Missing Woman’s Friends Plan Search

Friends and family of a missing Ventura woman plan to scour a section of the city today and Monday for her body, in hopes of speeding the investigation into her presumed slaying.

Frustrated that efforts by police to find Sherri Dally--who was last seen May 6--have turned up nothing, friends began organizing the search party on Saturday.

“We are in limbo,” said Oxnard resident Gary Aanerud. “We are assuming she is dead and we are hoping to find the body.”

About 25 to 30 friends and relatives are expected to join in the search, said Aanerud, but the group hopes members of the public will help as well.

Ventura police officials said Saturday that a search-and-rescue team from the county Sheriff’s Department was continuing to look for a body but had so far turned up nothing.

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

Dally, 35, was last seen getting into a blue 1995 Nissan Altima in an East Main Street parking lot. Two weeks later, police arrested Diana J. Haun, 35, of Port Hueneme, on suspicion of kidnapping and the possible slaying of Dally.

But authorities released Haun from jail Thursday, saying they did not have enough evidence to charge her.

Neighbors and co-workers at an Oxnard grocery store have said Haun and the missing woman’s husband, Michael Dally, were romantically linked.

The search party will meet at 8 a.m. Sunday and Monday in the Target parking lot at 4200 E. Main St. in Ventura.