Warrant Issued in Missing Ind. Girl Case

A warrant was issued in the 1986 disappearance of a 6-year-old girl, just days after a woman contacted the girl’s parents and said she might be their daughter, a sheriff said Wednesday.

Boone County Sheriff Dennis Brannon said the person sought in the sealed arrest warrant was from outside Indiana.

Indiana State Police scheduled a news conference for later Wednesday.

News of the warrant came after the missing girl’s father said DNA tests were being done to determine whether the woman who called was Shannon Marie Sherrill, who vanished while playing hide-and-seek outside her mother’s Thorntown home, about 30 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Brannon said he knew few details of the investigation, which has primarily been handled by Indiana State Police, and did not know who was being sought. He said he did not believe there had been an arrest. He told WRTV-TV of Indianapolis that he believed the suspect was a woman.

The existence of warrant was first reported Wednesday by The Lebanon Reporter, which said it was issued Tuesday.

Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer told the newspaper that Judge Matthew Kincaid heard evidence at a probable-cause hearing late Tuesday afternoon.

Meyer did not immediately return a message left Wednesday by The Associated Press at his office. State police and FBI officials would not confirm any developments in the case Wednesday.

Police in Virginia said they are helping Indiana authorities investigate the woman’s story that she may be Shannon, who would now be 22.

William Michael Sherrill, the girl’s father, said he was stunned when the woman called him Saturday night after speaking to his ex-wife, Dorothy Sherrill, who still lives in Thorntown.

“I had questions in my mind that I was going to ask her, and when I got her on the phone my mind just went blank,” said Sherrill, who manages a service station in Tipton.

He said DNA tests were planned to determine if the woman is his daughter. “We gave blood samples years ago, so they have our DNA and they’re waiting on hers,” he said.

Indiana State Police First Sgt. Dave Bursten declined to discuss the investigation Tuesday.

A lab would need at least two days to complete DNA tests, said Ben Ermini, director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s missing children division.

Police in Virginia Beach, Va., were checking names and addresses the woman gave Indiana authorities, police spokesman Jimmy Barnes said.

He said it was not clear if the woman, who apparently lived in Virginia at some point, still lives in the Virginia Beach area.

If the woman’s story is true, her case would be among just a handful in which a missing child resurfaced after more than a decade, Ermini said.

“Missing 17 years and then located – it isn’t very common, although it does happen. Certainly here at the center we never give up hope,” he said.

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On the Net:

Center for Missing & Exploited Children: http://www.missingkids.com