Augustine's Confessions

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, thank you so much for tuning in today, this story that we have for you is so eerie and confounding, so please let us know your thoughts. And please do not forget to share this story, like Daphne said, it is so baffling and also follow us on our socials to check out photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered. And by the way, before we dive into today's case, I want to mention that as of course many of you know, our merch was supposed to drop today, but we got a message yesterday that for whatever reason, the company wasn't able to turn out this merch in time. So we're very, very bummed about this, we're incredibly sorry, we want to have these merch items for you guys for sale, but we will have them soon and we'll keep you updated with the new merch drop date. Yeah, we are so eager to get these items out, we really appreciate your patience because this is totally out of our control and honestly we're so, so bummed. So more on that soon, but anyway, for right now, let's dive into this terrifyingly tragic winter tale. Alright guys, this is episode 580 of going west, so let's get into it. In February of 1987, a 30-year-old woman left her boyfriend's home in Maryland during the onset of a severe snow storm, planning to beat the weather in time to make it back to her Pennsylvania home. But the next morning, her car was found abandoned off a highway, and the only sign of her was a vicious, bloody mess. Within hours, a stolen credit card and a blood stained shirt deep in the mystery, leaving police to wonder who brutally murdered her and why. This is the murder of Sheree McGarro. Sheree Marie Yutts was born to parents Mary Grace and Thomas on October 23, 1956. She and her sister Vicki grew up in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, which is about 40 minutes northeast of the capital city of Harrisburg. Sheree is described by her family as bubbly and a loyal friend. Her mom Mary Grace said proudly, quote, "She was vivacious and outgoing and so friendly." Sheree graduated from Cedar Crest High School in 1975, and after the completion of her studies, she started teaching evening classes at Barbizon Modeling School for two years. Sheree then took a job working at a computer firm called Control Data Corporation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, obviously very close to home, and she wound up spending the next 10 years of her career there, working her way up to Executive Secretary, which is a role that she took great pride in. She also loved to paint and was studying oil painting at the time of her disappearance. In 1982, she married a man named Michael McGarro, who worked as a motorcycle salesman. And then the following year, their son Anthony, who was nicknamed Tony, was born, but the marriage didn't last much longer after that. So Sheree and Michael separated in 1985 when she was about 29 years old. However, I will say, the divorce was amicable despite Sheree gaining full custody. And no matter how scary the road to single motherhood seemed, she's remembered as a devoted and patient mother to her only child during the short few years that they had together. And I will say she was very close with her family so she had a big support system, but also, she wasn't totally alone anyway, because the same year that she filed for divorce, Sheree met an employee of the Delaware Lottery Commission, named Frank Brown Jr., and they started dating. Though they were forced to do long distance because he lived east of Baltimore along the Chesapeake Bay, but they made it work. And for the 13 months leading up to Sheree's disappearance, they kind of took turns trading off and visiting each other, Sheree to Maryland and Frank to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she and Tony lived at the Willow Farms Village Mobile Home Park. And there, she tried to spend at least three weekends per month with Frank, so, you know, they saw each other pretty frequently. Yeah, they are making it work despite the distance. While according to Mary Grace, Frank was a really wonderful father figure to Tony, and they loved each other very much. On the third weekend of February 1987, it was Sheree's turn to visit Frank in Maryland, and at this time she opted to leave Tony behind to kind of enjoy some alone time with Frank. Because at this point, they were considering becoming a little bit more serious. So Sheree left Tony with her parents for a quick weekend getaway, and then arrived at Frank's home around 1pm on February 21st. And by the way, she usually stayed until Monday morning, leaving early enough to arrive at work on time after the two hour drive from Frank's house, so there's two hours between the two of them. On the very day that Sheree disappeared, February 22nd, 1987, Sheree called her mom to tell her some very good news that she and Frank were actually making plans to get married. Mary Grace reported that quote, "She was going to sell her trailer and marry him. They had discussed it that Saturday night." She said, "I can't wait to tell you all about it." And I feel like this is kind of more rare, like she had a really great weekend with her partner. So leading up to her disappearance, things were really good. It wasn't like, "Oh, they were breaking up, and there was trouble like she had a-." Yeah, there was no tension or anything going on. Yeah, things were like the opposite, very happy. But that very evening, an impending snow storm was threatening the area. So Sheree told her mom that she was going to leave early in an attempt to beat this storm. While she usually waited until early Monday morning to make the two hour drive, she was just hoping to get ahead of the snowfall, you know, kind of beat this storm. Mary Grace remembered, sadly, quote, "She didn't want to take the chance of being stuck down there. I begged her not to come. She said, 'I have to.'" And again, this was mostly because Sheree had to work the next morning, so she's trying to be responsible here. She's trying to get back on time so she can make it to work. Sheree was last seen leaving the residents of her boyfriend, Frank Brown, and Kennedy ville, Maryland on the night of Sunday, February 22, 1987. Which was such a scary time to be on the road because around a foot and a half of snow accumulated that night, I mean, this was more than Sheree had been anticipating. And she really did think that she would be able to make it home before the weather really took a turn. But before she left, Frank says that he gave her $20 for gas, and then bid her farewell at 9.40pm, but she never made it home. The following morning, Monday, February 23, 1987, around 9.30am. So like 12 hours later, police received a call from an anonymous source reporting an abandoned car in a fallow field just off of route to 13 in Maryland, just south of the Bohemia River bridge. So kind of interesting that's an anonymous call. Well, there, despite the freezing temperatures, Sheree's burned out car was located near Cecilton, Maryland, meaning she had only made it about 15 miles or 24 kilometers from Frank's house. So this case was kind of trouble from the start because unfortunately, the snowfall coated and obscured it any possible footprints and tire tracks that night. So you know, potential initial clues are already undiscoverable. But despite the foot and a half of fresh snow, only about an inch could be found beneath Sheree's gray 1976 for Torino, giving a little bit of a timeline. So based on the amount of snowfall that had accumulated beneath the vehicle, this one inch of snow, detectives believe that the car had most likely been abandoned between 1015 and 1045 pm the night prior, so only 30 to 60 minutes after she left Frank's house. Inside the car was Sheree's suitcase, as well as a few discarded items of clothes, which eerily were believed to have been what Sheree was wearing at the time of her disappearance. So obviously this is very, very alarming. The fact that the clothes that she was wearing that night are inside her car, but she's nowhere to be found. Well, before detectives knew what was happening, their initial assumption was that maybe this was the disposal of like a stolen vehicle, but this was very quickly put to rest when they spotted blood and realized that it was something much more nefarious. Because spattered inside the burnt remains of the vehicle were Sheree's blood, hair and brain matter alongside char from the burn. Her blood was also found on the outside of the vehicle, and on its left rear door, they even discovered a skull fragment. The fire had originated in the left rear seat, but it had extinguished itself before it took over the car, which would have actually resulted in an explosion. Now, also a tire jack with her blood, hair and tissue on it was found in the trunk, though without more information without her body there, investigators couldn't be certain that this was, in fact, the murder weapon, but it does seem, obviously, yeah, seems pretty likely. Yeah, like it was the murder weapon, or at least was used in, in beating her, especially in her head, if her hair was found on it and tissue, we know there's brain matter in the car, skull fragment outside the car. But even without a body and a definitive murder weapon, her death was presumed to be the result of blunt force trauma. Now sadly, even in the early hours of the investigation, and despite being without a body, Detective Sergeant Larry Meisel of the Maryland State Police reported, quote, "any person with that loss of blood and tissue cannot have survived that attack." Because of the lack of blood in the snow surrounding the vehicle, Detective Meisel maintained that Cherie had been killed in or near the car, but discarded somewhere else, and that the car was then left there on its own. Larry continued, quote, "there would have been an astronomical amount of blood. It just wasn't there." State trooper Bob Perot was there to greet Detective Meisel when he arrived, and Bob told the press, quote, "we determined at the scene that there was foul play. We treated it at the time as a homicide." Investigators checked the registration and found that the car did belong to Cherie, and they began contacting her next of Cannes of course to try and piece together what the hell happened here. The field was then combed closely, but very little sign of Cherie was found in the snow. Only her pocketbook, which lay about 100 yards from the car, her driver's license, and then also a tube of her lipstick were scattered on the ground. But this also shows either somebody is trying to throw her things around, or there's a struggle. Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of assuming that there might have been some sort of struggle if that was the case, like maybe she had been holding her purse, and as this struggle was ensuing, things are just kind of flying out onto the ground. But it's also like if the murder didn't happen in that spot, then it seems like that's just where the car was discarded, so then maybe by the time the car got there, she wasn't even alive. Yeah. So then, but then why are the items scattered? Well, what's really interesting here is that police did describe the car as being ransacked, but a bad containing multiple costly pieces of jewelry was left behind. Therefore, Bob Broke concluded, quote, "Robbery I would say was not a motive." Now when the car was brought in for testing, they noted again that all the doors were unlocked, and the engine, the tires, and the windshield wipers were all in perfect working order. And there was also still a quarter tank of gasoline in the tank. So it's not like she pulled over because there was something wrong with her car. And for anybody screaming in their car, thinking that it was possibly the snow, regardless of that heavy snowfall, the car was not stuck in that field, and it had actually been driven there. Yeah, and remember, only one inch of snow under her car, so I wonder as well if maybe there was more and the fire had caused some of that snow to melt, but either way, the snow was not the reason the car was out there. Well, crazy enough, even after this small fire, it could have been driven away from the scene of its discovery, meaning that there really was nothing wrong with that car. Well Larry Meisler explained, quote, "The mechanics went over the car, it started, it ran, the tires were filled, it had coolant in it, there was gas in the tank, there were no tire prints or tracks or anything by the bridge. We took dirt samples and grass samples to see if the car had driven in any other area, but it wasn't, the construction workers looked the best that they could, they said that she couldn't be in there. There's a lot of theories that go on whenever we have a homicide. You speculate and think, could this have happened? If you don't have a body, where is the body? We searched the fields, we searched the woods, we searched the river. We had divers in the river, we had divers in by the bridge, we searched the new construction by the bridge, all along the highway from where we found the car up until Elkden." And by the way Cecilton to Elkden is like the stretch of highway between them is like 16 miles or 26 kilometers heading north, so they went wide searching for her. So authorities came to believe that Cherie had likely stopped to help someone else, who appeared to be in need on the side of the road, and that she was assaulted and killed alongside the road, or perhaps brought to another location where this took place, and then her body was disposed of. And then the perpetrator abandoned her car in the field after setting it on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence. So please think that she was most likely in a Ted Bundy situation. You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of that scene from Silence of the Lambs when Buffalo Bill is trying to get out. I think he's trying to load or unload a couch in the van and he's like, "Oh, can you help me?" And he's got his arm in a slinger, whatever. It's so reminiscent of that, and we do see this in different real life cases that we've covered on this show. >> That was probably inspired by Ted Bundy too, or that is kind of a, like you're saying, we've seen that a lot where somebody acts like they need help. And I'm saying Ted Bundy, I'm sure most of you know what I mean, but like he would pretend like he needed help with getting things in his car, like carrying books to his car because his arm was in a sling and oh, I'm, you know, just an innocent young man. So they're wondering if this is what happened to Sheree. You know, I would, I think that makes sense, or since we know that she was in a hurry, somebody else pulled her over, maybe flashing their lights at her or something. We've talked about this in other cases where people pretending to be police officers or sometimes had the actual police officers will do this for nefarious purposes, or a regular person just flashing their headlights to get somebody to pull over so you know, they can do something terrible. Like I'd wondered about the gas thing too, like if Frank gave her money for gas, if she had gone to the gas station and was followed. But remember, like Heath said, she only had a quarter tank of gas. So she wouldn't have burned through almost $20 worth of gas in 1987 and only 30 to 60 minutes. Yeah. Like a full tank of gas probably. Right. You put $20 in your gas tank in 1987 and you're driving halfway across the damn country. Yeah. So she had to have pulled over for one reason or another. I also wonder if someone was at a light next to her before she got on the highway and saw that she was a beautiful young woman or maybe someone even followed her from Frank's place and forced her to pull over eventually. It's also possible though that she did stop to help someone. Well, I think what's really interesting here is the weather angle and that's something that I think really takes precedent in this case, the fact that there probably were less people on the road during a severe snow storm, less witnesses to see anything happen. And this person, this perpetrator really was opportunistic in this attack. Which is why I'm like, if it was a snow storm, she's a young woman by herself. She's trying to get home. She's trying to beat the snow storm. Would she really pull over to help somebody? We're going to talk about that more later, but one for thought. One other interesting thing to note is, was this attack preplanned or was this person just out there that night? Like you said, saw a beautiful young girl driving and took the opportunity to attack her. Or was this person just out there looking for somebody to attack that night? We just don't know. Well, regarding the fact that the car was not destroyed, even though they clearly tried to destroy it by setting it on fire, Bob Pro said gratefully, quote, "If it had been destroyed, we would still be classifying her as missing." But still, despite what was left, unfortunately, between the fire and the snowfall, the evidence left behind on the vehicle was still pretty scant, and I mean, pertaining to the perp because no fingerprints could be found. Sheree's parents, Mary Grace and Thomas, of course, offered up blood samples, which were sent to a lab in New York City to compare it to the blood at the scene so they could determine how much of that blood was Sheree's, and if any of it was, potentially, foreign or some of the else's. The perps blood. Although DNA testing was still in its infancy, of course, remember this is 1987, the DNA molecules and enzymes found in the Yutzes blood was compared to Sherees, and were found to have a match characterized as 41,891,827 to one that the blood belonged to a direct descendant of the Yutzes. So, you know, it was Sherees. It was Sherees, of course. But that's all they had, no other DNA match for her killer. For the next week, firefighters, Army personnel, police officers, and volunteers circled this field, and dug through the snow, gradually expanding from where her car was found. Because not only did they want to find Sheree, but they know they have a vicious killer that's on the loose. A team of cadaver dogs were marched through the field as well, with countless resources being used to assist with Sheree's case. They searched for three days back to back, but they found nothing. Despite the frigid temperatures, divers entered the Bohemia River, as well as offshoot creeks, looking for any sign of Sherees remains, but they didn't find anything. One of the only pieces of evidence was found two days after the discovery of Sheree's car. So two days after Sheree's car was found, and about a mile or 1.6 kilometers north of this field, there was a large men's shirt discarded in the snow. It was a simple cotton t-shirt, though I will say some sources reported being a plaid button down, which is very different from a simple t-shirt, of which Bob speculated, quote, "either way." Any K-Mart dollar general store has them. But get this. This was not just like a shirt left in a field with nothing on it. Yeah, not just a random shirt that they found. The shirt was found to be soaked through with Sheree's blood. So, for anyone who wants to know what to picture here, if you can't look at our socials for photos, either side of the one lane highway of Route 213 where Sheree's car was found, is just field and farmland. And this highway connects to many other highways that take you across the country. So that's kind of part of what makes this case so difficult, is that her killer could have just easily taken her body, torched her car, and then driven anywhere. And of course, without surveillance cameras and a freaking severe snow storm, they could have easily done this without anybody seeing or finding them. But we are going to talk about witness sightings here in a bit. Well, this is when we really wonder as well if more than one person was involved. Because if the killer drove her car into a field, was their own vehicle nearby because they would need to dispose of the car in that field, which wasn't far off the highway by the way, and then get back to their own car. While we imagine, covered in blood. So it's unlikely that they would have hitchhiked back to their car wherever it was. But police searched this whole area and did not find the crime scene. They didn't find any blood in the snow. So where the hell did she encounter her killer? Where was she killed? And how did the killer transport her vehicle? Yeah, that's really such an interesting thing here because it's like, if they didn't find any blood around the car, which of course you would imagine if there's brain matter and skull fragments, there would be like the detective said in a crazy amount of blood, you know, like just so much astronomical, astronomical is what he said. So you would think that there would be some of the attack happened right there, but of course, that just wasn't found. So where did this take place? But then you also wonder, well, why was there a skull fragment found on the outside of her car and a little blood found on the outside of her car and blood on the inside of her car? So did the attack happen? I mean, then you would think the attack happened outside the vehicle and then she was put inside the car. Maybe she was assaulted in the car, but then where's the rest of the blood? That's the question. So I want to know why this perpetrator decided to take this shirt off, you know, the one that was found covered in Sheree's blood. Like, why did he take it off? Why was it left there? Did he put on a spare shirt? And get back, because this is, again, this is February in a snowstorm, it's freezing. So you had to have had, it's not like you're walking around without a shirt on. Yeah. And then what? You're right, though, because I mean, even though again DNA testing was in its infancy, it's pretty stupid to leave behind your shirt somewhere, though, as far as we know, no DNA was taken from the shirt or at least was found on the shirt. So, yeah, were they wearing the shirt? Did they use it to mop up her blood? Like, what's going on? Also, you know, just the fact that there was blood spatter and brain matter found in and around her car. I mean, is it possible that the very first hit took place at her car and then maybe the rest of the attack happened in somebody else's vehicle, like the perpetrator's vehicle? But still, where is the rest of the blood? If it was outside the car, because I agree, I think she definitely was attacked outside of her car at least partially. Yeah, because how would that blood and brain matter get there? Exactly. I mean, either way, it's pretty incredible that the police were able to conduct such a large search and that they did find this blood-soaked t-shirt about a mile from her car. I mean, that just proves that someone disposed of evidence along the way to wherever they were headed. But, of course, the questions remain, you know, why? I mean, why did they do any of this? Well, about an hour and a half after the discovery of her car, a strange run-in at a Sears Department store could be linked to Sheree's disappearance, and this remains a mystery to this day. So around 11 a.m. on February 24, 1987, a white man who appeared to be in his 20s, strolled into a Sears store, and Bel Air, Maryland, which is about an hour from where Sheree's car was found, and attempted to buy a television with Sheree's car. However, Sheree's car happened to be maxed out at that point, so the transaction didn't go through. And this is possibly why Frank gave Sheree that $20 for gas. While this man famed confusion, telling the sales clerk that the car belonged to his wife, he then offered up a very phony story about Sheree being his new bride, who was waiting for him at a Sheraton in Aberdeen, Maryland, about 25 minutes away. According to this man, the pair had just gotten married, and were living in the hotel until they could settle into a house. But why they would need a new TV if they were living in a hotel, he declined to explain. No, obviously, this story is completely bogus as we know. But the man even went so far as to claim that he worked at Aberdeen Proving Ground, which is this army base that's located in Aberdeen. After store personnel became very suspicious of this man, he left in a hurry before they could question him or glean any more information from him, leaving Sheree's car behind. So weird. Yeah, I mean, it's so strange. He just walks into a store, says, "Hey, I need to buy this TV for me and my wife because we're living in a hotel, and we need a new TV, and we just got married." Well, amazing that he actually left the car behind. I don't know why he would even do that, unless maybe they were holding on to it, and they were like, "Get out of here," or he got scared, and he just ran, and didn't grab the car back or the car to back from them. I think probably that was what was taking place. He got a little spooked. But it's great, because now they know Sheree's name. They have her card. So when these serious employees later saw a news report about Sheree's murder, they were like, "Wait a second. That is the name on this card, so then they reported it to police." They described the man as being "celender" and standing at about 5 feet 9 inches tall. He had dark hair trimmed in a crew cut and light eyes. Why is the crew cut so synonymous with these very strange '70s and '80s serial killers? Zodiac, bunny. Yeah, I was going to say, you know, Zodiac had that crew cut. Yeah, I mean, I guess it was just popular amongst everybody, even killers. Well, also, a lot of the times when we see this, it's connected to some sort of military service, like the killers are usually, you know, have that have these crew cuts, usually spent time in the military. And this proves as well the fact that he knows about the army base there. He's talking about the Sheraton there, like he knows the area. So that's an interesting point. Well, naturally, detectives entertain the possibility that the man had simply found the card or even bought it from somebody who had stolen it, but it seemed most likely that this man had something to do with her disappearance, which made it all the more disappointing that he had managed to get away. You know, and I would agree, especially since he had tried to use it at 11 a.m. the next morning, some 12 or 13 hours after she had been killed. With the snowstorm, I doubt the killer tossed the card out of the vehicle and somebody found it right away before more snow covered it up and tried to use it the minute they're able to the next morning when the stores open up. Yeah, I absolutely do not believe that this was some transaction that somebody bought the card or they just randomly found it, like there's no way, whoever used that card that day at that sear store is the person that is most likely responsible for Sheree's disappearance and murder. And I don't believe that they killed her to get that card because as we know, there was costly jewelry left behind, but maybe they're like, oh, am I as well trying to get a TV out of the deal? Yeah, that was just the opportunity that came after the potential sexual assault and murder. They're literally Bob Perot's exact thoughts. He explained, quote, "To have the buyer use the card right away, I don't think so." Nonetheless, Aberdeen Proving Ground, the Army Base, was searched for potential matches to the composite sketch because they're like, wait a second. Is our guy here? Yeah, we gotta look into it. And employees of the Aberdeen Sheraton Hotel were actually questioned as well. Guess what? There was no sign of the mysterious man with Sheree's credit card, confirming even more so that his story was totally bogus in every way but again. This clearly means the person is a local. On May 4, 1987, months into the search for Sheree, another one of her bank cards was found. But this time, it was discarded on the side of the road about 10 miles or 16 kilometers away from the site of her vehicle. But no other items of hers were found in the vicinity. This time it was actually a JC Penny card, which was found propped up against a stop sign at the intersection of Route 213 and Whitehall Road. That's kind of interesting because it doesn't seem like it was thrown out of the window of a vehicle. It seems like somebody purposefully propped it up against a stop sign. Yeah, because even if it had miraculously landed, propped up, it would stay that way for months despite the weather, it's a little weird, it's a little weird. Somebody definitely put that there on purpose. But why? Well, let's finally get into what many of you are asking yourselves. Both Sheree's ex-husband Michael and her boyfriend Frank were cleared of potential involvement. More so than anyone else, Michael was considered a prime suspect, of course, due to the nature of his former relationship with Sheree, and also the fact that she had assumed full custody of their son, Tony. So after her parents were notified that Sheree had been met with foul play, speaking with Michael was one of the first tasks that investigators took. According to Larry Meisel, quote, "They had the normal divorce and custody problems. We looked at the ex-husband very hard, but nothing ever came from it." Now, Michael, who told detectives that he and his wife parted on excellent terms, was actually very helpful in the investigation, even consenting to multiple polygraph examinations and always willing to be questioned. I mean, Michael even drove from his home in Harrisburg to the Maryland State Police Barracks in Northeast Maryland, and this is nearly two hours away, just in order to be interviewed by the police. He was given two lie detector tests questioning his involvement in the murder, and he actually passed both of them. Now Michael added his own theory about what happened, saying, quote, "Police said whoever killed her, she knew her killer. It was someone from that area. I was in Harrisburg, a good 90 to 100 miles or 140 to 160 kilometers away. What's the motive? Why would I kill her? You can't make sense of something like that. She did nothing wrong. You're never going to get an answer. I feel guilty because if we were still together, she would have never gone down there." Now despite their estrangement, Michael did speak out about wanting to find his ex-wife's killer, saying, quote, "Sometimes I think they just forget about it and go on to more recent cases. But I think Pro is a pretty good cop, and he's obsessed with the case. He said he'll pursue it for the rest of his life." I wonder if that she knew her killer thing was a line that police were feeding him because I honestly don't think that's the case here at all, especially since she was visiting her boyfriend. This isn't an area that she ever lived in, yes, she went three or whatever weekend's a month. Yeah, but that probably was not enough to meet locals and really like, you know, like, get to know new people. No, I completely agree, and I think even though this attack was obviously very vicious, it absolutely seems random, don't you think? Yeah, and I completely agree with you. Like maybe this was just something that they used with Michael because they're like, if he did have something to do with it, we're going to, yeah, we're going to kind of feed this to him. So maybe he'll crack and be like, oh, you're right, it was me, you know, I just think it was probably a line. Yeah. Well, as police worked tirelessly to scrape together any lead or forward momentum in the case, Sheree's friends, family and co-workers put together a reward of $20,000 for any information leading to an arrest. The next major public development came in March of 1987 when investigators released two composite sketches of men who were thought to have potential involvement in Sheree's case. Maryland State Police also announced that they officially believed that Sheree had been the victim of a homicide. Now the first composite drawing released was a depiction of the guy who had tried to use her car to buy that television from Sheree's. The second composite released in the press was a less concrete sighting, but potentially even more important than the guy who tried to use her car. Because multiple people who had been driving along Route 213 reported having seen a Ford Mustang parked near the snowy field where her car was found, and this Ford Mustang had its hazards on. Based on the description of what the hazard lights looked like, detectives were able to narrow down the model of Mustang significantly, determining that it had been manufactured between 1974 and 1978 or 1983 and 1987, and it had either Pennsylvania or Maryland plates. There were reports of both. One state trooper who spotted the vehicle even underwent hypnosis in an attempt to remember the specific details of the car that he had seen that very night. However, Bob Perot maintained, quote, "We don't feel it's a Pennsylvania connection. We feel it's a Maryland connection." Investigators made the painstaking effort of checking on every registered Ford Mustang in the area, but they clearly had their work cut out for them because in Cecil County where her car was found. There were no less than 5,000 registered Ford Mustangs. "Yeah, that makes it a little hard." "Yeah, 'cause it's not just like let's just find the names, it's let's find the names and look into each one of these people." Well, at least one report actually detailed having seen a man standing next to a car alongside, you know, on Route 213, about a fifth of a mile or about.3 kilometers from where her car eventually turned up. The reports concluded that the car was seen multiple times between 10pm and 1am, which of course would align with the timeline of the removal of Sheree's car from the road, and its abandonment in the adjacent field. About 10pm, a car of men pulled over after being flagged down by this man, but he then declined to let them help him maybe because it was a group of men. "Yeah, he's like, this is not my target." "Yeah. Well, like the man in the Sears, this man was a white man dressed in dark clothing and was likely 20s or early 30s, about 5 feet 10 inches tall with a medium build, dark hair and eyes, and a mustache. Pretty similar, yeah. Pretty similar." Well, the composites were printed in the newspapers multiple times, and also printed in multiple newspapers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. But no credible tips were ever called in. Based on their similarities, it's possible that these sightings were actually the same man, or that they were a team working together, and it's even somewhat possible that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that they weren't even involved at all. "Well, not only are the descriptions very similar, the composites do look very similar as well." "Yeah, they do. When you put them side to side, you're like, that's probably the same person." "Yeah, we'll post those for you guys to see." "Also, I want to say that the composites look like a mix between Freddie Mercury and Borat." "It's the Unibrow." "The eyebrows are so prominent. He almost looks like he's Italian in some way, you know. It's a good hair." "It's a good hair." "If you want a visual, I've tried to do my best to give you a visual." "No, that's a good crossover comparison, absolutely." "Well, either way, it seemed most plausible that the man or men wore the ones responsible for Sheree's disappearance in death. The working theory from police was that Sheree was most likely lure to her death, with perhaps a sexual assault first, from someone who posed as a motorist needing help." Maryland State Police homicide detective Roger Castles said, "We looked at her stopping to help someone who was disabled, and we got various stories from her friends and family. Some said that she would stop and help anyone. Others said that she was very cautious and she wouldn't stop. But Mary graced her mother maintained her belief that, quote, "She would have given anyone a ride. She would have pitted them." Detectives have also posited that, like Daphne said earlier, perhaps her attacker posed as a police officer, which is a common ruse in cases in which the victim has inexplicably pulled over alongside of the road. And this would have been especially true if she was in the midst of a snowstorm, then she probably wouldn't have stopped. Upro mused quote, "Let's just say that whoever she met, she felt comfortable meeting." It seems unlikely that she would have pulled over for any reason other than, you know, being required to do so. Others have put forth a theory that, perhaps her killer was actually a police officer who harmed her, which is why he was able to seamlessly cover up her murder and then, of course, discard her body. And for anybody wondering in the U.S. in 1987, the most popular police car was a Ford as it is today, but it was definitely not a Mustang, rather an L-T-D Crown Victoria. But if it were a police car, people probably would have just said that, and not the Ford or the Mustang, unless that Mustang isn't actually involved. As Leeds dried up and the case went cold, investigators did what they could to keep Sheree in the public eye, including pleading with unsolved mysteries to take up her case. Bob Pro said, dejectedly quote, "We haven't been successful, we can't get enough clout." To the frustration of her loved ones and investigators alike, Sheree's body has never been located. This year in 2026 marks 39 years since Sheree's disappearance. For their peace of mind, Sheree was declared legally dead in March of 1989, so a little over two years after she vanished. Her mom Mary Grace and father Thomas claimed that it brought them a small measure of peace just to kind of put her murder behind them and focus on trying to find their daughters killer. In an interview with a local newspaper in February of 1989, Mary Grace said, "We have to accept it, we have no choice." The evidence proves she was killed that very night. This is very difficult, we don't know where she is. We can't have a burial, we can't have a memorial. In the same interview, Bob Pro assured the public that they were still working the case when tips came in, but it had been very slow moving. He explained quote, "We still work on it when we get Leeds, it's just a total mystery. We know she was met with foul play, we know she's dead." He also admitted that, unfortunately in the months before the declaration of Sheree's passing, the tips had slowed to an almost complete halt. Despite the closure of having her declared legally deceased, Mary Grace said quote, "We rarely ever think of the killer, we are obsessed with finding our daughter. We just cannot give up. What bothers me is how that person can face each day. It's on my mind every day, every day. It's on my daughter's mind, my husband's, my husband keeps it inside, but I talk about it all the time." Tony's father Michael did assume custody of him for a while, but ultimately, the Yutzes took responsibility for his care. After having Sheree legally declared deceased, her family finally held a memorial for her, despite their hesitance to lay her to rest. At year, again 1989, Tony was in kindergarten and though he too had tried to make sense of her death, you know as much as he could that young, Mary Grace said quote, "He never forgets her. He misses her terribly and no one is going to replace her. He still craves his mother. It's so sad." But bringing Tony into their family was one bright spot in their lives. She added gratefully quote, "He's our life now, he's our joy. If it's right into our family." So her parents raised Tony and by all accounts they did a wonderful job. But Mary Grace passed away in 2011 and Thomas remains in the area still awaiting answers. At the time of her disappearance, Sheree was 30 years old. She would now be 69 years old. With DNA advancements, there is a possibility that her killer could still be determined so we really hope that's the case. Sheree McGarrow stood at 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds, shed brown hair and brown eyes. If you have any information about the whereabouts of Sheree McGarrow or her killer, please contact the Maryland State Police Criminal Investigation Bureau at 410-653-4211. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode. What a horrific story, you know, and it's just, it feels like it's so close to being solved. You know, I wonder if just based on the fact that this crime was so vicious, I wouldn't be surprised if her killer had other victims. So hopefully this case is solved in one day, we'll find out exactly what happened to her, where her remains are, if her killer is connected to any other cases. But please let us know what you guys think of this story. Yes, thank you guys so much again for tuning in, and we will see you guys on Tuesday for a happening now case. A happening now case that you guys have been sending us eight times, so we will see you then. All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. [Music]