Two family grapple with individuals who claim to be long-lost missing children.
A woman comes forward claiming to be Cherrie Ann Mahan. The little girl was just an 8-year-old when she went missing, after getting off her school bus, just feet away from her home. A blue or green van is the only clue.
Six-year-old Timmothy James Pitzen was dropped off at school by his father James. Not long after, he was picked up after by his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, who took the boy on a three-day trip to amusement parks in their region. Fry-Pitzen's body was found in a motel room. The mom had committed suicide, leaving a note says Timmothy was safe, but his father would never see him again.
Who would claim to be a missing child?
JOINING NANCY TODAY:
- Irv Brandt - (Retired) US Marshals Service International Investigations Branch, Author: “GOING SOLO: The Gospel of Luke,” and “SOLO JOURNEY: Buddha Knights;” X: @JackSoloAuthor
- Lynn Shaw – Founder and Executive Director of Lynn's Warriors
- Molly Miller - Crime reporter at the 'Butler Eagle' in Pennsylvania -
- Caryn L. Stark – Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; Instagram: carynpsych/FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice
- Alexis Tereszcuk –(CA) CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker at Lead Stories; X: @swimmie2009
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
A woman claiming to be missing Cherry Mahon, eight years
old when she vanishes at a bus stop.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Has emerged. Is this real?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
What happened to eight year old Cherry? I'm Nancy Grace.
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
In the last days.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
A woman claiming to be Cherry Mahon who goes missing
at just age eight has emerged. What happened in the case?
I want you to take a listen to this.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Janis and Leroy McKinney. Here Cherry's bus arriving to drop
off Cherry, and Leroy wants to walk down the hill
to meet his daughter, but Janet says, wait, it's a
nice day. Let her walk. Ten minutes past and Cherry
hasn't made it up the driveway, so the McKinney's decide
to walk down the driveway. As they walk, they don't
see Cherry, nor did they see any of her footprints
in the snow leading up the driveway. On the driveway,
(01:01):
about fifty yards from the house, they see tire impressions
in the snow soil of the driveway.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Joy mean All Star panel.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
But first I want to go to Molly Miller, crime
reporter at the Butler Eagle.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Mollie, thank you so much for being with us.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
What exactly do we believe happened the morning Cherry went missing.
I'll get to the woman climbing to be Cherry in
just a moment, but I want to establish what happened.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
All we know is that this bluish green van with
the mountain skier on the side was following the bus.
She exits the bus with three other kids and seemingly
starts to walk up the driveway, but at that point
people don't really know where she went after that. There's
no reported sighting from anyone. She's last seen wearing a
(01:46):
gray jacket, blue jean skirt, some leg warmers and some earmuffs,
and no clothing is ever found, and her stepdad reportedly
came down to check for her just ten minutes after
they heard the bus pull up. So really it seems
as if she's vanished into thin.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Air, you know, irv Brant, I actually think that's a
lot of information.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Why because we have a.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Date, and we have a very narrow window of time
in which Cherry disappears, or Brent, you and I have
talked about this many many times.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Did you know.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Over thirty percent of child kidnaps and disappearances have something
to do with the school route, either getting to the
bus stop, getting on the bus, getting off the bus,
walking to school, coming home from school. Do you know
over thirty percent of child kidnaps relate to the school bus.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Or getting to and from school. And I believe that
is exactly what happened here.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
I agree, Nancy, when cases like this and it's obviously
this child was targeted. This was an kidnap of opportunity.
This appears to be someone you know, researched this new
the route, you know, because other children got off the
(03:12):
bus at the same time, but she was targeted in particular,
and she disappears without a trace. That would lead you
to believe, you know, this was pre planned, and there's
no telling how much pre planning went into it. Obviously
quite a bit, because no viable leads were generated right
(03:40):
after the kidnapping.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
There's a five thousand dollar reward in the search for Cherry.
I want to go back to Molly Miller, a crime
reporter at the Butler Eagle. Mollie, again, I think we've
got a lot of information, even though.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
This case hasn't been solved yet.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
For instance, very often when a child goes missing, you
look at the immediate family, right, you look at mommy,
you look at daddy, You look at step mommy stepdaddy.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
In this case, you have the bio mom and the stepfather.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
They hear the bus arrive, they're waiting for Cherry to
come up the driveway. They see each other, and I
have no reason to doubt what the biological mother is saying. Okay,
nothing suggests stepfather stole this child. And another thing regarding
(04:29):
the stepfather, who would immediately come under suspicion because the
male member of the family is always a suspect until
cleared the nine one one is made. The alarm is
raised so quickly after the school bus stops. As soon
as they go out and they see she's not there,
(04:49):
they contact police. That narrows the window of time stepdad
could have been involved. And this is why we know
exactly what time that school bus was there. We have
the little friends that got off the school bus with her.
Other people saw the school bus. Then you compare that
to the time that she was reported missing. There's not
(05:10):
really time for stepdad to take the child. What molest
her and kill her. There's no time. If you look
at the timeline, Molly Miller.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
There is some speculation because I mean, it all goes
back to that van following the school bus. There's a
lot of speculation actually that the van itself was just
a transport vehicle to another location. It's possible that she
was put in another vehicle. There was people seeing a
blue compact vehicle in that area at the same time,
(05:41):
so it's possible that number one, there were multiple people involved.
And I mean, FBI has done a profile on Cherry's
potential abductor and it all points back to it had
to have been someone she knows to have not raised alarm,
and again in such a short period of time, it's
very unlikely that she was afraid of going with this
(06:02):
person who did take.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Her to Lynshaw joining us, founder and executive director of
Lynn's Lawyers, an organization committed to ending human trafficking and
sex exploitation, specifically of children. Lynn, thank you so much
for being with us. The first thing I want to
do is try to rule out the parents. Okay, why
because statistically they or a family member is responsible for
(06:27):
missing children. Right, that's a given, that's a statistic, And
what I'm trying to say is that that's a huge
piece of this puzzle.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
We know the answer. It's not the step dad, it's
not the mother.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Based on the timeline alone, that's very significant in Cherry's disappearance.
I can't stress it enough. Yes, it opens up a
whole nother avenue of inquiry, of investigation.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
But that's the.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
First hurdle is ruling out mom, dad, step mom, stepdad.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
That's the first thing you do, Liam.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
It's the first thing Nancy you do. But the second
thing you always do immediate family members. Now the next
thing you have to look at the bus driver. Why
aren't we looking more? There have been some reports looking
at the bus driver? What about school school teachers. I
don't understand, Nancy.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
You're a mom. I'm a mom.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
The worst thing in the world as your child disappears,
and nobody seems to know anything. We do know from
law enforcement and from all our work at the Warriors,
it is most likely somebody that knows Cherry, a family member.
She was eight years old. She didn't scream. We don't
know anything. If the father could hear the school bus
(07:44):
up the drive driveway, he didn't hear anything else, cars
peeling off, the bus taking off.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
I think we have a lot of information here and
for all the cherries out there. We cannot stop until
we explore every single aspect of this case. We have
to search for all these missing children.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, it's interesting you mentioned the bus driver, and
of course you got to look at the bus driver.
But by all accounts, the bus driver drove off. He
didn't take cherry. Although you have to look. When we
say someone she knows, that doesn't mean it's the uncle
or the grandpa. It could be, as you're saying, a
(08:24):
bus driver, a school teacher, a neighbor, a neighbor. How
easily could a neighbor have snatched her and taken her
into his home, raped her and murdered her very easily?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
She was gone just like that.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So I know we're talking about the potential two car
theory that multiple people were involved in stealing cherry. But
I often think, or brand that the most obvious.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Answer is the answer.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Herb Brandt is joining me guys Senior Inspector US Marshall
Service International Investigations. He was also with DJ in international affairs.
He has worked all over the world with the US government,
including embassies abroad, trying to bring home and missing people
and catch perps that have absconded.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Is the author of a whole series of books about.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Jack Solo, who I believe is IRV Brandt, specifically Flying Solo,
Top of the World and more.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
IRV way in on this.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And I'm not saying I always think it that walks
like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck,
it's a duck, but very often it is.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
You're exactly right, Nancy, and that's where you start an investigation.
You start an investigation with the most obvious it's Alkham's
raisor the simplest explanation is usually the correct explanation. So
when you're investigating the case, the first thing you look
for is to fam members, and you're just going on
(10:03):
that by past history of cases where and missing persons
cases family members are usually somehow involved. Then you expand
it out to neighbors, to people that know it, like
you were talking about bus driver, teacher, someone like that,
someone who knows the routes, and then you expand further,
(10:24):
and then eventually you're going to get into complex theories.
When you start running out of leads or lack of leads,
you're going to start venturing into complex theories of multiple
vehicles and multiple people and things. And it is possible,
but like you said before, it's not likely. And usually
(10:46):
the simplest explanation is the correct explanation.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I mean, it's really hard for me to believe that
there are multiple kidnappers going after this one little girl,
and after all.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
This time, no one has blabbed.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It's possible, yes, probable, No, although I am very interested
in the van. To Mollie Miller, a crime reporter at
Butler Eagle, tell me about the van. We've referred to it,
but describe it for me.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
So an initial sketch came out a few days after
Cherry was abducted. It was described by school children as
a blue or green van with a mountain scene and
skier or skiers painted on the side. There's some discrepancy there.
It also had porthole windows in the back. But less
than a week after her disappearance, people started speculating that
(11:33):
maybe it was a bush beer van given the similarity
of the landscape on the side. So people were searching
into that. Police were searching into it and they got
nearly I mean, over the years four hundred reports of
this one van being seen in West Virginia, all across
the county, even as close as Pittsburgh. But unfortunately nothing
(11:55):
has been really nailed down as far as the make
of the van. The closest speculation people have as it's
a nineteen seventy six Dodge style van.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
And describe what is painted on the side of it.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yes, so people are saying it's a mountain scene, specifically
one peak of a mountain going up the center of
the van, almost overlapping the windows, and this would be
a white mountain blue background, and then a skier going
down the side. It appears to be the left side
of the slope. People are saying it's either painted on
(12:30):
or it was decaled on and stuck on.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Parents call police immediately, which even narrows the timeline more
the timeline in which this eight year old little girl
could be snatched off the bus. In the last days,
a woman claims she is Cherry Listen.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
A woman logs onto the Memories of Cherry may And
Facebook page claiming to be the little girl last seen
walking from her school bus to the driveway of her
house Cherry's mother, Janice McKinney, sees the post and contacts
the Pennsylvania State Police. The State Police have their own
contact with a woman when she leaves them a voicemail
making the same claim she is Cherry Mayhon. Janis McKinney
(13:16):
knows better than to get her hopes up, as three
other women have come forward previously making the same claim.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Oh my stars, let's just put in the family through
more pure hell by a woman claiming to be Cherry
or is she? Mollie Miller joining us investigative reporter at
the Butler Eagle, Mollie tell me about this woman now
claiming she's Cherry.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Well, as she said, she logs in to the public
Facebook forum Memories of Cherry Mayhan and the post literally
just reads I am Cherry Mayhan and has a phone
number that actually comes out from Tennessee. And then she,
I guess, has some back and forth with some people
(13:58):
in the forum and becomes fair aggressive. The posts have
since been taken down, but one of the administrators of
the page said that because of the aggression of the comments,
there was cause for suspicion. She did leave a voicemail
with police, but then wouldn't respond to any return at calls.
A couple days later, police actually said that they were
(14:20):
able to review fingerprints from this woman calling herself Cherry,
but it was not a match.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
This has happened many times in the past and other
missing child cases.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Isn't it a simple matter of DNA listen?
Speaker 7 (14:32):
Investigating the recent online post in a voicemail message left
with the state Police from a woman claiming to be
Cherry Mahan, investigators go to work trying to verify the claim,
reaching out to the woman that the phone number and
address she left. Pennsylvania State Police investigators failed to make
contact with the woman at the phone number and address
provided by the person. However, investigators obtained fingerprints for the
(14:55):
name of the person left by the caller, and they
are not a match with Cherry Mahan.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
The search continues, so that match or mismatch in this
case is made from taking the woman claiming to be
Cherry Man and comparing it to known prince A little girl, Cherry,
your fingerprints don't change. Your fingertips may grow from childhood, obviously,
(15:22):
but the sworld patterns on your fingertips never change. No
one has a perfect match to your fingerprints. Even if
you're an identical twin. As I said, this has happened
so many times in the past, people coming forward claiming
their high profile missing child.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I guess one of the most famous.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Of those cases would be that a little girl, Mattie mckinn.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Listen, The search for Mattie McCann seems to be over
as a woman on Facebook claims to be the little
girl who disappears from a hotel room while on vacation
with her parents. Julia Wendell a DNA test that proves
she is one hundred percent Polish and not Mattie McCann,
But that doesn't stop Wendell from showing up at a
memorial service to commemorate the anniversary of Mattie's disappearance, hoping
(16:11):
to get Kate and Jerry McCann to provide a DNA
sample that the hoaxer claims will prove she is their
missing daughter. Wendall has done this before, claiming to be
a missing German schoolgirl and a missing American toddler.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Oh my stars, what a fake you know?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Er Bryant joining us, you have traveled the world, finding
missing people and apprehending convicts and fugitives.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
The Mattie McCann case blew.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Up when Mattie was taken from a vacation rental and
her parents have led us search for Maddie for years,
and then this woman jumps up claiming she's Mattie McCann.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Do you recall this?
Speaker 5 (16:54):
That's correct, Nancy the uh as you know, and I
know in these high profile cases, you've get a lot
of disturbed people calling in and their need for attention,
and it has unfortunately you have well not unfortunately, but
you have to follow every lead and you've got to
(17:16):
disprove this and it's part of the job, and it's
a waste of time and it's a waste of resources,
but it's something that has to be done every single time.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yes, Mattie McCann's faker, the impersonator pretending to be Maddie,
causing all sorts of pain to Mattie's parents.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
That happened straight back.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
To Lynn Shaw joining us, founder and director of Lynn's Warriors.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I wonder what.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Motivates people to pretend they're the missing child.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
All these years later.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And it breaks my heart that Cherry's mom tries to
quote not get her hopes up when she hears that
someone has emerged claiming to be Cherry.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That means that she is so at the end of.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Her rope, so beaten down, she doesn't even dare to
hope anymore.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
I have so many questions, Nancy. First of all, people
seek attention, especially in the last two decades with the Internet.
Everybody wants their fifteen minutes of fame.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I have so many.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Questions, such as, there's the Cherry Mayhan Facebook group. There's
lots of Facebook groups with missing children. I want to
know why this particular woman, as far as we know
it's a woman, is claiming to be Cherry. Why is
she on that Facebook group? I also want to know,
what if this woman claiming to be Cherry, who gave
(18:44):
the name to the police, the phone number to the police.
What if she just gave it another person's name, So
of course the fingerprints aren't going to match at all.
I have so many questions. I go back to even
the van. The first thing I do is pull in
a garage somewhere and get rid of the very locally
nearby and switch off. It has to be in this
(19:05):
circle of somebody Cherry knows. And the other thing is
the internet. The Internet we have to keep talking about
it as great at it as it is, and it's
not going away. It is fueling these people to come
forward just to say and get their kicks. And that's
the way I have to put it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Kicks.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
We have a well documented mental health crisis in the
United States and now people have found a new avenue
of tormenting, tormenting parents and family members of missing kids.
And there are a lot of Cherry's stories out there
and it has to be more well vetted. The other
thing I want to leave you with, we have so
much advances in DNA. As everybody knows. What about the advances.
(19:43):
We work with a lot of great tech people. If
this person was on that Facebook page, they should be
able to go back and track that URL where she
was communicating from. So I have lots of questions, Nancy
that need answers.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Speaking of DNA, I wonder if Cherry's da has been
added into the DNA database.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
It's not hard to do.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You don't have to have a bugle swab or give
your blood in order for there to be a DNA.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Profile of you.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
It's simply a matter of parents using her hair brush
or her toothbrush or items of.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Her clothing or sheets.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
It may have her hair or skin follicles or skin
on that you know to herv brand. That would be
a major step forward to find out if her DNA
is in a DNA databank.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
I agree, Nancy, scientific evidence, it's some of the best
evidence you know. When we're talking about fingerprints. Fingerprints are
one reliable if you have someone claiming to be or
someone you think to be, the missing person can be
(20:57):
done through fingerprints in the same way with DNA. So
if you can put the DNA into the database and
you could possibly get hits and it just generates more
leads for the ball.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
Six year old Timothy Pittson, picked up by mom at school,
vanishes a whirlwind destinationless journey ensues ended by his mom's
hotels suicide. But where is Timothy?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
By all accounts, Mommy would never have hurt her child,
and now these years later, Timothy's family living in fear.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
In f you're of what an impostor posing as Timothy?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
What do we know? First of all, take a.
Speaker 9 (21:48):
Listen to this will was the last time you saw
your son alive?
Speaker 10 (21:52):
I dropped him off kindergarten that morning. She usually drops
him off at kindergarten, I pick him up after kindergarten,
take him a daycare, and I get out for work
and I pick them up at daycare and take him home.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
But the school knows you and your wife both Yes,
what was the last thing he said to you? And
you said to him?
Speaker 10 (22:09):
He said, love your dad and goalsia after school, buddy,
and I watched him run off the class.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
That's Timothy's dad speaking out to our friend, doctor Field.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
So what else do we know happened? Listen?
Speaker 11 (22:21):
Timothy lived in Aurora, Illinois with his mother Amy and
father Jim. On May eleventh, twenty eleven, Amy picked up
Timothy from school. Cameras there captured the pair together that morning.
Later that day, when Timothy's father realized that they were gone,
he reported them missing. Investigators say Amy and Timothy traveled
(22:44):
more than five hundred miles over two days and were
captured together on surveillance video several times. This is the
last known sighting of Timothy ten ten am May thirteenth,
twenty eleven. They are seen checking out of a Wisconsin resort.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
The mom leaves behind a note stating that Timothy is
with a family that will keep him safe and where
he will never be found. But after she signs him
out of school minutes.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
To the dad.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh, by the way, you were seeing that from our
friends at NIKMA National Center Missing Exploited Children.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
After she signs him out from school.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Let me go to our panel, Alexis Terreschik, joining me
crime online dot Com investigative reporter. She takes him, first
of all, taking him out of school to take him
to a water park and on a very circuitous route
to fun adventures.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
That's all well and good.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
You know, I used to take John David out of
play school and then real school to go bowling.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Okay, is that right? Probably not?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Okay, So when I first heard that, I wasn't disturbed.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
But wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
They go from correct me if I'm wrong, Alexis to
the Brookville Zoo and then they go to a water
park Wisconsin, Dell's Kalahari Resort.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Then they check.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Out of a hotel and head back to Illinois that morning.
Now in the car, isn't this true, alexis that Amy?
The mom makes multiple phone calls to family and they
can hear Timothy in the background. In fact, at one
point he's saying, hey, Mom, I'm hungry.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Nothing is a miss.
Speaker 12 (24:26):
Alexis nothing at all. She called her mom. Her mom
heard the little boy in the background they were talking.
He did say he was hungry. They stopped at gas
stations and bought snacks and food. They stayed in hotels
where there was food. There was nothing that anybody was
worried about because they heard that he was alive. They
could hear him in the car, and that's what mom did.
(24:47):
She picked him up.
Speaker 13 (24:47):
They went to a zoo was about forty five miles away,
forty five minute drive. Then they head up to the
Wisconsin mails where I've actually been on vacation. It is
like Vegas for water parks. The entire town is just
full of different water park resorts. It is heaven for
children and families. And she went there with him. They
went to water park. They had a great time. Security
(25:08):
footage caught them leaving there. The husband, though, is the
one that said something's amiss. I've spoken to her, but
now she's not coming back. And that was not something
that they planned. She'd never said, you know, I'm going
to take a three day vacation with him, and we're
going to go do these things. He started to get
very worried about where his son.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You know, Karen started joining me where now it's psychologists
joining us out of Manhattan, TV radio trauma expert at
Karenstark dot com.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
That's Karen with a sea.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Karen, I've taken both twins out of what they were
supposed to be doing and spent time with them doing
something fun.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
So that's not unusual.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
However, in this case, mom had never done that before,
and she didn't tell the dad like say, for instance,
I'm going to take Lucy somewhere and We're not going
to be where we're supposed to be. I tell David, hey,
I'm doing so and so. Or when I would take
John David to the foot doctor, I e.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Bowling.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
It wasn't a secret, It wasn't a big surreptitious activity
the way it is here. Plus what this mom did
was out of the ordinary, Karen Stark.
Speaker 14 (26:20):
Which these are all signs that something is really a
miss Nancy, just like you said, because why would the
father or not know. As a matter of fact, this
dad went to the school to pick him up at
the end of the day and had no idea that
he had been checked out by the mom. She was
not in touch with him and an Initially she wasn't
in touch with anyone, so of course it's highly suspicious
(26:43):
behavior and nothing that you would expect from a parent.
Speaker 8 (26:52):
Timothy Pittson's mom leaves a bizarre suicide note claiming the
six year old is safe but will be seen again.
Is the boy dead or stashed with a cult like commune?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Mommy found dead? No sign of Timothy. This is how
Timothy Pittson goes missing. In the last months, this case
has bubbled back up to the surface because the Pitson
family living in fear because of an impostor posing as Timothy.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
But back to the time he disappears.
Speaker 15 (27:31):
Listen, Amy fry Pittson's cell phone was not in her
hotel room or car. Two years later, her cell phone
is found discarded behind a silo on a remote road
in Mount Carroll, Illinois, from Sterling, Illinois, where fry Pittson
made several phone calls. Mount Carroll is on the way
to Dubukee, Iowa. In her childhood, fry Pittson spent several
(27:51):
years living with her grandparents in Dubuque. Fry Pittson's sister,
Kara Jacobs, believes Amy still has connections in the area
and pass blue left Timothy with a family there.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Joining me in All Star panel.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
But now to IRV Brandt, renowned US Marshall Service, International
Investigations Branch, Chief Inspector Dog, Office of International Affair, author
of a string of books about a guy named Jack
Solo who bears an amazing similarity to IRV Brandt. Author
Solo Shot Curse of the Bluestone on Amazon and many more.
(28:27):
IRV Brant, You've spent your whole career figuring out where
is somebody? Now think about this. This mom had never
displayed any violence at all to Timothy Pittson, ever, very loving.
A divorce was pending. She was very distraught about that.
(28:47):
So we find her dead in hotel room. I note
this says, Timothy's alive, but I've given him to a
family that will take care of him and love him.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
You'll never find him. And then her cell phone.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Turns up up out of town full of good memories
for her. She spent time a lot of time with
her grandparents there and was very happy.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
So what do you make of this?
Speaker 5 (29:15):
Well, Nancy, the circumstances evolving the disappearance of this case
would lead investigators to believe.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Number one, just.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
The state of mind that she must have been in
when she committed suicide is just so unusual. The manner
that she did, then the places that she chose to
go to. You would imagine that the first thing that
they would investigate it as a suicide homicide. But given
(29:48):
the information, the family background, you have to consider the
possibility that she did indeed give Timothy to someone from
her past that she still had a connection with, who
would care for the child. That's a possibility that the
investigators have to check out and have to focus on.
(30:10):
They have to focus on the child being alive first
and foremost.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Well, wait a minute, wait a minute, or Brandt, She's
not a master criminal. She's a mom who has always
shown nothing but love for this child. She's distraught about
a divorce. Yes, she had to be beside herself to
commit suicide by slashing.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Her wrists and her own neck.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
She writes this note Timothy is alive and well and
with someone that will love him, inferring the father wouldn't
and maybe she felt that way because she felt rejected
in the marriage he was divorcing her. She also writes,
you'll never find him my point er Brandt, again, she's
not a master criminal. She's not some French arts or
(31:00):
a cat burglar. You really think she could have hidden
his body and it would be never found.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
Nancy, I understand what you're saying that she's not a
career criminal or a criminal at all. She's someone obviously
with mental health problems and has a history of mental
health problems. But is she capable of it? I would
(31:27):
say yes. But does the possibility exist that she did
turn this child over that she did know? Of course,
she loved her child and she wanted to see her
child safe. Did she give this child to someone who
would care for him? Yes, there is that possibility.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Well, especially IRV Brandt, the fact that we know she
was back in this area that she loved. We know
that because her phone was found behind a silo in
a rural area where she grew up with her grandparents.
So the child there, we've got her cell phone there,
we know she was there. And then suddenly when she's
back at this motel where she killed herself, there was
(32:08):
no sign of him. Remember she was spotted out in
about We saw that video from NICKMA National Center Missing
Exploited Children. We saw that video, and that was the
last time she was seen with Timothy Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
The next time.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
She's spotted no Timothy Okay, one hundred miles away shaking
into the motel. It says, if she stashed him somewhere
and then come back to this motel to kill herself
or Brant.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
I agree, Nancy, when you watch the videos and you
look how she's acting when she comes in, she doesn't
seem distraught. She doesn't seem like babe, I mean, someone
who just killed their own child. She seems you could
(33:04):
even describe her as maybe even being relieved coming in
because she knows this episode is going to be close
to finish, because she obviously planned this out.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Just as the Pittson family starts to believe that beloved
Timothy may finally be found, their hopes are dashed. A
DNA test reveals that the mystery team is really twenty
three year old Brian Reeney. Reenie was released from prison
for burglary in vandalism the month before, and finds himself
in more legal trouble. Rene is charged with two counts
of falsifying statements and aggravated identity theft. Renee takes a
(33:39):
plea deal and serves a total of two years in prison.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Joining me now founder director of Lynn's Warriors, dedicated to
protecting children Lynn Shaw. Lynn Rennie is not the only
one that pretended to be Timothy Pittson, and the family
has stated every time an apostle comes forward is quote
like ripping off a scab, making them real live the
(34:04):
pain all over again.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
Nancy, we work extensively with trying to find missing children.
We work on murder children. This is the case and
it's been escalating over the years that people step forward
pretending for their fifteen minutes of fame or whatever we're
calling it. In today's world, there are so many I'm
surprised there are not more people stepping forward about this.
But I want to circle back on something if I
(34:27):
might to. I was doing digging in and doing research
and in a lot of cases we work on law
enforcement with us as our partners tell us, if we
don't find an actual body or a child alive within
forty eight hours, we usually assume that they are not alive.
And I ask you, if her cell phone was found
two years later behind a silo wherever they found it
(34:50):
in the field, what was the investigation like for the
body because I have to ask he was at that
impressurable age of six, or he could have been handed
off and his mind sort of brainwashed into another environment
where he forgot about his family.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
But I ask you, this.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
Whole thing sounds like she's going through a divorce. They
had money problems. We have dealt with cases where one
of the mother, the father, one of them will say
in a divorce, if I can have my child full time,
nobody's going to have my child, and it doesn't matter
if they're a loving mother, they have no criminal history,
they will take the life of that child. And that
is what concerns me here. So I think more work.
(35:30):
We can never give up on looking for these missing
children at all.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
And for all we know, Timothy Pittson is alive and well,
living right under our noses with another family that he's
convinced is his own now. According to those closest to
mom Amy, she would never have hurt Timothy no matter what.
Listen to her sister.
Speaker 16 (35:52):
My nephew Timothy has been missing since May thirteenth, twenty eleven.
Speaker 11 (35:58):
Timothy Pittson was six years old when he vanished.
Speaker 16 (36:01):
We just believe with every fiber of our being that
he's alive. So without any kind of logic to give you,
I can just tell you I know that he's alive.
Amy would never hurt her child, And I know that
maybe that's hard for some people to grasp given what
she did to herself, but she just wouldn't have. She
(36:24):
had nothing but kindness and consideration for other people in
her life.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
A body has never been found, and again, this mom
is a criminal mastermind. Where would she have hidden the body?
Now you were hearing Timothy's aunt, Kara Jacobs from our
friends at NIKMA National Center Missing and Exploited Children, who
have also been working on this case. So those around
her are convinced Mom did not kill Timothy. So now
(36:52):
all these years later, we have people appearing, one after
the mix, pretending to be Timothy.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Now a quality of blos blood was found.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
It was Timothy's, but guess what it was proven to
have been from a previous nose bleed he had in
the car.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
So another dead end.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
It's not the first time a seemingly normal person pretends
to be a missing child. Remember earlier we mentioned Maddie McCann.
Listen to this.
Speaker 9 (37:24):
She says that she believes she is Madeline McCann. But
many have speculated that Julia may not be telling the
truth her own parents. I think she's an attention seeker,
and they say no for certain that she's their daughter,
because the mother says she delivered her. You just have
(37:45):
to take their DNA and your DNA.
Speaker 7 (37:47):
And I tried to do it many times. As I said,
I called many authorities.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Nobody asked for it, right.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I'm sure Scotland Yard just wouldn't pick up the phone
the DNA didn't match. That's not Maddy McCann bottom line, Karen,
start with me, renounced psychologist, Karen. Why would someone torture
Timothy Pittson's family this way, pretending to be Timothy.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
They need to have.
Speaker 14 (38:12):
The attention, Nancy. They're looking to be noticed, and of
course they will get this little bit of attention. Exactly
what was said. But I also want to say something.
This is a mother who said that she was terrified
if something happened to her and they got divorced, that
her son would be taken away from her. So I
(38:32):
just want everybody to consider, how does it make sense
if she was that frightened he would be taken away,
that she would give him to another family. I don't
understand that, and I'm afraid that that really didn't happen
because it doesn't fit. They were supposedly like two peas
in a pot, so that scenario I just I hear
(38:55):
a lot of anger even in the suicide. I know
desper but people do kill themselves because they are so angry.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Is Timothy Pittson alive? Is he hiding right under our noses?
If you know or you think you know the answer
to this riddle, dial six three zero two five six
five five one six repeat six three zero two.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Five six five five one six.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Prayers continue for the families of these missing children. Nancy
Gray signing off, good night friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
A woman claiming to be missing Cherry Mahon, eight years
old when she vanishes at a bus stop.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Has emerged. Is this real?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
What happened to eight year old Cherry? I'm Nancy Grace.
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
In the last days.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
A woman claiming to be Cherry Mahon who goes missing
at just age eight has emerged. What happened in the case?
I want you to take a listen to this.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Janis and Leroy McKinney. Here Cherry's bus arriving to drop
off Cherry, and Leroy wants to walk down the hill
to meet his daughter, but Janet says, wait, it's a
nice day. Let her walk. Ten minutes past and Cherry
hasn't made it up the driveway, so the McKinney's decide
to walk down the driveway. As they walk, they don't
see Cherry, nor did they see any of her footprints
in the snow leading up the driveway. On the driveway,
(01:01):
about fifty yards from the house, they see tire impressions
in the snow soil of the driveway.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Joy mean All Star panel.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
But first I want to go to Molly Miller, crime
reporter at the Butler Eagle.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Mollie, thank you so much for being with us.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
What exactly do we believe happened the morning Cherry went missing.
I'll get to the woman climbing to be Cherry in
just a moment, but I want to establish what happened.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
All we know is that this bluish green van with
the mountain skier on the side was following the bus.
She exits the bus with three other kids and seemingly
starts to walk up the driveway, but at that point
people don't really know where she went after that. There's
no reported sighting from anyone. She's last seen wearing a
(01:46):
gray jacket, blue jean skirt, some leg warmers and some earmuffs,
and no clothing is ever found, and her stepdad reportedly
came down to check for her just ten minutes after
they heard the bus pull up. So really it seems
as if she's vanished into thin.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Air, you know, irv Brant, I actually think that's a
lot of information.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Why because we have a.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Date, and we have a very narrow window of time
in which Cherry disappears, or Brent, you and I have
talked about this many many times.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Did you know.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Over thirty percent of child kidnaps and disappearances have something
to do with the school route, either getting to the
bus stop, getting on the bus, getting off the bus,
walking to school, coming home from school. Do you know
over thirty percent of child kidnaps relate to the school bus.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Or getting to and from school. And I believe that
is exactly what happened here.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
I agree, Nancy, when cases like this and it's obviously
this child was targeted. This was an kidnap of opportunity.
This appears to be someone you know, researched this new
the route, you know, because other children got off the
(03:12):
bus at the same time, but she was targeted in particular,
and she disappears without a trace. That would lead you
to believe, you know, this was pre planned, and there's
no telling how much pre planning went into it. Obviously
quite a bit, because no viable leads were generated right
(03:40):
after the kidnapping.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
There's a five thousand dollar reward in the search for Cherry.
I want to go back to Molly Miller, a crime
reporter at the Butler Eagle. Mollie, again, I think we've
got a lot of information, even though.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
This case hasn't been solved yet.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
For instance, very often when a child goes missing, you
look at the immediate family, right, you look at mommy,
you look at daddy, You look at step mommy stepdaddy.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
In this case, you have the bio mom and the stepfather.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
They hear the bus arrive, they're waiting for Cherry to
come up the driveway. They see each other, and I
have no reason to doubt what the biological mother is saying. Okay,
nothing suggests stepfather stole this child. And another thing regarding
(04:29):
the stepfather, who would immediately come under suspicion because the
male member of the family is always a suspect until
cleared the nine one one is made. The alarm is
raised so quickly after the school bus stops. As soon
as they go out and they see she's not there,
(04:49):
they contact police. That narrows the window of time stepdad
could have been involved. And this is why we know
exactly what time that school bus was there. We have
the little friends that got off the school bus with her.
Other people saw the school bus. Then you compare that
to the time that she was reported missing. There's not
(05:10):
really time for stepdad to take the child. What molest
her and kill her. There's no time. If you look
at the timeline, Molly Miller.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
There is some speculation because I mean, it all goes
back to that van following the school bus. There's a
lot of speculation actually that the van itself was just
a transport vehicle to another location. It's possible that she
was put in another vehicle. There was people seeing a
blue compact vehicle in that area at the same time,
(05:41):
so it's possible that number one, there were multiple people involved.
And I mean, FBI has done a profile on Cherry's
potential abductor and it all points back to it had
to have been someone she knows to have not raised alarm,
and again in such a short period of time, it's
very unlikely that she was afraid of going with this
(06:02):
person who did take.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Her to Lynshaw joining us, founder and executive director of
Lynn's Lawyers, an organization committed to ending human trafficking and
sex exploitation, specifically of children. Lynn, thank you so much
for being with us. The first thing I want to
do is try to rule out the parents. Okay, why
because statistically they or a family member is responsible for
(06:27):
missing children. Right, that's a given, that's a statistic, And
what I'm trying to say is that that's a huge
piece of this puzzle.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
We know the answer. It's not the step dad, it's
not the mother.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Based on the timeline alone, that's very significant in Cherry's disappearance.
I can't stress it enough. Yes, it opens up a
whole nother avenue of inquiry, of investigation.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
But that's the.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
First hurdle is ruling out mom, dad, step mom, stepdad.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
That's the first thing you do, Liam.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
It's the first thing Nancy you do. But the second
thing you always do immediate family members. Now the next
thing you have to look at the bus driver. Why
aren't we looking more? There have been some reports looking
at the bus driver? What about school school teachers. I
don't understand, Nancy.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
You're a mom. I'm a mom.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
The worst thing in the world as your child disappears,
and nobody seems to know anything. We do know from
law enforcement and from all our work at the Warriors,
it is most likely somebody that knows Cherry, a family member.
She was eight years old. She didn't scream. We don't
know anything. If the father could hear the school bus
(07:44):
up the drive driveway, he didn't hear anything else, cars
peeling off, the bus taking off.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
I think we have a lot of information here and
for all the cherries out there. We cannot stop until
we explore every single aspect of this case. We have
to search for all these missing children.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, it's interesting you mentioned the bus driver, and
of course you got to look at the bus driver.
But by all accounts, the bus driver drove off. He
didn't take cherry. Although you have to look. When we
say someone she knows, that doesn't mean it's the uncle
or the grandpa. It could be, as you're saying, a
(08:24):
bus driver, a school teacher, a neighbor, a neighbor. How
easily could a neighbor have snatched her and taken her
into his home, raped her and murdered her very easily?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
She was gone just like that.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So I know we're talking about the potential two car
theory that multiple people were involved in stealing cherry. But
I often think, or brand that the most obvious.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Answer is the answer.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Herb Brandt is joining me guys Senior Inspector US Marshall
Service International Investigations. He was also with DJ in international affairs.
He has worked all over the world with the US government,
including embassies abroad, trying to bring home and missing people
and catch perps that have absconded.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Is the author of a whole series of books about.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Jack Solo, who I believe is IRV Brandt, specifically Flying Solo,
Top of the World and more.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
IRV way in on this.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And I'm not saying I always think it that walks
like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck,
it's a duck, but very often it is.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
You're exactly right, Nancy, and that's where you start an investigation.
You start an investigation with the most obvious it's Alkham's
raisor the simplest explanation is usually the correct explanation. So
when you're investigating the case, the first thing you look
for is to fam members, and you're just going on
(10:03):
that by past history of cases where and missing persons
cases family members are usually somehow involved. Then you expand
it out to neighbors, to people that know it, like
you were talking about bus driver, teacher, someone like that,
someone who knows the routes, and then you expand further,
(10:24):
and then eventually you're going to get into complex theories.
When you start running out of leads or lack of leads,
you're going to start venturing into complex theories of multiple
vehicles and multiple people and things. And it is possible,
but like you said before, it's not likely. And usually
(10:46):
the simplest explanation is the correct explanation.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I mean, it's really hard for me to believe that
there are multiple kidnappers going after this one little girl,
and after all.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
This time, no one has blabbed.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It's possible, yes, probable, No, although I am very interested
in the van. To Mollie Miller, a crime reporter at
Butler Eagle, tell me about the van. We've referred to it,
but describe it for me.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
So an initial sketch came out a few days after
Cherry was abducted. It was described by school children as
a blue or green van with a mountain scene and
skier or skiers painted on the side. There's some discrepancy there.
It also had porthole windows in the back. But less
than a week after her disappearance, people started speculating that
(11:33):
maybe it was a bush beer van given the similarity
of the landscape on the side. So people were searching
into that. Police were searching into it and they got
nearly I mean, over the years four hundred reports of
this one van being seen in West Virginia, all across
the county, even as close as Pittsburgh. But unfortunately nothing
(11:55):
has been really nailed down as far as the make
of the van. The closest speculation people have as it's
a nineteen seventy six Dodge style van.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
And describe what is painted on the side of it.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yes, so people are saying it's a mountain scene, specifically
one peak of a mountain going up the center of
the van, almost overlapping the windows, and this would be
a white mountain blue background, and then a skier going
down the side. It appears to be the left side
of the slope. People are saying it's either painted on
(12:30):
or it was decaled on and stuck on.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Parents call police immediately, which even narrows the timeline more
the timeline in which this eight year old little girl
could be snatched off the bus. In the last days,
a woman claims she is Cherry Listen.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
A woman logs onto the Memories of Cherry may And
Facebook page claiming to be the little girl last seen
walking from her school bus to the driveway of her
house Cherry's mother, Janice McKinney, sees the post and contacts
the Pennsylvania State Police. The State Police have their own
contact with a woman when she leaves them a voicemail
making the same claim she is Cherry Mayhon. Janis McKinney
(13:16):
knows better than to get her hopes up, as three
other women have come forward previously making the same claim.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Oh my stars, let's just put in the family through
more pure hell by a woman claiming to be Cherry
or is she? Mollie Miller joining us investigative reporter at
the Butler Eagle, Mollie tell me about this woman now
claiming she's Cherry.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Well, as she said, she logs in to the public
Facebook forum Memories of Cherry Mayhan and the post literally
just reads I am Cherry Mayhan and has a phone
number that actually comes out from Tennessee. And then she,
I guess, has some back and forth with some people
(13:58):
in the forum and becomes fair aggressive. The posts have
since been taken down, but one of the administrators of
the page said that because of the aggression of the comments,
there was cause for suspicion. She did leave a voicemail
with police, but then wouldn't respond to any return at calls.
A couple days later, police actually said that they were
(14:20):
able to review fingerprints from this woman calling herself Cherry,
but it was not a match.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
This has happened many times in the past and other
missing child cases.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Isn't it a simple matter of DNA listen?
Speaker 7 (14:32):
Investigating the recent online post in a voicemail message left
with the state Police from a woman claiming to be
Cherry Mahan, investigators go to work trying to verify the claim,
reaching out to the woman that the phone number and
address she left. Pennsylvania State Police investigators failed to make
contact with the woman at the phone number and address
provided by the person. However, investigators obtained fingerprints for the
(14:55):
name of the person left by the caller, and they
are not a match with Cherry Mahan.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
The search continues, so that match or mismatch in this
case is made from taking the woman claiming to be
Cherry Man and comparing it to known prince A little girl, Cherry,
your fingerprints don't change. Your fingertips may grow from childhood, obviously,
(15:22):
but the sworld patterns on your fingertips never change. No
one has a perfect match to your fingerprints. Even if
you're an identical twin. As I said, this has happened
so many times in the past, people coming forward claiming
their high profile missing child.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I guess one of the most famous.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Of those cases would be that a little girl, Mattie mckinn.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Listen, The search for Mattie McCann seems to be over
as a woman on Facebook claims to be the little
girl who disappears from a hotel room while on vacation
with her parents. Julia Wendell a DNA test that proves
she is one hundred percent Polish and not Mattie McCann,
But that doesn't stop Wendell from showing up at a
memorial service to commemorate the anniversary of Mattie's disappearance, hoping
(16:11):
to get Kate and Jerry McCann to provide a DNA
sample that the hoaxer claims will prove she is their
missing daughter. Wendall has done this before, claiming to be
a missing German schoolgirl and a missing American toddler.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Oh my stars, what a fake you know?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Er Bryant joining us, you have traveled the world, finding
missing people and apprehending convicts and fugitives.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
The Mattie McCann case blew.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Up when Mattie was taken from a vacation rental and
her parents have led us search for Maddie for years,
and then this woman jumps up claiming she's Mattie McCann.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Do you recall this?
Speaker 5 (16:54):
That's correct, Nancy the uh as you know, and I
know in these high profile cases, you've get a lot
of disturbed people calling in and their need for attention,
and it has unfortunately you have well not unfortunately, but
you have to follow every lead and you've got to
(17:16):
disprove this and it's part of the job, and it's
a waste of time and it's a waste of resources,
but it's something that has to be done every single time.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yes, Mattie McCann's faker, the impersonator pretending to be Maddie,
causing all sorts of pain to Mattie's parents.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
That happened straight back.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
To Lynn Shaw joining us, founder and director of Lynn's Warriors.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I wonder what.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Motivates people to pretend they're the missing child.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
All these years later.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And it breaks my heart that Cherry's mom tries to
quote not get her hopes up when she hears that
someone has emerged claiming to be Cherry.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That means that she is so at the end of.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Her rope, so beaten down, she doesn't even dare to
hope anymore.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
I have so many questions, Nancy. First of all, people
seek attention, especially in the last two decades with the Internet.
Everybody wants their fifteen minutes of fame.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I have so many.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Questions, such as, there's the Cherry Mayhan Facebook group. There's
lots of Facebook groups with missing children. I want to
know why this particular woman, as far as we know
it's a woman, is claiming to be Cherry. Why is
she on that Facebook group? I also want to know,
what if this woman claiming to be Cherry, who gave
(18:44):
the name to the police, the phone number to the police.
What if she just gave it another person's name, So
of course the fingerprints aren't going to match at all.
I have so many questions. I go back to even
the van. The first thing I do is pull in
a garage somewhere and get rid of the very locally
nearby and switch off. It has to be in this
(19:05):
circle of somebody Cherry knows. And the other thing is
the internet. The Internet we have to keep talking about
it as great at it as it is, and it's
not going away. It is fueling these people to come
forward just to say and get their kicks. And that's
the way I have to put it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Kicks.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
We have a well documented mental health crisis in the
United States and now people have found a new avenue
of tormenting, tormenting parents and family members of missing kids.
And there are a lot of Cherry's stories out there
and it has to be more well vetted. The other
thing I want to leave you with, we have so
much advances in DNA. As everybody knows. What about the advances.
(19:43):
We work with a lot of great tech people. If
this person was on that Facebook page, they should be
able to go back and track that URL where she
was communicating from. So I have lots of questions, Nancy
that need answers.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Speaking of DNA, I wonder if Cherry's da has been
added into the DNA database.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
It's not hard to do.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You don't have to have a bugle swab or give
your blood in order for there to be a DNA.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Profile of you.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
It's simply a matter of parents using her hair brush
or her toothbrush or items of.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Her clothing or sheets.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
It may have her hair or skin follicles or skin
on that you know to herv brand. That would be
a major step forward to find out if her DNA
is in a DNA databank.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
I agree, Nancy, scientific evidence, it's some of the best
evidence you know. When we're talking about fingerprints. Fingerprints are
one reliable if you have someone claiming to be or
someone you think to be, the missing person can be
(20:57):
done through fingerprints in the same way with DNA. So
if you can put the DNA into the database and
you could possibly get hits and it just generates more
leads for the ball.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
Six year old Timothy Pittson, picked up by mom at school,
vanishes a whirlwind destinationless journey ensues ended by his mom's
hotels suicide. But where is Timothy?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
By all accounts, Mommy would never have hurt her child,
and now these years later, Timothy's family living in fear.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
In f you're of what an impostor posing as Timothy?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
What do we know? First of all, take a.
Speaker 9 (21:48):
Listen to this will was the last time you saw
your son alive?
Speaker 10 (21:52):
I dropped him off kindergarten that morning. She usually drops
him off at kindergarten, I pick him up after kindergarten,
take him a daycare, and I get out for work
and I pick them up at daycare and take him home.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
But the school knows you and your wife both Yes,
what was the last thing he said to you? And
you said to him?
Speaker 10 (22:09):
He said, love your dad and goalsia after school, buddy,
and I watched him run off the class.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
That's Timothy's dad speaking out to our friend, doctor Field.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
So what else do we know happened? Listen?
Speaker 11 (22:21):
Timothy lived in Aurora, Illinois with his mother Amy and
father Jim. On May eleventh, twenty eleven, Amy picked up
Timothy from school. Cameras there captured the pair together that morning.
Later that day, when Timothy's father realized that they were gone,
he reported them missing. Investigators say Amy and Timothy traveled
(22:44):
more than five hundred miles over two days and were
captured together on surveillance video several times. This is the
last known sighting of Timothy ten ten am May thirteenth,
twenty eleven. They are seen checking out of a Wisconsin resort.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
The mom leaves behind a note stating that Timothy is
with a family that will keep him safe and where
he will never be found. But after she signs him
out of school minutes.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
To the dad.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh, by the way, you were seeing that from our
friends at NIKMA National Center Missing Exploited Children.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
After she signs him out from school.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Let me go to our panel, Alexis Terreschik, joining me
crime online dot Com investigative reporter. She takes him, first
of all, taking him out of school to take him
to a water park and on a very circuitous route
to fun adventures.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
That's all well and good.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
You know, I used to take John David out of
play school and then real school to go bowling.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Okay, is that right? Probably not?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Okay, So when I first heard that, I wasn't disturbed.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
But wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
They go from correct me if I'm wrong, Alexis to
the Brookville Zoo and then they go to a water
park Wisconsin, Dell's Kalahari Resort.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Then they check.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Out of a hotel and head back to Illinois that morning.
Now in the car, isn't this true, alexis that Amy?
The mom makes multiple phone calls to family and they
can hear Timothy in the background. In fact, at one
point he's saying, hey, Mom, I'm hungry.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Nothing is a miss.
Speaker 12 (24:26):
Alexis nothing at all. She called her mom. Her mom
heard the little boy in the background they were talking.
He did say he was hungry. They stopped at gas
stations and bought snacks and food. They stayed in hotels
where there was food. There was nothing that anybody was
worried about because they heard that he was alive. They
could hear him in the car, and that's what mom did.
(24:47):
She picked him up.
Speaker 13 (24:47):
They went to a zoo was about forty five miles away,
forty five minute drive. Then they head up to the
Wisconsin mails where I've actually been on vacation. It is
like Vegas for water parks. The entire town is just
full of different water park resorts. It is heaven for
children and families. And she went there with him. They
went to water park. They had a great time. Security
(25:08):
footage caught them leaving there. The husband, though, is the
one that said something's amiss. I've spoken to her, but
now she's not coming back. And that was not something
that they planned. She'd never said, you know, I'm going
to take a three day vacation with him, and we're
going to go do these things. He started to get
very worried about where his son.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You know, Karen started joining me where now it's psychologists
joining us out of Manhattan, TV radio trauma expert at
Karenstark dot com.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
That's Karen with a sea.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Karen, I've taken both twins out of what they were
supposed to be doing and spent time with them doing
something fun.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
So that's not unusual.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
However, in this case, mom had never done that before,
and she didn't tell the dad like say, for instance,
I'm going to take Lucy somewhere and We're not going
to be where we're supposed to be. I tell David, hey,
I'm doing so and so. Or when I would take
John David to the foot doctor, I e.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Bowling.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
It wasn't a secret, It wasn't a big surreptitious activity
the way it is here. Plus what this mom did
was out of the ordinary, Karen Stark.
Speaker 14 (26:20):
Which these are all signs that something is really a
miss Nancy, just like you said, because why would the
father or not know. As a matter of fact, this
dad went to the school to pick him up at
the end of the day and had no idea that
he had been checked out by the mom. She was
not in touch with him and an Initially she wasn't
in touch with anyone, so of course it's highly suspicious
(26:43):
behavior and nothing that you would expect from a parent.
Speaker 8 (26:52):
Timothy Pittson's mom leaves a bizarre suicide note claiming the
six year old is safe but will be seen again.
Is the boy dead or stashed with a cult like commune?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Mommy found dead? No sign of Timothy. This is how
Timothy Pittson goes missing. In the last months, this case
has bubbled back up to the surface because the Pitson
family living in fear because of an impostor posing as Timothy.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
But back to the time he disappears.
Speaker 15 (27:31):
Listen, Amy fry Pittson's cell phone was not in her
hotel room or car. Two years later, her cell phone
is found discarded behind a silo on a remote road
in Mount Carroll, Illinois, from Sterling, Illinois, where fry Pittson
made several phone calls. Mount Carroll is on the way
to Dubukee, Iowa. In her childhood, fry Pittson spent several
(27:51):
years living with her grandparents in Dubuque. Fry Pittson's sister,
Kara Jacobs, believes Amy still has connections in the area
and pass blue left Timothy with a family there.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Joining me in All Star panel.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
But now to IRV Brandt, renowned US Marshall Service, International
Investigations Branch, Chief Inspector Dog, Office of International Affair, author
of a string of books about a guy named Jack
Solo who bears an amazing similarity to IRV Brandt. Author
Solo Shot Curse of the Bluestone on Amazon and many more.
(28:27):
IRV Brant, You've spent your whole career figuring out where
is somebody? Now think about this. This mom had never
displayed any violence at all to Timothy Pittson, ever, very loving.
A divorce was pending. She was very distraught about that.
(28:47):
So we find her dead in hotel room. I note
this says, Timothy's alive, but I've given him to a
family that will take care of him and love him.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
You'll never find him. And then her cell phone.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Turns up up out of town full of good memories
for her. She spent time a lot of time with
her grandparents there and was very happy.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
So what do you make of this?
Speaker 5 (29:15):
Well, Nancy, the circumstances evolving the disappearance of this case
would lead investigators to believe.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Number one, just.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
The state of mind that she must have been in
when she committed suicide is just so unusual. The manner
that she did, then the places that she chose to
go to. You would imagine that the first thing that
they would investigate it as a suicide homicide. But given
(29:48):
the information, the family background, you have to consider the
possibility that she did indeed give Timothy to someone from
her past that she still had a connection with, who
would care for the child. That's a possibility that the
investigators have to check out and have to focus on.
(30:10):
They have to focus on the child being alive first
and foremost.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Well, wait a minute, wait a minute, or Brandt, She's
not a master criminal. She's a mom who has always
shown nothing but love for this child. She's distraught about
a divorce. Yes, she had to be beside herself to
commit suicide by slashing.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Her wrists and her own neck.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
She writes this note Timothy is alive and well and
with someone that will love him, inferring the father wouldn't
and maybe she felt that way because she felt rejected
in the marriage he was divorcing her. She also writes,
you'll never find him my point er Brandt, again, she's
not a master criminal. She's not some French arts or
(31:00):
a cat burglar. You really think she could have hidden
his body and it would be never found.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
Nancy, I understand what you're saying that she's not a
career criminal or a criminal at all. She's someone obviously
with mental health problems and has a history of mental
health problems. But is she capable of it? I would
(31:27):
say yes. But does the possibility exist that she did
turn this child over that she did know? Of course,
she loved her child and she wanted to see her
child safe. Did she give this child to someone who
would care for him? Yes, there is that possibility.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Well, especially IRV Brandt, the fact that we know she
was back in this area that she loved. We know
that because her phone was found behind a silo in
a rural area where she grew up with her grandparents.
So the child there, we've got her cell phone there,
we know she was there. And then suddenly when she's
back at this motel where she killed herself, there was
(32:08):
no sign of him. Remember she was spotted out in
about We saw that video from NICKMA National Center Missing
Exploited Children. We saw that video, and that was the
last time she was seen with Timothy Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
The next time.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
She's spotted no Timothy Okay, one hundred miles away shaking
into the motel. It says, if she stashed him somewhere
and then come back to this motel to kill herself
or Brant.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
I agree, Nancy, when you watch the videos and you
look how she's acting when she comes in, she doesn't
seem distraught. She doesn't seem like babe, I mean, someone
who just killed their own child. She seems you could
(33:04):
even describe her as maybe even being relieved coming in
because she knows this episode is going to be close
to finish, because she obviously planned this out.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Just as the Pittson family starts to believe that beloved
Timothy may finally be found, their hopes are dashed. A
DNA test reveals that the mystery team is really twenty
three year old Brian Reeney. Reenie was released from prison
for burglary in vandalism the month before, and finds himself
in more legal trouble. Rene is charged with two counts
of falsifying statements and aggravated identity theft. Renee takes a
(33:39):
plea deal and serves a total of two years in prison.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Joining me now founder director of Lynn's Warriors, dedicated to
protecting children Lynn Shaw. Lynn Rennie is not the only
one that pretended to be Timothy Pittson, and the family
has stated every time an apostle comes forward is quote
like ripping off a scab, making them real live the
(34:04):
pain all over again.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
Nancy, we work extensively with trying to find missing children.
We work on murder children. This is the case and
it's been escalating over the years that people step forward
pretending for their fifteen minutes of fame or whatever we're
calling it. In today's world, there are so many I'm
surprised there are not more people stepping forward about this.
But I want to circle back on something if I
(34:27):
might to. I was doing digging in and doing research
and in a lot of cases we work on law
enforcement with us as our partners tell us, if we
don't find an actual body or a child alive within
forty eight hours, we usually assume that they are not alive.
And I ask you, if her cell phone was found
two years later behind a silo wherever they found it
(34:50):
in the field, what was the investigation like for the
body because I have to ask he was at that
impressurable age of six, or he could have been handed
off and his mind sort of brainwashed into another environment
where he forgot about his family.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
But I ask you, this.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
Whole thing sounds like she's going through a divorce. They
had money problems. We have dealt with cases where one
of the mother, the father, one of them will say
in a divorce, if I can have my child full time,
nobody's going to have my child, and it doesn't matter
if they're a loving mother, they have no criminal history,
they will take the life of that child. And that
is what concerns me here. So I think more work.
(35:30):
We can never give up on looking for these missing
children at all.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
And for all we know, Timothy Pittson is alive and well,
living right under our noses with another family that he's
convinced is his own now. According to those closest to
mom Amy, she would never have hurt Timothy no matter what.
Listen to her sister.
Speaker 16 (35:52):
My nephew Timothy has been missing since May thirteenth, twenty eleven.
Speaker 11 (35:58):
Timothy Pittson was six years old when he vanished.
Speaker 16 (36:01):
We just believe with every fiber of our being that
he's alive. So without any kind of logic to give you,
I can just tell you I know that he's alive.
Amy would never hurt her child, And I know that
maybe that's hard for some people to grasp given what
she did to herself, but she just wouldn't have. She
(36:24):
had nothing but kindness and consideration for other people in
her life.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
A body has never been found, and again, this mom
is a criminal mastermind. Where would she have hidden the body?
Now you were hearing Timothy's aunt, Kara Jacobs from our
friends at NIKMA National Center Missing and Exploited Children, who
have also been working on this case. So those around
her are convinced Mom did not kill Timothy. So now
(36:52):
all these years later, we have people appearing, one after
the mix, pretending to be Timothy.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Now a quality of blos blood was found.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
It was Timothy's, but guess what it was proven to
have been from a previous nose bleed he had in
the car.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
So another dead end.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
It's not the first time a seemingly normal person pretends
to be a missing child. Remember earlier we mentioned Maddie McCann.
Listen to this.
Speaker 9 (37:24):
She says that she believes she is Madeline McCann. But
many have speculated that Julia may not be telling the
truth her own parents. I think she's an attention seeker,
and they say no for certain that she's their daughter,
because the mother says she delivered her. You just have
(37:45):
to take their DNA and your DNA.
Speaker 7 (37:47):
And I tried to do it many times. As I said,
I called many authorities.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Nobody asked for it, right.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I'm sure Scotland Yard just wouldn't pick up the phone
the DNA didn't match. That's not Maddy McCann bottom line, Karen,
start with me, renounced psychologist, Karen. Why would someone torture
Timothy Pittson's family this way, pretending to be Timothy.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
They need to have.
Speaker 14 (38:12):
The attention, Nancy. They're looking to be noticed, and of
course they will get this little bit of attention. Exactly
what was said. But I also want to say something.
This is a mother who said that she was terrified
if something happened to her and they got divorced, that
her son would be taken away from her. So I
(38:32):
just want everybody to consider, how does it make sense
if she was that frightened he would be taken away,
that she would give him to another family. I don't
understand that, and I'm afraid that that really didn't happen
because it doesn't fit. They were supposedly like two peas
in a pot, so that scenario I just I hear
(38:55):
a lot of anger even in the suicide. I know
desper but people do kill themselves because they are so angry.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Is Timothy Pittson alive? Is he hiding right under our noses?
If you know or you think you know the answer
to this riddle, dial six three zero two five six
five five one six repeat six three zero two.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Five six five five one six.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Prayers continue for the families of these missing children. Nancy
Gray signing off, good night friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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