Key facts
- Name: Cheryl Ann Kenney
- Age at disappearance: 30
- Last seen: February 27, 1991, ~10:17 p.m.
- Location: Quality Convenience Store, Business 71 Highway, Nevada, Missouri
- Height / build: ~5’5″, light brown hair with bleached blonde tips, green eyes; mole-removal scars on chest and upper left arm, scar on wrist, distinctive tooth pattern
- Status: Still missing — open investigation
- Investigating agency: Nevada (Missouri) Police Department
The alarm was set. She never made it to her car.
Cheryl Kenney closed up early on the night of February 27, 1991. It had been a slow Wednesday at the Quality Convenience Store on Business 71 Highway in Nevada, Missouri, where the 30-year-old wife and mother of two usually worked until midnight. Her time card shows she clocked out at 10:00 p.m. At 10:17, she set the store alarm — the last recorded act of her life.
Her car was still in the parking lot in the morning. The store was undisturbed. Cheryl never made it home.
Two people in the area later said they heard a woman scream around the time Cheryl would have walked out to her car. They didn’t go to the police until days later, after they read about her disappearance in the newspapers. By then, whatever trail existed had gone cold.
The store’s janitor had left just before closing. He told investigators there were no cars in the lot when he left — but one customer was still inside the store. Walking customers weren’t unusual; several hotels stood nearby. That customer was never identified. It is not known whether he had anything to do with Cheryl’s disappearance.
Who Cheryl was
Cheryl Ann Kenney was 30, married, a mother of two — a son, Darnell, and a daughter, Kristi. She worked the late shift at a convenience store to support her family, the kind of job that puts a woman alone behind a counter at 10 p.m. on a winter night in a small Missouri town. She always came straight home. That was the thing everyone said about her, the detail that made the empty parking lot impossible to explain any innocent way.
Her son Darnell has carried the case for decades. On the 20th anniversary in 2011, he returned to Nevada to stage a rally, got the family onto the Missouri missing-persons website, and pushed local television to air the case again. The city of Nevada issued a proclamation declaring the day “Cheryl Kenney Day.” He has described his frustration plainly — local law enforcement, he said, told him they would only work the leads that come in, not actively review the case — and he has spent years trying to get larger news organizations to look at his mother’s story. “I think the answer is somewhere there around home,” he said.
A cluster of three
Cheryl’s disappearance sits in the middle of one of the strangest crime clusters in Missouri history:
- January 19, 1991 — Trudy Darby, a convenience-store clerk in Macks Creek, is abducted from her workplace. The store is robbed of $220. Her nude body is found in the Little Niangua River two days later; she had been shot twice in the head.
- February 27, 1991 — Cheryl Kenney vanishes from her convenience store in Nevada, Missouri.
- April 4, 1991 — Angela Hammond, 20 and pregnant, is abducted from a payphone in Clinton, Missouri, while her fiancé listens on the line.
Three women, three small Missouri towns, ten weeks. Half-brothers Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney were arrested in May 1995 for Darby’s robbery, rape, and murder — Rush was convicted in March 1996 and sentenced to life without parole, and Chaney pleaded guilty in April 1997. Rush confessed to multiple people, and in a letter to another inmate claimed he and Chaney had buried two other bodies. Police have long suspected the pair in Cheryl’s and Angela’s cases — but no remains have ever been found, no charges have ever been filed in connection with either woman, and the presumption of innocence stands.
The three cases were profiled together on Unsolved Mysteries on February 5, 1992, which is how most of America first heard Cheryl Kenney’s name.
The investigation
From the start, the physical facts pointed to an ambush in the parking lot: alarm set at 10:17, car abandoned, no sign of a struggle inside the store, screams heard by two witnesses who came forward too late. But there was no witness to the taking itself, no vehicle description, no forensic anchor.
In 2000, bones found in a field were thought to be Cheryl’s. They were determined to belong to an unidentified male. In 2011, on the 20th anniversary, police announced a cold-case inquiry. In 2016, the 25th anniversary brought fresh local coverage — “25 Year Mystery: Where is Cheryl Kenney?” — and the case was still open. Nevada police have said they will keep the case open and keep working it: “We’re going to keep it open and keep at it.”
Thirty-five years on, Cheryl Kenney has never been found.
Theories: what might have happened
Abduction from the parking lot. The weight of the evidence: the alarm set, the car left behind, the screams heard by two witnesses, the unidentified customer still in the store at closing. Everything points to Cheryl being taken between the door and her car. What it doesn’t answer: by whom, and where she was taken.
The Rush–Chaney connection. Police suspicion, not proof. The convicted killers in the Darby case operated in the same region in the same ten-week window, used convenience stores as hunting grounds, and one of them claimed two more buried bodies. Against it: their M.O. in the Darby case was sloppy and evidence-rich, while Cheryl’s and Angela’s disappearances left almost nothing. Some investigators and researchers doubt the same men could have committed both kinds of crime. No charges, no remains — this remains an open question, and both men are entitled to the presumption of innocence regarding these disappearances.
A different stranger. The unidentified customer in the store that night is the case’s great unknown — a person who was there, who walked (the nearby hotels made that unremarkable), and who was never found. If the taking was opportunistic rather than connected to the other cases, he is where the answer would be.
Have information?
Contact the Nevada Police Department (Missouri): (417) 448-2710, or the TIPS hotline at (417) 448-5117. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- February 27, 1991, 10:00 p.m. — Cheryl clocks out of the Quality Convenience Store; at 10:17 she sets the store alarm.
- February 28, 1991 — Her car is found in the store parking lot. She never came home.
- 1991 (days later) — Two witnesses report hearing a woman scream that night.
- February 5, 1992 — Unsolved Mysteries profiles Cheryl’s case with Angela Hammond’s and Trudy Darby’s.
- 1995 — Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney are arrested (May 1995) in Trudy Darby’s murder; 1996 — Rush is convicted (March 1996, kidnapping and first-degree murder, life without parole), and 1997 — Chaney pleads guilty (April 1997); police examine links to Cheryl’s and Angela’s cases.
- 2000 — Bones found in a field are thought to be Cheryl’s; determined to be an unidentified male.
- February 2011 — 20th anniversary; son Darnell stages a rally; Nevada proclaims “Cheryl Kenney Day”; police open a cold-case inquiry.
- February 2016 — 25th anniversary coverage; case still open.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Cheryl Kenney still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Cheryl Kenney has been missing for more than 35 years. The Nevada, Missouri, Police Department keeps the case open.
Was Cheryl Kenney ever found?
No. In 2000, bones found in a field were briefly thought to be hers, but they were determined to belong to an unidentified male. No trace of Cheryl has ever been found.
What happened to Cheryl Kenney?
On the night of February 27, 1991, Cheryl closed her convenience store at 10 p.m., set the alarm at 10:17, and vanished between the store door and her car. Two witnesses later reported hearing a woman scream. Her car was found in the parking lot; the store was undisturbed.
Is Cheryl Kenney’s case connected to Angela Hammond’s?
Investigators have long examined possible links between Cheryl’s disappearance, Angela Hammond’s April 1991 abduction, and the January 1991 abduction-murder of Trudy Darby. No definitive connection has been proven.
Who was the unidentified customer in the store?
The janitor reported one customer still inside when he left just before closing. That person was never identified, and it is not known whether they were connected to the disappearance.
How can I help?
Share this case file. Anyone with information should contact the Nevada Police Department at (417) 448-2710 or the TIPS hotline at (417) 448-5117.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: Nevada (Missouri) Police Department; cherylannkenney.com (family site, incl. “Investigators still working Cheryl Ann Kenney case,” 2012).
- News: The Nevada Daily Mail (archival); Lake Expo, “Missouri Missing to hold tribute to Cheryl Ann Kenney on 20th anniversary” (Feb 21, 2011); Joplin Globe / KOAM, “25 Year Mystery: Where is Cheryl Kenney?” (Feb 26, 2016).
- Reference: The Charley Project, “Cheryl Ann Kenney”; Unsolved Mysteries Wiki, “Cheryl Kenney.”
- Media: Unsolved Mysteries, Feb 5, 1992 episode; Prime Time Krime podcast, “Cheryl Kenney” (Nov 13, 2023).
Correction (Oct 2026 verification): “In 1995, Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney were convicted in Trudy Darby’s murder” → “In May 1995, Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney were arrested in Trudy Darby’s murder; Rush was convicted in March 1996 (kidnapping and first-degree murder, life without parole), and Chaney pleaded guilty in April 1997” (Unsolved Mysteries Wiki / Trudy Darby coverage; thecinemaholic.com). Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.