Prosecutor Believes Walker Playing Another Hoax

INDIANAPOLIS -- A prosecutor leading the charge to bring Donna Walker -- accused of falsely claiming to be a person who disappeared in 1986 -- to Indiana is skeptical about the suspect's statements at a hearing Wednesday.

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Police say Donna Walker, 35, falsely claimed in July she might be Shannon Sherrill (pictured, below), who vanished at the age of 6 while she was playing outside her mother's Thorntown, Ind., home in 1986. Walker, who turned herself in to Topeka, Kan., authorities, is charged in Indiana with identity deception, a class D felony, and false reporting, a class A misdemeanor.

Walker appeared in a Topeka courtroom Wednesday for a hearing on a request to lower bail from $100,000 to $10,000. The judge did not rule on whether to lower the bond, opting instead to ask a doctor to examine Walker to determine her current medical status.

Walker pleaded with the judge to lower the bail, insisting she was not a criminal, RTV6's Ericka Flye reported.

"I will abide by any conditions that you set -- anything. It doesn't matter to me," Walker said. "I've only had one conviction in my life, and that was 17 years ago. It was two months after I turned 18 years old. It was in 1986. It was for a false fire alarm."

Walker told the court she moved to Topeka earlier this year to seek mental health treatment. She said for several weeks before she turned herself in last week, she was off one set of medication during a process to change to another set of medications.

"I was without mental health care for a period of time, and without my medication. It was being changed over," Walker said.

Her lawyer, Billy Rork, told the judge that Walker has a history of mental disorders and may have been trying to find out information about herself when she made the calls. Walker perhaps thought she might have been Shannon Sherrill when she called authorities, Rork said.

But Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer, who is seeking to prosecute Walker in Indiana, isn't buying her excuse.

"She's a con artist, and I think she's a very good con artist," Meyer said.

Meyer insists Walker is a flight risk and needs to stay in jail. He believes Walker's missing medication claim may be part of her act, Flye reported.

"I'd have a hard time believing anything she says at this point. I mean everything that she has done, everything that she has said to the police, to the Sherrill family, has been a complete fabrication," Meyer said.

Walker's attorney told the judge the phone calls were never part of a hoax, but were instead a confused woman trying to find out who she was.

Rork is fighting extradition for his client but Boone County officials plan to file a governor's warrant, if needed, to bring Walker to Indiana, RTV6 reported.

Walker will undergo a mental evaluation Thursday and could be back in court as early as Friday.