Hi crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today. It begins at exactly 4.10 p.m. in Cabot, Pennsylvania. That's the time when 8-year-old Cherry Mayhan gets dropped off by her school bus. Come rain, snow, or shine. It is always there near the end of her family's gravel driveway. And Friday, February 22nd,

1985 was no different. The big yellow box parked on the side of the road right on schedule and opened

its accordion door to deposit Cherry in her big backpack in the one place that a kid should be safest.

But something happened to Cherry after those bus doors closed,

and somewhere in the 500 feet between the road and her home, Cherry disappeared, and she hasn't

been seen in over 40 years. But in the last few months, our team has been in contact with a man

in prison who says he holds the answers,

and he agreed to meet with us to share what he knows.

Music I'm going to be. I'm going to be. Only one thing was different from the routine Cherry Mayhan followed on February 22, 1985.

That Friday was the one day.

Neither Cherry's mother or stepfather were there to walk her from her bus down the long drive to their front door.

It was a nice day, 40 degrees.

Her mom Janice could see the road from their window.

She could hear the bus on the gravel as it pulled up, like what could possibly happen in your own driveway?

So she told her husband Leroy they could skip meeting Cherry at the stop.

And every day for 40 years, I bet her stomach churns as she replays that decision.

I mean, it was so small, but it changed her life forever.

Janice hears the bus come and go and they wait. But when minutes go by and Cherry doesn't walk through the door, Leroy heads out to the front of the trailer to check on her.

Now he doesn't spot her out front, so he walks to the end of the driveway thinking maybe she's

stopped there to chat or play with a friend, but she's

not there either. And as he stares up and down, the two-lane backroad, surrounded by woods

on either side, the first seed of the stomach pit that he'll come to live with begins to grow.

...