In the fall of 1986, two-year-old Cherie Nicole Barnes moved with her mother, Elizabeth Ann Turek Vasser, and her stepfather, Larry Vasser, from Nashville, Tennessee, to Missouri. The family settled in St. Louis, but the situation was troubled. Elizabeth, also known as Sissy, was reportedly forced into prostitution by her husband. The young girl, a biracial child with brown hair and brown eyes, was last seen on January 7, 1987. On that day, she was with her stepfather in Kansas City, Missouri.
The disappearance of little Cherie was tragically intertwined with the fate of her mother, who had vanished shortly before.
The circumstances surrounding Cherie's disappearance became even more heartbreaking with the discovery of her mother's body. Elizabeth had disappeared from St. Louis on December 1, 1986. In February 1987, her remains were recovered from the Mississippi River; she had been the victim of a homicide. For seven years, Elizabeth remained unidentified, buried in a pauper's grave. It was only in 1994, after relatives from Nashville contacted the police to report both Elizabeth and Cherie missing, that authorities were able to identify Elizabeth's body and officially open an investigation into the toddler's whereabouts. The gap in time significantly complicated the search for the missing child.
Investigators eventually located Cherie's stepfather, Larry Vasser, in the mid-1990s, finding him incarcerated for unrelated armed robbery and burglary charges. He has since claimed to know where Cherie is, stating that she is alive, living under a new name, and being cared for by his family in the Kansas City area. He has suggested that Cherie may not even be aware that she is a missing person. At one point, Vasser cruelly offered to provide Cherie's maternal grandmother with photos and a recording of the child's voice in exchange for $500. Despite his claims, he has refused to disclose her exact location. Custody of Cherie was supposed to be granted to her mother's relatives following Elizabeth's death. Due to the grim and complicated details, Cherie's case is classified as a non-family abduction, and her whereabouts remain unknown.Last Seen: Jan 7, 1987
