Hoax Suspect Surrenders In Kansas

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INDIANAPOLIS -- A woman accused of lying about believing she could be a person who disappeared from Indiana turned herself in to Kansas authorities Thursday.

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Donna Walker (pictured, left), 35, appeared at a lawyer's office in Topeka, Kan., Thursday to seek counsel and later surrendered to police.

Police said Walker falsely claimed to believe she might be Shannon Sherrill, who vanished at the age of 6 while she was playing outside her mother's Thorntown home in 1986. Walker is charged with identity deception, a class D felony, and false reporting, a class A misdemeanor.

In an interview with an ABC reporter Thursday, Walker denied knowing anything about accusations against her, and said she wasn't aware that police were looking for her until a friend told her he saw a report on the Internet.

"Of course it's scary, but I'm still confident that the court system will work," Walker said.

Police said Walker first called Sherrill's parents, who live apart in Indiana, on Saturday. Walker claimed she was a Virginia resident named Beth Harris, and that she believed she might be their missing daughter, according to police.

Walker also made the claim to authorities over the phone, and sometimes spoke to them in different calls -- and in a different voice -- using a name of Donna Lewis, according to police. Lewis was a character invented to bolster Walker's claims that she might be Shannon Sherrill, police said.

In Thursday's interview, Walker denied using the pseudonym.

Authorities said Walker would be held overnight at the county jail in Topeka. Her first court hearing was set for 11 a.m. Friday, at which time her bail would be set.

Walker's attorney, Billy Rork, said he didn't expect Walker to be charged in Kansas.

Rork wouldn't say where Walker (pictured, right) had been for the past 24 hours.

Shannon Sherrill's mother, Dorothy, spoke with RTV6's Vicki Duncan after hearing about the arrest.

"I've been very depressed about this and everything. ... I'm excited in some ways. It still hasn't brought my daughter home," Dorothy Sherrill (pictured, below left) said. "I guess I hope she (Walker) can just get well."

Police said Walker would, at separate times, speak to police in three different voices, posing as three different people. Walker used two of the personalities -- including Donna Lewis -- to try to support the Beth Harris story, Indiana State Police 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said.

According to a transcript of a probable cause hearing held Tuesday in Boone Superior Court, police believe Walker has done the same type of thing with other high-profile cases in Virginia, California, and Oregon. She would pose as one person, and then pretend to be other people to bolster her claim, according to the transcript.

In these cases, Walker acted "as though she's the abducted child, and then (played) the role of the abducted child's spouse, and then (played) a disinterested third party who is able to confirm a lot of what she is saying as the spouse and as the abducted child," Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer told RTV6.

According to the transcript, an investigator testified that Walker's three ficticious characters -- Beth Harris, Harris' husband, and Donna Lewis -- at various times called police or the Sherrill family from Walker's Topeka, Kan., apartment. Other calls were made with a phone card, which is difficult to trace.

Walker has a criminal record, according to the probable-cause transcript. Authorities say Walker was charged in Virginia in connection with writing bad checks, a bomb threat, and false informing.

In Urbandale, Iowa, an arrest warrant was issued for Walker last August for making a string of "weird calls" to police reporting to have seen people assaulted at gunpoint. Police never verified the calls, Urbandale police Sgt. Dave Disney said.

"We had concerns for Walker's mental state, just from all the calls she was making," Disney said. "She's a strange one."

Some of those who say they were conned by her are hoping police find her soon.

In Evansville, Daniel Keith helped Walker when she first moved to the city. Keith said she claimed to have fled an abusive relationship, and he allowed her to run up $13,000 in credit card charges.

"She's very convincing," Keith said. "She talked me into getting credit cards for her, and I was dumb enough to do it."

Like many who knew Walker through the years, he is bewildered by the latest charges.

"There had to be something in it for her," Keith said. "She did nothing, at least that was my take of her six years ago, she did nothing unless there was something in it for her."