Latest / The Breakfast Club / Hunting 4 Answers: The Story of Nina Cook: Part 2

Transcript

Hunting 4 Answers: The Story of Nina Cook: Part 2 · The Breakfast Club

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hunting for Answers is a production of the Black Effect
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Welcome to Hunting for Answers, a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: true crime podcast. I'm your host, Hunter, and today we
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: continue our three part series into the life and murder
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: of twenty eight year old Nina Cook, a young woman
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: from Memphis, Tennessee, whose life was cut tragically short in
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: October of twenty fourteen. In the first part of the series,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: we met Nina through the eyes of her siblings, Lydia,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Kenya and Chris. They painted a portrait of a woman
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: who was ambitious, loving, and fiercely protective of her family.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: But today we step into darker territory. We examined the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: circumstances surrounding Nina's disappearance, the last conversations, and the gruesome
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: discovery that would forever change the lives of those who
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: loved her. This is the story of Nina Cook. When
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: does a beloved family member's absence transform from a passing
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: concern into a growing fear? At what point does she's
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: just busy become something's wrong For the family of Nina Cook.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: This transformation happened slowly and then all at once. Before
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: we can understand Nina's disappearance, we need to revisit the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: last times those close to her saw or spoke with her.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: These final encounters, ordinary at the time, would later be
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: examined for clues or warning signs, for anything that might
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: explain what was to come.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I think when you speak to.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: When you speak to a loved one, uh, you don't
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: expect it to.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: Be the last time that you talk to them. So
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: I don't remember the last conversation that I had with
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: her because I didn't know that.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: It would be the last.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I've tried to replay that and think about it in
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: my mind, but I don't recall. What I probably remember
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: last is uh my last visit coming down to Memphis.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Although Lydia may not remember the exact conversation, she does
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: remember her last visit with Nina.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Vividly in celebration. And Nina couldn't make it, but promised
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: me that she would see me the next day. So
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: we met up at my uncle Bobby's house, and the
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: first thing she did was she came in with a
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: big smile, as she always did, and she wanted to
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: hold my hand and sit on my lap. So our
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: last pictures are of us cozy together on the sofa,
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: holding hands as always, and we laughed and she hugged
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: on my babies. I didn't want to let her go.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: For Chris, Nina's younger brother, his last memory of his
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: sister comes from a casual family gathering at their grandmother's house.
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: Yes, I do now. That had to have been springtime.
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: And the last time that I saw, we were just
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: all chilling at my grandmother's house. And man, you know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: she was just very dressed to the nine. She had
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: recovered pretty nicely. You know, they talk about the rod
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: in her hip. She did have a little bit of
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: a car accident, and she had recovered nicely, and she
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: was getting dressed up to the nines.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: The surgical rod in Nina's like would later play a
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: crucial role in identifying her remains. But it's what happened
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: next that Chris holds most here, a moment that would
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: become the final memory of his sister.
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: I was in my grandmother's room, laying on my bed,
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: laying on my grandmother's bed rather, and you know, she
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: kind of just came in very softly touched my face,
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: you know, and it's a you know, it's something that
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: you know, like a man just said, you never think
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: that this is going to be the last time you're
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: gonna see or hear from somebody.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: The last thing that I remember my sister saying to me,
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: which is the first thing that I knew, and I
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: always knew, you know, she told me that she loved me.
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: You know, her last words to me was I love you,
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: and you know, it's it's it's it's hard to kind
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: of think about that as the last registered memory that
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: you have of your one of your greatest inspirations. And
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: that was what it was. And it was so soft
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: and so sweet, and literally I remember her walking out
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: to leave and going to get on her stride and
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: conquer the world, and her little confident walk that she
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: had with the hips swaying, and you know, that was it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: That was the last time that I talked to her.
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: She seemed very calm, very poised, and gave me that
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: I love you.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Kenya. Nina's younger sister also recalled seeing Nina at their
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: grandmother's house shortly before her disappearance.
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: So when I found out it was really more so
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: my family just kind of like, oh, we haven't heard
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: from we call her Gina In my family too. We
• 6:31
  Speaker 6: hadn't heard from Gina in a little bit. I recall
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: my last time seeing her was around maybe early June
• 6:42
  Speaker 6: or so. I mean, she came by my grandmother's house
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: and I saw her.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: None of Nina's loved ones remember her expressing any concerns
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: or fears during these last interactions.
• 6:55
  Speaker 6: No, I don't recall any fears being express No, she
• 7:01
  Speaker 6: came around the family, She was fine, We had fun,
• 7:05
  Speaker 6: we talked. I think around that time, I probably had
• 7:10
  Speaker 6: just had my daughter not too long before, maybe a
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: year or two before she was missing, So she was
• 7:16
  Speaker 6: trying to be in my daughter's life and just making
• 7:19
  Speaker 6: sure she stayed connected with the family. But I didn't
• 7:22
  Speaker 6: sense any fear or any threat or you know, that
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: she was in danger or anything like that.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Family gatherings, expressions of love, staying connected to family, Everything
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: seemed to be fine. There were no dramatic goodbyes, no warnings,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and no sense that anything was wrong, which makes what
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: happened next all the more disturbing. The exact timeline of
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: when Nina went missing is difficult to pinpoint. There was
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: no single moment when an alarm was raised. Instead, her
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: absence and lack of communication drew concern that gradually grew louder.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Nina was known to travel often, so it wasn't unusual
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: for her to be out of touch for short periods
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: of time. However, this time was different.
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: When we didn't hear from her around her birthday, which
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: is in September, that's when my side of the family
• 8:29
  Speaker 6: for sure started, you know, getting a little bit more worried,
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: like Lydia said. And I was actually not the one
• 8:36
  Speaker 6: to submit the missing persons because I think for me
• 8:39
  Speaker 6: as well, we were just kind of like, oh, yeah,
• 8:42
  Speaker 6: she's out of town. It wasn't uncommon for her to
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: go out of town and we not hear from her
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: for a couple of weeks, or she's in the studio
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: working on music, or she'd be in Atlanta or just wherever.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Since Nina was always on the go and at the time,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: her family had no reason to suspect the worst.
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: So I don't think the worst came to mind automatically.
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: I know it didn't for me, So I did not
• 9:10
  Speaker 6: fill out the missing person's report because I just knew
• 9:12
  Speaker 6: that we were gonna hear from her again, and she
• 9:14
  Speaker 6: would pop up when she's ready.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: She was not.
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: She was known to kind of go do her own
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: thing and then we hear from her when she was
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: finished or you know, felt like talking or whatever.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: So, but there was one day that should have brought
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: word from Nina, her birthday. No matter where she was
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: or what she was doing, she would always speak to
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: her family on or around her birthday.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Of course, I called and talked to Dad about it,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: and Dad said the last time he had heard from
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: her was Father's Day. He had already mailed off her
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: birthday card and he was waiting to hear back from
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: her because she would always call when she got her
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: birthday card.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Father's Day was in June. Nina's birthday was in September.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: The realization that no one had seen or heard from
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Nina in months finally began to sink in Lydia remembers
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: getting the call from Kenya about how Nina seemed to
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: be missing.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Can you call me? And I remember I was helping
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: my mom out at the hair salon, and I am
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: always optimistic, so at the mention of her possibly being missing,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: I'm like, no, you know, we'll hear from her birthdays
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: coming up. She's just traveling, you know how Nina is,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: we'll talk to her soon.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: As the days turned two weeks and September gave way
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: to October, the silence became increasingly difficult to ignore. Eventually,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a missing person report was filed and the official missing
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: person's investigation was launched. But no one could have imagined
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: where the investigation would lead.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Let's take the necessary steps in case there is something wrong,
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: but I could not. I couldn't allow my mind to
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: go there. So I think I just kind of compartmentalized
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: things and was just like, it's one of those days.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: You know, she's gonna call. You know, of course we'll
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: find her. These type of things, don't you know happened
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: to us.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: In October twenty fourteen, Kenya rect an unexpected visit from
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the police that would change everything for me.
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: And then in the October is when I actually found
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: out that it really was something wrong. And so on
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: that day, it's when I got a knock at the
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: door from the police department and they gave me the
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: contact number for the sergeant and basically said that they
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: had you know, they wanted me to talk to the sergeant.
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: They felt like they had found a body, and they
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: just kind of wanted to confirm, and so that was
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: my first real notification that.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: She had passed.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I believe it was October.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Once. Can you call me and said that they had
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: identified our body and that they had found her.
• 12:59
  Speaker 7: That was really hard because it became real and something
• 13:06
  Speaker 7: that we now have to face and deal with.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: And you're wondering why and how I had to share
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: that news with my dad and for it to be
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: solidified through dental records and the ride that she had
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: in her leg from the accident.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: It wasn't.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: It wasn't something that I could deny.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: I just I just broke down. I don't know how
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: you and how you deal with something like that.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: The surgical rod in Nina's leg, along with the dental records,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: was the final confirmation Nina Cook was gone. On October seventh,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, Nina Cook's remains were discovered in a vacant
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: church building at eleven seventy five East Trigg Avenue in Memphis.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: The property had been foreclosed and empty since October twenty thirteen.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: A church caretaker made the grim discovery and called nine
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: one one. Nina's body was found lying on the floor,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: covered by a soiled curtain and in an advanced state
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: of decomposition. Her remains were largely skeletonized, with only a
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: torn piece of red underwear still adhered to her. Scattered
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: around her puzzle pieces, a pen, a penny, a toy shoe,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and fragments of jewelry, including a hard necklace. According to
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Nina's autopsy report, the medical examiner documented perry mortem fractures
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: to her facial bones, sternum, and vertebrae, concluding the cause
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: of death was homicidal violence, though the specific means remained
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: impossible to determine after so much time had passed by
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: a missing person's report had only been filed two weeks earlier.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Though family hadn't heard from Nina for approximately three months,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: the window of time between her disappearance and the time
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: she had been discovered had its effect, leaving behind unanswered
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: questions about her final moments. With the discovery of Nina's remains,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the missing person case transformed into a homicide investigation. Memphis
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: police began the difficult task of piecing together what happened
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to Nina. Cook Kenya recalls the early days of the investigation,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: when the quest for answers had more energy.
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: I remember in the beginning going down to the station,
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: to the investigations bureau and you know, talking to the sergeant,
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: getting you know, information, giving information details, and just trying
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: to come up with next steps.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: The family provided whatever information they could, trying to reconstruct
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Nina's final days in weeks leading up to her untiled death.
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: So yeah, being told about possibly running DNA through the
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: cysts them to see if there was a match, and
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: you know, talking about the crime scene and just giving
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: our statements and trying to recount and recall who we
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: remember her being in communication with, you know, people that
• 17:13
  Speaker 6: she knew, people that she went to school with, anyone
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: that she dated, or just anything that we could come
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: up with to try to find clues.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Social media provided one potential source of information, a digital
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: trill that might offer insight into Nina's last movements.
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: We were looking at her social media to kind of
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: see where she was or what she posted things like that.
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: And like Amanda say it, this was October and so
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: we were a few months behind, so it was a
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: lot that we could not get access to. But in
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: the beginning it did really feel like we were making
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: some lead way.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: I think any family member.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: That deals with a tragic loss. They want answers, they
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: want help, they want support from law enforcement, from media
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: to bring justice to your family member. When things first
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: started out, I felt like everyone was going strong, We're
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: gonna find the answers. Uh. There was talk about DNA.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: I watched enough crime shows right to know that you
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: can find, you know, answers with just the smallest shread
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: of evidence. The hope was that people would talk, they
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: would see her story, calls would flood in. Unfortunately, things
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: died down really quickly.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Despite the initial spark of interest in Nina's case, the
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: investigation faced significant challenges and roadblocks.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: So I didn't.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Understand why we couldn't get more answers, why her email
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: couldn't be accessed, why checks in like the Green Dot
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: card things couldn't be.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Traced.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: I understood because I went to some of the businesses myself,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: and at the time a lot of them only held
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: recordings for thirty days, maybe ninety days, and we were
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: far behind from the time that they found her body
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: to the time that the investigation began.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: The condition of Nina's remains also presented for what is
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it challenges for the investigation.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: So because of the state of her body. I did
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: understand that and the time frame. I did understand that
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: we were at a disadvantage, but I had so much
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: hope that we would have more resolved than we did
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: and just more support. I thought my phone would be
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: ringing off the hook trying to get answers and people
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: reaching out and wanting to share her story and also,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: you know, fine justice, But.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: It just wasn't.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: Everything dried up and I didn't hear back from anyone
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: until now.
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: Unfortunately, I don't think we got any clues or tips
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: through like the hotline, like the Rewards hotline. We were
• 21:13
  Speaker 6: trying to get some information, see if anybody could give
• 21:17
  Speaker 6: some anonymous tips, but we were not successful with that.
• 21:22
  Speaker 6: We did not have that much concrete evidence at all.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: As the investigation continued to unfold or lack thereof, Lydia
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and the rest of Nina's loved ones felt like her
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: case wasn't being treated fairly or given the priority it deserved.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: And I think in the investigation, when her story didn't
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: look picture perfect, it didn't see news worthy enough to
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: pull on the heartstrings, it felt like her life didn't matter,
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: and things began to be swept under the rug.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Lydia's frustration grew as she encountered roadblock after roadblock in
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: her own quest for information in the truth behind what
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: happened to her sister.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: I heard a lot of there wasn't enough of this.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: I couldn't do that. I couldn't I wanted to get
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: into her post office box at the University of Memphis.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: I wanted to get camera footage. I wanted DNA evidence.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: I wanted, you know, different people to be spoken to
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: or interviewed more thoroughly.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Despite the decline and resources into Nina's case, Lydia says,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the lead investigator did make genuine efforts, even when other
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: authorities began to turn their time elsewhere.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: And I know things probably take time. And I believe
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: that the sergeant who was working with us put in
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: really great efforts. He was supportive and communicative for a while,
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: but then I think he was on the verge of retiring.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: And I'm sure there's processes and high crime city, all
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: these things. Perhaps her story was one that was easily
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: placed on the back burner.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Over a decade later, the questions surrounding Nina's death remain
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: largely unanswered. Who would want to harm her? What were
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the circumstances leading up to her final moments, and what
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: happened between June and October of twenty fourteen. In Part
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: three of this series, will examine the broader implications of
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Nina's case, how it fits into patterns of unsolved cases
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: involving women of color, the challenges of Cold's case investigations,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: and the family's ongoing journey for justice and answers. Anyone
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: with information regarding Nina Cook's case should contact the Memphis
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Police Department or Prime Shoppers. Their number can be found
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: in the description box below. As we close out this episode,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: don't forget to hit the follow button to stay updated
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: on this case and others like it. Subscribe to Hunting
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: for Answers on YouTube to watch the visuals to this episode,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and follow us on Instagram and TikTok for more true
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: crime updates. And if you enjoyed this story, leave us
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: a five star rating. Thank you so much for joining
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: us on another episode until next time. Hunting for Answers
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: favorite shows,