News Release
NEW MADRID, MO – On March, 28,1998, Sherri Scherer and her 12-year-old daughter, Megan, were shot and killed in their home in Portageville, Missouri. A revolver was used in the homicides.
Two hours after the discovery of the Scherer crime scene, in Dyersburg, TN, a woman and her children were approached at their home by an unknown white male asking for directions. The suspect drew a revolver and shot her after he tried to gain entry into her home. The suspect fled in a dark-colored van after he shot her. The van is possibly maroon in color. The Portageville, Missouri and Dyersburg, TN cases were linked by ballistics.
In 2006, Investigators received an alert thru the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), that the unknown suspect’s DNA found during the Scherer homicide investigation matched an unknown suspect’s DNA entered into CODIS by Greenville, South Carolina Police department detectives.
Investigators from New Madrid County Sheriff’s Office and Missouri State Highway Patrol went to Greenville, SC, and met with the detectives. They learned that on April 04, 1990, Genevieve Zitricki was attacked while she slept in her apartment, in Greenville, SC. Autopsy results revealed she had been sexually assaulted and the cause of death was blunt force trauma.
On May 03, 2017, New Madrid County Sheriff’s Office received another alert that the unknown suspect’s DNA from the Scherer double homicide investigation matched an unknown suspect’s DNA recovered from an unsolved Memphis rape case that occurred on March 11, 1997.
Investigators from the New Madrid County Sheriff’s Office and Missouri State Highway Patrol learned that on May 11, 1997, three (3) women and a female juvenile were assaulted after an unknown white male knocked at the front door of their residence in Memphis, TN. The suspect used a ruse before displaying a revolver and forcing his way inside the residence. The suspect bound the females before he sexually assaulted the juvenile.
Investigators from the New Madrid County Sheriff’s Office along with investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol met with detectives from Memphis, Tennessee and Greenville, South Carolina, where they have developed new leads in the case.
Sheriff Terry M. Stevens
New Madrid County