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Thread: Mary Margaret Cook November 14, 1977

  1. #1
    John carpenter Guest

    Mary Margaret Cook November 14, 1977

    Name:  MMCook1.jpg
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Size:  10.3 KBHIGHLAND CITY -- On the night of Nov. 14, 1970, Mary Margaret Cook left her Highland City home to go shopping at the J.M. Fields department store on North Lake Parker Avenue.
    The 25-year-old mother of two was never seen again.
    The next day, Cook's 1959 white Cadillac was found in the parking lot of the department store, according to a report in the Nov. 17, 1970, edition of The Ledger.

    Mary Cook's wallet was recovered, minus about $200 in cash that her husband, Earl Cook was said to have given her, authorities said.
    More than 30 years later, Polk sheriff's detectives are digging up the garage floor of the Cooks' one-time home in Highland City searching for Mary Cook's body.
    "We believe there's a possibility that Ms. Cook may have been disposed of in her yard," said Col. Grady Judd of the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
    And they are publicly calling Earl Cook, a suspect in the long unsolved mystery.
    "We never focus on just one person," Judd said,"but he is the primary suspect."

    The Cooks once lived at 309 Third Street. The house numbers on the road have since changed, but their house and garage remain.

    County maintenance crews and detectives began digging up the concrete slab of the oversized garage Thursday.
    Crews continued drilling and digging late Friday and Saturday afternoon.
    By early Saturday night, the forensics units and construction crews were gone.
    All that visibly remained of the investigation were dirt piles and concrete slabs surrounding the garage that runs adjacent to the small yellow and white house.
    Judd would not say whether a body or any evidence was found. The crime scene is still under investigation, he said Saturday night.
    It's been 32 years since the Sheriff's Office began investigating Cook's disappearance. The detective originally assigned to the case has died.
    Cook's body has never been found, nor has anyone been charged with her disappearance.

    However, Judd said Leathern "Earl" Cook, who today would be about 62 years old, remains a prime suspect in the case.
    Earl Cook did go through "extensive interviews" early in the investigation, Judd said.
    However, "it was not protocol at the time to name him (publicly) as a suspect."
    Judd said Earl Cook does not currently live in Polk County and would not give further information about his whereabouts or background.
    The Ledger was unable to locate Cook Saturday.
    Judd said the residents currently living at the Third Street house are not related to the Cooks and are not a part of the investigation.
    They have cooperated fully with investigators, Judd said, adding that any damage to the home would be fully repaired when the digging is finished.
    A woman seen walking into the house Saturday night would not comment.
    Judd would not say what specific information caused authorities to plunge into the garage floor of the Cooks' former residence so many years after Mary Cook's disappearance.
    "We don't ever quit looking," Judd said. "We owe it to Mary, her two children and the rest of her family."
    Cook is one of Polk County's oldest missing person cases. But there are others even older.
    Five years before Cook disappeared, a young woman who also lived on Third Street in Highland City disappeared and has never been found.

    Peggy Wynell Byars-Baisden, who was 23 at the time, was last seen April 2, 1965, at the now-closed Chatterbox Bar on U.S. 98 where the Polk Parkway currently exists.
    According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, she was seen in the parking lot of the bar having car troubles.
    A witness told authorities a male was assisting her with the car.
    She was never seen again.
    Despite the fact Cook and Byars-Baisden were of nearly the same age and lived on the same street in the small, Highland City neighborhood, Judd said he does not think the disappearances are related.
    Judd said he hopes anyone with information about Cook's disappearance would contact the Sheriff's Office.
    "There may be those who the suspect confessed to," Judd said.

  2. #2
    tarsier Guest
    Wonder why they see no connection as it's awefully coinidental. Maybe Earl did off his wife than killed the neighbor lady as a decoy or to see if he liked it. Never heard of this one before. Maybe Peggy and Mary ran off together...?

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