In the summer of 1978, a twelve-year-old girl named Sheryl Denise Taylor vanished from the small mining town of Picher, Oklahoma. On the evening of July 20th, Sheryl, who was new to the area with her family, left her home on foot to go to a nearby grocery store. She was last seen sometime between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m., barefoot and wearing a sweatshirt and yellow shorts.
Conflicting accounts place her either in front of the grocery store or just a couple of blocks from her house, possibly with friends on bicycles. Her family had recently relocated from Nowata County, a move that Sheryl was reportedly unhappy about, leading some to initially believe she may have run away. This theory gained some traction as she had apparently mentioned to friends the idea of running away.
The initial thought that Sheryl might have run away to her older sister's home in Kansas was quickly dispelled when her sister was located and confirmed she had not seen or heard from Sheryl. The disappearance sent a wave of fear through Picher, as two other females had gone missing from the same town within the preceding year. The remains of both of these individuals, thirteen-year-old Julia Miller and twenty-three-year-old Ellen Rowden, were discovered in April 1978, just across the border in Kansas, bound to trees. The community was on edge, and numerous rumors about Sheryl's fate circulated, including unsubstantiated claims of involvement by a satanic cult. Adding to the complexity of the situation, Sheryl's family moved away from Picher just days after she went missing. While some found this timing unusual, a cold case investigator later suggested that the painful memories associated with the town may have been too much for the family to bear.
Over the years, investigators have explored various leads, but the case has remained unsolved. A man named Karl Lee Myers, a suspected serial killer with a history of sexual assault, was considered a person of interest in Sheryl's disappearance, as well as the cases of Julia Miller and Ellen Rowden. Although Myers was acquitted of Rowden's murder, he was later convicted of the murders of two other women and died in prison in 2012. No definitive evidence has ever linked him to Sheryl's case. Foul play is now strongly suspected in her disappearance. Despite the passage of time, the investigation into what happened to Sheryl Denise Taylor remains open. The lack of concrete evidence and the conflicting initial reports have made this a challenging case from the outset, leaving her loved ones and the community without answers for decades.Last Seen: Jul 20, 1978
