Sherry Michaud Petersen, sometimes recorded as Sherry Yon Petersen or with the surname spelled “Peterson,” was 42 years old when she vanished from the Ocala/Marion County area of Florida during the 1992 Christmas holiday season. She lived in Ocala with her children and was described as a white woman with brown hair and hazel eyes, about 5'6"–5'7" and approximately 135 pounds.
Noted identifiers included a large brown birthmark on the front of her right shoulder and missing teeth for which she wore a dental plate.
According to investigators and later reporting, she had been expected to travel to her parents’ home in Lakeland for the holidays. Instead, at the last minute on December 24, 1992, she sent her children ahead to their grandparents and told her mother she would call early on Christmas morning. That call never came, and her family could not reach her.
Her loved ones grew alarmed when she failed to appear for planned holiday gatherings, and she was ultimately reported missing. The case lingered for decades with no confirmed sightings and no recovery of her remains, leaving her family with an agonizing absence of answers and a trail of uncertainty about where she went and what happened after she was last seen.
Years later, authorities described her last known movements as involving local stops in eastern Marion County, including the area of the Ocala National Forest. In accounts attributed to law enforcement, she was last seen alive on Christmas Eve 1992, and some summaries place her last confirmed sighting outside a local bar.
In 2018, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office announced a major development: investigators said they had determined who was responsible for her death, despite not recovering her body. Reporting stated the renewed push came after contact from Petersen’s family prompted detectives to re-examine leads, which brought them to Frank Crow, an inmate already serving a lengthy prison sentence for an unrelated murder.
Authorities said Crow offered to explain what happened only if he received immunity from prosecution in Petersen’s case, and prosecutors and her family agreed, citing his age, deteriorating health, and the practical reality that pursuing a new prosecution might not be feasible. In interviews described by investigators, Crow claimed he encountered Petersen on Christmas Eve at a convenience store, went with her to the White Forest Tavern, and later went to the Lake Catherine area. He told detectives he killed her there, then dismembered her and disposed of her body parts in multiple lakes in the Ocala National Forest. Detectives said they believed his account because he provided details they felt only the killer would know, while also acknowledging they did not expect her remains could realistically be recovered.
As a result of those findings, authorities said they were closing the case: while Petersen’s disappearance began as a missing-person investigation, investigators now publicly characterize it as resolved through a confession and determination of responsibility, even though the exact date and time of her death remain unknown and her remains were never found. For the family, the “answer” came in the harshest form—closure without the comfort of recovery—after years of not knowing where she was or why she never came home.Last Seen: Dec 24, 1992
