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Rachel Cooke disappearance

DanRydell

By DanRydell
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DanRydell

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9:15 a.m. update: A Pontiac Trans Am that authorities found in Dallas is the car that witnessses reported seeing when Rachel Cooke, 19, disappeared while jogging in Georgetown in 2002, Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody said Friday morning.

Chody said the car is linked to three to four “persons of interest” in the Cooke case. He said a tip after a media event about Cooke’s disappearance led authorities to the vehicle.

Earlier: Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody is hosting a press conference this morning to announce that deputies have seized a car that they believe may contain forensic evidence in the disappearance of Rachel Cooke in 2002.

Investigators involved in the Cooke case consider the car’s discovery the most significant development in years. They hope that, even with the passage of a significant amount of time, the car will contain clues that could help lead them to the person or persons behind Cooke’s disappearance.

Cooke, a 19-year-old student at Mesa Junior College in Southern California, was home on winter break when she went jogging alone in her parents’ neighborhood in the North Lake subdivision northwest of Georgetown.

Witnesses reported seeing the car traveling on Navajo Trail and turning south on Neches Trail that day, about 100 yards from Cooke’s home.

The last person to see Cooke was a neighbor who saw her walking on Neches Trail to cool down at the end of her run.

This morning’s press conference starts at 8:30 a.m.

 

https://www.statesman.com/news/rachel-cooke-case-williamson-sheriff-discusses-new-evidence-today/0u9QKcWodrBtNX4uvGC5KL/?utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=Statesman&utm_source=SF

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DanRydell

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For 16 years the police have been saying the suspect car is a "late-model white or blue Chevrolet Camaro or Pontiac Trans Am" which is not all that descriptive so it seems like there must already be some significant evidence they're not disclosing that makes them so sure this particular Trans-Am is the vehicle in question.

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LoneStarBiker

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Saw on one news report that there is a distinctive black stripe along the bottom of the car so guess this one matches that description.

https://www.statesman.com/news/crime--law/car-linked-rachel-cooke-case-impounded-for-forensic-analysis/RqPMhsRpyVhRgYgT64qmxI/

"They identified the car as being an older model with a wide black stripe across its lower portion, according to published reports."

Edited by LoneStarBiker
found the link
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Orange&White

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2 hours ago, DanRydell said:

For 16 years the police have been saying the suspect car is a "late-model white or blue Chevrolet Camaro or Pontiac Trans Am" which is not all that descriptive so it seems like there must already be some significant evidence they're not disclosing that makes them so sure this particular Trans-Am is the vehicle in question.

Exactly. The best thing development here is that someone had to have said something that led them directly to the car.

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Gourmand

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On 4/13/2018 at 12:38 PM, bschoolprof said:

This and the yogurt shop case are probably the two biggest unsolved local cases.  

.  

 

I would add Roxanne Paltauf to that list as well. She lived with her mother and sisters in my neighborhood  and that family has suffered like the Cooke family since her disappearance in the summer of 2006. The Paltaufs actually have a pretty good idea of who killed her, her shitbag boyfriend at the time, but APD has never been able to pin a case on him. Frankly I'm surprised he hasn't been Dextered yet.

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  • 8 months later...
upside down

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Anyone else following the latest developments in her case. There was another dig in a field outside of town earlier this week. And of course the usual rumors that this might actually be a breakthrough, albeit with a bit more fervor this time. I pray it is, her family and friends deserve some closure. I can't imagine the roller coaster of emotions they must experience every time there is a new development.

The stuff I heard does not come from LE or the family,  just from old friends I keep in touch with. I graduated with her, had a few classes together over the years, but mainly knew her through mutual friends. Even still, after 16 years it breaks my heart to think about.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/williamson-county/few-details-of-georgetown-dig-but-sheriff-called-rachel-cooke-s-mom/1665518568

Spoiler

GEORGETOWN, TEXAS (KXAN) — A mysterious dig in Georgetown that begin on Monday, is connected to the cold case investigation of Rachel Cooke's disappearance confirms Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody.

Sheriff Chody said the dig was initiated after his office received a tip, and is part of a past criminal investigation that presents no danger to the public. According to a tweet sent Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Chody confirmed that the dig was in relation to the disappearance of Rachel Cooke.

The Williamson County Sheriff's Office could not confirm if anything was found or not during the excavation, but they are moving onto new leads. According to the Sheriff's Office PIO, investigators are going over leads from the past and following up on anything they believe they could have overlooked during the initial investigation.

 

photo
Map of the area near the Williamson County Sheriff's Office dig Dec. 18, 2018 (KXAN Map)

The excavation happened just south of Farm to Market Road 971, along the eastern edge or State Highway 130.

 

Janet Cooke, whose daughter Rachel went missing in Georgetown nearly 17 years ago, said the sheriff reached out to her personally to let her know an excavation has started. Cooke said Chody didn't elaborate on who or what his deputies are looking for.

"I was called by Sheriff Chody, and was told that there was a search in progress, and for me not to worry, and I didn't need to go over there," Cooke said. "They thought it was just going to be a one day, but I think they've extended it now."

As of last year, Williamson County had at least 11 cold cases.

The field where searchers are digging is part of 44 acres of farmland purchased by Troop Durgin Wright Properties LP in 2009. 

Owner David Troop told KXAN that he received a call from the sheriff's office a few weeks ago asking for permission to excavate. He granted it, but said he hadn't realized deputies had already started. 

As of Tuesday, the sheriff's office hasn't arrested anyone in connection to the dig. 

Cooke said she still holds out hope her daughter's body will be found. She said advances in technology make her all the more optimistic that deputies will eventually solve her case.

"They're turning over every stone that needs to be turned over, and they're going back and re-looking at things with new eyes, and it could be that that's just what it's going to take," she said.

 

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futureman

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so I have a forensics question wrt the digs... jurassic park came out in 1993 (that’s 25 years ago) and even then they were using some kind of underground imaging tech to locate and view dinosaur bones before digging.  I know it was a movie but it didn’t seem like they were stretching reality to shoot that scene; the tech seemed fairly simple. 

so, now in 2018, do we not have the tech to fly some drones low over a field or roll some sonar equipment in a canvassing pattern that gives an underground image up to like 6-8 feet?  per wikipedia, utility companies can use ground penetrating radar to locate pipes and shit pretty fuckin deep underground.  

it just seems like digging a hole is a little tedious and doesn’t cover nearly as much area as some kind of radar/sonar imaging tech could.

I know fuckall about any of this but it’s vacation and we watched jurassic park yesterday; pair that with the dig talk in this thread and it got me thinking.  someone with forensics knowledge please chime in if any of this registers with you. 

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Nivek

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so I have a forensics question wrt the digs... jurassic park came out in 1993 (that’s 25 years ago) and even then they were using some kind of underground imaging tech to locate and view dinosaur bones before digging.  I know it was a movie but it didn’t seem like they were stretching reality to shoot that scene; the tech seemed fairly simple. 
so, now in 2018, do we not have the tech to fly some drones low over a field or roll some sonar equipment in a canvassing pattern that gives an underground image up to like 6-8 feet?  per wikipedia, utility companies can use ground penetrating radar to locate pipes and shit pretty fuckin deep underground.  
it just seems like digging a hole is a little tedious and doesn’t cover nearly as much area as some kind of radar/sonar imaging tech could.
I know fuckall about any of this but it’s vacation and we watched jurassic park yesterday; pair that with the dig talk in this thread and it got me thinking.  someone with forensics knowledge please chime in if any of this registers with you. 

In Jurassic Park they used a Betsy Seisgun (shotgun) as a source to locate and image of a fully articulated fossil using GPR. An acoustic source for an electromagnetic technique. It is bullshit.

That is not how it works. It is a wave technique that looks a lot like a seismic signal. The depth of investigation is based on the properties of the media being explored in conjunction with the antenna frequency, and the higher the frequency the better the resolution generally. If you want to explore less than a foot below the surface for rebar/utility lines, dead body in a basement - then 1 GHz antenna are ideal. If you are looking for a few feet then 250 MHz antenna are idea, if you need to go deeper then you drop it down to 150 MHz. As you lower the frequency you increase the size of the antennae which makes the surveying more cumbersome. That and the battery weight makes things a bit tricky to deploy.

The UXO work typically involves helicopters flying a few feet off the ground to run their surveys. This has two benefits in order of speed and safety, and they are not running GPR.
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Nivek

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so I have a forensics question wrt the digs... jurassic park came out in 1993 (that’s 25 years ago) and even then they were using some kind of underground imaging tech to locate and view dinosaur bones before digging.  I know it was a movie but it didn’t seem like they were stretching reality to shoot that scene; the tech seemed fairly simple. 
so, now in 2018, do we not have the tech to fly some drones low over a field or roll some sonar equipment in a canvassing pattern that gives an underground image up to like 6-8 feet?  per wikipedia, utility companies can use ground penetrating radar to locate pipes and shit pretty fuckin deep underground.  
it just seems like digging a hole is a little tedious and doesn’t cover nearly as much area as some kind of radar/sonar imaging tech could.
I know fuckall about any of this but it’s vacation and we watched jurassic park yesterday; pair that with the dig talk in this thread and it got me thinking.  someone with forensics knowledge please chime in if any of this registers with you. 

Before Theropods jumps in I(is he still here?) they are not bones really. The bones have been replaced by rock but preserve the structure and appearance.
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futureman

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9 hours ago, Nivek said:


In Jurassic Park they used a Betsy Seisgun (shotgun) as a source to locate and image of a fully articulated fossil using GPR. An acoustic source for an electromagnetic technique. It is bullshit.

That is not how it works. It is a wave technique that looks a lot like a seismic signal. The depth of investigation is based on the properties of the media being explored in conjunction with the antenna frequency, and the higher the frequency the better the resolution generally. If you want to explore less than a foot below the surface for rebar/utility lines, dead body in a basement - then 1 GHz antenna are ideal. If you are looking for a few feet then 250 MHz antenna are idea, if you need to go deeper then you drop it down to 150 MHz. As you lower the frequency you increase the size of the antennae which makes the surveying more cumbersome. That and the battery weight makes things a bit tricky to deploy.

The UXO work typically involves helicopters flying a few feet off the ground to run their surveys. This has two benefits in order of speed and safety, and they are not running GPR.

thanks for the info.  do forensic investigations ever do this to look for a buried body in a field?

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Pods

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On 12/23/2018 at 11:40 PM, Nivek said:


Before Theropods jumps in I(is he still here?) they are not bones really. The bones have been replaced by rock but preserve the structure and appearance.

This is what makes the shotgun imaging scene in Jurassic Park bullshit. The minerals in the rocks replace the organic material in the bone. The resulting fossil and the surrounding rock have very similar densities in many cases. It takes a lot of power to penetrate rock and distinguish subtle density differences. Medical CT scanners usually work for most purposes, but it takes machines far more powerful than medical scanners in some cases.

Incidentally, UT has a facility for this with a really cool webpage where you can see the inside of a lot of animals heads, mostly recent, but some fossils. 

http://www.digimorph.org/navlist.phtml?list=short

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Nivek

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On 12/24/2018 at 8:52 AM, futureman said:

thanks for the info.  do forensic investigations ever do this to look for a buried body in a field?

sorry for the late reply.  Yes.  My adviser was able to locate some civil war remains (or rather the burial site with uniform buttons as the bodies had completely disappeared but the combination of the decayed material and the disturbed soil identified the location.   Which brings me to a point that sometimes you are not looking for the target as much as a disturbance in the soil.    But radar has limits, in a clay-rich or water rich environment, the technique is limited in what it can provide and there are other methods preferred.  The technique works wonders in ice through and the depth of penetration is significantly improved.   

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Nivek

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On 3/31/2019 at 12:51 AM, Pods said:

This is what makes the shotgun imaging scene in Jurassic Park bullshit. The minerals in the rocks replace the organic material in the bone. The resulting fossil and the surrounding rock have very similar densities in many cases. It takes a lot of power to penetrate rock and distinguish subtle density differences. Medical CT scanners usually work for most purposes, but it takes machines far more powerful than medical scanners in some cases.

Incidentally, UT has a facility for this with a really cool webpage where you can see the inside of a lot of animals heads, mostly recent, but some fossils. 

http://www.digimorph.org/navlist.phtml?list=short

Some slight density contracts can be observed.  I have seen sandstone walls located in buried unconsolidated sand  that outlined a Roman fort in Jordan, I believe they were 250Hz or 125Hz antenna used on that survey..  Since the fort was buried, the contrast was mostly due to cementation.   

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Chad Fuck

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3 minutes ago, Nivek said:

Some slight density contracts can be observed.  I have seen sandstone walls located in buried unconsolidated sand  that outlined a Roman fort in Jordan, I believe they were 250Hz or 125Hz antenna used on that survey..  Since the fort was buried, the contrast was mostly due to cementation.   

Just out of curiosity, where in Jordan?

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Nivek

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This is what makes the shotgun imaging scene in Jurassic Park bullshit. The minerals in the rocks replace the organic material in the bone. The resulting fossil and the surrounding rock have very similar densities in many cases. It takes a lot of power to penetrate rock and distinguish subtle density differences. Medical CT scanners usually work for most purposes, but it takes machines far more powerful than medical scanners in some cases.
Incidentally, UT has a facility for this with a really cool webpage where you can see the inside of a lot of animals heads, mostly recent, but some fossils. 
http://www.digimorph.org/navlist.phtml?list=short

Did you see the new yorker article about DePalma and his find?
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4 hours ago, Nivek said:

Some slight density contracts can be observed.  I have seen sandstone walls located in buried unconsolidated sand  that outlined a Roman fort in Jordan, I believe they were 250Hz or 125Hz antenna used on that survey..  Since the fort was buried, the contrast was mostly due to cementation.   

I'd love to see someone try that in our field. Last I'd heard, the results have been poor at using ground penetrating anything to find fossils. I definitely think it has potential in the future, especially as the price point drops. Our budgets are so low, we're stuck on close to free. 

Satellite imagery is a big help in finding new field sites though. I used it at my last site extensively to decide where to go prospect for new fossils.

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1 hour ago, Nivek said:


Did you see the new yorker article about DePalma and his find?

I did. I'm skeptical, those are some sensational claims. I haven't read the actual paper, which is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They did open access, so anyone can read it. 

I'm posting a link in the other thread too. 

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2019/03/27/1817407116.full.pdf

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