"I'm not giving up hope that that will happen someday, because it could," he said. "If you want to be realistic about it, it's probably not likely, but it's certainly not impossible. ... I just wish we could do something to give this family some closure."

epriddy@semissourian.com

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