Cherrie Ann Mahan (August 14, 1976 – disappeared February 22, 1985; declared legally dead November 5, 1998) was an eight-year-old American girl who disappeared on February 22, 1985, after disembarking a school bus approximately fifty feet from the base of the driveway to her home in rural Winfield Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania.

[11] Janice later married a Vietnam veteran named LeRoy McKinney, who willingly accepted Mahan as his stepdaughter.

Mahan attended Winfield Elementary School, where she was regarded as a bright, popular and happy child.

Mahan accompanied her mother to the bus stop located approximately fifty feet from the base of the uphill driveway to their home.

[n 3] The van would later be described as a 1970s-era Dodge (possibly a 1976 model[20]) with a distinctive mural depicting a skier traversing a snowcapped mountain painted on the side.

[25][26] Mahan's stepfather, LeRoy McKinney, overheard the school bus slowing to a halt near his home.

[29] Appeals as to sightings of the distinctive bluish-green Dodge van produced eyewitnesses who informed investigators they had seen a vehicle matching this description in New Kensington, traveling in the direction of Mount Pleasant.

[31] When no significant leads developed and the child had been missing for three months,[32] a national direct mailing company printed a photograph of Mahan on postcards accompanied by the question, "Have you seen me?"

These cards were mailed to thousands of households across the U.S., placed inside telephone and utility bills, alongside an artist's rendition of the distinctive van seen in the vicinity of her abduction.

[12] In January 2011, Pennsylvania police received a new tip they deemed as "potentially crucial to the investigation in the future".

One of the most recent lines of inquiry investigators pursued dates from 2018, when McKinney received an anonymous handwritten letter describing in detail who had murdered her daughter, why they had done so, and where her remains are buried.

[33] Three months earlier, she had donated the $50,000 reward sum for information leading to the safe return of her daughter to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

[41][42] Addressing the media following the conclusion of these legal proceedings, Janice McKinney stated: "When people die, you have a body.

Emphasizing her belief that an anonymous tip from the public could finally give herself and her family the closure they crave, McKinney stated to the media: "I just wish someone would come forth and tell me what happened.

"[38] Cherrie Mahan's family and friends hold an annual remembrance dinner at a restaurant in East Butler on a date close to each anniversary of her disappearance.