The Disappearance of Rachel Cooke
Episode 064
CASE UPDATE - AUTHORITIES ANALYZING NEW EVIDENCE
Nineteen year old Rachel Cooke had been attending college in San Diego. There, she met and fell in love with a man with whom she hoped to create a brilliant and beautiful future. Rachel was pursuing a career in fashion, and she had completely fallen in love with California, which was entirely different from her small hometown of Georgetown, Texas.
In December of 2001, Rachel returned home for the holidays. Her boyfriend came along, though he would return back to California before New Years. He had work to attend to, and the two of them had recently decided to move in together in the new year. Rachel decided to stay in Georgetown a little longer, so she could attend her cousin’s wedding. Everything was going well, until the morning of January 10th, 2002.
Rachel went out for her usual morning run, but she never came home. When her parents realized she was missing, the Sheriff’s department was contacted. Despite exhaustive searches, media coverage and endless missing person’s fliers, Rachel was nowhere to be found. Over the course of the next sixteen years, multiple eyewitnesses would come forward telling different stories, including a confession, later recanted by a convicted killer.
What happened to Rachel Cooke and who is responsible for this atrocious crime? Join host Steven Pacheco as he examines this heartbreaking and baffling case.
Listen to 064 - The Disappearance of Rachel Cooke
UPDATE
In 2019 however, there was an apparent break in the case. A vehicle was delivered to detectives working for the Georgetown and Williamson County investigators working her case. In the days after Rachel’s disappearance, detectives announced they were seeking a white Trans-Am in connection to the crime. The car delivered to police was a white trans am out of Dallas and it is currently being swept for DNA or evidence connected to Rachel’s disappearance.
In addition to the receipt of the car, authorities released two new sketches of persons of interest in the nineteen year old’s disappearance. Police released the sketches and informed the public that a $100,000 reward is available for information regarding Rachel’s disappearance.
Jessica Cox, a detective with Williamson County told the media: “Several months ago, the cold case unit along with our partners with the FBI and our forensic artist Natalie Murray began to recreate the original drawings that were done. So she shat down, re-interviewed the original witnesses and she was able to come up with a new digital sketch of the suspects.”
There has been no news recently regarding the case since 2019, and what, if any evidence investigators have gathered from the vehicle remain unknown.
Sources:
https://www.statesman.com/NEWS/20170611/Hopes-of-finding-missing-Georgetown-teen-dashed-again
https://www.texastribune.org/library/data/texas-prisons/inmates/michael-keith-moore/775666/
https://www.statesman.com/NEWS/20141106/Father-of-missing-Georgetown-teen-Rachel-Cooke-dies