Woman Sentenced To Prison For Missing Girl Hoax

LEBANON, Ind. -- A woman pleaded guilty but mentally ill Friday to claiming she was a girl missing since 1986 -- a hoax that crushed the child's hopeful parents last summer.

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Family Disagrees With Sentence Slideshow: Searching For Shannon

A judge sentenced Donna Walker to 18 months in prison under a deal between the defense and prosecutors.

Walker, 36, was also ordered to comply with any mental health treatment recommended by probation officials and have no contact with the family of Shannon Sherrill, who was 6 when she vanished while playing hide-and-seek.

Walker declined to speak in court when Boone Superior Court Judge Matthew Kincaid asked whether she wanted to address the Sherrill family. She also did not talk with reporters as sheriff's deputies led her from the courthouse.

Dorothy Sherrill, the missing girl's mother, testified during the 45-minute hearing that the episode has been difficult.

"It's torn my family apart," she said. "I don't see how someone could do this."

Walker, of Topeka, Kan., admitted to felony attempted identity deception and misdemeanor false reporting. Under the terms of the deal, she could return to Kansas to serve probation.

Several members of the Sherrill attended Friday's hearing. The family consented to the plea agreement, and some family members hugged Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer after the hearing.

Meyer said the sentencing options were limited because Walker suffers from a mental disorder that compels her to perpetrate "grand hoaxes" to gain attention.

"But not for that mental illness, she most likely would not be here," Meyer said.

Despite the 18-month sentence, Walker could be released from jail later this month, RTV6's Vicki Duncan reported, a possibility that members of the Sherrill family reacted to strongly outside the courthouse.

"People get more time for stealing other people's credit than to torture people's emotions," Sherrill family member Kelly Clark said.

Meyer said the family did not want to endure a trial, which could have resulted with Walker not receiving any jail time, Duncan reported.

Walker could have faced up to four years in prison if she had been convicted of the 12 felony counts filed against her last year.

Investigators said they believed Walker found out details about the Sherrill case from the several Web sites devoted to the girl, who disappeared from near her mother's home in Thorntown, about 30 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Hundreds of people scoured fields and wooded lots for three days after the disappearance, and family members clung to hope that they would someday find Shannon (pictured, left).

Walker has been held at the Boone County Jail since September.

An attorney who helped Walker unsuccessfully fight extradition from Kansas has said Walker is mentally ill and believed she might be the missing girl, who would be about 12 years younger than Walker if she is alive.

Walker told a judge during a bond hearing last year that she had been adjusting to new medication for mental illness when she telephoned the father of Shannon Sherrill and claimed to be her.

Walker continued the ruse for days, calling the Sherrill family, police and the news media to perpetuate the story -- often disguising her voice and posing as at least two other people, authorities said. Investigators believe she even pretended to be the husband of the missing girl.

The family's hopes grew. But about 15 minutes before authorities held a news conference on July 30, family members were told of investigators' conclusion that it had been a hoax.

Court records and interviews indicate Walker has had brushes with the law in California, Kansas, Virginia and Nebraska. The offenses include making crank calls, reporting a false fire alarm, writing bad checks, making a bomb threat and using stolen credit cards to run up long-distance charges.