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Who Killed Jean Cook? · River City Mystery - Investigating mysteries in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and western Kentucky

• 0:00
  Speaker: I was there at Saint Joe and
• 0:02
  Speaker: Diamond working, you know, mid
• 0:03
  Speaker: morning.
• 0:04
  Speaker: You know, my cell phone rings.
• 0:06
  Speaker: I don't recognize the number.
• 0:09
  Speaker: So this woman, I didn't
• 0:11
  Speaker: recognize her because she was
• 0:13
  Speaker: distressed.
• 0:14
  Speaker: Jean had already been shot and I
• 0:17
  Speaker: was the first contact on her
• 0:19
  Speaker: phone.
• 0:20
  Speaker: She she says this man come in and shot me.
• 0:37
  Speaker: You're listening to River City
• 0:38
  Speaker: Mystery, a podcast that delves
• 0:40
  Speaker: into the Evansville and
• 0:41
  Speaker: surrounding Tri-State area's
• 0:42
  Speaker: mysteries, including unsolved
• 0:44
  Speaker: crimes, murders and
• 0:45
  Speaker: disappearances, a show that
• 0:47
  Speaker: isn't afraid to jump down the
• 0:48
  Speaker: rabbit hole to investigate
• 0:49
  Speaker: reports of local hauntings,
• 0:51
  Speaker: sightings of UAPs and cryptids,
• 0:53
  Speaker: among other paranormal
• 0:54
  Speaker: phenomena.
• 0:54
  Speaker: With your host law office worker by day.
• 0:57
  Speaker: Insomniac researcher of the unknown by night.
• 1:00
  Speaker: Matt Deig
• 1:07
  Speaker: It's been twenty years since
• 1:08
  Speaker: Georgia Jean Cooke was shot to
• 1:11
  Speaker: death while working at the
• 1:12
  Speaker: Butler's on forty one North in
• 1:14
  Speaker: Evansville, Indiana.
• 1:15
  Speaker: Jean Cooke was a fifty six year old mother of two.
• 1:17
  Speaker: On October six, two thousand and five, she was just working a
• 1:21
  Speaker: shift to make ends meet.
• 1:23
  Speaker: Three hours to the end of her
• 1:24
  Speaker: shift, when someone wanders in
• 1:26
  Speaker: with a gun, shoots her twice,
• 1:29
  Speaker: leaves her on the floor to bleed
• 1:30
  Speaker: to death in the gas station
• 1:32
  Speaker: while they steal money out of
• 1:34
  Speaker: the register.
• 1:36
  Speaker: Absolutely senseless.
• 1:37
  Speaker: Leaving two children without a mother for whatever was in the
• 1:41
  Speaker: register at the gas station.
• 1:43
  Speaker: Unbelievable.
• 1:44
  Speaker: And this person, twenty years later, is still on the loose.
• 1:47
  Speaker: They have not been caught.
• 1:49
  Speaker: They got away with it.
• 1:50
  Speaker: And to make matters worse, the
• 1:52
  Speaker: video surveillance wasn't
• 1:53
  Speaker: working at that location that
• 1:55
  Speaker: day.
• 1:55
  Speaker: So there's no video of this happening.
• 1:58
  Speaker: What we what we do have, however, is a witness statement.
• 2:02
  Speaker: There was a man pumping gas at the time of the shooting, and he
• 2:07
  Speaker: says he saw a white woman with bushy gray hair about forty five
• 2:14
  Speaker: to sixty years old, standing about five feet six inches tall
• 2:18
  Speaker: and wearing dark clothing.
• 2:20
  Speaker: He says that she got into a mid-size, bluish gray domestic
• 2:23
  Speaker: four door sedan and headed north on forty one.
• 2:28
  Speaker: That is the extent of our description of the killer.
• 2:33
  Speaker: There is an artist rendering of that description, and I've got
• 2:36
  Speaker: that in the show notes.
• 2:38
  Speaker: And I've also kind of played around with some AI programs.
• 2:41
  Speaker: So I converted that sketch into a real human might look like.
• 2:44
  Speaker: So I've posted those as well because, you know, who knows,
• 2:47
  Speaker: maybe that might trigger somebody to recognize somebody,
• 2:51
  Speaker: but there really isn't much to go on there.
• 2:54
  Speaker: It's kind of a vague description of a woman, honestly.
• 2:57
  Speaker: And there actually were.
• 3:00
  Speaker: There's debate over whether it was a woman or a man in a wig or
• 3:05
  Speaker: in some sort of disguise.
• 3:07
  Speaker: And we're going to talk about that later in the episode.
• 3:09
  Speaker: But I speak with Andy Hinton, who actually spoke with Jean
• 3:14
  Speaker: after she was shot.
• 3:16
  Speaker: She says, he shot me, so she thinks it was a man.
• 3:20
  Speaker: Or maybe just when you're shocked after you've been shot,
• 3:23
  Speaker: you don't think clearly.
• 3:24
  Speaker: But but she seemed to indicate that it was a man that had shot
• 3:28
  Speaker: her for some reason.
• 3:30
  Speaker: So speaking of Andy, he's.
• 3:31
  Speaker: He actually reached out to me and asked me to look into this
• 3:34
  Speaker: case a little bit.
• 3:35
  Speaker: So that's why it was brought to my attention.
• 3:38
  Speaker: Andy was friends with Jean, and it was a coworker of hers.
• 3:43
  Speaker: And after Jean was shot, Jean
• 3:46
  Speaker: actually called Andy's phone
• 3:48
  Speaker: first.
• 3:49
  Speaker: And so Andy shares his insights into the case.
• 3:52
  Speaker: And you know what his thoughts are as well as that, the events
• 3:57
  Speaker: of that day.
• 3:58
  Speaker: I also speak with Fred Cook, who is the son of Jean cook, and he
• 4:04
  Speaker: shares some of his thoughts on this case as well.
• 4:07
  Speaker: I reached out to Bobby Jo, the daughter.
• 4:09
  Speaker: She's dealing with some medical issues right now, so she's just
• 4:13
  Speaker: not feeling well enough to be able to talk.
• 4:14
  Speaker: But the invitation is always open.
• 4:17
  Speaker: If Bobby Jew would ever, like in
• 4:19
  Speaker: the future to speak about this
• 4:21
  Speaker: case with me, it's an open
• 4:23
  Speaker: invitation.
• 4:24
  Speaker: Just just reach out to me and we're on.
• 4:27
  Speaker: But first we have Andy Hinton, who again was Jane's coworker,
• 4:32
  Speaker: who received that call from Jean after she was shot.
• 4:35
  Speaker: This is my conversation with Andy.
• 4:38
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 4:38
  Speaker: So, you know, I worked with Jean
• 4:41
  Speaker: a couple years on Saint Jo and
• 4:43
  Speaker: Diamond, and she was a good
• 4:46
  Speaker: woman.
• 4:47
  Speaker: I mean, really sweet, family oriented.
• 4:50
  Speaker: So we I guess Buster's was struggling with that, uh,
• 4:53
  Speaker: location up there at forty one in Old state.
• 4:57
  Speaker: So they had sent her up there to
• 4:59
  Speaker: kind of turn the store around,
• 5:00
  Speaker: you know?
• 5:01
  Speaker: You know, when you get a good
• 5:02
  Speaker: manager, you know, you can kind
• 5:04
  Speaker: of maybe if you're not making
• 5:06
  Speaker: any money, you can kind of make
• 5:07
  Speaker: it profitable.
• 5:08
  Speaker: Sure.
• 5:09
  Speaker: So they sent her up there and I don't even remember how long she
• 5:14
  Speaker: was up there for.
• 5:16
  Speaker: But this incident happened, you know, one day I was there at
• 5:21
  Speaker: Saint Joe and Diamond working, you know, mid-morning.
• 5:25
  Speaker: You know, my cell phone rings
• 5:27
  Speaker: and I don't recognize the
• 5:30
  Speaker: number.
• 5:31
  Speaker: So this woman, I didn't
• 5:33
  Speaker: recognize her because she was
• 5:35
  Speaker: distressed.
• 5:36
  Speaker: Jean had already been shot, and
• 5:39
  Speaker: I was the first contact on her
• 5:41
  Speaker: phone.
• 5:43
  Speaker: You know, a you're the first one
• 5:45
  Speaker: to come up, you know, but I was
• 5:47
  Speaker: kind of her contact for a lot of
• 5:49
  Speaker: stuff within, you know, the
• 5:51
  Speaker: workplace.
• 5:53
  Speaker: She she says this man come in and shot me.
• 5:58
  Speaker: I said, who is this?
• 6:00
  Speaker: You know, I didn't know who it was.
• 6:02
  Speaker: I couldn't tell it was Jean.
• 6:05
  Speaker: So. So I kind of listened in the
• 6:07
  Speaker: background and I hear Simona, I
• 6:09
  Speaker: thought it was just a prank
• 6:10
  Speaker: call.
• 6:11
  Speaker: And so I kind of share the phone around the office.
• 6:15
  Speaker: I said, does anybody recognize this number?
• 6:18
  Speaker: Nobody knew.
• 6:19
  Speaker: Nobody knew.
• 6:21
  Speaker: And finally, kind of hung up.
• 6:23
  Speaker: Well, she ended up calling like three or four times.
• 6:27
  Speaker: And, and at that point, I don't know if you know, nobody knows.
• 6:32
  Speaker: I put people on the phone, pass the phone around.
• 6:34
  Speaker: Does anybody know what this is?
• 6:36
  Speaker: And she's not really making sense.
• 6:38
  Speaker: You know, she kind of moaning and whatever.
• 6:40
  Speaker: Like, you know, maybe if it was a landline, she may have just
• 6:43
  Speaker: said it on the counter.
• 6:45
  Speaker: Something like that.
• 6:46
  Speaker: So. And this is a long time ago, right?
• 6:49
  Speaker: You know, so whenever we had contacted each other, you know,
• 6:53
  Speaker: I was like, I'll try to recall, you know what I can.
• 6:56
  Speaker: But anyway, later on, you know, I think kind of a little
• 7:00
  Speaker: disturbed, you know, not not thinking anything of it.
• 7:02
  Speaker: And, and we have the radio on
• 7:05
  Speaker: and we hear it over the radio
• 7:07
  Speaker: and we all kind of realized what
• 7:10
  Speaker: that that was Jean, that was
• 7:12
  Speaker: Jean.
• 7:12
  Speaker: She was calling us to say that she had been shot and, you know,
• 7:16
  Speaker: had some sort of emergency.
• 7:18
  Speaker: Wow.
• 7:19
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 7:20
  Speaker: And so you were the first contact on her phone.
• 7:23
  Speaker: So that's why you're she's probably punching away at
• 7:26
  Speaker: numbers on her phone and like, your name comes out probably
• 7:29
  Speaker: the, the Saint Joe store pops up on the list there.
• 7:32
  Speaker: So she's just calling that over and over.
• 7:34
  Speaker: Yeah, this was my cell phone.
• 7:36
  Speaker: Your cell phone.
• 7:37
  Speaker: Okay.
• 7:37
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 7:38
  Speaker: And so you guys were were you
• 7:39
  Speaker: guys good friends or because you
• 7:40
  Speaker: had worked together, you had
• 7:42
  Speaker: said, yeah, yeah, we yeah, we,
• 7:45
  Speaker: yeah, we worked together for a
• 7:46
  Speaker: couple years there on Saint
• 7:48
  Speaker: Joe's.
• 7:48
  Speaker: Just really close my, my desk was real close to her, her
• 7:52
  Speaker: little desk and office.
• 7:54
  Speaker: And she did the paperwork and, and kind of manage the little
• 7:58
  Speaker: convenience store up there.
• 8:00
  Speaker: And she had was friends with
• 8:02
  Speaker: everyone, no enemies that no
• 8:04
  Speaker: one's ever reported there being
• 8:05
  Speaker: any enemies or anything like
• 8:06
  Speaker: that.
• 8:07
  Speaker: It sounds like no doubt at all.
• 8:09
  Speaker: She, she knew a lot of people on the West Side.
• 8:11
  Speaker: I think she lived off of Rexing
• 8:12
  Speaker: Road somewhere, um, for a while
• 8:15
  Speaker: and, uh, no, no, she everyone
• 8:17
  Speaker: loved her.
• 8:18
  Speaker: And, uh, she's a good woman.
• 8:21
  Speaker: Was she the type?
• 8:22
  Speaker: I mentioned this on my discord server, and we were just, we
• 8:25
  Speaker: were just kind of tossing around ideas and brainstorming before,
• 8:27
  Speaker: you know, talking to you.
• 8:28
  Speaker: And some people thought, well, was she the type to if she had
• 8:31
  Speaker: overheard or maybe witnessed something she shouldn't have at
• 8:35
  Speaker: that gas station?
• 8:36
  Speaker: Was there any sort of drug activity or anything that she
• 8:38
  Speaker: might have witnessed and maybe threatened to go to the police
• 8:41
  Speaker: or say, hey, I'm going to call a tip in or something like, would
• 8:44
  Speaker: there have been possibly some sort of weird activity going on
• 8:46
  Speaker: that she might have overheard?
• 8:48
  Speaker: Well, you know, there's a story here, right, Matt?
• 8:54
  Speaker: And and I don't know how much did I know to be true?
• 9:00
  Speaker: Okay, so I don't know that I want to comment on anything
• 9:05
  Speaker: that's not factual.
• 9:06
  Speaker: Sure.
• 9:07
  Speaker: But I do know that it was a different time at that point.
• 9:12
  Speaker: You know, gas stations and
• 9:14
  Speaker: convenience stores and
• 9:16
  Speaker: drugstores sold pseudoephedrine,
• 9:19
  Speaker: right.
• 9:20
  Speaker: You know, which is used to make methamphetamine, right?
• 9:23
  Speaker: Correct.
• 9:23
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 9:24
  Speaker: And, um, we, you know, all the,
• 9:27
  Speaker: all the gas stations did, we
• 9:28
  Speaker: weren't doing something that
• 9:29
  Speaker: anyone else wasn't doing at the
• 9:31
  Speaker: time.
• 9:31
  Speaker: And at the time, I think if I
• 9:34
  Speaker: could recall this because I
• 9:35
  Speaker: didn't have anything to do with
• 9:36
  Speaker: the convenience store side of
• 9:38
  Speaker: things, I ran more of the oil
• 9:39
  Speaker: company side.
• 9:40
  Speaker: Okay.
• 9:41
  Speaker: So I believe the laws were like,
• 9:44
  Speaker: maybe you could buy two boxes a
• 9:45
  Speaker: day.
• 9:46
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 9:47
  Speaker: I don't really know, to be honest with you, I don't know.
• 9:49
  Speaker: We had a woman that kind of managed that whole program.
• 9:52
  Speaker: Her name was Nancy Markham.
• 9:54
  Speaker: She kind of managed the gas stations.
• 9:56
  Speaker: And then Charlie Wolfinger, he was the president and he which
• 9:59
  Speaker: Charlie is a he was the next sheriff, uh, deputy.
• 10:03
  Speaker: Okay.
• 10:04
  Speaker: At one point.
• 10:04
  Speaker: So he's very he was very
• 10:07
  Speaker: knowledgeable on the on the
• 10:08
  Speaker: case.
• 10:09
  Speaker: Right.
• 10:09
  Speaker: He was working really close with the authorities.
• 10:12
  Speaker: Um, because I, I think he still sworn in as a, as a deputy.
• 10:15
  Speaker: So you might reach out to him because he knows more facts on
• 10:20
  Speaker: the case than I do.
• 10:22
  Speaker: But anyway, back to the pseudoephedrine.
• 10:24
  Speaker: So you kind of got some shady characters coming in.
• 10:27
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 10:28
  Speaker: You know, I think you could buy a couple bucks a day.
• 10:31
  Speaker: I, you know, you had to record it, put their names down.
• 10:35
  Speaker: So there's a record of who's buying this stuff.
• 10:38
  Speaker: And I always suspected that it had something to do with that.
• 10:42
  Speaker: Okay.
• 10:42
  Speaker: Like, so someone might have been pretending to be someone else to
• 10:47
  Speaker: get maybe a bigger supply and then possible maybe she
• 10:51
  Speaker: recognized that person and said, hey, you're so and so.
• 10:54
  Speaker: But it didn't.
• 10:54
  Speaker: She didn't say that on the phone call, though.
• 10:56
  Speaker: She said, I've been robbed by.
• 10:58
  Speaker: Well, no, she said, I've been shot.
• 11:00
  Speaker: I've been shot.
• 11:01
  Speaker: But a man came in here and shot me.
• 11:03
  Speaker: And I know that you know, which is crazy because everybody has
• 11:07
  Speaker: been looking for a woman, right?
• 11:09
  Speaker: Uh, it could have been a a man with a wig.
• 11:12
  Speaker: I, I don't know, but she had said a man had come in and shot
• 11:16
  Speaker: me from her own work.
• 11:17
  Speaker: Looking through some old newspaper articles, there was a
• 11:20
  Speaker: witness who I guess came in the store after she was shot and
• 11:23
  Speaker: called nine hundred eleven.
• 11:25
  Speaker: Apparently he was able to ask
• 11:26
  Speaker: one question, the article said,
• 11:27
  Speaker: and it said it was this a
• 11:29
  Speaker: robbery?
• 11:29
  Speaker: And she says yes.
• 11:31
  Speaker: And that was literally all he could get out of her.
• 11:33
  Speaker: You know, if she's struggling to
• 11:34
  Speaker: talk and maybe disoriented or
• 11:36
  Speaker: something.
• 11:36
  Speaker: Sure, sure, I don't know.
• 11:38
  Speaker: But that's what she told that person.
• 11:41
  Speaker: And, you know, and I guess they saw a woman with curly hair and
• 11:44
  Speaker: forty, forty five to sixty years old, you know, leave putting
• 11:47
  Speaker: something in her purse.
• 11:48
  Speaker: But she told you it was a man.
• 11:51
  Speaker: Like you said, if you're shot, you're maybe you're not making a
• 11:53
  Speaker: whole lot of sense.
• 11:54
  Speaker: Eyewitness is going to be a better, a better, um, you know,
• 11:58
  Speaker: than a phone call.
• 11:59
  Speaker: You know, eyewitness is better testimony, I guess.
• 12:03
  Speaker: Well, I mean, it just sounds
• 12:04
  Speaker: like there's confusion all
• 12:05
  Speaker: around.
• 12:05
  Speaker: I mean, because the police don't
• 12:07
  Speaker: even know if they're looking for
• 12:08
  Speaker: a male or a female or, you know,
• 12:09
  Speaker: somebody in disguise or what the
• 12:11
  Speaker: motive was.
• 12:12
  Speaker: And I guess that's how this person has remained so elusive
• 12:15
  Speaker: for all these years.
• 12:16
  Speaker: And unfortunately, it sounds like she when she started the
• 12:18
  Speaker: day she had left the video surveillance running all night.
• 12:23
  Speaker: So when she got to the store, she actually turned it.
• 12:26
  Speaker: She thought she was turning it on and apparently she was
• 12:28
  Speaker: turning it off.
• 12:29
  Speaker: So there was no surveillance, right?
• 12:32
  Speaker: I, I had heard something about that.
• 12:34
  Speaker: That's a little something
• 12:35
  Speaker: doesn't sound real, you know,
• 12:37
  Speaker: doesn't put past smell test is
• 12:38
  Speaker: what what some would say, you
• 12:40
  Speaker: know, you know, as far as I
• 12:41
  Speaker: know, those were on continuous
• 12:43
  Speaker: loops.
• 12:43
  Speaker: I don't really remember the, the style they had, but I think it
• 12:46
  Speaker: was VHS at the time.
• 12:48
  Speaker: Okay.
• 12:48
  Speaker: Um, not really.
• 12:49
  Speaker: I don't think it was digital.
• 12:51
  Speaker: Um, but like I said, some other people, uh, like Charlie or
• 12:54
  Speaker: Nancy might even be able to know more than I would on that.
• 12:58
  Speaker: Did you ever know if they.
• 13:00
  Speaker: I can't find that they actually saw a license plate on this car
• 13:03
  Speaker: that drove up.
• 13:04
  Speaker: Apparently they saw a bluish
• 13:05
  Speaker: gray four door sedan drive off
• 13:07
  Speaker: heading north on forty one after
• 13:09
  Speaker: the.
• 13:09
  Speaker: The shooting.
• 13:10
  Speaker: But no one has ever mentioned if
• 13:11
  Speaker: they had someone like caught a
• 13:13
  Speaker: glimpse of the license plate, I
• 13:14
  Speaker: wonder.
• 13:15
  Speaker: Right.
• 13:15
  Speaker: No, I have not heard that.
• 13:16
  Speaker: But you know, we're really close to sixty four.
• 13:19
  Speaker: You could go east or west and
• 13:21
  Speaker: and be gone in a matter of no
• 13:23
  Speaker: time.
• 13:23
  Speaker: So it could have been a random robbery.
• 13:26
  Speaker: It could have.
• 13:27
  Speaker: But with with the things that were going on up there.
• 13:30
  Speaker: I just don't think so.
• 13:32
  Speaker: And that was my short discussion with Andy, and I appreciate he
• 13:36
  Speaker: reached out to me to put this case on my radar very much.
• 13:39
  Speaker: And I did reach out to Charlie Wolfinger, the president of
• 13:43
  Speaker: Bussler Enterprises, and he basically directed me to the
• 13:47
  Speaker: detective, Randy Chapman.
• 13:48
  Speaker: He said that Randy's going to know everything, have all the
• 13:50
  Speaker: answers to the questions I have.
• 13:52
  Speaker: So I went ahead and just went with the interview with Randy,
• 13:55
  Speaker: which is coming up here shortly.
• 13:57
  Speaker: And up next, we've got my interview with Fred Cook.
• 14:00
  Speaker: Now, Fred is Jean Cook's son, so
• 14:02
  Speaker: we get to hear his perspective
• 14:04
  Speaker: on what this case is like for
• 14:06
  Speaker: him and his thoughts on the
• 14:09
  Speaker: investigation and things along
• 14:10
  Speaker: those lines.
• 14:11
  Speaker: So this is my discussion with Fred.
• 14:15
  Speaker: I guess to me, knowing where it happened at is probably why it
• 14:20
  Speaker: is not solved, because that is one major thoroughfare.
• 14:23
  Speaker: And with the limited amount of,
• 14:26
  Speaker: you know, back, back, I guess
• 14:28
  Speaker: obviously back then, even though
• 14:29
  Speaker: there was cameras there, there
• 14:30
  Speaker: was just not enough stopping
• 14:33
  Speaker: people stopping by there at that
• 14:34
  Speaker: little store.
• 14:35
  Speaker: You know, nowadays you see every convenience store around packed
• 14:38
  Speaker: on every corner.
• 14:38
  Speaker: But that one there was not, you
• 14:40
  Speaker: know, a very busy store with the
• 14:42
  Speaker: big ones just right down the
• 14:43
  Speaker: road.
• 14:43
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 14:43
  Speaker: And it was kind of isolated where it was too.
• 14:45
  Speaker: It was kind of like it's in its
• 14:46
  Speaker: own little area there where
• 14:48
  Speaker: there wasn't a lot else around
• 14:50
  Speaker: there.
• 14:50
  Speaker: So, um, I guess it would be easy
• 14:53
  Speaker: for somebody to get in and out
• 14:53
  Speaker: of there.
• 14:54
  Speaker: Now, there were a couple of witnesses who saw the person
• 14:57
  Speaker: coming out, they say.
• 14:58
  Speaker: And there's been kind of conflicting information about
• 15:01
  Speaker: that as well.
• 15:02
  Speaker: Like, was it a man or a woman?
• 15:04
  Speaker: Somebody in disguise?
• 15:06
  Speaker: Yep.
• 15:06
  Speaker: That's the that's all that's been the one that's bothered me
• 15:09
  Speaker: the most is it's went back and forth between whether it was a
• 15:13
  Speaker: man, whether it was a woman.
• 15:14
  Speaker: It was a gray haired.
• 15:15
  Speaker: It was an older.
• 15:17
  Speaker: Nobody really knew.
• 15:18
  Speaker: You know, there were speculations of the car.
• 15:20
  Speaker: So, you know, it's hard, you know, and you think about it
• 15:23
  Speaker: every time you drive by there.
• 15:24
  Speaker: Now that it's an empty lot, what
• 15:26
  Speaker: was missed, what could have been
• 15:27
  Speaker: found and what could have been
• 15:28
  Speaker: seen had it not happened right
• 15:30
  Speaker: there?
• 15:30
  Speaker: But yeah, everything that I talked to, whenever I was
• 15:33
  Speaker: talking to the detectives on it, you know, I would get phone
• 15:36
  Speaker: calls and of course, reach out.
• 15:38
  Speaker: You know, in the days that
• 15:39
  Speaker: pretty much took place after
• 15:40
  Speaker: that, in the weeks, you know,
• 15:42
  Speaker: then, you know, as I said, you
• 15:43
  Speaker: know, it's like, hey, you know,
• 15:44
  Speaker: we'll, we'll reach out if we get
• 15:46
  Speaker: something promising.
• 15:47
  Speaker: Um, you know, they, they
• 15:49
  Speaker: traveled, they went to a lot of
• 15:50
  Speaker: places.
• 15:51
  Speaker: I mean, there was even there was a lead even down under the
• 15:56
  Speaker: bridge under the twin bridges that we actually I actually got
• 16:00
  Speaker: to travel with down there.
• 16:01
  Speaker: And just to kind of see at the same time and it was, you know,
• 16:06
  Speaker: there was even that close of one, they went down, they looked
• 16:08
  Speaker: for a specific vehicle that was supposed to be down there.
• 16:11
  Speaker: And so they went down, checked out one of the trailers that was
• 16:14
  Speaker: down there, and it led out to be nothing at all.
• 16:17
  Speaker: But there was all kinds of people talking, you know,
• 16:20
  Speaker: certain people that were in jail talked about it, and they tried
• 16:23
  Speaker: to get their way out of it, but it turned out to be nothing.
• 16:25
  Speaker: And we would get phone calls on it all the time.
• 16:28
  Speaker: So, hey, this is what we're going on.
• 16:29
  Speaker: This is what we're hearing.
• 16:30
  Speaker: You know, we're going to go check this out.
• 16:31
  Speaker: This could be a possibility.
• 16:32
  Speaker: This person was in the area.
• 16:33
  Speaker: This person knew it.
• 16:35
  Speaker: But over the years it all faded out and then nothing has really
• 16:40
  Speaker: transpired again after that.
• 16:43
  Speaker: And then, you know, I pretty much talked to all of them until
• 16:46
  Speaker: they, I guess, have transferred cases to different detectives
• 16:49
  Speaker: over the time.
• 16:50
  Speaker: And because detectives have retired and so forth.
• 16:53
  Speaker: Like what?
• 16:54
  Speaker: What do you think happened?
• 16:55
  Speaker: Like if you had to put all your
• 16:56
  Speaker: money in one on one bet, like
• 16:58
  Speaker: who do you what do you think
• 16:59
  Speaker: actually happened?
• 17:00
  Speaker: I mean, I would I mean, I would have to say it was a random one
• 17:04
  Speaker: off, uh, at this point because, you know, I don't, I honestly
• 17:09
  Speaker: don't know why or who or anybody like that in their nature would
• 17:13
  Speaker: do that again.
• 17:14
  Speaker: But it was such a secluded, small convenience store that
• 17:19
  Speaker: would make it easy for somebody to go in and do something.
• 17:23
  Speaker: I, you know, I don't, I honestly
• 17:25
  Speaker: don't know why or how, but
• 17:29
  Speaker: that's the only thing I can come
• 17:30
  Speaker: up with.
• 17:30
  Speaker: I don't I mean, never to my knowledge, you know, across the
• 17:34
  Speaker: board, my mom never had no enemies across the board at all.
• 17:38
  Speaker: You know, she was an older lady just working to make ends meet
• 17:42
  Speaker: and survive like everybody else does, you know, and yeah, it
• 17:46
  Speaker: doesn't sound like she had anybody who had anything out for
• 17:48
  Speaker: her or anything like that.
• 17:49
  Speaker: I mean, one thing you wonder if maybe she had staggered upon a
• 17:53
  Speaker: transaction she shouldn't have seen or something.
• 17:55
  Speaker: And maybe somebody tried to make sure she wouldn't have gone to
• 17:58
  Speaker: the police with it or something, I don't know.
• 17:59
  Speaker: I mean, you have to just get creative at some point and say,
• 18:01
  Speaker: you know what in the world?
• 18:02
  Speaker: But like you said, sometimes maybe it's just a random thing
• 18:05
  Speaker: where some lunatic took advantage of a situation and
• 18:07
  Speaker: wanted to rob her cash register, you know, and that's the only
• 18:10
  Speaker: thing that I can come up with, you know, there's no rhyme or
• 18:13
  Speaker: reason to it.
• 18:13
  Speaker: I could, I do not for the life
• 18:15
  Speaker: of me, I've ran every possible
• 18:17
  Speaker: scenario through my own head, I
• 18:18
  Speaker: bet.
• 18:18
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 18:19
  Speaker: Trying to figure it out, you know, and, you know, I never
• 18:21
  Speaker: even got to talk to her.
• 18:23
  Speaker: I mean, by the time I, you know,
• 18:24
  Speaker: by the time I was at the
• 18:25
  Speaker: hospital, she was already to the
• 18:27
  Speaker: point of not being able to
• 18:29
  Speaker: communicate.
• 18:30
  Speaker: And so that was kind of where, you know, it would be nice to
• 18:33
  Speaker: have been able to say, hey, what did you see?
• 18:36
  Speaker: Give me something.
• 18:37
  Speaker: Talk to me.
• 18:38
  Speaker: But you got to think about it.
• 18:39
  Speaker: Even by that time, they're
• 18:41
  Speaker: within a twenty minute span,
• 18:43
  Speaker: down forty one to sixty four in
• 18:45
  Speaker: any direction.
• 18:46
  Speaker: Oh yeah, that's a lot of miles covered for anything nowadays.
• 18:50
  Speaker: if you look at every single
• 18:51
  Speaker: convenience store and grocery
• 18:52
  Speaker: store and campus, there is a
• 18:54
  Speaker: camera on every light pole gas
• 18:56
  Speaker: pump.
• 18:57
  Speaker: I mean, you're not.
• 18:58
  Speaker: Every vehicle is scanned.
• 19:00
  Speaker: And one of the things that has always been brought to mind is
• 19:03
  Speaker: if you're standing there pumping gas and something was to happen,
• 19:07
  Speaker: would you be able to identify even two vehicles around you in
• 19:13
  Speaker: the drop of a hat?
• 19:14
  Speaker: Probably not.
• 19:15
  Speaker: So that question always comes up
• 19:17
  Speaker: is that's one of the things, you
• 19:18
  Speaker: know.
• 19:19
  Speaker: I mean, my wife would even be one to tell you too.
• 19:21
  Speaker: I said, I never said with my
• 19:22
  Speaker: back to the door anywhere I'm
• 19:24
  Speaker: at, I always look out to where I
• 19:25
  Speaker: can see what's going on around
• 19:26
  Speaker: me.
• 19:26
  Speaker: It's something that I've always done my whole life, and I'm
• 19:29
  Speaker: always diligent about what's going on around me.
• 19:32
  Speaker: I still say to this day that even if somebody walked up to me
• 19:35
  Speaker: while I was pumping gas, as soon as I got done and put the gas
• 19:38
  Speaker: pump up guy in the car, they said, can you tell me what car
• 19:41
  Speaker: was left and right of you?
• 19:43
  Speaker: I would, even though it's as diligent as I am about it, I
• 19:45
  Speaker: would probably say, could you draw a blank?
• 19:47
  Speaker: Instantly you draw a blank almost as soon as somebody
• 19:50
  Speaker: corners you with it.
• 19:51
  Speaker: But then you also feel like you should know.
• 19:53
  Speaker: So does your brain, like, fill in the gaps and say, oh, it was
• 19:56
  Speaker: a four door bluish gray something or another.
• 19:58
  Speaker: And it's like, oh, yeah.
• 19:59
  Speaker: Then you, you remember trying to
• 20:01
  Speaker: remember that and like, it's
• 20:02
  Speaker: like a false memory kind of a
• 20:04
  Speaker: thing.
• 20:04
  Speaker: So that's one of the, that's,
• 20:05
  Speaker: that's one of the things about
• 20:06
  Speaker: it.
• 20:06
  Speaker: It does, I mean, you're always, you think, you know, just with
• 20:09
  Speaker: that one, I think they even try to do some hypnosis on some of
• 20:12
  Speaker: the people that were there.
• 20:13
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:13
  Speaker: To try to bring them to try to get them to do a little memory
• 20:16
  Speaker: because they did.
• 20:17
  Speaker: I knew that's what one of the detectives said.
• 20:19
  Speaker: He goes, we're going to try to do hypnosis, see if they can't
• 20:21
  Speaker: bring back some of the subconscious to see if they can
• 20:24
  Speaker: bring back some memories and some of that.
• 20:25
  Speaker: And and that was pretty short after, you know, while
• 20:28
  Speaker: everything was still fresh.
• 20:29
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:30
  Speaker: They didn't lead up to nothing.
• 20:31
  Speaker: It might just be something they never released, but it seems
• 20:34
  Speaker: like there's a lot of questions and it's just not a lot of
• 20:36
  Speaker: answers in your mom's case.
• 20:38
  Speaker: So it's like, not at all.
• 20:39
  Speaker: And it went, it just went quiet.
• 20:41
  Speaker: You know, I feel like they knew.
• 20:43
  Speaker: I feel like they chased every ghost that they could chase.
• 20:47
  Speaker: I think they and I don't know how detectives work, but, you
• 20:50
  Speaker: know, I'd like to think that it's always still sitting on
• 20:52
  Speaker: somebody's desk when there ain't something going on.
• 20:55
  Speaker: It's like, hey, let's dig back into this for a little while and
• 20:58
  Speaker: see what we can come up with.
• 20:59
  Speaker: Yeah, a lot of times something has to happen.
• 21:02
  Speaker: Like somebody cracks in a, you
• 21:04
  Speaker: know, somebody gets arrested and
• 21:05
  Speaker: it turns out that they end up
• 21:06
  Speaker: telling one of their cellmates
• 21:07
  Speaker: something else that leads to
• 21:08
  Speaker: something else.
• 21:09
  Speaker: And then it kind of breaks everything wide open.
• 21:11
  Speaker: So that just apparently hasn't
• 21:13
  Speaker: happened yet, but fingers
• 21:15
  Speaker: crossed that something does
• 21:16
  Speaker: happen and they find this
• 21:18
  Speaker: person.
• 21:18
  Speaker: Those conversations have been had, too, about the fact that
• 21:21
  Speaker: they're waiting on, you know, this, that usually the bad
• 21:24
  Speaker: people are usually end up either in a bar in jail and start
• 21:28
  Speaker: talking, he says.
• 21:29
  Speaker: And then when you get that person start talking, that
• 21:31
  Speaker: usually leads to this other person saying, this is my
• 21:33
  Speaker: opportunity to get out of here.
• 21:35
  Speaker: I'm going to say something.
• 21:36
  Speaker: I was told that by the
• 21:37
  Speaker: detectives once because we're
• 21:38
  Speaker: just kind of waiting on that
• 21:39
  Speaker: break.
• 21:40
  Speaker: My thinking is that maybe, you
• 21:41
  Speaker: know, in twenty years have
• 21:42
  Speaker: passed.
• 21:43
  Speaker: So I was thinking maybe somebody who might have thought a certain
• 21:47
  Speaker: way twenty years ago might have had a change of heart and been
• 21:50
  Speaker: like, you know, I didn't want to say anything back then.
• 21:52
  Speaker: Somebody did say something.
• 21:54
  Speaker: But I'm in a different point in my life now, and I think I'm
• 21:56
  Speaker: going to come forward.
• 21:58
  Speaker: Um, because you never know, somebody just might not want to
• 22:00
  Speaker: mess with the police and they, but they do know something
• 22:02
  Speaker: that's kind of important.
• 22:03
  Speaker: So.
• 22:04
  Speaker: Right.
• 22:04
  Speaker: And, you know, they may think
• 22:05
  Speaker: it's going to end up putting
• 22:06
  Speaker: them in a position where they
• 22:08
  Speaker: think they're going to get in
• 22:09
  Speaker: trouble.
• 22:09
  Speaker: And exactly.
• 22:11
  Speaker: Because you just, you know, just
• 22:12
  Speaker: like you said, nobody ever
• 22:13
  Speaker: really knows what they can and
• 22:14
  Speaker: cannot say, you know, so it's
• 22:16
  Speaker: always just kept in the back of
• 22:17
  Speaker: their mind.
• 22:17
  Speaker: But you figure conscience would eat at you after a while, right?
• 22:21
  Speaker: Especially the older you get, maybe you start.
• 22:23
  Speaker: You'd think so.
• 22:24
  Speaker: Some people.
• 22:24
  Speaker: But I mean, usually these people aren't brilliant.
• 22:27
  Speaker: So they say something to the wrong person and just somebody
• 22:30
  Speaker: has to come forward.
• 22:31
  Speaker: Somebody knows something you would think is my guess.
• 22:34
  Speaker: So it's just a matter of time
• 22:36
  Speaker: or, you know, something that
• 22:37
  Speaker: could happen is the person was
• 22:38
  Speaker: arrested for something else and
• 22:40
  Speaker: may just be sitting in jail or
• 22:41
  Speaker: something else and just never,
• 22:44
  Speaker: you know, nobody ever connected
• 22:45
  Speaker: the dots.
• 22:46
  Speaker: I guess we just never know that to them, just keeping it to
• 22:48
  Speaker: themselves the whole time.
• 22:49
  Speaker: Like, I'll take this to my grave and I'm not worried about it.
• 22:53
  Speaker: I feel horrible for you guys, and I just you've always been on
• 22:56
  Speaker: my mind for the last twenty years, and I remember seeing the
• 22:58
  Speaker: billboards of your mom up, and it's just hopefully putting the
• 23:01
  Speaker: spotlight on your mom's case helps out in some way.
• 23:04
  Speaker: Just gets it out there and gets people talking about it again.
• 23:07
  Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I hope so.
• 23:08
  Speaker: I mean, and I'm, you know, I'm glad you reached out.
• 23:10
  Speaker: I appreciate it.
• 23:11
  Speaker: And I've had news people call
• 23:12
  Speaker: multiple times and you know, in
• 23:15
  Speaker: the news is one thing, um, you
• 23:17
  Speaker: know, it does get out there, but
• 23:19
  Speaker: sometimes, I mean, they, they
• 23:21
  Speaker: battered it pretty hard during
• 23:22
  Speaker: that and they did their job and
• 23:24
  Speaker: so on.
• 23:24
  Speaker: But you know, sometimes they're just looking to fill in time and
• 23:27
  Speaker: it's like, you know, it's just not all about that, right?
• 23:30
  Speaker: You know, I'm more interested in more of a casual situation.
• 23:33
  Speaker: If I'm going to discuss it, just kind of let it be at that.
• 23:35
  Speaker: And my sister, she is in a bad way right now.
• 23:38
  Speaker: So she, she fought it for a long time.
• 23:40
  Speaker: She, she stayed diligent with it for, for a very long time, you
• 23:45
  Speaker: know, trying to keep it up.
• 23:46
  Speaker: I mean, you can only put so much
• 23:48
  Speaker: energy into something before it
• 23:49
  Speaker: starts affecting your own health
• 23:50
  Speaker: and well-being.
• 23:51
  Speaker: And it's like, you know, you have to kind of, you know, I
• 23:53
  Speaker: can't imagine being having a family member, you know, lose a
• 23:55
  Speaker: family member like that to have to deal with that in any way,
• 23:58
  Speaker: shape or form.
• 23:59
  Speaker: So and you hope that the law, you know, and you leave your,
• 24:02
  Speaker: you know, you leave the side of it to the law to make sure they
• 24:05
  Speaker: do their job.
• 24:05
  Speaker: That's what they're trying to do every day.
• 24:07
  Speaker: Just like people are trained to do a lot of things, you, you
• 24:09
  Speaker: reach out to professionals and say, hey, you know, this is all
• 24:12
  Speaker: in you guys.
• 24:12
  Speaker: So but again, that one right there, just like probably many
• 24:16
  Speaker: others that go unfound every day, every year, it's like
• 24:20
  Speaker: finding a needle in a haystack unless it's just cut and dry.
• 24:23
  Speaker: And so, you know, I give them I'm glad they're out there.
• 24:27
  Speaker: I'm glad they did what they did, and I'm glad they're doing what
• 24:29
  Speaker: they're doing at this point for this one and for many others.
• 24:32
  Speaker: Yeah, just to, you know, they
• 24:34
  Speaker: have their work cut out for
• 24:35
  Speaker: them.
• 24:36
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:36
  Speaker: The thing is, the technology is always improving.
• 24:39
  Speaker: So their ability to connect the dots is always made easier with
• 24:42
  Speaker: the technology, I think.
• 24:43
  Speaker: So maybe something will happen
• 24:44
  Speaker: somewhere else and that'll
• 24:45
  Speaker: trigger something in a system
• 24:46
  Speaker: where they'll be like, oh, wait
• 24:47
  Speaker: a minute.
• 24:48
  Speaker: And you know, having that
• 24:49
  Speaker: building gone, I feel like
• 24:51
  Speaker: sometimes probably put a hurt to
• 24:53
  Speaker: that.
• 24:53
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:54
  Speaker: Um. Oh, no. Granted, it hasn't been gone for terribly long, but
• 25:00
  Speaker: going back up there and being able to step over everything,
• 25:04
  Speaker: maybe even with the technology, maybe figuring out that there
• 25:06
  Speaker: was something going on with the cameras and they were actually
• 25:08
  Speaker: recording and they and they just didn't see it.
• 25:11
  Speaker: You know, nowadays you could
• 25:12
  Speaker: have probably pulled that out
• 25:13
  Speaker: and maybe seen, you know, who
• 25:15
  Speaker: knows?
• 25:15
  Speaker: There's all there's a lot of that if ands and buts.
• 25:18
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 25:18
  Speaker: That trail back across the board to, you know, we'll see.
• 25:22
  Speaker: Maybe, you know, maybe you
• 25:24
  Speaker: throwing this out there might
• 25:25
  Speaker: actually, you know, stim it up a
• 25:27
  Speaker: little bit again and get people
• 25:29
  Speaker: just like you said, talking,
• 25:30
  Speaker: looking around and questioning
• 25:32
  Speaker: things.
• 25:33
  Speaker: And that is one of the main goals of my podcast is to bring
• 25:37
  Speaker: a spotlight on some of these cold cases that people are not
• 25:41
  Speaker: talking about, just to kind of stir up the conversation again.
• 25:45
  Speaker: And cases like Jean Cook's that
• 25:48
  Speaker: have been sitting there for
• 25:49
  Speaker: twenty years and hopefully maybe
• 25:51
  Speaker: somebody sees this and maybe
• 25:53
  Speaker: recognizes a picture or
• 25:55
  Speaker: something, and it might start a
• 25:56
  Speaker: conversation that leads to
• 25:58
  Speaker: something.
• 25:58
  Speaker: That's the goal anyway.
• 26:00
  Speaker: And if you have any information
• 26:02
  Speaker: on the murder of Jean cook,
• 26:04
  Speaker: contact the Vanderburgh County
• 26:05
  Speaker: Sheriff's Department at eight
• 26:06
  Speaker: one two four six one six two
• 26:09
  Speaker: zero zero.
• 26:11
  Speaker: Andy Lasher is the detective
• 26:12
  Speaker: currently working on Jean's
• 26:13
  Speaker: case?
• 26:15
  Speaker: You can submit an anonymous tip on the Vanderburgh County
• 26:17
  Speaker: Sheriff's Department website, and I've got a link for that
• 26:20
  Speaker: down in the show notes.
• 26:22
  Speaker: I want to thank Fred and Andy for taking the time out to talk
• 26:25
  Speaker: to me today, and hopefully we're one step closer to solving this
• 26:29
  Speaker: case and bringing some closure to the family.
• 26:32
  Speaker: I want to thank everybody for
• 26:33
  Speaker: listening, and until next time,
• 26:35
  Speaker: take care.