Memorial service held for Scott County woman who disappeared 30 years ago

BENTON, Mo. -- More than 200 friends, family members and law enforcement officers filled the pews at St. Denis Church in Benton Friday night to observe the 30-year-old mystery of Cheryl Ann Scherer's disappearance.

Scherer, a 19-year-old whose family lived on a farm in old Illmo, Mo., was abducted 30 years ago Friday during an apparent robbery of the Rhodes Pump-Ur-Own-Service station where she worked on Main Street in Scott City.

It was late morning on April 17, 1979, when Scherer was working, and had just called her mother, Olevia Scherer, to chat, inquiring about what was for dinner.

The red-haired teen was looking forward to getting off work at 2 p.m. and told her mother she planned to go home to sew.

That phone conversation was the last one Olevia Scherer had with her daughter.

After a prayer service in tribute and observance of the 30th anniversary of Cheryl Scherer's disappearance Friday, her brother, Anthony Scherer, left, and their mother, Olevia, greet guests at a reception at St. Denis Church in Benton, Mo. About 200 people came to support the family. (KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com)

An off-duty attendant described seeing Cheryl Scherer around 11:30 a.m. at the station. The attendant left for a few minutes and returned to find Cheryl Scherer had vanished, her car still parked outside.

Her purse had been left behind the counter at the service station, and about $480 was missing from a bank bag near the register.

"It's just sad that they never found her," Paul Burger, cousin of Cheryl Scherer, said at Friday's prayer service.

Burger, 10 years older than Scherer, said he grew up about an eighth of a mile away from his cousin in Scott County.

During the prayer service, Jeff Scherer, another of Cheryl Scherer's cousins, said the family was grateful for the countless thoughts and prayers they had received during the past 30 years, as well as the numerous cards, the food brought during the first few months of Cheryl Scherer's disappearance and help distributing missing-person fliers.

Cheryl Scherer

"Thirty years have passed since that day that Cheryl was taken from us, 30 years of hoping she will return to us, and 30 years of knowing she may not," Jeff Scherer said.

To law enforcement officers who had worked the case persistently over the years, Jeff Scherer said simply, "thanks for not giving up."

Lt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff's Department, who has been an investigator on the case since the beginning, said he's still hopeful that the case is solvable.

He pointed out that recently, Cape Girardeau police secured an arrest in a homicide that happened that same year, when they arrested Max Ellison Jr. in connection with the murder of Deborah L. Martin.

"Older cases than this get solved," Bledsoe said.

Guests peruse old yearbooks of Cheryl Scherer on Friday during a reception at St. Denis Church in Benton, Mo., marking the 30th anniversary of her disappearance. (KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com)

As recently as a few weeks ago, Bledsoe said, he received information about a possible lead n the case. He said he tends to wait and see how tips pan out before informing the family.

"I know how let down I get when they don't, I'd rather be let down by myself than mention it to the family and take them with me," Bledsoe said.

In the past 30 years, Bledsoe said, the strongest lead he's gotten on the case was the 2007 arrest of Timothy W. Krajcir for five unsolved homicides in Cape Girardeau, all of women killed in 1977 and 1982.

"When that came up, it was like, this is it, this has got to be it," Bledsoe said.

After Cape Girardeau detective Jim Smith interviewed Krajcir about Scherer, though, there turned out to be no indication he'd been involved with Scherer's disappearance.

Former Scott County sheriff Bill Ferrell was able to question serial killer Henry Lee Lucas in the 1980s about Scherer's disappearance.

Lucas confessed to killing 179 people throughout the country, including one he'd admitted abducting near Interstate 55 in Missouri, saying he'd dumped her body near Crystal City, Mo.

When he saw Scherer's picture, however, he'd denied that she was the girl he'd abducted and killed, and no body was ever found at the location he described.

Bledsoe said he still talks to the Scherer family frequently.

"You don't want to give up," he said.

Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said the department continues to investigate the case and commended Bledsoe's dedication to solving the mystery.

"He's been carrying the torch a long time," Walter said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635

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