• Feb. 14, 1997 — Bob and Alice Knechtel of Mount Shasta see their daughter Karin Knechtel-Mero at the home of Ed Henline Sr. and his wife Debbie Henline at East Minnesota Avenue in McCloud. Mero was 27 at the time of her disappearance and was last seen Feb. 14, 1997 at the Henline residence. Mero was living there with her boyfriend Ed Henline Jr.
• May 21, 1997 — The Knechtels have heard nothing from their daughter since February. Her 28th birthday passes and they still don’t hear from her. The Knechtels continue to try to notify the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco after her disappearance. The hospital handled Mero’s anti-rejection medicine and prescriptions after she had a liver transplant in 1994. The Sheriff’s Department tells the Knechtels that Mero is an adult so she can leave when she wants. Deputies also have a warrant out for her arrest so they think she is hiding.
• June 4, 1997 — McCloud High School student Hannah Zaccaglini, 15, disappears from McCloud. Deputies say the last person to see her was Ed Henline Sr. outside his house.
• June 8, 1997 —Henline’s borrowed Hannah’s mother’s van to ‘run errands’ for hours and returns the van to her immaculately clean.
• Late June 1997 — Sheriff’s detectives ask FBI agents for assistance in the Zaccaglini case.
• Summer 1997 — Detectives do about four consent searches at the Henline home.
• Oct. 16 1997 — Sheriff’s detectives tell the Knechtels that detectives can’t get information on whether their daughter is receiving her medicine without a missing report. The Knechtels are finally able to make a report. FBI agents also help on the Mero case.
• November 1997 — Authorities cancel Mero’s medical disability money and she still doesn’t contact anyone.
• April 16, 1998 — Sheriff’s detectives serve a search warrant at the Henline home. This is the first search warrant served concerning the Zaccaglini/Mero cases. Ed and Debbie Henline are arrested on suspicion of welfare fraud. They are suspected of writing checks on Mero’s account from the time she disappeared to December 1997 and failing to report the extra income.
• April 30, 1998 — Ed and Debbie Henline plead guilty to perjury in connection to the fraudulent acquisition of funds from the checking account of Mero. The Henlines are sentenced to pay $2,000 and placed on three years probation.
• May 1998 — The Knechtels retrieve two of their daughter’s rings that had been sold to Jon Thomas Jewelry in Mount Shasta.
• June 8 and 9, 1998 — Authorities serve two search warrants at the Henline home. These are the second and third search warrants served there. Two body-searching cadaver dogs scour the home and other areas of McCloud for two days.