Sherry Michaud Petersen, sometimes recorded as Sherry Yon Petersen or spelled Peterson, was 42 when she disappeared from the Ocala/Marion County area of Florida over the 1992 Christmas holiday. She lived in Ocala with her children and was expected to travel to her parents’ home in Lakeland for the holidays. On December 24, 1992, she sent her children ahead and told her mother she would call on Christmas morning; that call never came and family members could not reach her.

Petersen was described as white, brown hair, hazel eyes, about 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 7 inches and roughly 135 pounds, with a large brown birthmark on the front of her right shoulder and missing teeth for which she wore a dental plate. Investigators later placed her last known movements in eastern Marion County, including the Ocala National Forest area, with some accounts saying her last confirmed sighting was outside a local bar.

In 2018 detectives said they had determined who was responsible after an inmate, Frank Crow, provided details about encountering Petersen on Christmas Eve, killing her, dismembering her and disposing of body parts in multiple lakes in the Ocala National Forest. Authorities said they believed Crow’s account and closed the case despite no recovery of remains and no exact date or time of death. If anyone knew Sherry, her routine that holiday season, or saw her in eastern Marion County on or shortly before December 24, 1992, please come forward with what was observed.