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Transportation professionals: I need your help

by Lou Smyrlis

This is a blog I never thought I would have to write. I’ve just come back from celebrating my son’s 10th birthday to horrible news; the kind that every parent fears but can easily fool himself into thinking happens only to strangers, to people you only hear about on the news. But the sad reality is that tragedy has hit my family and I am asking the transportation industry for its help. Just a little over a week ago my niece, Megan Cherry, was a teenager showing a world of promise for the future. She was a star soccer player with a scholarship waiting for her at Iowa State University. Now she’s on the missing persons list, listed as an endangered runaway. Her family, friends, local police and the FBI have been searching frantically for her but with absolutely no results. I know the transportation professionals who read our publications and this blog travel extensively and see a lot of things while on the road. I hope I can lean on your eyes and ears in the search for Megan Cherry. Megan is a bright teenager but still naïve in many aspects of the world and may have fallen in with the wrong crowd. Her behavior had been troubling of late and the family is very fearful for her safety. It was on Friday February 6th that something went terribly wrong. At some point after being dropped off at her school, Allen High School in Allen, Texas, that morning, Megan came back home, packed some of her belongings, and took a family car that was parked in the front of her home. She has not been heard from since. Yet she had just $30 on her that day. So where could she have gone? Why has she remained out of touch despite having a mobile phone? Is she in danger? Those are the kinds of questions torturing her parents and her family right now. Anyone with a child can imagine what they’re going through. It is now 10 days since her disappearance. Megan’s mobile phone has been switched off since February 6th, a strange occurrence in itself considering how attached she was to her phone. Police questioning of her friends has yielded little. Tall, good looking and athletic she would stand out in a crowd. She has black hair with a reddish-golden streak in her bangs. She stands 5’ 10” (178 cm) and weighs 165 lbs with an athletic build. Her ears are pierced and she has a scar on her right ankle. She may be traveling in a silver 2001 Ford Taurus with Texas license plates JNM 715. It has a dent along the passenger door. Pictures and more information about Megan Cherry can be found at the link included below. Anyone who sees Megan Cherry or has any information about her whereabouts, please contact: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or the Allen, Texas Police Department at 1-214-509-4322 I thank you all for your understanding and help. The slightest tip could lead to a happy ending of having Megan reunited with her family.

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