Searching for Cheryl

 refers to an unmarked quest in Fallout 3.

Follow the trail of a party who went out to find Cheryl, sister of the party leader.


 * In L'Enfant South you can find a burial mound containing Search Party Log #1.
 * As mentioned in the log, go to the Ranger Compound and access the outdoor terminal to read about the Canterbury Search Party. The terminal can either be unlocked by Reilly or is a very hard hack.
 * The "Western Ruins" mentioned in the second log are located to the north of Potomac Bridge, below a Raider camp. The Search Party Log #3 is in a second burial mound there. To get to that raider camp, travel to Dukov's Place go south towards the Potomac Bridge (the only bridge over the big river for miles). Between the raider camp and the bridge you can find the grave.
 * Search Party Log #4 is in a grave directly northwest of the Sewer Waystation. To find the grave, walk toward a big Corvega billboard (which may have an Enclave poster stamped on it if you have completed the Waters of Life quest). The grave is to the left of and before you get to the billboard, in front of the fence, on the NE side of some rocks.

A short distance west-southwest of Jury Street Metro Station you run into a group of super mutants hiding out at a small wrecked train. Entering the container with the shopping cart cages in it causes a Super Mutant Behemoth to appear (He may take a while, as he runs to you from a distance.) In this camp you can find the corpse of Manny Koch, leader of the search party. There's a chance Manny Koch will still be alive. If so, he's immediately hostile. Apart from the loot on his body the main reward is a Mini Nuke on the Behemoth. (also see The Bigger They Are... for related achievement)

In the unmarked Calverton chapel to the southwest is a Pugilism Illustrated, a Lying, Congressional Style and a Mini Nuke, and some other loot.

Reward

 * (Not Directly From The Quest)
 * Mini Nuke
 * Pugilism Illustrated
 * Lying Congressional Style
 * Various other types of Loot

Bugs

 * Manny Koch may be quite alive and very hostile to the player if the Super Mutant camp was cleared prior to progressing through the quest and meeting him there. The Behemoth trigger doesn't need to be activated. In this case the player has no choice but to defend himself/herself against the woefully under-equipped Manny. His body may be glitched (360 no patch), either distorting in space, or falling into pieces then reforming. If he grabs a weapon, this one may become invisible.


 * Sometimes Manny Koch will not spawn. The only bodies in the area will be the burned skeletal remains by the shopping carts.
 * This may be the one above. The Super Mutants including the Behemoth were cleared beforehand. More respawned and the body was nowhere to be found. (Loading right before traveling to Jury Street Metro, body was there; xbox360)

Trivia
It is likely that this quest was inspired by the John Ford film The Searchers. Both stories feature an obsessed man (Manny in the quest, Ethan Edwards in the film) engaged in a seemingly futile search for a female relative who has been kidnapped by a group that the character despises (Super Mutants in the game, Comanche Indians in the movie). The Super Mutants are also similar to the Comanche Indians in that they make people they kidnap "like them", the difference being that the Comanche did this with brainwashing while the Mutants literally make their captives into Super Mutants.

It is also possible that the quest is a reference to the original Silent Hill game on the Playstation. In that game, the protagonist, Harry Mason, is looking for his daughter, Cheryl, who is lost in the foggy resort town.