The Baffling Disappearance of Rachel Cooke
The 19-year-old went out for her daily run and never returned.
Rachel Cooke was on her winter break from college, but she wasn’t about to take a break from her exercise routine. The 19-year-old, who attended Mesa Junior College in San Diego, California, had returned to her childhood home in Georgetown, Texas to celebrate the holidays with her parents and her younger sister. Every morning, Rachel would get up and go for a six-mile run around the neighborhood. She had been running on the streets of Georgetown since she was a child, and she always followed the same route.
When Rachel woke up on the morning of Thursday, January 10, 2002, she had the house to herself. Her sister, JoAnn, had already left for school and both of her parents were at work. Her boyfriend, Greg West, called her from San Diego around 9:15 am; Rachel told him that she was getting ready to go for her usual run and would call him when she returned home. She left her house shortly afterward, but she would never return Greg’s call. At some point on her run, Rachel vanished and was never seen again.
Rachel’s father, Robert Cooke, was the first person to realize that something was wrong. He had arranged to leave work early that afternoon so he could take Rachel shopping; her cousin was getting married that Saturday…