MISSING: Rachel Cooke

[00:00] This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. For some of us, summer means more juggling, which can lead to overwhelm and worry. BetterHelp makes it easy to get the support you need. Having served over 6 million people globally, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform. They'll match you with a quality licensed therapist, so you can focus on your therapy goals. You don't have to say yes to everything this summer. Find support in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash crimejunkie. That's betterhelp.com slash crimejunkie. [00:29] Hi, Crime Junkies. It's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock season eight now, wherever you get your podcasts. [00:59] Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And today's missing person case was suggested by a listener at the meetup I did in Austin. She actually suggested I cover one of their most infamous missing person cases. It was a case I'd heard of, but I hadn't realized that in the last couple of years or so, there had been some significant developments. [01:29] information that can finally solve this 16-year-old cold case. The case is

[01:36] of Rachel Cook. [01:37] Music [02:08] At the time of our story in 2002, Rachel was a 19-year-old college student who was attending school in San Diego. She was originally from Georgetown, Texas, which is just a little north of Austin. And in 2002, it was considered a small town. Rachel's family lived in a little house that was set far back from the road, and everyone around her had land. The houses all sat on like one to five acres of property. [02:38] their family in this like small town America, Rachel's parents were a little nervous when she said that she wanted to go away to big bad San Diego, California for school. They considered it to be a big city. Bad things happen in big cities and they never could have imagined that it would be there in Georgetown, Texas, where Rachel was home visiting for winter break, that something bad would happen to her. [03:05] Rachel had come home for winter break from San Diego with her new boyfriend in tow. His name was Greg, and they'd met while attending school, and Rachel was head over heels for him and him for her. She was telling her friends and her family that she really thought that he was the one. They had planned to move in together when Rachel got back from winter break, and she hoped that after graduation there would be an engagement to follow. Greg wasn't able to stay for the full winter break in Texas with Rachel, so after about a week,

[03:35] home to California and left Rachel behind to spend more time with her friends and family. Thursday, January 10th was like any other day for the cooks. Rachel's parents and her sister all woke up early because they were hustling and bustling around the house before 8am getting ready to go to work and school. And when the family left the house around eight o'clock in the morning, Rachel's mom remembers saying goodbye to her and telling her that she loved her. And [04:05] and goodbye. Now Rachel's family each left the house going about their business as if it were any other day. It wouldn't be until much later that they would realize that this was the last normal day they would ever have. When Rachel's dad got home later in the day, it was around three o'clock. He was actually supposed to take Rachel shopping, but he was surprised to find Rachel not home. She didn't have a car, so she wouldn't have gone somewhere on her own. [04:35] And she maybe could have gone somewhere with her friends, but he didn't really feel right about that either because her cell phone was there, her purse was there, like all of her makeup was still there, her clothes were still there. So he calls Rachel's best childhood friend, Shannon, to see if maybe they were together. They had been spending a ton of time together while Rachel was home, so if she was anywhere, she was going to be with Shannon. But Shannon hadn't seen or heard from her all day. She tells Rachel's dad that they did have plans later at the night to go to a party together,

[05:05] that Rachel left all her belongings at the house, this made her really worried. She said Rachel never left the house without taking her purse and her cell phone, and she would always take her makeup with her. So she couldn't think of anywhere that she would be without those things. [05:20] But her dad had an idea. Maybe she was at work. Like maybe her schedules got like crisscrossed or maybe she picked up a last minute shift. [05:29] Because whenever Rachel came home, she would pick up random shifts at this local restaurant to make some extra money. So he calls the restaurant. It's called Wildfire and asks if Rachel's working. And the person on the other end says, yeah, she is. And so immediately... [05:43] They're like, "Oh, sigh of relief. She must have just picked up an extra shift, didn't think to tell us. Someone must have picked her up and maybe it was very last minute and she just left without taking all of her things. She's gonna be home tonight. Everything's fine." [05:55] But hours pass, and as it gets later and later into the evening, Rachel doesn't come home. Her parents go through her things to try and find maybe like what kind of clothing is missing. If they can tell that, maybe they can narrow down where she might be. After going through everything, they realize that the only things that are missing are her jogging clothes and... [06:18] her running shoes, and her portable music player. Rachel obviously went for a run. [06:25] and [06:26] This was really worrisome for the family, because even though it was super normal for her to run, like long distances, she'd be gone a long time. She was a long distance runner in high school. And every day she ran like four to six miles.

[06:39] The weird part [06:41] was that she usually did her runs in the morning. And even if for some reason she had run later that day, she should have been back by now. Even four to six miles would not have taken her this long. So her family starts to worry that something bad has happened to her. Maybe she got hit by a car while she was running, or maybe she's laying in the street. Maybe she's incapacitated somewhere. Maybe she rolled an ankle. So through the night, her family starts driving around. [07:11] driving her running route, looking on the side of the road, looking for any sign of Rachel, a shoe, maybe her disc player, but they don't see anything. Did they go back to the police? I mean, I would just be... [07:22] losing my mind. And they were, but I actually heard in an interview that her family thought you had to wait 24 hours to file a report, which I can totally see how they thought that. How many stories have we covered where people have been told by the police that you have to wait a certain amount of time? So they had this like preconceived notion in their head. They thought they had to wait till the next morning, but as soon as they thought they could go to police, they did. Now, [07:49] Even though they didn't have to wait, there was still some snags in the system. When they report her missing on Friday the 11th, for whatever reason, the person they reported it to didn't think it was extremely pressing. And they basically planned to get somebody on it on Monday. Like days later. She's already been missing for a day and they're going to wait a couple of more days.

[08:12] The family was not willing to lose that kind of valuable time. They started arranging search parties themselves. They get friends, family members, neighbors, anyone they can find to start looking in their neighborhood or anywhere Rachel might have been able to run to. By Sunday the 13th, Greg, her boyfriend, has flown back in from California to help with the search. [08:42] Yeah, finally. And this person starts putting together a formal search for Rachel, like people on foot, ATVs, helicopters. They even get Texas EquiSearch involved. The unfortunate piece of this is that because law enforcement didn't get involved until Sunday, there were two days of these informal searches being done that maybe could have altered or destroyed evidence. But not searching for the family was a non-option. So here they were, everyone doing the best they could to find Rachel and to bring her home. [09:12] In doing this search, they also start to piece together a timeline of Rachel's last movements. [09:18] Her family last saw her at 8 a.m. when they left the house. They're then able to tell that Rachel had taken a call on her cell phone about an hour later. It was from her boyfriend Greg calling from California. And what they learned from Greg is that his call had woken Rachel up. She told him she was going to go for a morning run like she did almost every morning. She was going to run in the neighborhood and then she would give him a call back. The records show that this call ended about 9.15 a.m.

[09:46] And then Rachel's cell phone was never used again. [09:50] Assuming that she left her house shortly after that call, police canvassed the neighborhood to see if anyone saw Rachel on her run. They aren't incredibly hopeful of finding good leads because her area isn't really well populated or traveled in the middle of a workday. And even if people were home, like I mentioned earlier, all of these houses are set pretty far back from the road and they're sitting on pretty large lots. So if she did run by a house when someone was home, the odds of them seeing her were really slim. [10:20] to try. [10:21] And good thing they did because they got lucky. [10:27] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. [10:46] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now. [10:53] wherever you get your podcasts. [10:57] After talking to neighbors, police find that around 10 a.m., a couple was out for their daily walk when they saw a young girl run by. [11:05] Based on the description of her hair and the clothing that they saw this girl wearing, police strongly believe that they saw Rachel. This same couple said that about 20 minutes later, she passed them by again. Now, they don't recall her being followed by anyone or seeming like she was acting unusual at all. So we know 10-20, she is alive and well.

[11:26] The next sighting of her is by a woman and her young daughter. They were out working in their yard and they saw Rachel in their cul-de-sac. She was like stretching before she continues on her run. [11:36] Then at 1045, Rachel's seen again. A neighbor is about to back out of their driveway. When they see Rachel coming, she's going to be walking behind their car. So they stop, allow her to pass. And she's probably at this point cooling down from her run because not only is she walking behind their car, but she's just at this point about 200 yards away from her house. [12:01] That's only like... [12:02] .1 miles or .16 kilometers for our international listeners. That's [12:08] so close to her house. Yeah, she could probably see it like as she was walking. She was very close and felt very safe. But there's no evidence that she ever made it back inside her house. So in those 200 yards from her neighbor's driveway to her front door, [12:27] something happened to her. And because we know she wasn't anywhere around there, we know that someone had to have taken her. [12:35] Police's logic told them that this was likely done by somebody she knew. In most cases, they said, if a crime was done like out of opportunity by a stranger, they would have done whatever they wanted to do with her and then left her nearby. [12:49] But because there was absolutely nothing found around the area, it makes them think that the perpetrator was trying to put distance between them and the scene. So it couldn't be linked back to them. So they started looking at people close to her, like her family and her boyfriend. They give a polygraph to Greg, who was still in town from California. And it was pretty easy to rule him out since cell phone records prove that that morning he was in fact in California talking to her just an hour or two before she went missing.

[13:19] the family and one by one they pass their polygraphs but they're [13:24] was a glitch on her dad's. The polygraph examiner asked her dad, do you know where Rachel is? And he answered no, but the test showed that it was a lie. I know it looks super fishy, but her dad explained later in an interview through tears that... [13:42] He thought deep down he did know where his daughter was. He believed that she was in heaven. He didn't believe that she was alive anymore. It had been too long with no contact. So even though he said no, he said in his heart of hearts, he thought he knew where she was. [13:57] The family ended up being cleared as well, and as time ticked by, they had less and less hope of finding Rachel alive. The official search for Rachel ended after a couple days, though family and citizen volunteers continued for weeks. The only thing that came out of the first days of the investigation were... [14:15] the sightings of Rachel running or walking, and then some sightings of a late model white Chevy Camaro or Pontiac Trans Am. Witnesses said they saw a man driving. Some said maybe even two were in the car. And there was even a report of the driver talking to a female jogger. The guy in the car was described as being in his late teens or early 20s with slick black hair and a dark complexion. [14:45] of this guy, all who look drastically different. I'm going to send them to you, Brit. And it never ceases to amaze me how...

[14:52] Multiple people can see the same thing. An eyewitness testimony can just be... [14:57] So flawed. Oh my gosh, all the sketches do look completely different. Yeah, so we'll post these on our website if you guys want to check out the blog. But this is really all they had to go off of. Now, some people said that this car was driving aimlessly in circles around the neighborhood, and police thought this could be their best lead. So they released this info to the public and get pointed in the direction of lots of cars that fit this description. And one by one, they scratched them off. [15:27] Soon, two young boys even come forward to tell police that they were playing hooky that day, and they were driving in the neighborhood in that kind of car. So police fully vet these two kids. They check them out. They check out the car, and these kids get cleared. But that doesn't mean that they give up on the car sighting completely. They still think it could have something to do with her disappearance. In addition to this white Camaro or Trans Am, whatever they think it is, there was also a report of a white pickup truck in the area that people didn't recognize. [15:57] But even with descriptions of these vehicles and sketches of these suspects, the lead goes nowhere. Police decide to start looking in other directions. There was a lot of construction going on in the neighborhood at the time of Rachel's disappearance, and she'd even commented to her mom about some of the workers looking at her or catcalling her. Now, police say they tracked down all of the subcontractors, but wouldn't give any more information than that.

[16:25] Rachel's mom said in an interview that many of the workers were undocumented and she felt like maybe it would be hard to like really ever 100% know with certainty who was working on the sites the day that she went missing or if anyone stopped coming to work. And it may always be a question mark for her. But if we go back to police's original theory, they thought it was someone Rachel knew. [16:49] Her family was cleared, her boyfriend was cleared, but there was someone else in her life that seemed like a glaring suspect. [16:58] When it came to looking for suspects, someone jumped out to the top of the list. Rachel had an ex-boyfriend that still lived in town and their past relationship was always described as volatile by Rachel's friends and family. [17:13] While Rachel was at home for winter break, they saw each other at a party and had a not so stellar interaction. Apparently, they were seen arguing. He was like telling Rachel he loved her and couldn't live without her and begging her to get back together with him. But she didn't have any interest in getting back with this guy. She was with Greg now. She was happy. She had moved on, but it seemed that this ex couldn't. [17:43] at three o'clock in the morning pounding on her door. And Rachel's mom actually opened it to find him completely inebriated, begging to talk to Rachel. [17:54] Her mom threatened to call the sheriff on him if he didn't leave. And clearly, like all of these signs are pointing to the fact that he isn't over her.

[18:03] But that isn't motive enough to do something to her. Right. It's not a good look, but it's not really proof. Exactly. As suspect as he looked, as many times as police probably interviewed him, he's never been named a suspect or even a person of interest. And still to this day... [18:22] His name has not been released to the public. There are so many parts of this case that look fishy. The man or the men driving around in the neighborhood, the multiple suspicious car scene, the jilted ex-boyfriend, construction workers that made her uncomfortable. For as many theories as were popping up, there was no solid evidence to lead police in any one direction. [18:45] So months go by. [18:47] and then years. Rachel's disappearance rocked her family and caused a rift between them that could not be healed. They were each dealing with her disappearance in their own very different way, and it became harder and harder for them to connect. And eventually, Rachel's parents ended up divorcing, but they would still always come together in any effort to help find their daughter. And years later, in 2006... [19:14] there was finally a break in the case. A task force had been put together to re-examine the case. Multiple agencies were involved, and they were re-examining every single file. But as diligently as they were working... [19:28] It wasn't their work that made the break. Eventually, the task force was disbanded and six shelves of files were given to one man. And one day in August of 2006, that one man got a call from an inmate in prison. It was a convicted murderer named Michael Moore. He said he was responsible for taking...

[19:50] and killing Rachel Cook. Now, false confessions happen all the time, but this really seemed to fit. This guy was a career criminal, in and out of trouble since his early teens, and now he was in jail serving four life terms for the murder of a woman and her unborn baby during a robbery that was just in a neighboring town to where Rachel's family lived. Though police didn't have any physical evidence in Rachel's case to connect him, his past seemed to suggest that this kind of crime [20:20] is exactly the type he would commit. Just 21 days before Rachel went missing, he had attempted to kidnap another woman. She had actually pulled into her driveway one day after work, and Michael pulled up his truck behind her. - Wait, a truck? [20:38] Wasn't a truck one of the vehicles spotted in the neighborhood? [20:41] Yes. So he pulls up this truck behind this woman and strikes up a conversation with her. But while they're talking, he tries to grab her right in the street and put her in his truck. But she was actually able to get away and run into her house. And when she ran into her house, he ran away. [21:00] The story he tells about what he allegedly did to Rachel is strikingly similar to this attempted abduction and very believable to investigators. He said that he was driving around the neighborhood actually looking for a house to rob when he spotted Rachel running. In almost an instant, he decided he wanted her. So he drove up close behind her.

[21:23] got out of his truck, ran up behind her wielding a hammer, and struck her in the head multiple times. Then he said he put her in his truck, drove her to another location where he said he raped her, and when he was done, he wrapped her body in a tarp, weighed it down with rocks, and then threw her into the bay. Police were convinced of his story and even struck a plea deal for him. [21:53] and in exchange, [21:55] He had to lead police to where he dumped her body and where he buried her personal effects. So on November 9th, [22:04] Michael is escorted into a courtroom. [22:06] to plead. Now he stands up in front of all of Rachel's friends and family who have traveled in, have been waiting so long for some kind of closure. Friends and family who are hoping that after today, they're finally going to be taken to where Rachel was laid to rest. [22:22] Amen. [22:23] Michael gets in front of a judge. [22:25] and then does something that makes even the judge do a double take. [22:32] Starting a new business can be intimidating. I mean, the amount of tasks you have to juggle can get overwhelming quickly. And it's like you have to be an expert in everything all at once. I mean, you think when I started Crime Junkie, I thought I would be running a merch store one day? I know. But when that day came, before I could even hire help, I had to expertly run a merch store. [22:52] And I did it with Shopify.

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[24:47] Crime Junkie for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash Crime Junkie. [24:54] The judge reads Michael's charges and asks, "How do you plead?" And in a shock to everyone in the room, [25:02] Michael says not guilty. And the judge literally says, [25:07] I'm sorry, can you repeat that? And he says it again. [25:11] Not guilty. Oh my God. The family felt victimized all over again. They were so close to answers and then they were ripped away from them. No one knew why he was doing this. After time passed, police speculated that Michael was just messing with police and family, but they still consider him to be a person of interest. Either he got to the finish line and realized he had nothing to gain by talking, [25:41] new way to victimize people from behind bars. [25:44] In the years that followed, police continue to follow up on tip after tip, lead after lead. They've searched a nearby lake at least four times looking for remnants of Rachel or suspicious cars, but every time they've come up empty-handed. In 2014, Rachel's dad passed away. Her mom was there with him towards the end, and one of the last things that she said to him was, at least now you'll know. You'll have the answers of what happened to our daughter. [26:14] Oh my god. It's a hard pill to swallow, but after 15 years, I think her loved ones started to believe that maybe they would never know what happened.

[26:25] But then... [26:25] Something crazy happened. A new cold case unit was created in 2016, and Rachel's case was one that they were looking at. And in April of 2017... [26:39] Officials said that they found the car linked to Rachel's disappearance in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. What? It was, in fact, a 1998 white Pontiac Trans Am. You're kidding. No. But wait, how do they know it's the car? Okay, so here's the deal. [26:59] We know police hold things back. I'm almost certain... Right. ...that in the years of their investigation, they must have had a strong idea of what happened to Rachel... [27:08] Or like a tipster came forward. A license plate number or a VIN or something. Yeah, I don't know because literally we got nothing. And all of those years before 2017, all we heard was that like witnesses saw this car. We were never even told that it might be a Trans Am. Yeah. And then all of a sudden in 2017, they say all of this stuff that feels like brand new information to someone who's been following the case. [27:38] to three of the four persons of interest in the case. Wait, who? [27:42] Exactly. So we don't know, but apparently... [27:48] There's four of them. The police knew a lot more than they were letting on. I am shocked at how much they were able to keep quiet in this case. Oh my gosh. When they found the car, the sheriff said it is not a dead end. And it's possible that 16 year old evidence could be extracted from the vehicle. Now in September, the sheriff,

[28:12] They found the car in April. Then in September, they announced that they had found the possible presence of blood on the passenger floorboard and on an item on the passenger side door. But no information has been released since about whether it had been conclusively connected to Rachel through DNA testing or if it didn't or what testing was even done. Like literally we got April, we found it. September, we might have found blood. And then nothing else about the car. Well, and we've said this before. [28:41] In cases where... [28:43] Years after the fact, there's DNA uncovered or DNA that's going to be tested. And then two or three years go by and we don't hear anything. And I know... [28:51] for at least you and I, [28:53] we generally assume that it's not a match, right? See, and I don't always think that. I think if it's like a perpetrator's DNA, but if you're looking for a victim's DNA as something, I think it could very likely be a match. But if a prosecutor was like, yeah, this is great, but it's not enough to take someone to trial, I can see why they would keep it under wraps and then continue to build a case against someone or someone [29:16] apparently three or four some ones we've never heard of. Yeah, I guess. Now, in June of 2018, a large dig was done connected to Rachel's case, but that unearthed nothing. And since then, there haven't been any new developments. The sheriff's office said that they do not consider the car a dead end, like I said, and they will continue to work on the case until they bring Rachel home. [29:39] I am still like... [29:41] So overwhelmed. I feel like you dropped a huge bomb on me and our listeners.

[29:46] I'm honestly having trouble processing... [29:48] the fact that there's a lead at all and it's so recent. - Listen, I have had a lot of time [29:54] to process it since researching and writing and I still don't know how to process it. Police [30:00] obviously think that like a group of people were involved in whatever happened to Rachel, which doesn't feel like any theory that we've discussed before. Well, and like, how long have they... [30:12] been on this idea. Like, we have no idea. So here's the thing. I am almost wondering if they have an informant. This is such a 180 from everything we've seen for, again, it was like 15 years. From being completely cold for ages? Well, not even completely cold, but it's like, you know, the witnesses say they saw this car. Witnesses says maybe one or two men in the car. And then for all of a sudden them to be like, we found the car and there's three to [30:42] I'm kind of wondering, I'm working on this other case. It's actually the one that we might do for our live show where... [30:48] Literally every direction police were going in... [30:52] got totally flipped upside down because an informant came forward. And overnight, when police had nothing, they just had theories, overnight, police had a person of interest that they could start linking stuff to. And it feels like that's almost what happened here. Like maybe someone came forward that knew something and said, hey, look at these three or four guys. And if you look at them, I can like lead you to the car. Or if you follow them, you can find the car. Yeah.

[31:20] But... [31:21] I don't know. The car was found almost two years ago, and it doesn't seem like that was enough for them to close the case to find her. Police still need that extra piece of information, whatever it is, whoever it comes from, to close the case. [31:38] Thank you for tuning in for another episode. If you want to see pictures related to this case, you can go to our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. You can also go there to check out our events page for all of the chances to meet up or see us live. We have a link to our fan club where you can get hours and hours of extra episodes for just five bucks. [32:08] sure to follow us on instagram at crime tricky podcast and on twitter at crime tricky pod and check out our facebook discussion group every week we post a discussion posting on monday's episode and we all get together and talk about it it's super fun and we will be back next week with a brand new episode [32:32] you [32:34] you [32:36] you [32:39] Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? [32:47] Okay, Crime Junkies, you know I absolutely love a twist and a turn, especially when it comes to people who turn out to be someone they're not. That's why I have been obsessed with the podcast Chameleon. Every Thursday, host Josh Dean deep dives into a scam so bizarre, it will leave you wondering, how did they get away with that?

[33:05] It is truly one of my favorite podcasts right now and I've been listening for years. [33:09] I think you'll love it too. [33:11] Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.