Investigation into Mahan disappearance focuses on Pa. inmate
SUMMIT TWP — Members of “Cherrie’s Angels” — the group of volunteers rallying to solve the 1985 disappearance of then-8-year-old Cherrie Mahan — are optimistic this is the year the mystery will finally be resolved.
On Sunday, Feb. 22 — the 41st anniversary of the day Cherrie disappeared from her home in Winfield Township — Cherrie’s mother, Janice McKinney, and two other “Cherrie’s Angels” held a news conference at Bonniebrook Club House, focusing on developments in the investigation that have taken place over the past year.
“I have a tattoo with a 41 on it,” McKinney said. “I truly believe that we’re going to find her, because she wants to come home.”
Cherrie disappeared on Feb. 22, 1985, shortly after stepping off the school bus near her home on Cornplanter Road. She was declared dead in absentia in 1998.
“The 40 years that I have been dealing with it has just overwhelmed me and sucked the life right out of me,” McKinney said. “I was ready to give up because I couldn't do it anymore. In my heart, I know Cherrie wants to be found. She wants to come home.”
Fellow “Angels” Bailey Gizienski and Alyssa Dietz say the investigation has gathered a significant number of leads over the past year.
Much of the discussion at Sunday’s news conference centered on a recent series of letters between McKinney and someone who is currently serving time in a Pennsylvania facility for a crime unrelated to Cherrie’s disappearance. The inmate was not identified.
“Janice has been in communication with an inmate that is in prison,” Gizienski said. “We strongly believe that he holds a key to solving Cherrie’s case, and she eagerly awaits his release. We believe that he knows where Cherrie Mahan is, and what happened to her.”
“In his letters to Janice, he denies having any involvement, other than ‘knowing’ that his family was involved,” Dietz said.
“I believe he’s a suspect,” Gizienski said. “I believe he has information, but I believe he was involved as well.”
McKinney stated that during their back-and-forth postal conversation, McKinney tried to set up a face-to-face conversation with the inmate at the correctional facility, but he backed away the day she showed up.
“We tried to get in to speak to him while he was in prison,” McKinney said. “We went there, and then he denied seeing us. So he’s hiding from himself. If he had nothing to do with it, there’s no reason why he couldn’t have talked to me, and we have been going back and forth with that since July. I would love to talk to him, just to hear what he has to say. He has a story to tell, but we don’t know what that is yet.”
“I think the amount of tips that we’ve received in this past year has been encouraging,” Gizienski said. “We are closer than ever to bringing Cherrie home.”
“We're connecting a lot of dots … little tips that maybe didn’t seem significant are now connected with another little tip that didn't seem significant,” Dietz said. “So we can connect these dots and start to answer some of the questions we have. Who took Cherrie’s life and how was it unsolved for 41 years?”
The sudden momentum in the case over the past year is due largely to the actions of Iowa-based private investigator Steve Ridge, who offered his services to the investigation in early 2025. Ridge is offering a $100,000 reward for any information that will help lead to a resolution.
Ridge was unable to make it to Sunday’s news conference. His absence, according to Gizienski, was due to a sudden medical emergency.
In fall 2025, two separate digs took place in connection to the Mahan investigation: a privately organized dig involving cadaver dogs in September at a location within 10 minutes of Cherrie’s disappearance, and another dig organized by the state police and the FBI along River Road in South Buffalo Township, Armstrong County.
“We are not aware of what was found or if anything was found during the River Road search that the police conducted,” Gizienski said. “But we have also conducted our own searches local to the area where Cherrie was kidnapped from, and have made progress there.”
Although four decades have passed since Cherrie’s disappearance, Gizienski says the amount of time shouldn’t prevent witnesses from coming forward with vivid and truthful accounts.
“The people that have been told these stories remember every detail,” Gizienski said. “Cherrie’s case has haunted so many that when you hear these kinds of testimonies, it’s something you just don’t forget.”
Also attending Sunday’s news conference were sisters Suzanne and Jean Vincent, who offer their services as psychic investigators. The duo, who go by the “Psychic Vincent Sisters,” have supplied whatever information they can to aid in the Mahan investigation since at least 2011.
“We need as many leads as we can to bring Cherrie home,” Suzanne said.
