248 - The Vanishing of Sherri Holland - Trace Evidence

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
In mid August of nineteen ninety six, thirty four year
old Sherry Holland walked out from her Flagler Beach, Florida
vacation house, loaded her luggage into the car along with
her two dogs, and began the six hour drive north
to her Atlanta area home. She waved goodbye to a
neighbor and turned north onto Route A one to a

(00:30):
the way she always took. She would never make it home, however,
and nearly thirty years later, the mystery of her disappearance
continues to linger without any answers. Days after her disappearance,
her car was found abandoned along to Interstate seventy five
in Clayton County, Georgia, approximately thirty miles from her home.

(00:52):
There was a nail in the front passenger side tire,
but otherwise the car was an excellent condition. Police would
find a large sum of cash and a loaded gun
inside the vehicle, but no sign of Sherry, her dogs,
or oddly, her luggage. Her dogs would later be found
hanging around an apartment complex just a few miles west

(01:12):
of the car. While law enforcement worked to find the
missing woman, they would find themselves kicking the hornet's nest
of Atlanta's CD Underbelly when it was determined that Sherry
was involved in an illegal business and almost all of
her unknown clients had reason to be involved. Jim Bundy,
a man who worked alongside Sherry, would later claim she

(01:35):
had made a lot of enemies over the years, many
of them powerful names in the local community. What happened
to Sherry Holland? Was she abducted at random after pulling
over with a flat tire? Did a friend or coworker
come to assist only to eliminate her for reasons unknown?
Could a spurned boyfriend or jealous wife have played a role,

(01:57):
or was one of her clients willing to take the
risk that she might talk and instead decided to silence
her for good. This is Trace Evidence, Episode two forty eight,
The Vanishing of Sherry Holland. Welcome to Trace Evidence. I'm

(02:21):
your host Stephen Pacheco. When Sheery Holland drove away from
her Florida beach house, she expected to be home by nightfall.
When she failed to arrive, a call to Florida authorities
kicked off a multi state investigation that would uncover a
number of potential motives for her disappearance. All emerging from

(02:42):
an illegal business that Cherry had been operating. This is
the Vanishing of Sherry Holland. Friday, August sixteenth, nineteen ninety

(03:02):
six was a hot and sticky night in north central Georgia. Temperatures,
which had pierced the low nineties, had dropped off slightly
following sunset, but thermometers continued to register numbers in the
mid to upper eighties for several hours more. The sweltering
evening offered little reprieve, as with each passing hour, the

(03:23):
humidity grew thicker and more oppressive beneath the veiled stars
of a hazy evening sky. One state trooper proceeded north
onto Interstate seventy five, just south of Atlanta in neighboring
Clayton County. As the trooper continued along his way, his
attention was caught by a fast moving car which was
making sudden and erratic lane changes without signaling. Moving into

(03:47):
the lane of travel behind that vehicle, the trooper continued
to observe as the driver appeared to be struggling to
maintain speed or keep the car straight. Having witnessed enough
to establish probable cause for as traffic stop, the trooper
turned on his lights and siren and pulled up closely
behind the car, clicking on his right signal. The driver

(04:08):
slowly moved across the lanes, followed by the trooper until
he rolled to a stop along the shoulder just shy
of the exits for the city of Morrow, considered part
of the Atlanta metropolitan Area but still within Clayton County.
The location of the traffic stop was along an elevated
section of the interstate, which bridges over Meadowbrook Lane and

(04:28):
is just south of Exit two thirty three State Route
fifty four towards Morrow and Lake City. This stop was
captured on film by a dash camera mounted in the
trooper's vehicle. The stop was mostly without incident and resulted
in an arrest for a charge of driving under the influence. However,
it wasn't the trooper's performance nor the impaired driver's behaviors

(04:52):
that caused this videotape to be reviewed countless times over
the next two decades. Instead, it was another car entirely
just beyond the area which the stop was initiated. The
camera captured footage of a gold or champagne colored BMW
disabled along the shoulder of the road, there was nothing

(05:13):
to indicate the presence of a driver, and throughout the
entire stop and rode sobriety test, no one was seen
inside or near to the BMW. At the time, it
didn't mean much to the trooper, or for that matter,
anyone else, But several days later, when the owner of
that beamer was reported missing, the poor quality dash cam

(05:33):
footage would be paramount in the creation of a timeline
and establishing the missing woman's final confirmed movements. Thirty four
year old Atlanta resident Sherry Holland loaded up her luggage
and two dogs into that gold BMW eight to ten
hours earlier as she drove out of Florida to make
the six hour drive back to the metro area. It

(05:56):
was common for Sherry to travel back and forth multiple
times a year while her family and job were located
in her native Georgia. Her love of the easy life
and the beautiful seascapes of Florida's Palm Coast had captured
her heart and mind, leading her to purchase a small
vacation home there a year earlier. It was a dream
come true for Sherry, who treasured each moment she could

(06:19):
in the Sunshine State, but she'd never make it back there.
In fact, no one has been able to find anyone
who saw or spoke to Sherry after that Friday night,
and nearly thirty years later, investigators have made little progress
in a case which has been described as strange, unusual,
and clouded with mystery, from coworkers and friends to family

(06:42):
members who desperately hope for answers, but themselves provide few
details of the life and activities of the missing Sherry Holland.
Sherry Vanessa Holland was born on Wednesday, May ninth, nineteen
sixty two, in Cobb County, Georgia, to parents Kloy's and Eva.

(07:04):
She had two sisters, Sonya and Terry, the latter of
which was Sherry's twin. Friends and family have described Sherry
as a bright, loving and warm young woman who was driven, focused,
and talented. She had a big heart and a lot
of love to offer, especially when it came to animals,
which held a special place for her. Growing up in

(07:26):
Cobb County with her family primarily settled in the Marietta area,
she possessed a passion for exploring, hanging out with friends,
and making time with her parents and siblings. Much of
the Descriptions of Sherry focus on her looks, from her
petite frame and strawberry blonde hair to her bright blue
eyes and inviting smile. But there was so much more

(07:47):
to Sherry beyond her physical appearance, and according to some,
she seemed to almost relish the way in which different
people's biases were shattered once they actually got to know her.
She could certainly be a princess when the moment called
for it, but she wasn't afraid to get her hands
dirty either. She was sharp and funny, performed well in school,

(08:08):
and whether it was academics, extracurriculars, or just having a
good time, she was always determined to do her best
and to enjoy herself. One thing which comes up a
lot in discussion of Sherry is her kindness with everyone,
from friends and family to people who just met her
a handful of times noting that she was exceedingly polite

(08:28):
and warm to everyone. People were drawn to Sherry, and
she seemed to hold a certain magnetism, a dynamic charisma
that cannot be fully defined or understood, some kind of
an X factor that comes naturally to some people. As
a teen, she attended Osborne High School, located in an
unincorporated area of Cobb County, but the school is assigned

(08:51):
to Marietta postal code. There. She grew to be a
popular student who was well known throughout the school for
her kind, demeanor and talents. While in school, she explored
an interest in music, being a member of the choir
as well as the band where she played french horn. However,
there was one group she belonged to that seemed to
hold a higher regard in her mind, and that was

(09:14):
the Rifle Corps. Countless photos show Sherry, in addition to
her twin Terry, posing with the Rifle Corps in mid twirl.
The Rifle Corps taught various aspects of safety, proper handling,
and of course marksmanship, in addition to a color guardlike
adherents to skilled choreograph displays of twirling and spinning. Osbourne

(09:37):
High records show Sherry as a member of the team
as early as her sophomore year, and by her senior
year she was co captain. She would graduate from Osborne
High in the spring of nineteen eighty at the age
of eighteen. Despite a robust set of interests and desires,
she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do with
the rest of her life. There were a lot of

(09:58):
different possibilities, but but whether or not she wanted to
commit the rest of her time to one particular field
over another, she simply couldn't decide. In hopes of carving
out a space for herself and narrowing down the possibilities,
she enrolled at the Southern Polytechnic Institute at Home in Marietta.
The school later went through several name changes before being

(10:20):
absorbed by Kennesaw State University in July of twenty fifteen. Things, though,
did not pan out the way Sherry had hoped, and
SPI failed to open up the doors and avenues she
had originally considered. Due to a lack of options, or
perhaps an over abundance of them, Sherry sought out something
more focused, someplace that could offer her not only options,

(10:43):
but the regimented order and discipline she needed. After attending
SPI for a year, in the summer of nineteen eighty one,
the nineteen year old enlisted in the United States Army.
Sherry went on to serve four years in the Army,
receiving an honorable discharge in nineteen eighty five at the
age of twenty three, The peak of her military career

(11:04):
occurred when she was designated a sharpshooter and assigned to
an elite rifle team. During this time, Sherry was stationed
at Fort Benning, located in Columbus, Georgia, approximately one hundred
and twenty miles south of her native Marietta. According to
her father, Kloy's, Sherry enjoyed her time in the army
and felt that it had helped her in developing a

(11:26):
more focused and disciplined lifestyle, but when she was offered
the opportunity to re enlist, she turned it down, choosing
instead to exit back into private life. Not wasting much time,
Sherry turned her attention towards the world of real estate,
becoming an agent. She was hired on to work for Remax,

(11:47):
a growing and popular American international real estate company. According
to friends and family, she did well as an agent
and appeared to enjoy the work, but things would change
over the course of the next few years, and Sherry
would once again find herself seeking out something more attuned
to her interests and equally as important, something that would

(12:08):
bring in a larger salary. Sometime in nineteen ninety two,
Sherry made a dramatic shift. Getting out of the real
estate game, she began accruing money quickly and would go
on to make several large purchases. These included, but were
not limited to, a two bedroom, three bathroom vacation house

(12:28):
in Flagler Beach, Florida. The two story home, painted sea
green and white, was purchased for one hundred and thirty
four thousand, five hundred dollars on Wednesday, October eighteenth, nineteen
ninety five. The vacation home, which Sherry visited several times
a year, was a piece of prime real estate located
along famous Route A one A. For her primary residence,

(12:52):
she procured a five bedroom, six bathroom, forty five hundred
square foot mansion located at eleven thirty five Peachtree Battle Avenue,
northwest in Atlanta's affluent Buckhead District, which is home to
a large number of mansions and is known as an
area home to many millionaires. A twenty eleven study on

(13:14):
the district reported an average income of two hundred and
eighty thousand dollars with an average household net worth of
one point three million, marking Buckhead as the second wealthiest
community in the South and the only settlement south of
the Washington, d c. Suburb of Great Falls and east
of the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley, to be included

(13:35):
amongst a list of the fifty wealthiest communities in the country.
Forbes magazine would later report Buckhead's western zip code as
the ninth wealthiest in the nation. Cherry was moving up
in the world, at least financially, But what would later
fascinate investigators was just how exactly she had managed to

(13:56):
build up that much money that fast, which we'll get
to a little later. According to her family, had a
dramatic impact on the direction and scope of the investigation
into her disappearance. This brings us to the summer of
nineteen ninety six. Sherry, then thirty four years old, was thriving.

(14:17):
She lived a complex yet quiet life, commuting back and
forth between her northern Atlanta home and her Florida vacation house.
While things had really come together for Sherry, the one
aspect of her life that was far from what she'd
hoped for was the romantic side. By this point in
her life, she had hoped to be married and possibly
a mother, but it just hadn't worked out. Seven years earlier,

(14:41):
in nineteen eighty nine, she had started seeing a man,
and the fireworks were undeniable. But there was a snag,
as there often always is when things seemed too good
to be true. The man she was seeing, whose name
has never been revealed publicly, was married that year. When
the two came together, he was distant from his wife

(15:02):
and planning to leave her, or so he would claim.
In nineteen ninety he did separate from her, but they
ultimately reconciled, much to Sherry's chagrin. Nonetheless, she continued to
date the married man under the belief that he was
planning to leave his wife, or perhaps the illusion. By
the summer of ninety six, they were still together and

(15:22):
growing stronger. In fact, he would later tell investigators that
he and Sherry had been planning to marry, with a
date set for December of nineteen ninety six, but he'd
begun having second thoughts, and Sherry was less than pleased
with his hesitance. In fact, in what would turn out
to be one of their final face to face encounters,

(15:43):
the couple had a heated argument about the status of
their relationship, their future plans, and of course, the man's
choice to remain with his wife. On Thursday, August eighth,
Sherry left Atlanta to make the six and a half
hour drive south to her vacation home. Though she and
her boy had not settled their argument, she believed they
would talk more upon her return. Unfortunately, she would never

(16:07):
make it back to Atlanta, and less than two weeks
after heading south, she would be reported missing. While Sherry
went down to Flagler Beach without her boyfriend, she wasn't
entirely alone. She was joined as always by her two
beloved dogs, a boxer named Gracie, who you can see
in the thumbnail for this episode, and a mixed breed

(16:28):
she called Bear. According to everyone that knew the thirty
four year old, her dogs meant the world to her,
and her sister Terry would later state that Sherry quote
love them like they were her children. She doted on
the pups and there was nowhere she couldn't bring them with.
Her neighbors down in Florida would later report that Sherry

(16:49):
lived a quiet lifestyle, but she was often spotted outside
walking and playing with Gracie and Bear. Rose McCartney, a neighbor,
later told the Atlanta Journal quote, when she came here,
she was like a reclose. The same could be said
of her home in Atlanta, where the next door neighbor,
Caroline Stack, described Sherry as being very pretty and pleasant,

(17:12):
but not sociable, noting quote she always kept to herself.
For the next seven days, Sherry remained at her vacation home.
Details regarding her movements and counters and actions during this
time have never been revealed, if indeed they are known.
She planned to make her return to Atlanta on Friday,

(17:33):
August sixteenth. A neighbor saw her loading luggage into her car,
a gold or Champagne colored nineteen eighty seven BMW three
twenty five I, just prior to eleven am. The neighbor
waved and Sherry waved back, before the two engaged in
some polite conversation. At approximately eleven am, the neighbor stated

(17:55):
that the phone inside of Sherry's house started ringing, and
the thirty four year old remarked that it might be
the call she'd been waiting for and ran inside to
answer it. Just minutes later, she emerged from the vacation
home with Gracie and Bear in tow and loaded the
dogs into the car. She backed out of her driveway
and turned heading north along A one to A. This

(18:17):
would be the last confirmed sighting of Sherry Holland. The
drive from Florida back to her northern Atlanta home runs
approximately four hundred and twenty miles and would normally take
between six and seven hours to complete, factoring in traffic
as well as stops for gas and food. It was
estimated that Sherry should have arrived home sometime between six

(18:37):
forty five and eight pm, but she never did. The
night of her disappearance, at approximately eight pm, a Georgia
State trooper conducting a DUI arrest along I seventy five
captured footage of Sherry's BMW parked along the shoulder of
the interstate, just shy of the exit for Morrow and
Lake City. The location of the vehicle is later noted

(18:59):
as being approximately twenty five miles from her home. However,
at the time of the traffic stop, Sherry had not
been reported missing. The BMW was at that point ignored,
and it would sit there in that same spot for
eight days. Terry Holland contacted the Flagler Beach Police Department

(19:19):
on Thursday August twenty second, nearly a week after Sherry
drove away from her home, expressing concerns about her sister's
failure to arrive, Terry requested that law enforcement conduct a
wellness check on the A one A property Officer Paul
Burke caught the assignment and headed over to the house.
Unable to gain entry, Burke spoke to a neighbor who

(19:41):
provided him with a key. Upon entering, he checked through
every room but found no sign of Sherry. In his report,
he later wrote that everything in the house appeared to
be in order and there was nothing to suggest foul
play or any kind of an incident or struggle had
happened there. Interestingly, Burke reports that he spoke to Terry

(20:02):
after searching the home and attempted to obtain additional information
about the missing woman, but he was met with resistance.
His note state that Terry quote was reluctant to provide
Officer Burke with enough information to investigate the complaint. This
note has never been expounded upon, but it is the
first statement in what will become a bit or dispute

(20:24):
between law enforcement and the family regarding a two way
street of poor communication and a failure to share all
known information, whether or not information regarding Sherry's vehicle was
delivered to law enforcement. At the time of the report
appears unclear. However, we know that on Tuesday August twentieth,
four days after Sherry vanished in two days before her

(20:47):
sister contacted police, that her gold BMW was once again
spotted by a police officer. The vehicle was still sitting
in the same spot as it had been when the
troopers dash cam captured it. This second officer looked over
the vehicle and noted a flat tire. After running the plate,
the officer learned there were no reports filed on the car,

(21:09):
and so he tagged it as an abandoned vehicle and
continued on his way. On Saturday, August twenty fourth, two
days after law enforcement was notified, someone described only as
a friend of the family spot Sherry's BMW on the
shoulder of the interstate and contacts the family. Shortly thereafter,
several members of the family got onto I seventy five

(21:32):
and started driving around looking for it, and when they
spotted it, it was again in that same location. At
that point, they contacted law enforcement and the Morrow Police
Department responded. Upon arriving at the scene, investigators looked over
the car and noted that it appeared to be in
good shape, the front passenger side tire was flat, and

(21:54):
there appeared to be something stuck in the rubber, later
determined to be a nail. At that point, police were
unsure of what they were dealing with, but theorized that
Sherry may have gone missing after accepting a ride from
a passer by or while trying to walk to a
nearby business or home for assistance. Detective Dell Jones would

(22:14):
later note that the possibilities were fairly wide giving the
limited information they possessed. He would state, quote, we're considering
that she was abducted, that it was a hoax, or
that she just wanted to disappear. Police impounded the vehicle
that evening and made arrangements for it to be searched
for any evidence that might lead to Sherry's whereabouts. Meanwhile,

(22:37):
back at the site, multiple police officers were assigned to
search along the interstate for any potential clues or signs
of the missing woman, but at the time, no sign
of Sherry, nor Gracie or Bear were found. Searches along
the interstate and through wooded areas near to where the
car was located were conducted throughout Sunday, the twenty fifth,

(22:58):
though they would prove fruits. However, on Monday the twenty sixth,
police would receive their first major clues, and the picture
they painted was grim, to say the least. The Stratford
Arms apartments are located at four seventeen Valley Hill Road
in Riverdale, approximately six miles west from where the car
was found. That morning, the Riverdale Police were notified that

(23:22):
two dogs fitting the descriptions of Gracy and Bear were
spotted wandering around the road near to the apartment complex. Sadly,
Bear was struck by a vehicle and was discovered to
ceast in the bushes along the side of the road.
Gracie was alive and healthy. The boxer was spotted by
a resident of the apartment complex, and according to the caller,

(23:44):
it had led him to the location at which Bear's
body was found. Upon contacting the police, the resident noted
that Gracie had been leading him around and the dog
seemed very focused on the woods across the street from
the apartment complex. When the family was notified about the
dogs being found, their concern immediately transformed into fear. They

(24:06):
explained to police that the dogs were incredibly important to Sherry,
and that she would have never abandoned them, let alone
somewhere that posed such a danger to them. Hearing this,
law enforcement were still lacking solid evidence of foul play,
but they quickly agreed with the family that if the
dogs had been left behind, something must have gone terribly wrong.

(24:27):
On Tuesday, August twenty seventh, the Morrow Police and Riverdale
Police came together along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation GBI,
to conduct a walking search in the wooded area across
from the Stratford Arms. Asked about the possibility of foul play,
Lieutenant Ben Mance of the Riverdale PD told the Atlanta Journal, quote,

(24:50):
We're not ruling out anything. There's just so much we
don't know. The search of the woods lasted just over
two hours, but nothing was found to assist in the
invent investigation. Several members of the family came down to
the search area, and Sherry's father spoke with officers about
the search and the disappearance. Though Kloys did not want

(25:10):
to speak to the media at the time, he requested
that law enforcement announced that the family was offering a
thirty thousand dollars reward for information leading to her safe return.
Asked about her father's state of mind and emotions at
the time, Lieutenant Mance replied, quote, he feels about like
you would expect, very tired, very upset, and very concerned.

(25:34):
In hopes of putting together more information and perhaps to
unlock new investigative avenues, law enforcement began interviewing friends, family,
and anyone they could locate who knew or interacted with Sherry.
One of the first people they were eager to speak
with was her married boyfriend, who, according to law enforcement,
was very upfront and open with them. The unidentified man

(25:56):
told police that on the morning of the disappearance, he
had received a page from Sherry and called her back
around eleven thirty am. According to him, the two chatted briefly,
and she told him that she was coming home and
she'd call him when she got closer to Atlanta, but
that call never came. Authorities were unsure at the time

(26:16):
if the boyfriend's call was the one Sheery ran into
answer while speaking with her neighbor, or if perhaps that
call had originated from elsewhere. The boyfriend was asked whether
or not his wife was aware of the affair he'd
been carrying on with Sherry. To which he responded that,
as far as he knew, his wife had no knowledge
of his relationship. When speaking to friends of the missing woman,

(26:40):
they told police that she had expressed hurt, feelings and
depression about her relationship and the direction it was going.
They also stated that she was getting tired of her
job and had commented that she often considered traveling to
Europe to get away from everything. This was interesting because
when police had previously asked they he'd been told that
Sherry was unemployed and spent her free time working on

(27:04):
a plan to become an author. They soon learned the
reason why there appeared to be so much apprehension to
give details of the missing woman's job. She was operating
a high dollar escort agency out of her Buckhead mansion.
Law enforcement did not wish to share this information until
they could confirm it further, with Lieutenant Mans telling the

(27:25):
Atlanta Constitution that Sherry worked in the adult entertainment industry,
but he would not comment beyond that. Gerald Saunders, a
writer for Atlanta area adult entertainment magazine Atlanta Excitement, quickly
recognized Sherry's photo off a television news report, but he
knew her by a different name, Saunders provided law enforcement

(27:49):
with a copy of an advertisement which had been running
in the magazine. In the ad, Sherry, who uses the
pseudonym Christie with a K, wears a red dress and
advertises her measurements as thirty four C twenty four thirty three,
along with the statement in call only. According to Saunders,

(28:11):
in call only means someone interested in her company would
need to go to her home or business for an encounter.
She would not come to them. Speaking to the news journal,
Saunders noted that he had seen the ads in several
previous editions of the magazine, and when asked to clarify
what services Sherry was advertising for, he quickly replied, quote,

(28:33):
I would consider her a high class call girl. Asked
about his relationship with Sherry, Saunders was quick to point
out that he had never met the missing woman. He
simply recognized her from the ads and the magazine he
wrote for. Saunders stated that several other people described as
friends and associates of the thirty four year old also

(28:54):
recognized and identified her when they saw her picture. The
magazine was delivered to and circulated through local strip clubs.
Saunders explained, quote, we're a magazine dedicated to the adult clubs.
The girls advertise as lingerie models, dancers, companions. Saunders also
told reporters that the magazine had already been contacted by

(29:17):
the GBI. In response, the publisher issued a statement reading,
in part quote, it has come to our attention that
one of our advertisers is in fact Sherry Holland. The
GBI has been in touch with our office and we
are giving them our full cooperation. While the mystery surrounding
Sherry's job in primary source of income was beginning to unravel,

(29:41):
the investigation was moving slowly. A lack of evidence and
solid information left police with few directions to go, and
in hopes of finding more, they primarily focused on searching
areas surrounding the location of her abandoned car and the
Stratford Arms apartments. On Wednesday, August twenty eighth, the GBI
and Morrow Police began canvassing areas of Clayton County in

(30:03):
search of anyone who might have seen Sherry the night
of her disappearance, or really any time prior. While speaking
to the media, law enforcement noted that while everything they
knew said this was a missing person's case, they were
beginning to grow more concerned about the possibility of foul play.
Asked about what role her business may have played, Lieutenant

(30:24):
Mann stated, quote, we have no indication that her occupation
had anything to do with the fact that she is missing.
Officers began going door to door but couldn't find anyone
who knew anything or anyone who was willing to talk.
They finally moved away from their search of I seventy five,
which had lasted a total of four days, and instead

(30:46):
turned their attention to a large pile of dirt and
debris nearby. A home had once sat at that spot,
but had recently been pulled from its foundation and moved.
Tackling all angles, police brought in a bulldozer and through
the site of the former home, but found nothing connected
to Sherry or anyone else for that matter. On Friday,

(31:07):
August thirtieth, the GBI and Morrow Police Department converged on
Sherry's Peachtree Battle Avenue home in the Buckhead district. Over
the course of several hours, officers were seen going in
and out of the home. At one point, a locksmith
was seen arriving and being led into the house by authorities,
but when asked what they were looking for, if anything,

(31:29):
law enforcement could not comment. It would later be revealed
that police found the interior of the home strange, with
reports noting a dramatic absence of clothing and personal effects.
To them, it appeared as though the house was not
a primary dwelling. During the search, they were informed that
both Sherry's sister and her boyfriend had keys to the house,

(31:51):
but both stated they had not entered the home since
Sherry left Atlanta earlier that month. What the locksmith was
used for has never been to say discussed. Over the
course of the next month, investigators conducted more searches of
the Stratford Arms Complex and the wooded area across the street.
Three searches were carried out on foot, while a fourth

(32:13):
was conducted by air through the use of a helicopter,
but all four searches failed to deliver anything helpful. On Thursday,
October twenty fourth, the wooded area was searched again, though
this time police brought three cadaver dogs with them. Nothing
was found, and when asked about the dogs, John Bankhead,
a spokesman for the GBI, explained that the dogs had

(32:36):
been brought in to confirm that they hadn't missed anything
in their previous searches. Around the same time the cadaver
dogs were being used, investigators once again utilized a helicopter
to search, but this time they focused in on the
stretch of I seventy five where the car had been found.
Once again, they failed to uncover any new evidence. While

(32:57):
Georgia authorities were searching for Sherry, Florida police were carrying
out their own investigation and had been since they'd received
the original welfare check request. After interviewing neighbors, they learned
few details about Sherry or her comings and goings, confirming
that she did keep mostly to herself. In hopes of

(33:18):
finding anything helpful, they began speaking to the owners and
employees of gas stations and convenience stores along Route A
one a that Sherry might have stopped at the day
she disappeared. Unfortunately, they couldn't find anyone who claimed to
have seen Sherry that day or at any other time,
at least not that they could recall. It was reported

(33:39):
that Sherry's green and white vacation home was empty, and
police noted a four rent sign hanging in the window,
though there was no mention of who exactly was renting
out the missing woman's home. While Sherry's family have been
very quiet in the media, they were reportedly also quite
withdrawn from law enforcement as well. There's a growing tension

(34:01):
between the two groups, and much of it came to
a head when in late October Terry spoke to the
Clayton News Daily newspaper and had not so kind words
for investigators. Essentially, it boiled down to Terry feeling that
police were not doing all they could to find her sister.
In her opinion, as soon as they learned about her

(34:22):
advertisement in the adult magazine and her involvement with the
escort business, they started backing off their search efforts and
cooling down the investigation. For their part, law enforcement denied
backing off of anything and noted that recent searches had
just been carried out, firing a shot back at Terry.
John Bankhead told the Atlanta Constitution, quote, We're still hoping

(34:45):
to develop information, and our agents have interviewed everyone that
knows her well or could have come into contact with her,
but any leads to her whereabouts have dried up. It
surprises me that the family would criticize lawn for Horsemen
based on their lack of participation. There were few, if any,

(35:06):
updates in the case over the next months, and soon
nineteen ninety six came to a close, with no one
any closer to finding or revealing Sherry's location or what
may have happened to her. In February of nineteen ninety seven,
six months after she was reported missing, Georgia and Florida

(35:27):
law enforcement got together to discuss details of the case.
They began considering the possibility that Sherry may have never
made it out of Florida and that her vehicle could
have been driven and abandoned by someone else. While a
possibility they couldn't dismiss outright, they could not find any
evidence or corroborating information. They turned their attention back towards

(35:48):
the interstate and some of the thicker wooded and swampy
areas for searches. Two searches focused in on a heavily
wooded area described as being between I seventy five and
Georgia eighty five, not far from Upper Riverdale Road. This
parcel of land included some swampy areas and what has
been described as a small lake. Though the first two

(36:12):
searches hadn't yielded results, a third search was launched in
late July. This time, a cadaver dog was brought along
and actually alerted to the authorities. Pamela Swanson, a spokeswoman
for the GBI, explained quote the dog alerted, running right
to the edge of the pond and barking. According to Swanson,

(36:33):
they were planning to search again, but they planned to
bring along a cadaver dog, which had been specially trained
to detect human remains beneath the surface of the water.
On Friday, August eighth, a new search was carried out,
this time focusing on a wooded area approximately fifteen miles
west from where the car had been found. The site

(36:54):
was located less than ten miles southwest of the Stratford
Arms apartments, and police stated that they had been drawn
to that location after receiving multiple complaints of a foul odor,
which they presumed could be the scent of a body.
Clayton County Police Sergeant R. C. Tumlin and GBI Detective
Scott Crumley were involved in the search, and later in

(37:17):
the day several divers were brought in to assist. However,
after several hours searching, no body nor any sign of
Sherry was found eight days later. August sixteenth marked one
full year since Sherry had last been seen alive, and
police appeared no closer to finding out anything. Law enforcement

(37:38):
confirmed that it was still technically a missing persons case,
but noted the passage of a year more strongly suggested
the possibility of foul play. Kenny Smith, then chief of
the Marrow Police Department, explained the possibilities, telling the Constitution quote,
if she is alive, she could be anywhere on the
face of the earth. If she's dead, I'd say she's

(37:59):
in a five five mile area of where her car
was found. If somebody was going to cause her harm,
they would have killed her very soon. Based on my
experience with a year gone by. Police were opening up
more about the progress of the investigation and what little
they had managed to uncover. It was reported that within

(38:20):
the first few months of the investigation they had received
nearly one hundred calls from tipsters who claimed to have
seen or possessed information about the disappearance. This number was
boosted by local media coverage as well as the implementation
of billboards along I seventy five, which displayed a photo
of Sherry as well as her gold BMW. While police

(38:42):
noted that most of the tips they received were inaccurate
or far too vague to follow up on, there were
a couple that captured their attention and warranted additional investigation.
One tipster claimed to have seen a woman fitting Sherry's
description along with an unidentified man at a quick trip
gas station and convenience store on Upper Riverdale Road less

(39:05):
than three miles from the Morrow exit on the night
of her disappearance. This witness told police that the woman
seemed to be trying to make eye contact with him
and it felt strange, like she needed help or was
trying to get his attention. According to the witness, Sherry
and the unknown man climbed into a dented, faded blue

(39:25):
mid nineteen eighties Oldsmobile or Buick. He was unable to
obtain the license plate number at the time, but contacted
police when he saw the billboards, swearing the woman he
had seen that night was Sherry. A second caller told
police that he saw woman he believed to be Sherry
standing next to her gold BMW along I seventy five

(39:48):
the night of her disappearance. This witness stated that he
saw Sherry loading her suitcases into a white pickup truck
before climbing in herself. While the tip could not be confirmed,
law enforcement noted that it did reveal a detail of
the case they had not yet given to the public.
In fact, while police had impounded Sherry's car the night

(40:09):
it was officially located Saturday, August twenty fourth, they had
not previously discussed what, if anything, had been found inside
the vehicle. Sherry's nineteen eighty seven gold BMW three twenty
five I was reportedly in working order and the only
issue found was the flat front passenger side tire. Examination

(40:30):
by technicians revealed that a nail had punctured the tire
and was still present inside of it when found. Whether
or not the nail had been run over by accident
or if someone had purposefully sabotaged the vehicle has never
been revealed. If in fact, it is known. Inside of
the car, police found several items on the front passenger

(40:51):
side floorboard. They recovered an empty Coca Cola can, a
half eaten bag of fun Yuns snack size, an empty
coffee cup, and an empty styrofoam cup. There were also
two small pouches, each with a zipper, one red and
one white. With a long, horizontal, coffee colored stain. Sherry's

(41:12):
purse was also recovered, though notably her wallet, which held
her ID and credit cards, was missing. Strangely, despite the
absence of a wallet, police reported recovering two thousand, four
hundred dollars in cash from inside the purse. In the stereo,
police found a vocabulary cassette tape designed to teach the listener.

(41:33):
According to friends and family, Sherry was always trying to
better herself, and so she would drive along repeating the
words out loud to learn them and add them to
her lexicon. In the back seat, on the floor behind
the driver's seat was a small cardboard box which contained
jumper cables, a pair of white mule style shoes, and

(41:53):
a previously opened quart of Castrol GTX brand motor oil.
Perhaps the most curious item found was a loaded all
black thirty eight caliber revolver recovered from beneath the driver's seat.
Notable by their absence, however, were Sherry's suitcases, which have
never been found. At the time, it was difficult for

(42:16):
law enforcement to dismiss the second tip, considering it included
a sighting of Sherry loading her missing luggage into another vehicle.
The witness may have indeed seen something that night, but
still the description was too limited to offer them much
to work with. Unfortunately, the investigation was slowing down, as

(42:36):
were tips, which had dwindled to just a handful of month.
Despite all of the information at their disposal, police were
no closer to figuring out what exactly had happened. Asked
his thoughts on the case, GBI agent Fred Mays replied, quote,
we have no idea what the motive was. She could
have been abducted, it could have been planned, or it

(42:59):
could have been a rare and an act. We don't
have a body, we don't have a crime scene. All
we have is a missing woman and a lot of theories.
One issue for police came about when they tried speaking
with people who knew Sherry through her escort service. Unsurprisingly,
most people working in that industry were hesitant to say
anything to law enforcement or to get themselves involved in

(43:22):
an investigation which could lead to a potential homicide. Law
enforcement noted that given their occupation, they were exceedingly reluctant
to say anything one way or the other, let alone
to even confirm that they were involved in that business.
Detective Ken mcgilvy would later explain, quote so many people,

(43:44):
so many who have reason not to speak. But you
can be sure the adult entertainment underworld is aware of
this case. They know all about it. The next year
passed with no major news, and on the second anniversary
of her disappearance in August of ninety eight, Sherry's father
spoke directly to the media for the first time, and

(44:04):
he was less than thrilled with the investigation as it
had been handled. According to him, though he tried multiple times,
law enforcement did not appear interested in telling him anything,
or perhaps even speaking with him at all. He explained
to the Atlanta Journal, saying, quote, we haven't heard anything.
I think the police and GBI completely forgot about it.

(44:27):
I call a detective every now and then. I don't
think they're doing all they can. We can't get any
response from them. They'll return the calls, but they don't
tell me much. It seems like somebody could come up
with something. There was the one new name on law
enforcement's list, and he had a lot to say. How
much of it was true, what was misdirection, exaggeration, or

(44:51):
perhaps flat out deception, No one could say for certain.
Jim Bundy described himself as Sherry's quote unquote business manager.
He told authorities that he'd met the missing woman approximately
nine years earlier, in nineteen eighty nine, after he'd sold
a slot machine business he had been running in South Carolina.
Bundy spoke well of Sherry, describing her as quote smart, beautiful, sexy, caring, wonderful,

(45:18):
but police also noted that he spoke of her only
in the past tense. Bundy told police that the year
she vanished, Sherry was operating an escort business out of
her home, which she called Atlanta Supermodels. The business, he
went on had been started six years earlier, in nineteen
ninety two, and he wasn't shy about claiming his belief

(45:39):
that Sherry's disappearance was absolutely tied to that business. Bundy
went on to relay a story which resonates today, perhaps
more so than it did back then. According to Bundy,
Sherry had brought a lot of negative attention down on
herself because she had allegedly installed hidden cameras around the
escort service, and she was taping her clients encounters with

(46:02):
her employees for the purposes of blackmail. He went on
to tell police that as a result of that blackmail operation,
he had overheard several people expressing their interest in murdering
the missing woman tomorrow. Police weren't sure what to make
of it, with Captain Rick Johnson saying quote, we don't
know what Bundy's role is in all of this. He's

(46:24):
been interrogated three times. I won't use the word suspect,
but I don't want him to leave town, though there
is little, if anything to support the claim. An anonymous
poster on what was then Porchlight International's forums claimed to
have known both Sherry and Bundy, using the username A

(46:44):
New Day. The user posted only one statement before deleting
their account. In that statement, the poster claimed to have
actually worked for Sherry, but says they dealt more directly
with Bundy. The poster claimed that during their time as
an employee, they saw Sherry sparingly, noting that she was
mostly detached from the business and spent much of her

(47:05):
time out of town. This person went on to say
that they had spoke to the GBI and told them
everything they knew about Sherry and Bundy, noting that Bundy
was extremely sketchy following the disappearance. Asked about Bundy's claim
of blackmail. The poster noted that it didn't sound like
the kind of thing she would do, but it absolutely

(47:26):
sounded like something Bundy would have been up to. The
poster wrote, in part quote, I never trusted anything about Jim.
He would say terrible things about her, but at the
same time pretty much lived on her dime and the
business she had started. It wouldn't surprise me at all
if he finally decided to take the business off for himself.

(47:47):
It was very profitable, and being that it was all
under the table, he probably figured no one would take
much notice. Whether or not this post is real or
a complete work of fiction, no one knows, perhaps the GBI,
if indeed they spoke to this individual. However, nothing has
ever been confirmed one way or another, and all of

(48:08):
these years later, the poster has never come forward to
publicly identify themselves. It is but another curious and compelling
rumor in a case that is rife with speculation and
unproven insinuations. What role Bundy played, if any, appears quite
unclear to everyone involved. Fred Mays of the GBI reported

(48:34):
that they had also spoken with Bundy on several occasions,
but he wouldn't give additional details about the nature of
those conversations. Mays, however, did go on to say that
the investigation into Sherry's disappearance had not only spread nationwide
but internationally. They were contacted about Sherry from different police
departments throughout the country, but the investigation also involved cooperation

(48:57):
with both Interpol and Scotland. Yard there was at the
time a consideration that the missing woman may have staged
her disappearance in order to escape from potential threats from
that alleged blackmail operation. Asked about the possibility, Captain Johnson replied, quote,
it wouldn't be the first time we've looked at it
from both angles, staged or not. The family never believed

(49:22):
that Sherry had run off to them. Almost from the
moment her car was found. They were under the impression
she had been the victim of foul play and was
likely dead. Asked about that grim possibility, Kloy has told
the Atlanta Journal quote, I know she's not alive in
my heart. If she was overseas, there would be some
way she would get in touch with me or Terry.

(49:44):
I know her that well. There was a heck of
a bond between them. Sherry wouldn't have made us go
through what we all have if she was alive. The
family then announced they were altering their reward, now offering
thirty thousand dollars for her safe return or ten thousand
dollars for information leading to her body. Fred Mays was

(50:06):
caught in somewhat of the middle between the two differing sides.
Unsure of what happened, he would state quote, some days
I think she's living, some days I think she's dead.
It changes from day to day my feelings on this case.
The next couple of years passed with little development. Though
tips continued to trickle in, they never led to anything significant.

(50:30):
Fred May's traveled to Tennessee, following up on a report
that Sherry had been spotted there, living in a town
forty miles west of Chattanooga. When Mays tracked the woman down,
it was quickly determined that she was not Sherry. Another tip,
which was pursued as far as it could be, came
from a man who said he'd attended college with Sherry

(50:50):
and had spotted her on a flight from Texas to Atlanta.
According to the man, he approached the woman and tried
talking to her, but she ignored him. Authorities could not
verify the woman's identity, but did note that Sherry's name
appeared nowhere on the passenger manifest. The gap between police
and the family would only grow wider, and in August

(51:12):
of two thousand and one, five years after the disappearance,
Terry Holland, expressed her belief that her sister had been
killed as a result of trying to get out of
the escort business. She stated, quote, Sherry wanted to get
out of the business for sure that year, and she
was about halfway toward getting enough money saved to do that.
She was always striving to learn things and better herself.

(51:35):
I know she wanted to have a family and children.
Terry remained a steadfast critic of the investigation, adding quote,
I don't think they're capable of solving it. At first,
I didn't want the GBI to know what Sherry did
for a living, because I felt like they wouldn't look
hard enough if they knew. There would be no breaking news,

(51:56):
no case updates, no articles or stories written about Sherry
or her disappearance for the next seventeen years. The last
potentially solid tip came into law enforcement in June of
twenty eighteen. Some twenty two years since Sherry had last
been seen alive, law enforcement received a call from the

(52:17):
daughter of a man named Adrian Eurrebe. The daughter told
investigators that, after seeing a news story about Sherry's disappearance,
her father had commented that he had once found items,
including a driver's license, that he thought belonged to Sherry.
Urebe said that he had previously lived in a neighborhood
that was in close proximity to a wooded area just

(52:40):
off Duffy Drive, which is notably directly adjacent to where
Sherry's car was found. According to his story, Eurebe was
walking in that wooded area sometime around two thousand and
two or two thousand and three when he spotted a
wallet partially submerged in a creek. Inside of the wallet
was Florida driver's license depicting the woman he believed was

(53:03):
Sherry Holland. He also saw a Sam's Club shopping cart
in the wallet, and law enforcement was later able to
confirm that Sherry did in fact have a Sam's Club membership.
Clayton County Sheriff's Office Chief James Callaway brought Eureb in
for an interview and questioned him thoroughly. Ultimately, Callaway said

(53:24):
he felt fairly convinced that Urebe was telling the truth
about what he'd found all those years earlier. In response,
a news search was organized and included the Sheriff's office,
Morrow Police, the GBI, and four cadaver dogs, which were
brought in special from South Carolina. Callaway expressed his sincere

(53:44):
desire to solve the case, to find Sherry, and to
get justice for her. He told WSBTV two news quote,
it's our hope and it's my personal prayer that we
do find Sherry Holland out there in the woods to
bring some closure to this family. Fred Mays was also
present for the search, noting that he was getting older

(54:06):
and his time with the GBI was soon coming to
an end, but he wanted more than anything to solve
the case before he retired. To him, it was the
one case that still kept him awake at night. The
search took place on Wednesday, June sixth, and focused in
primarily along a creek bed where Urebe had pointed out
the precise location to the best of his recollection of

(54:29):
where he had found the wallet and card yeared earlier.
During the course of the search, three of the four
cadaver dogs indicated at a specific part of the woods,
very close to where Sherry's car had been found. Wanting
to verify the location, the dogs were led away and
then brought back into the woods from a completely different direction,

(54:50):
and yet once again they indicated at the same spot.
Despite this, law enforcement did not manage to find anything
related to the disappearance, and no signs of a body
were found. Chief Callaway expressed his and his department's frustration, saying, quote, Unfortunately,
we didn't find anything and were extremely disappointed in that. Tragically,

(55:15):
this is where the search for Sherry comes to a
complete and utter halt. At least for the time being,
there has been no new information revealed by police, no
new statements from law enforcement, and over the last seven
years coverage his pause, pending new leads, law enforcement remain
on the case and continue to keep Sherry's BMW in

(55:36):
their possession, but what if any advancements there have been
remained cloaked in secrecy. When last seen, Sherry Vanessa Holland
was described as being a white female with long, strawberry
blonde hair and blue eyes, standing five feet three inches
tall and weighing approximately one hundred and fifteen pounds. Sherry

(55:58):
has a scar on her left arm and her ears
are pierced. She underwent minor facial plastic surgery in nineteen
ninety five. Some police agencies around the country have her
middle name and first name swapped to be Vanessa Sherry Holland.
She was last seen in Flagler Beach, Florida, on the
morning of Friday, August sixteenth, nineteen ninety six. At the time,

(56:22):
she was wearing a tan T shirt and white shorts.
Her car, a gold or Champagne colored nineteen eighty seven
BMW three twenty five I with Georgia plate BKT sixty
sixty four, was found abandoned along the north bound shoulder
of Interstate seventy five, just shy of Themorrow and Lake

(56:42):
City exit. At the time of her disappearance, Sherry was
thirty four years old, and if alive today, she would
have turned sixty three earlier this month. This year will
mark twenty nine years since Sherry mysteriously vanished. Along her
trip from Florida to Atlanta. More than a dozen searches

(57:02):
have been executed, over one hundred tips followed up on,
and more than one hundred people have been directly interviewed,
and yet much of this case remains clouded in mystery.
Just what became of Sherry that warm summer night in
August of nineteen ninety six. Surely someone is in possession
of information that could aid investigators in their pursuit. But

(57:22):
if this is true, those people have chosen to remain
silent for nearly three decades, leaving a woman's fate and
a family's pain and loss to fester. Sherry's parents have
both since passed away, Kloy's in twenty fifteen and Eva
earlier this year. They never learned what became of their

(57:43):
daughter or why she was taken from them, but they
never gave up, believing that someday the truth would be
revealed and justice might be delivered. Their desperate hope for
truth remains unfulfilled. The vanishing of Sherry Holland is a

(58:06):
case that, upon first glance, seems to suggest something beyond
a normal missing person's case. Who have a woman operating
a high class escort service, accusations of a blackmail operation
from hidden cameras, and apparently a long list of wealthy
and powerful clients, any of whom may have had reason
to want to see Sherry Gone. When cases like this

(58:27):
have been discussed in the past, there's usually a great
deal of media coverage and speculation. One name that immediately
came to mind was Heidi Flie, known during her business
operation as the Hollywood Madam. She was based out of
Los Angeles and ran an escort service whose clientele was
primarily Hollywood names, politicians, and high powered corporate types. She

(58:50):
learned the business from another madam, that being Elizabeth Adams
known as Madame Alex, who began a California based escort
service in the nineteen seven hell. If you dig back
far enough, you'll find countless examples of escort services over
the years where there have been accusations of concealed cameras
or photography which would be utilized for blackmail. Here in

(59:13):
western North Carolina, there's a famous story about a prominent
local man who had wild parties and utilized friends to
covertly photograph politicians for blackmail. His life as well as
one of the alleged photographers, ended in a brutal and
violent triple murder, which remains unsolved to this day. Another

(59:34):
name that comes up, especially considering the last few years,
is Jeffrey Epstein. However, much like in the cases of
Flice and the man in western North Carolina, we never
quite got to the bottom of the matter and what
exactly was happening, who was involved, and what evidence was collected,
if any, remains hidden behind the red tape and confidential

(59:54):
documents of federal law enforcement, or so they claim. Nonetheless,
when you hear about a woman running a high dollar
escort service out of a mansion in a neighborhood loaded
with the rich and powerful, you might expect a little
more in terms of deep investigative coverage and hard hitting
expos a's, but not in this case. Coming around and

(01:00:15):
noting the absence of those kinds of journalistic endeavors, one
might be left to wonder different ends of the spectrum.
While some would argue this as evidence that maybe things
weren't as involved or clandestine as they seem, others would
suggest the sheer lack of anything beyond a surface level
is a sign of a deeper and perhaps more sinister
cover up. I find myself squarely in the middle and

(01:00:38):
somewhat like GBI agent Fred May's where some days I
fully believe there's a hell of a lot more to
this story. And then other times I think maybe it's
a missing person's case that got overwhelmed by the rumors,
leading some to search harder for an alleged mysterious cabal
rather than the victim herself. At this time, it's unclear

(01:00:58):
which supposition is most accurate, but at the end of
the day, it's Sherry's disappearance that should take the most
prominent position. Certainly, there is some possibility that her business
played a role in whatever became of her, and if
the accusations about the videotapes in blackmail is correct, then
we may have more than enough support for a likely motive.

(01:01:19):
The problem is, none of this has ever been verified.
None of the investigators and none of the law enforcement
agencies involved in this case have ever said they know
for a fact that blackmail was happening, or that they
saw the cameras, or that the tapes were found. They've
never even addressed it, other than to say that Jim
Bundy made these claims, a man who at the time

(01:01:40):
and to this day, they're unable to put a label on.
Was he simply a business associate of Sherry's or was
he more involved than he wants to share? Is he
a cooperating witness or perhaps a person of interest, though
one may need to read between the lines a little bit,
it felt apparent to me that investigators didn't think this
guy was completely clean, but they didn't have any hard

(01:02:03):
dirt on him either. Now, I love a good conspiracy
as much as the next fella, but there has to
be some meat on the bone for me to take
a bite, and in this instance, while it's extremely intriguing
and suspicious, there's a hell of a lot more smoke
than there appears to be fire. That doesn't mean the
blackmail operation didn't occur, or that Sherry wasn't involved in

(01:02:23):
something extremely dangerous beyond her business, but it does make
it harder to pursue a fact pattern when you've got
nothing to work with. One aspect of the investigation often
brought up in regard to this angle is that on
the day they searched Sherry's home, a locksmith was called in.
It's never been stated what he was used for, but
the most common belief is that Sherry had a safe

(01:02:44):
in that house and the police wanted in. While there's
been rampant speculation about the safe containing videotapes and blackmail materials,
We don't even know for certain that a safe existed.
For all we know, one of the closet doors was locked,
and when they finally and open they just found Linen's.
It's as probable as anything else, depending upon your view.

(01:03:06):
I enjoy staring into the abyss, but I'm not going
to dive into it. Jim Bundy overall is an interesting
aspect of this case, but like so much of it,
we know very little. Police describe him as cooperative, but
seem to imply there's an air of deception about him,
something that makes them wonder if he's being completely on
the level. Given her the business he's involved in. His

(01:03:29):
deceptive behaviors or statements could be chalked up to either
a desire to cover something up regarding the disappearance, or
perhaps to shield his own illegal activities from landing within
the purview of the detective's curiosity. The truth is we
have no way of knowing unless Bundy decided to start
talking a lot more, or if someone else comes forward.

(01:03:50):
The anonymous poster on Porch Light Internationals certainly seem to
imply Bundy should be considered a suspect, but we know
even less about that person. For all we know, it
was a fit fifteen year old with an active imagination.
Statements like that require corroboration, and law enforcement has never
confirmed the poster's claims about speaking to the GBI. Bundy

(01:04:11):
would be a probable suspect if for no reasons other
than the fact that he was in the business with Sherry.
Her disappearance would provide him with the ability to take
over the whole operation instead of merely being limited to
his own slice of the pie. Given Sherry's purchases in
the neighborhood in which she bought her mansion, it seems
likely that there was quite a good sum of money
changing hands here. One great way to eliminate your business

(01:04:35):
partner is to openly implicate them in deceptive practices and
blackmail operations. In a business where privacy and secrecy are paramounts,
it's essentially the same as putting a bounty out on them.
If he were that willing to tell law enforcement about
the operation and the cameras, who else might he have
felt comfortable notifying upper level clients, favored escorts, people with

(01:04:58):
the money to purchase the information they desire, and others
who might be willing to act out even violently, so
should they believe their encounters were compromised. A honeypot is
as old as time and continues to work extremely well,
but it does come with its risks, and whether or
not Sherry truly engaged in that kind of activity, we

(01:05:19):
just don't know. All we can say for sure is
no tapes, photos, or blackmail materials of any kind have
ever been discussed, revealed, or discovered by members of law
enforcement as far as we know. Then again, if this
were an overarching conspiracy, you'd never know about any of
that stuff anyway, now, would you. That's kind of the

(01:05:40):
problem with a lot of different conspiracy theories. An absence
of proof is often celebrated as proof itself. But I digress.
There's been a lot of talk about who may or
may not have been involved with the escort service. A
lot of online discussion has locals pointing accusatory fingers at
law enforcement themselves, claims that they were part of the business,

(01:06:02):
either providing security or as clients, or a little bit
of both. While possible, I should note I've never seen
anything to confirm that or even imply it, outside of
local rumors which don't provide any evidence for a solid foundation.
It's entirely possible that police low or high level could

(01:06:22):
have been involved in some way. It would hardly be
the first time something like that happened, But as intriguing
as that may be, it appears to mostly be smoke
and mirrors. A lot of people have used this aspect
as an argument as to why the police never solved
the case, suggesting they were directly involved, but that's kind
of broad. Not only would the Morrow Police and the

(01:06:45):
GBI need to be involved, so would the Clayton County
Sheriff's office and the Flaggler Beach Police down in Florida.
We're talking a lot of different people. Surely by now
something would have leaked out, but maybe not when there's
the idea that a client could have been involved in
the disappearance, either because they were implicated in the blackmail

(01:07:06):
or because they heard the rumor and believed it. One
interesting statement I've seen repeated several times by different members
of law enforcement is the possibility that Sherry may have
been targeted by a client after he failed to pay
his debt and she threatened to tell his wife. I
can't help but wonder if that's merely speculation and theorizing

(01:07:27):
or if there might be a little bit more beneath
the surface. Surely a threat like that would send a
shutter down the man's spine, but it may also have
caused him to consider a darker and more concrete solution
to that threat. Again a possibility, but nothing much more
could be said about it. For some, the likely suspect
was not directly involved with the escort service. Many believe

(01:07:50):
that Sherry's boyfriend may have played some role in her disappearance.
On the one hand, it is theorized that perhaps Sherry
threatened to finally tell his wife about their seven year relationship,
and he needed to eliminate her to keep his home
life from being blown to smithereens. On the other hand,
some have argued that perhaps, in a situation similar to
that of Heather Elvis, perhaps his wife became aware of

(01:08:12):
the affair and plotted on her own or directly alongside
her husband on how to get rid of this woman
threatening her household. We know even less about the boyfriend
than we do about Jim Bundy, so while this is
a possibility as much as anything else, it's not something
we can deeply pursue. The boyfriend claimed that Sherry paged
him the morning of her disappearance, and when he called

(01:08:33):
her back, she told him she was heading home and
would call him when she was in Atlanta. For some reason,
though they are in possession of her telephone records, police
have never revealed who it was who called her house
that morning. As in all cases where a woman goes missing,
her boyfriend is always going to be a potential suspect,
and this case is no different. Law enforcement interviewed him.

(01:08:55):
I'd presume they investigated him, and they chose to never
name him publicly. Whether or not he is still someone
to keep up with or observed from time to time,
we simply don't know. If you begin moving away from
the business associates, you move more into the realm of
a stranger abduction situation. There's a lot of people who
believe that one of two things happened to Sherry. Either

(01:09:17):
she broke down on the side of the road and
took a ride from a dangerous person she didn't know,
or she got into contact with someone she did know
who she thought she could trust. According to police, her
car was in perfect operating condition other than the flat
front passenger side tire with the nail In it, two
witnesses report seeing different things that night. One sees a

(01:09:38):
woman he believes to be Sherry at a quick tripped
gas station three miles west of the car and not
too far from the Stratford Arms apartments where her dogs
were later found. Another claims to see her on the
side of the road beside her car, loading her luggage
into a white truck. It's this second sighting that seems
to have some corroboration, considering that Sherry's luggage was never found. However,

(01:10:01):
no one can say with any certainty if either of
these witnesses are correct, and each could tell similar stories.
A stranger offers a ride to the gas station or
a friend comes to pick her up, and either way
she's never seen again. I suppose the problem I have
with the idea of this being a total stranger with
a random crime is why Sherry would have ever gotten

(01:10:22):
into a car with someone she didn't know with all
of her luggage but not her loaded thirty eight revolver.
It would seem to me that a sharpshooter who was
in the army would not be hesitant to bring along
her gun, if indeed she thought there could be any
potential risk. The failure to bring the gun leads me
to believe she didn't think she was in danger, or

(01:10:42):
perhaps she was stopped in some way from bringing it
with her, But that doesn't make a ton of sense
to me either, unless we go back to the idea
that she knew and trusted this person. The dogs are
a bit confusing as well. I mean, maybe it's just me,
but I can't imagine picking someone up strand on the
side of the road and offering them a ride, but

(01:11:03):
also agreeing to take the two dogs into my car
as well. Curiously, neither of the witnesses give any sightings
of the dogs at the car on the side of
the road of the interstate, or at the quick trip
or at the apartments. There's been a lot of speculation
that perhaps Sherry was a random victim, or that she
got into the car with a serial killer operating in

(01:11:23):
the area. This is certainly possible, but much like other
cases of missing people and abandoned vehicles, there's very little
which can be done to dig deeper into that possibility.
Some people have different serial killers they consider, and certainly
they could be correct, but much of those theories are
based upon limited information. And a lot of speculation or

(01:11:44):
wishful thinking for lack of a better term. You can't
rule them out, but much like the rest of the case,
you can't really rely too heavily upon it either. The
question that I often consider is was the nail in
Sherry's tire an accident which which caused her to pull over,
and then she just happened to get into the car
with a killer or was it done purposefully? Maybe she

(01:12:07):
stops for gas, goes inside the store, someone sabotaged as attire,
and then follows along behind her on the interstate, knowing
she's gonna pull over. That's as probable as any other
theory I've heard. Then we've got Adrian Uribe, who claims
to have found Sherry's wallet containing her Florida driver's license

(01:12:27):
and her Sam's Club membership card in the woods next
to a creek. This location is south of Duffy Drive
and north of I seventy five, in a wedge that
includes Barton Memorial Park. Now Eurebi is an interesting witness
in this case due to his discovery of the items
less than six hundred feet from where the car was found.

(01:12:48):
I should also note he's not the one who contacted
authorities about this find, which wasn't reported until twenty eighteen. Instead,
his daughter learned of the case, and while speaking to him,
he mentioned what he had found years earlier. He later
commented that he assumed it was his daughter who contacted
authorities since he had not done so. He did, however,

(01:13:10):
do a thorough interview with investigators and led them to
the spot he claims to have found the wallet. For
their part, law enforcements say they believe his account if accurate.
You have to wonder if Sherry was in that woods,
or if her abductor or killer decided to simply throw
the wallet. Why you would throw her wallet away, ignoring

(01:13:31):
twenty four hundred dollars in cash inside the car. I
don't know. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
It's also worth noting this would suggest the killer threw
away the wallet and then either kept her luggage or
disposed of it somewhere else where. It's never been found.
For their part, law enforcement have said if she were
killed that night in a random encounter, they expected to

(01:13:54):
find her body within five miles of where the car
was found. These are all solid possible, though there is
not even a whiff of evidence to cast any doubt
or suspicion on your rebee himself. I can't help but
say my mind finds it difficult to believe that her
car broke down due to a nail in the tire,
and the guy who later found her wallet lived six

(01:14:16):
hundred and ten feet from where her car was found, and,
according to multiple background checks, was employed by a company
that serviced tires. I would imagine police dug pretty deep
into this guy and found nothing suspicious, and he appears
to be a legitimate witness. But in a case like this,
you just don't know what to believe. Now. The final

(01:14:37):
area I want to spend a little bit of time
on is a theory that in most disappearances is quickly dismissed,
but in this one, they've never really completely closed the
door on it, and that's the possibility that Sherry orchestrated
her own disappearance. I'm not a huge proponent of this
theory generally speaking, but I agree with police that you
can't just dismiss it here. Friends and family made it

(01:14:59):
clear that if Sherry wasn't thrilled with the way things
were going in her life, she was depressed about her
career situation and wanted to get out of the escort industry,
and the boyfriend she had been with for seven years
was clearly never going to leave his wife. She had
argued with him before she left for Florida, and was
apparently planning to get in touch with him when she
got back to Atlanta, maybe to have a deeper discussion,

(01:15:22):
maybe to say goodbye, or maybe to just continue on
as things had always been. But if Sherry were tired
of her life, or if she were in danger from
something related to her business or allege blackmail prospects, then
escaping to another country or another state while faking her
disappearance could certainly have been possible. I don't believe she

(01:15:43):
could have pulled it off without help, though, and I
find it difficult to believe she would abandon her dogs
that meant the world to her. But at the same time,
wouldn't that just work out in her favor. One of
the best things you can hope for when staging a
disappearance is for people to say, oh, oh, she would
have never done this, or she would have never done that.

(01:16:04):
She wouldn't abandoned the dogs, she wouldn't leave twenty four
hundred dollars in cash behind. She wouldn't throw her wallet
in the woods. She wouldn't take her luggage with her,
perhaps perhaps not. Frankly, I've always found the condition of
her car and the situation of its discovery a bit off.
But I couldn't really explain why something just doesn't seem right.

(01:16:25):
Sherry drives almost all the way and breaks down less
than thirty miles from home. She doesn't call a relative
or a friend. She doesn't reach out to a towing company,
trip ala, or any kind of roadside assistance. Now, sure,
she may not have had a cell phone, and that
appears to be the case, as there's no mention of
one in the investigation. So maybe she would have had

(01:16:46):
to have taken a ride to a nearby gas station
or store to make that call. However, if you were
going to a payphone and then you were getting a
ride home and you were planning to call in for
service on your car from there, or maybe if you
were getting picked up by someone you knew. But I
just can't imagine taking all of my stuff with me
when I know I'm gonna get this car brought home anyway. Hell,

(01:17:11):
I still wonder if the luggage just contained clothing and
personal effects, where if maybe there was something worth taking
in them hard to say for sure. Now. Another part
of this case, along the line of planned disappearance revolves
around an alleged telephone call. There's a strange mention of
a recorded phone call between Sherry's sister and an unknown

(01:17:33):
person on the Charlie Project summary of this case. The
Charlie Project says, quote, a source came forward with a
recorded phone conversation between one of Holland's sisters and an
unidentified person in September of nineteen ninety six. During the conversation,
her sister said it was possible that Holland went abroad
and essentially staged her own disappearance. Why all that sounds

(01:17:58):
really interesting? There's a couple of isations choose here. Firstly,
we don't know exactly what was said, and speculating that
maybe your sister fled to Europe doesn't exactly strike me
as a direct confession of a plot to stage a disappearance.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this claim is I
can't verify it. It's not stated in any articles. Law

(01:18:19):
enforcement never mentions. It is not in any official GBI
posts or on namous Where this detail came from, I
simply don't know, And while it's enticing and intriguing, there's
nothing to back it up. It has as much foundation
as the anonymous poster who claimed to work for Sherry.
It could be true, but it could also be a fabrication.

(01:18:43):
Some have speculated that perhaps the reason police described the
family as not very cooperative was because they might have
learned after reporting her missing that Sherry did indeed fake
the situation to escape danger and unable to put the
pace back in the tube, they had to play a
lot of defense. I mean, sure, that's possible, but this

(01:19:03):
isn't The girl with the dragon tattoo and her family,
especially her father, would have been one hell of an
actor to keep up with this charade until his dying day.
By the same token, it seems that if Terry wanted
to throw police off the trail, she would likely not
be making public statements about how bad the investigation was

(01:19:23):
and her belief that investigator stopped caring. Once they found
out about the escort service, it would for the most
part be ignored, and the family would say they didn't
want to talk to the media. Then again, who the
hell really knows. The world is bizarre, It's a twisted place,
and truth can often be stranger than fiction when you

(01:19:43):
come right down to it. Sherry Holland vanished nearly thirty
years ago, and I don't feel we know a whole
hell of a lot more today than we did back
in August of ninety six. Surely there are people out
there with information, and while not talked about as loudly
as it once was, this case is not going to disappear.

(01:20:04):
There are still investigators, there are still tips, there are
still rewards available, and there is still a whole lot
more to figure out and uncover. Truth be told, it
certainly seems like police need more help than they have,
and if only one of the people who knows something,
no matter how insignificant, would come forward, then maybe they
could finally get things moving again. One need not expose

(01:20:28):
themselves or their past or current endeavors, legal or not
in order to contribute. There are plenty of ways to
submit information anonymously, which will be listed as always at
the end of the episode. All it takes is a
little piece of information, a name, a location, confirmation or
denial of a piece of evidence. At this point, anything

(01:20:50):
could help, but sadly, unless this does happen and someone
comes forward, the vanishing of Sherry Holland will remain open, unsolved,
and very cold. If you're looking for more information about

(01:21:14):
the vanishing of Sherry Vanessa Holland, there are many news
articles and forums discussing her case. For this episode, the
Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Daytona Beach News Journal provided
the most helpful information. If you have any information about
the disappearance of Sherry Holland, please contact the Flagler Beach

(01:21:36):
Police Department at three eight six five one seven two
zero three nine. Her case number is F nine six
two nine five zero. You can also contact the Morrow
Police Department at seven seven zero nine six one four

(01:21:58):
zero zero six. You can also send them emails anonymously
to Police Tips ATMORROWGA dot gov. Finally, you can also
contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation at four zero four
two four four two six zero zero or submit a

(01:22:19):
tip through their website at GBI dot Georgia dot gov.
What do you believe happened? Tweet me at Tracevpod, email
me at trace Evidencepod at gmail dot com, or comment
in the Facebook group. You can find all social media
and contact links in the show notes. At this time,

(01:22:42):
I'd like to take a moment to thank our amazing
Patreon producers, without whom this show would not be possible.
An m Bertram Brett, Edie, Christine Greco, Crystal J. DEARTHI,
Denise Dingsdale, Deanni Dyson, Jennifer Winkler, Justin Snyder, Cara Morland,

(01:23:08):
Leslie b, Lisa Hopson, Nick Mohar, Shirts, ROBERTA. Jansen, Stacy Finnegan,
Tom Radford, and Whitney Welp. This concludes our look into
the vanishing of Sherry Holland, a very solvable case if
only people would tell what they know. Before wrapping up today,

(01:23:29):
I just want to let you know if you're looking
to grab some Trace Evidence merch you can visit shop
tepod dot com, which is also in the show notes
for all updated designs and merchandise. In addition, if you're
planning to attend crime Con this year in Denver, I'll
be there on podcast row representing Trace Evidence. If you

(01:23:51):
haven't yet purchased a ticket, you can use code trace
to save ten percent at crimecon dot com. That's trace
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248 - The Vanishing of Sherri Holland

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}248 - The Vanishing of Sherri Holland