Group Searches Along River for Missing Woman

Spurred by the urge to do something--anything--a group of about 15 volunteers combed the Santa Clara River bed Sunday looking for signs of the Ventura woman who has been missing for nearly three weeks.

“The hope is small,” said Kristin Olson of Oxnard. “But it’s better than sitting around.”

Olson, who helped organized Sunday’s search for Sherri Dally, said Dally had been her daughters’ baby sitter since 1988.

Members of the search party--some of them friends of Dally, others friends of Olson and her fiance, Gary Aanerud, others merely volunteers who wanted to help--walked for hours amid thick brush along the muddy river bed. They found broken liquor bottles, cans of beer and Styrofoam cups from fast-food joints. They found a homeless man. An old gutted love seat. But they found no sign of Dally, who has been missing since May 6.

“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Bill Miller of Camarillo. “But you have to start somewhere.”

Police, who are investigating her disappearance as an abduction and murder, have used helicopters and a search-and-rescue team to scour Ventura County for Dally’s body. Not knowing where to start, Aanerud consulted a psychic, who advised him that the body would be found near the water-- but not near the ocean. “I feel it’s a man-made source of water, perhaps a landfill,” said Carolyn Kennedy, a local psychic. Kennedy said she believes the missing woman is dead, but added, “Sherri wants to be found.”

The volunteer search party met early Sunday in the Target parking lot on East Main Street--the spot where Dally was last seen.

“It is very frustrating,” Aanerud said. “It would be nice if we had some direction.”

Dally, 35, was last seen getting into a blue 1995 Nissan Altima in the Target parking lot. On May 18, police arrested Diana J. Haun, 35, of Port Hueneme, on suspicion of kidnapping and the possible slaying of Dally.

But Haun was released Thursday after authorities said they did not have enough evidence to charge her.

Neighbors and co-workers at an Oxnard grocery store have said Haun and Michael Dally were romantically involved. Michael Dally has described Haun as a close friend and said he doesn’t believe she is connected with his wife’s disappearance. A week after Sherri disappeared, he filed for a legal separation, saying the step was necessary to protect his two sons.

Dally’s family has offered $4,000 reward to anyone with information leading to an arrest or information on their daughter’s whereabouts.

The search was called off about 3:30 p.m. but will resume today, Aanerud said. Anyone interested in helping should meet in the Target parking lot at 8 a.m.