The Girl Who Went For A Run And Never Returned — What Happened To Rachel Cooke?

It’s been 20 years

I first heard about this case on the Going West podcast

Who is Rachel Cooke

Rachel Cooke, a 19 Year Old from Georgetown Texas, attended Mesa Junior College in San Diego, California.

In December 2001, she went home to Georgetown with her boyfriend Greg to visit her family for the holidays.

What Happened

After the holidays, Greg returned to San Diego and Rachel stayed to attend a family wedding.

On the morning of 10th January 2002, Rachel’s sister went off to school, her parents went to work and Rachel prepared to go for a run, a 6 mile route she had run regularly for many years. Before her run, she spoke to Greg and said she would call him when she got back.

Later that day, Rachel’s father returned home early from work as they had planned to go shopping, so he was confused to find that Rachel was not at home, although her belongings, including her mobile phone and purse, were still there.

He decided she must be at work, as she was going to do some shifts at a local restaurant whilst she was home. When her mum got home from work, she called the restaurant and they confirmed that Rachel was indeed working her shift at that time.

The following morning, Rachel had still not returned home, her parents called the restaurant back, to see what time she had finished her shift and they were then informed that it was a mistake had been made and it was actually a different Rachel that had been working the day before.

Her parents, now extremely worried, saw that her running things were missing so realised that she must have gone missing during a run. Greg would also later confirm that he had spoken to her just before her run and that she never did call him back as she said she would.

Rachel’s father got in his car and drove along the route Rachel usually ran and her mum called around her friends. Her best friend said that they had dinner plans the night before and Rachel had not turned up, this was unusual. Rachel’s mum also called around the hospitals to see if she had been taken in.

The Search

Rachel’s parents then went to the local police, who were not initially concerned, saying it was probably a…