Unsolved But Not Forgotten: Who Killed Sherry Schaub?

It will be 16 years this fall since 30-year-old Sherry Schaub, of Syracuse, was murdered. There were several leads initially, but investigators were never able to piece together what happened. In this edition of "Unsolved But Not Forgotten," Katie Gibas reports.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- It will be 16 years this fall since 30-year-old Sherry Schaub of Syracuse was murdered. There were several leads initially but investigators were never able to piece together what happened between her last contact and a day and-a-half later when her body was found. They don't know where she was or who she was with and why her body was found so far from home.

"She was a very happy person. We played cards and we loved to play Yahtzee and backgammon. Still to this day, I won't play backgammon with nobody because that's what we did every day," said Monica Schaub, Sherry's sister.

Sherry Schaub, 30, of Syracuse was the oldest of three siblings, Monica was the youngest. Sherry had five of her own children ranging from 8 months to 13-years-old.

On October 29, 1998, Monica said goodbye to her older sister around 11 p.m. Little did she know it would be the last time. After Sherry left her family, police say she went to an acquaintance's home in the city of Syracuse. She left there around midnight.

"She did not say where she was going. She did not leave with anybody. That was the last face to face contact anybody had with her," said New York State Police Investigator Ed Marecek.

At 2:15 a.m., Schaub called an acquaintance for a ride home from an unknown location.

"That acquaintance did not pick her up. And that was the last contact anybody had had with her," said Marecek.

"It was unusual for her not to be home. So I called and the police said, 'You've got to give it 24 hours.' But I was like, 'I don't want to wait 24 hours because it's unusual now and she'd got 5 kids,'" Monica Schaub.

Monica Schaub's instincts were right. On October 31, 1998, Sherry's body was found here: in the Stebbins Gulf Creek off Ransom Road in the Town of Pompey, 11 miles from her home.

"An individual who lives in the general area had seen something that was unusual that was not related to this case, but had seen something unusual on the bridge itself, so he exited his vehicle. And he checked it out and when he looked over the bridge, he saw her laying down in the dry creek bed," said Marecek.

"It's always a challenge when the body's found in the elements," said Onondaga County First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio.

"It's very rural. There are no residences in the real close proximity to that bridge. It's dark at night and I don't know that there's a lot of traffic during the normal course of the day, so that can make things difficult as well," said Marecek.

The cause of death was strangulation. Investigators from the New York State Police, Syracuse Police Department and Onondaga County District Attorney's Office followed several leads, interviewed dozens of people, but eventually those leads dried up.

"Lack of evidence at the time, not knowing where she had been last or who she was with last and what happened in that timeframe between she last made a contact or last seen to the time she was found," said Marecek.

State police have received and investigated new leads over the years. And every cold case undergoes evidence reviews periodically.

"Putting together a cold case is a lot more challenging than just having new scientific evidence. It's helpful but you still need to have all the pieces around it, so that the evidence can carry the day in front of a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. And that's difficult to do. That's difficult to do when the case isn't cold. It's much more challenging to do when the case is 15 years old," said Trunfio.

This case has been reviewed by the multi-agency, multi-disciplinary Onondaga Cold Case Task Force several times to analyze it from different perspectives.

In the meantime, family members have held several vigils to remember Sherry Schaub and hope that someone will come forward with the final piece of the puzzle.

"It's tough to the fact that who knows, they could be smiling in my face. I don't know. Just the fact that they're still out here and my sister is six feet under. We have no idea who did it, her kids. They took a mother, a sister, a daughter, a best friend. I can't express how it would mean to have somebody behind bars who killed my sister. I'm always going to have hope until they find them and pray that they find them," said Monica Schaub.