Gone By Noon

A lot of people talk about wanting to live off the grid. These days that's pretty difficult. Most of us have cell phones glued to our hands or smart watches tracking our every step. Doorbell cameras offer a blanket of security outside our homes. Always on, always connected, always recording. This story begins back in the 1970s when the grid had a lot of holes in it, a time when anyone could go missing without a trace. People like Cheryl Scherer. Your family wouldn't change your home phone number because that's the number she knew. That's right. That's right, because this was all before cell phones. Back then, parents had no choice but to trust they'd see their teenager at the end of the day. They just ended the conversation with plans to come home. On April 17, 1979, 19-year-old Cheryl Scherer did not come home. She hasn't been home for nearly 50 years. In one way or the other, we just thought she'll be back that this is not going to be something that we're going to live with for the rest of our lives. The Sherrers weren't the only ones who never let go of Cheryl's case. How many sheriffs says this case can found it? I'll be the fourth. Maybe you'll be the one that closes it. You know I hope. I'm Josh Manquets, and this is Missing in America, a podcast from Dateline. This episode is Gone by Noon. Please listen closely, because you or someone you know might have the information that could finally bring Cheryl's family the answers they're looking for. We had a wonderful childhood. We lived on a farm. We had cows and pigs at one time and rabbits, and I think we did have chickens. Diane and Anthony Sherrer grew up on about 45 acres of land close to the Mississippi River, just north of Missouri's Boothheel, in between the towns of Benton and Scott City. You know, mom and dad, they were wonderful parents. We went to church, they taught us the faith. Their dad Raymond worked as a farmer. Mom Libby stayed home with the kids. Cheryl was the eldest, then Anthony. Diane was the baby. A lot of the times me and mom and Anthony and Cheryl would sit out on our glider and sing until we saw Dad coming home. You'd sit out there and sing? Yes. Yeah. To the best of our abilities. Yes. We would sing like, "You're my sunshine. I remember singing that one all the time." Growing up, Cheryl and Diane were as close as sisters could be. They shared a bedroom. Diane says big sister Cheryl was a typical 70s teenager. She was like involved in like the PEP club and FHA, but her big thing was I think the gymnastics. They would have events since she would do her gymnastics. She was a little, little, petite thing. And Cheryl was smart. She was in the top 10 of her class. At her senior prom, a crown was placed on Cheryl's flaming red hair. She was very excited to be crowned the prom queen that year. I think she's shocked. Yeah. I think she's shocked more than anything, yeah. The prom theme that year, we may never pass this way again from the 1973 Seals and Crofts hit. We've been alone as a state of view, which is kind of ironic that that was the theme of the prom that she was queen of just a few years before she went missing. Cheryl graduated in May 1977. I think her goal after high school was to get a full-time job and then her and her boyfriend would get married. They probably live on a farm because she loved animals and that she would have babies. While Cheryl was dreaming about that future life with her boyfriend, she landed a job at the Rhodes Pump Your Own Gas Station in Scott City, Missouri. The gas station is not what you're picturing. There was no convenience store, no sodas, no candy bars. Just a small booth with barely enough room for the attendant on shift to squeeze in. A place where customers could buy cigarettes and pay for their gas. Cheryl usually worked the two to ten p.m. shift, which meant sometimes she was responsible for taking the cash from that day to deposit at the bank. I know that made your parents very nervous. Yes, it did. There were nights that dad would go out and you know, like if she had the bank bag and so that made them very nervous. Your father would go out just to kind of keep watch on her. Yes, exactly. Yes. I'd keep it taken to work if there's something with the car or whatever and then he would make your picker up, you know, but your parents were worried about her working alone at that gas station basically after dark. That's correct. That is correct. Was Cheryl worried about that at all? No. When your parents would express that worry, what would Cheryl say? She was never concerned. And I think typical teenager, you know, they probably thought, oh dad, you're worried too much. I mean, not that she didn't appreciate him being there, but kind of like, you know, I'm okay. On the morning of Tuesday, April 17, 1979, Cheryl worked the morning shift instead, 6am to 2pm. That meant an early wake up call. The alarm goes off and then she would tell me to close my eyes because she's going to turn the light on to get her clothes out of the closet. I remember all that happening that morning. She told me that she loved me because we always said that, you know, I love you and then a way she went. Later that morning, 17-year-old Anthony and 14-year-old Diane headed off to school. Their memories of the timeline of that day are a bit murky. Probably because back in the 1970s, people did not always know exactly what time it was. Here say Debra Hamilton, one of Cheryl's fellow employees, stopped by the gas station sometime between 11.15 and 11.30am. Here's Detective Sergeant Michael Williams of the Scott County Sheriff's Office. Witnesses did see her that day. They did see her outside. Miss Hamilton come by and bought cigarettes. The family also says Cheryl called her mom at home right around that time. She usually did that when things were slow at the gas station. And that final phone call was like every other, completely normal. That's right. Mom said they talked about what was going to be for supper that night. Cheryl was going to come home and so mom was asked that so many times about is there anything in her voice and mom's like there was nothing, no change in her voice or nothing. And how they ended, it wasn't like, oh, I've got a hurry and go. It was just like, okay, I better get back, you know. So nothing to suggest that, you know, maybe somebody else was there while she was having that conversation. It sounded normal. Definitely. There wasn't some customer that was paying too much attention to her or somebody that kept driving by. She would have mentioned that. She would have. Or she would have kept mom on the phone, you know, longer than normal, yeah, you know. The call lasted about 10 minutes. The family thinks Cheryl and her mom hung up around 11.30am. Then, for some reason, it is unclear exactly why that other employee Deborah Hamilton drove back past the station, within 20 minutes later she says she comes back and she's gone. It was the start of a mystery. Cheryl was not in her booth, wasn't anywhere at the station. More ominously, Cheryl's car, purse, keys and a ring were still there. Ms. Hamilton called her supervisor and another co-worker. They arrived and realized money was missing from the bank bag, more than $400. Within minutes, the Scott County Sheriff's Office was on the scene. I think the officers and deputies that were there did a September job because you're looking at a missing person, basically. But they wrote it as a kidnapping or homicide just based off their gut feeling, really. I mean, if you think about a lot of agencies that are smaller, you get a missing person. Some of those agencies says, hey, wait 24 hours, she don't show up, then we'll take a report. But they didn't get that sense. You guys didn't do that. No, they did not get that sense. This was not the kind of case to wait and see what happens. It was the kind that keeps people up at night. The kind that makes your mind jump to the most chilling possibilities. We looked at very serial killers that could have been in this area during that time period. [MUSIC] When Anthony and Diane Sherrer were abruptly pulled out of class on April 17, 1979, they had no idea why. I don't even know what class I was in. Yeah, but just like someone coming said, "Gather your stuff together and wipe out front door." We're at the front door and we're talking about. I wonder Sherrer's picking us up to something happened to mom or dad or maybe our grandparents because they were getting older at the time, too. It wasn't Sherrer. Instead, a Scott County deputy pulled up to Kelly High School. We got in the car and very, very little was said. She just said that she needed to take us home and that mom and dad may be upset, so we just needed to be strong. They could not imagine what lay ahead. I remember coming and getting out of the car and my dad in the front yard with a bunch of his friends, relatives, and there was something very, very upsetting to him. I went and talked to mother and she, in her crying, told us that Sherrer was missing. But being the strong woman that she is, she tried to convince us that we'll find her. She'll come back, law enforcement will help us and different things like that. Maybe she was also trying to convince herself. I think so. I think we all were. We just thought it could be a little while and then we get a phone call. She's all right and she's coming home and everything will go back to normal. You just expected that this was going to end happily. Yes, absolutely. Just because what the alternative is inconceivable. Exactly. Sergeant Michael Williams has been working Sherrer's case since 2021. He says law enforcement quickly launched a multi-agency investigation when she disappeared. Immediately the deputy got on scene, he called for the Missouri Highway Patrol surrounding agencies. They went all out and the community, we've heard from a lot of people, they all went and looked all over. They did everything they could in that time period. One of the things that jumps out at me about this is how tiny that window was when she was taken. I mean, it's the middle of the day. People have to be driving by. Nobody sees or hears anything. How is that possible? Well, that is very unique. It was a different time so we didn't have the technologies that we have today. There were no cell phones to track. No security footage to scour. There were people to speak with. There's a grocery store right next door, which was closed that day due to a family funeral. So the foot traffic, the car traffic was not what it normally is. But there's a busy railroad right there. There's a busy road. Witnesses did see or that day. Detectives are still working some of those eyewitness leads today. There's several witnesses that come by and see a van there, a 70 to 72 Maverick or a comet there that's white and color. We still have them identified. There's another description of an older car that's real loud. So there's witnesses, but that short gap is the mystery that intrigues us all. Investigators did not get the sense that Cheryl would have simply walked away on her own. They recognized right away there's money missing. Remember, there was that bank bag with more than $400 missing. Investigators did not believe Cheryl would have taken the money herself. What they thought was that someone else took it and maybe took Cheryl as well. This was a typical behavior. She would not have left of her own volition. That would have been out of character. She didn't have anywhere else to go except to work there the rest of her shift. Yeah, her purse was still there, her car keys were still there, her car was there. She left a ring on the counter that she probably took off doing maybe cleaning or something. There is no indication for many family member or her boyfriend or any of her friends that she had a reason to leave. As investigators worked Cheryl's case, her family worked on the damage already done to them. You just go through all those emotions. You must have seen your parents just shattered by this. Absolutely. Yes, I mean, the first couple of days I just remember lots of people. I remember Mom crying. I remember my dad sitting by the phone, weeping, just waiting on it to ring. Every time the phone would ring, everybody got quiet in the house. Everybody got quiet and it was just like pins and needles. And then it would be maybe somebody just calling to ask what we needed if we needed anything. And it was never her. It was always like, you know, no, we haven't heard anything. For those, I mean months, even I remember going to the store with mom and dad that Anthony would stay home then to listen to the phone. The house was never left empty. No. Diane, what was it like for you to continue living in that room? I did. I couldn't. So I slept on the couch for months because I just couldn't do it. This family could not even begin to conceive what had happened to Cheryl. What did you think had happened? Never did it cross our minds that Cheryl left willingly. She's just not that kind of person. She just would not have done that. And one quick sign is she would never have left her person or make up and all of that because you got to know Cheryl. She had no reason to. Investigators had to look at what was going on in Cheryl's life at that moment. That meant talking with people in her inner circle, including Cheryl's boyfriend. You'd met her boyfriend numerous times. Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yes. I believe in my heart. He had nothing to do with it. He was at our house so often after that happened. And his family came up all the time too because they were wanting to help. They would go out and look in the back roads and do different things. Her boyfriend helped out in the searches. Yes. Yes. Definitely. I asked Williams about that too. From everything that we got right now, he was working at the time. When we talked to the previous sheriff, they said that they had checked his alibi and that he was at work at that time. Do the circumstances of Cheryl vanishing mirror any other crime in your jurisdiction since then or before then? Not in ours. Investigators began to widen their scope. That took them to a disturbing theory. They started to believe Cheryl might have been abducted by a drifter from out of town, possibly a serial killer. This was the 1970s when that term was becoming familiar to law enforcement. We look at very serial killers that could have been in this area during that time period. Convicted killers Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toul were partners in some terrible crimes. They claimed to have killed more than 100 people between them. And investigators looked at them for Cheryl's abduction. About five years after Cheryl disappeared, the Scott County Sheriff interviewed both of them while they were locked up on other murder charges. Lucas said he and Toul abducted a woman just off interstate 55 around the time Cheryl vanished in 1979. That highway is less than five miles from the gas station where Cheryl worked. The original sheriff in this case, I mean, talked to Lucas and Henry Lee Lucas confessed and gave some descriptions. Lucas and Toul said they buried that woman nearly 100 miles north in Jefferson County, Missouri. It seemed a promising lead, except neither of them could positively identify Cheryl and researchers couldn't find anything in that area. Plus, Lucas and Toul were known to be far from reliable storytellers. They notoriously lied about a lot of things. Yes, they did. It turned out Lucas and Toul did kill several people, but not nearly as many as they had boasted about. Investigators examined the patterns of other serial killers who passed through Missouri at the time and turned up nothing. So provocative, but no proof. That's right. We're not going to exclude it, but we definitely look at it. We're trying to look at everything we can within reason. Investigators kept thinking about that narrow window of time when Cheryl disappeared and their thinking started to change. Who would have known about the funeral involving the business next door? Who would have known that would leave Cheryl pretty much alone? Maybe they weren't looking for a drifter or outsider. Detective Carrera Patterson was assigned to Cheryl's case in 2024. You guys have been doing this a lot. What's your gut tell you? Does somebody local or somebody driving by? My gut tells me just with the time of day and the events that was happening with the funeral and they'll like a foot traffic, that. it had to have been somebody local that knew that they would have maybe a better shot at doing that at the particular time that they chose. Derek Wheatley became sheriff in 2025. My just gut feeling is it's going to be somebody local knowing the circumstances of that day. And if so, did that person act alone? What do you think? You think we're looking for one person, multiple people, more than two people? I think he probably had a somebody driving and somebody who did the abduction and they were in and out, you know, fast as possible with this short amount of window. So if this was some sort of planned kidnapping, who would want a target sheriff? They're a well-respected family. Everything I've heard, you know, nobody really ever had problems or anything remotely bad to say about that family in general. I talked to cold case detectives all the time in this job. And one of the things they always say is the names in the box, which I know you guys have heard, right? When you finally solve this, it's going to be somebody that you talked to and for some reason or another passed by or your predecessors did more likely, somebody that had an alibi or seemed to have an alibi or somebody whose alibi didn't get checked as thoroughly. You know, how often do you go back to the box and think maybe there's something else here that we should look at? That is an excellent question because we go back through that file, we've digitized it, we do searches on it, maybe somebody else missed something. It is a puzzle that has frustrated detectives for nearly 50 years. And it seemed cold as ice until the past year when the Scott County Sheriff's Office began working, what felt like a significant tip. We ended up getting a lead from a former law enforcement officer. He was brought the tip by an individual that wanted to remain anonymous. That tip would set into motion a new, more modern search operation involving kid-aver dogs and ground-penetrating radar. Would the answers be found buried underground? As year after year passed with no answers, the sheriff family refused to let go of hope. What happens in your family? Actually, I think we got closer. Mom and dad, I think helped us in more ways than they would ever know that they did. But they were not going to let this destroy us. I think they knew they had two other children here too. Did they ever stop praying for her? No. Did your family ever have her declared legally dead? No. Dad, he didn't know for sure what to do. How long do you keep their insurance going? How long do you keep their car? How long do you keep their things? So when it came time, dad said there's no way he could have her declared legally dead in the hopes that she still would come home. He just couldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. They kept their landline home phone number for more than 30 years after Cheryl vanished, just in case she was alive and tried to call them. That call never came. Cheryl's parents died without knowing what happened to their eldest daughter on that April day in 1979. In the years since, Diane and Anthony have dedicated themselves to a larger purpose. They have teamed up with the local community and the Scott County Sheriff's Office to make sure Cheryl's shareer and other missing people are not forgotten. Every missing person has a name and they have a story and everyone should be able to finish that story. In 2024, Scott County commissioners proclaimed the April week Cheryl vanished would be honored each year as the Cheryl and Cheryl and Scott County missing persons week. Here's NBC affiliate WPSD. Our top story tonight, 47 years ago, Cheryl and share disappeared while working her shift at a gas station in Scott City, Missouri to honor Cheryl, her family's tagging yellow ribbons to bring awareness to the case. Then we also did a remembrance walk in Scott City from the station from the gas station where Cheryl went missing and we walked down to the museum in Scott City, which is only a half a mile. They've got a display of Cheryl's items. They've got like a pair of her shoes. They've got a pair of pants that she made. So we've got her items there and we've also got the backdrop of when she was prom queen of 1977. Sheriff Wheatley says the shareer family's efforts are impressive. They are outspreading the word, you know, they're inspired not only with their hope to find their their loved one, but they are big advocates of missing persons, not only just their family but worldwide. If you drive through Scott City during the week of April 17th, you'll see yellow ribbons tied around trees, lamp posts, and business storefronts. If you talk with people in the community, you might notice they're wearing yellow bracelets, shirts, and hats. You might also see a memorial marker for Cheryl. You got a marker for her at the gas station? Gas station's still there. Yes, it's not the same one that she worked at, but it's in the same location. It's part of the Scott City history too, that we sold T-shirts caps and did different things to raise money. And that is one of our biggest things is that we have had such support within the community. They show up for us. They show up for Cheryl. She is the community's girl too. Even though there have to be a lot of people who weren't even alive then. Absolutely. It's also very heartwarming that they weren't even alive, but they still care. The shares are hoping their efforts might help shake loose a tip. As far as the marker, there's something there that shows what happened. Sometimes that might be what someone needs to see to say, "Okay, I got to get something off my conscience." To remember and maybe also to provoke something. Yes, correct. There is some good news. Over 47 years, technology and the tools used in investigations have improved. Sergeant Williams has spent a lot of time searching DNA databases. Every time the share family sees a recovered remains. We get a text within minutes, "Hey, they found one in Reynolds County. Can we check into that?" And sometimes we're already on it. Sometimes we're not. You know? There also just might be touch DNA from Cheryl's abductor on that bank bag. We do have the money bag where the $400 plus was in and we had it tested several years before I got here. And to come back and say there's possible 30 different DNA profiles on this. So that's pretty unique. The downside is that the passing years also mean the quality of the DNA. Can deteriorate? The problem is the progression of touch DNA, maybe not where we want to go right now. But we do have that. And it is a possibility. Now, how great a DNA and over that time period, we can't say. No way to know. Yeah. It's our secret tool right now. We were waiting to see at the best obtune moment for us to do that. Cheryl's case is fairly active for one that's almost half a century old, just last year. The Scott County Sheriff's Office began investigating a tip about a possible burial site, linked to Cheryl's disappearance. Here's Detective Patterson. We ended up getting a lead from a former law enforcement officer that is now currently a bailiff. Myself and Detective Williams actually went out to the site, bells crossing, is what it was called just outside of the Scott City City limits. I ended up reaching out to one of the local K-9 teams that are in the area and they came out with cadaver dogs and they alerted they had them come out again with different dogs just to kind of confirm and they alerted again. These were different dogs searching the same location. That was in March 2025. There was so much growth and we had to do a lot of planning in between then. So we ended up reaching out to see if we can get like a ground penetrating radar, see if we can see anything that was underneath the soil without excavating at that point. About seven months later, they went out with the radar and another set of dogs, who also alerted in the exact same spot. Detective Patterson told us in total, A. different canines alerted at the same location the same question was on everyone's minds was this it would they finally discover Sheryl's remains then became the planning stages for the dig because they're all learning in the same spot so you know that that's a next logical step that we had to take it seemed promising to Sheryl's family I'm sure the Sheriff's Department said to you ahead of time look we may not get anything out of this don't get your hopes up but we got a tip and we got these multiple alerts from multiple dogs and you know this is we're rolling the ice here and sometimes when you roll the ice it doesn't come up a winner yes and they are they are really good there's they're concerned about how we're going to be we kind of knew it was in works for about a year and then probably the week before the actual bigger excavation we met again and they wanted to make sure that we were okay that you know there maybe a chance there's this is not going to be her we were like we're going to be okay either way you know we want it to be her but we're still going to be able to carry on mid February 2026 authorities broke ground and began digging the excavation area was about the size of a standard school bus a community held its breath and what was under that tree we did not locate anything at that time but that's not to say that there's not anything there because it's been so long and the dogs could be a learning off of it's like a root system type of deal so it could be anywhere along that ridge so in the places that we were looking we did not locate anything even sheriff Wheatley had gotten his hopes up I think we all had high hopes and expectations as much as we know in this job not to do that we followed everything we had to lead us to that area we did a thorough search you know these dogs obviously can't tell us it was Cheryl all we know is three sets of dogs you know kind of had us on that X on the mat and the buried treasure was not at the end of the rainbow disappointing it is but you know as with all disappointments comes a learning curve and it's another box checked and keep checking them until we until we check the one that says final and located the sure families emotions have been on a journey when it didn't happen you get disappointed thinking a little discouraged but then you say well they didn't find anything but we're not going to give up so that we run through all kinds of emotions on that too the Scott County Sheriff's Office has what they refer to as a partnership with the sheriff family they're working together to find answers and close Cheryl's case we've instigated this every month meeting with the family if we don't talk to them at least once a week we talk to them on a regular basis they we all have been become family in a sense the biggest try for me is the family the family is just they're amazing they're they're passion and determination to try to locate their sister is you can feel it so that that's what keeps me going on it and they won't give up absolutely and neither will we I use a lot of four little words but quit and stop is not one of them that we use in this case refusing to stop means re-examining leads reviewing evidence and re-interviewing names from the box they're even working a new lead about another possible burial site we want to complete it to the end and we don't leave any stone unturn William says in the last few years they spoke with Cheryl's boyfriend again they've talked with more of her extended family and friends from 1979 as from his Deborah Hamilton that other employee who stopped by the gas station the morning Cheryl vanished investigators have not been able to track her down and wonder whether she may have passed away there's still people out there that we haven't been able to find that was originally witnesses and that we we need to talk to them again see what happens things change people remember things are there maybe they're we're elected to tell us back then but they're not as we're elected to tell us now as we near the end of the interview sergeant Williams asked me something I had already put to him can we ask you a question yeah you do a lot of these cases what do you think what's what's your gut feeling it's somebody in the box you know what I think is that good police work then which you say was in was in effect is a lot like good police work now like they did everything they could at the time with what they had my guess is your department already talked to whoever this is without answers Diane sometimes lets her mind wander about the sister she lost I wonder what she would be like I wonder how many nieces and nephews we might have it is tough when you don't know what to accept because there's nothing there to accept is there a point where you say to yourselves where you can say aloud I don't think Cheryl's alive anymore I guess I'm 99% positive that that's what's true but beings you don't have a body strange your things have happened that one day she may walk back into her lives but do we live our lives with that belief I think we to be honest we don't you don't sounds to me as if maybe you think she's probably dead but you don't really want to give up hope here that's right I just thank God for the 19 years we had with Cheryl well and I guess my way of looking at it is I need proof I'm just a person that has to have proof and if they can't prove she is then why do we have to give up the fact that maybe she's still alive somehow Sheriff Wheatley believes the key that unlocks all of this could come from someone who remembers something small I always encourage everybody even if you reported the slightest detail in the past we would love to hear it again I think trying to get the public come back to remember that day and tell us something that might have got towed could could break it open if you do know something this is the time to come forward at the time of her disappearance on April 17th 1979 Cheryl's share was five foot one and a hundred pounds with blue eyes and shoulder length red hair Cheryl's share would be 67 years old this month anyone with information about Cheryl's disappearance should call the Scott County Sheriff's Office at 573 545 3525 to look at pictures of Cheryl and age-progressed images created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and to learn about other people we've covered in our Missing in America series go to Dateline MissingInAmerica.com there you will also be able to submit cases you think we should cover in the future thanks for listening we'll see you Fridays for Dateline on NBC or you can stream anytime on peacock youtube or by subscription on the NBC news app you can also listen to full Dateline episodes and original podcast series wherever you're listening now subscribe to Dateline premium for early access and ad-free listening for all our podcasts missing in America is a production of Dateline and NBC news Veronica Mosaic is the producer of this episode Megan O'Brien is the associate producer Mark E Evans is the editor Bradley Davis is senior producer Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer from NBC News Audio sound mixing by Justin K Sloan Jessica Fenton is head of audio production