On March 28, 1998, in rural Portageville, Missouri, 12-year-old Megan Scherer and her 38-year-old mother, Sherri, were found shot to death in their home by Tony Scherer and their son Steven. Sherri was discovered facedown, bound, gagged, and shot in the back of the head. Megan had been sexually assaulted before she was killed. Evidence from the scene produced DNA, but early testing yielded only a partial profile and the case went cold despite hundreds of leads and a feature on America’s Most Wanted.

A full DNA profile developed in 2006 matched DNA from a 1990 murder in Greenville, South Carolina, linking the Scherer murders to another unsolved killing. Investigative genetic genealogy led detectives to identify Robert Eugene Brashers as the suspect. Brashers had died by suicide in 1999 during a standoff at a Missouri motel; his exhumed remains later produced a DNA match to the Scherer crime scene.

If anyone knew the Scherer family, had information about their case, or noticed suspicious activity in Portageville in 1998, please come forward.