Private investigator reports finding new leads related to Cherrie Mahan’s disappearance
Forty years after Cherrie Mahan’s mysterious disappearance in Winfield Township, a private investigator from Iowa says he is coming closer to uncovering what happened to her.
Steve Ridge, a former broadcast journalist who took up the search for Mahan’s whereabouts earlier this year, has told news outlets, including the Butler Eagle, about some new leads in the case.
The first came from someone who called Ridge, claiming to have overheard a phone conversation shortly after Cherrie went missing.
“He was a witness when there was a phone conversation with the gentleman whose house he was in,” Ridge said. “He said, ‘Well, I guess you heard that, so now you know that I was involved in Cherrie Mahan’s disappearance.’”
According to Ridge, the man who overheard the conversation did not publicly come forward at first, out of fear for his and his children’s safety. However, 40 years after the incident, and after 10 days of phone conversations with Ridge, he had a change of heart.
“The individual did say that he would be willing to do a lie-detector test. He said he would sign an affidavit. He said he would testify in court,” Ridge said. “He's been very forthcoming with me about it. He seems to be extremely credible and everything seems to line up.”
It turned out the person the witness was referring to was serving a prison sentence for an unrelated crime. Ridge established contact with the accused through mail, as that was the only means of communication at his disposal.
“He said that he was not involved, as this other person had alleged, but that he had two relatives who were involved,” Ridge said.
Ridge is hopeful state police will act on the information he has provided.
“I did share all that information with the state police. They had not been aware of (the witness) before. He had never talked to anybody before,” Ridge said. “I think they're following through in good faith. I've relayed that information, and I'm hopeful they're working their way through it at this juncture, and I don’t know what form that’s going to take.”
Ridge declined to identify either of his leads, to “preserve the integrity of the investigation.”
Cherrie, then age 8, went missing on Feb. 22, 1985, shortly after stepping off the school bus near her home on Cornplanter Road. She was declared legally dead in absentia in 1998.
Earlier this year, Ridge offered a reward of $100,000 for any information that would lead to Cherrie’s whereabouts.
