Sherri Ann Jarvis:1980, Huntsville, Texas

 


  Sherri Ann Jarvis was born on March 9th, 1966 in Stillwater, Minnesota. 


 Her friends and family called her Tati. I wasn't able to find out a lot about her early life and family. But we do know that things had not been going well in her pre-teen years. Apparently, she had not been making it to school with enough regularity. We don’t know why she was considered a truant. Was there no stability in her home life? Was she physically ill or even depressed? Did she have a learning difficulty that made school miserable? Was she bullied at school? Sometimes it’s a combination of factors. 


  Sherri was removed from her home at the age of 13. She was sent to a temporary shelter in Stillwater, Minnesota to await a court appearance for truancy. (Stillwater is near St. Paul, Minnesota.) But, she ran away. 


  Her family searched for her. She wrote them a letter saying she would return. But, she never made it back. Her family had no idea what happened to her. The agony of not knowing must have been maddening. 


  Sherri was last seen alive at the Hitchin’ Post Truck Stop. She was asking for directions to Ellis Prison Farm. She said she had a friend there. Sherri said she was from the gulf coast Texas area around Rockport and Aransas Pass. She told a waitress there that she was 19. (Investigators would ask prisoners and staff at the prison farm about Sherri, showing post-mortem photos of her face but no one there seemed to know her.)



  Sherri was found on the side of the road just 2 miles north of Huntsville, Texas on November 1st, 1980. She had only been there on the side of I-45 for a few hours. She was found without clothing. She had been brutally sexually assaulted, tortured and strangled using a ligature. An object had been used to sexually assault her. Her underwear and hosiery had been inserted inside her body to stop the bleeding, likely when she was being transported to that spot on the side of the road. 



  Sherri was found without any identification. She became known as Walker County Jane Doe. 




  Sherri was identified only very recently. She has had several sketches over the years but she was never identified that way. DNA technology and genetic genealogy techniques eventually led to her identity.


 Sadly, both of her parents passed away without knowing what had happened to their little girl. Over the years they had tried to find her. But, no one suspected she had traveled so far away at such a young age. 


  Sherri Jarvis could be a victim of serial killer trucker, Jerry Leon Johns. He was from Flat Rock, Michigan and traveled all over the Midwest and southern United States. 


  In March of 1985, he attempted to abduct a woman in Knoxville. She survived a brutal sexual assault, beating  and strangulation. But, she survived and was able to tell the police who had done this. Jerry Leon Johns was arrested, tried and convicted. He never left prison again. 


  After his death, DNA connected him in 2018, to the murder of Tina Marie McKenney Farmer who was found shortly after her murder on January 1st, 1985 on the side of I-75. She was from Indianapolis. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. She had left Indianapolis in late 1984 with a trucker, according to her family. 

 

  As investigators searched the wooded, steep hillside that overlooks Elk Valley, they found the skeletal remains of a young girl. Eventually that girl would be identified as Tracy Sue Walker who had been abducted from Lafayette, Indiana in 1978. 


  I believe that he put Tina there in 1985 because he had also put Tracy there back in 1978. The spot is very scenic and very memorable. It’s also a very inconvenient and dangerous place to pull over. 


 In the last few years I have found many young murder victims who were murdered in similar ways and left in very scenic and memorable spots along the interstate. The timeline also fits when Jerry Leon Johns was still a free man. 


 Sherri Ann Jarvis was just a kid. She should have been here to go to high school. She could have maybe played sports or gotten involved in music or drama. She never got to go to prom or graduation. She should have been here to figure out what she wanted from her life. 


  Rest in Peace, Sherri


  Sherri is buried at Oakwood-Mayes Addition Cemetery in Huntsville, Texas. 


  If you have information about the murder of Sherri Ann Jarvis please call the Walker County Sheriff’s Office at (936) 435-2400. 



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