DNA match offers hope in 1998 slaying of mother, daughter

PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. -- A new clue has emerged in the killings of a Southeast Missouri woman and her daughter, nearly 20 years after their deaths.

Anthony Scherer returned from farm work to his home near Portageville on March 28, 1998, and found the bodies of his wife, Sherri Scherer, 37, and 12-year-old daughter, Megan. Both had been shot. No arrests ever were made.

Now, a clue from another unsolved case is offering new hope.

New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens said his office was notified this month DNA from the murder scene matches DNA recovered from an unsolved 1997 rape in Memphis, Tennessee.

In May 1997, three women and a girl were assaulted by a man who knocked at the door of their home. All four were bound before the man sexually assaulted the girl.

It was the second DNA match to the Missouri case. A 2006 DNA match determined the same person may have sexually assaulted and killed Genevieve Zitricki in 1990 in her Greenville, South Carolina, apartment. That case also remains unsolved.

Though the DNA has not been matched to a suspect, Stevens said in a news release investigators from all three cases are working together and have developed new leads. He did not elaborate. New Madrid County authorities declined interview requests.

The Missouri killings hit hard in Portageville, a town of 3,000 residents. Dozens of officers from neighboring towns and counties joined in the 1998 investigation. Residents tried to help by preparing meals and providing coffee for investigators.

Police believe the same man stopped at a home in Dyersburg, Tennessee, just a couple of hours after the killings, drew a revolver and shot another woman. Ballistics testing showed the same gun was used in both crimes.