Who took Sherri McLaughlin?

Just finishing up the lineup for Thursday’s edition of The Daily News, and the front-page lead will be, of course, news that RCMP say they’ve cracked the Sherri McLaughlin case after 16 years.

Anyone who was a resident of Kamloops in September 1993 has that case seared into their memories. The discovery of her damaged bicycle, the desperate pleas of her family for help in finding her, the feeling of helplessness as it became clear she would not be found.

Sherri was a young woman described by friends as outgoing and popular. Certainly not the sort of person who would have run away. At the time, her mother, Jacki White, said she had her “own feelings” on whether her daughter might have been grabbed by someone she knew.

It was a Sunday afternoon almost exactly 16 years ago when Sherri returned to her Schubert Drive home after visiting friends. An ex-boyfriend called her there, and she agreed to ride her bike over to his house in Brocklehurst.

“Police believe she rode along Schubert, turned left on Kent Avenue and took a short path that leads to Halson Avenue,” we wrote in a story at the time. “From there she may have ridden west to Parkcrest Avenue. When she failed to show up after about 40 minutes, (former boyfriend Shane) Gowans went looking for her. In the 1500-block Parkcrest, between Singh Street and Nicolani, he found her bike and backpack. The bike had been run over by a vehicle, but there was no trace of McLaughlin.”

Her brother James, quoted in the same Daily News story at the time, said “the case so far points towards somebody that she didn’t know and that it’s a matter of being in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time.'”

Thursday, police are expected to explain who they think took Sherry McLaughlin.