April 2--A Kansas woman pleaded guilty but mentally ill
today to claiming she was a girl missing since 1986, a hoax that
crushed the child's hopeful parents last summer.

A Boone County, Indiana, judge sentenced Donna Walker to 18
months in prison under a plea deal. Under the terms of the deal,
she could return to Kansas to serve probation.

The 36-year-old Walker was also ordered to comply with any
mental health treatment recommended by probation officials and have
no contact with the family of Shannon Sherrill.

Walker didn't speak in court or to reporters after the hearing.

Shannon Sherrill's mother, Dorothy, testified that the hoax tore
her family apart.

Shannon was six when she vanished while playing hide-and-seek at
her mother's home in Thorntown, about 30 miles northwest of
Indianapolis.