In January I wrote an article about 28-year-old Courtney Cook, a woman who disappeared from her home in Marshall, Michigan. Unfortunately, the case took a tragic twist last week when a body found in a local creek was positively identified as Courtney.
Courtney was last seen at 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 19. According to her father, Tom Cook, 69, she was nowhere to be found when he awoke later that morning.
"I thought maybe she had just stepped outside and was going to come back in," Tom told the Battle Creek Enquirer. "I saw the door and she was gone. She was just gone."
According to Courtney's parents, she was bipolar and had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which caused her to have hallucinations, mood swings, paranoia of hospitals, and the inability to feel temperature changes.
In the days following Courtney's disappearance, police received a tip that she had been spotted on the evening of Jan. 19 near Love's Truck Stop at Partello Road and I-94. Officers from the Marshall Police Department investigated the tip but were unable to find any clues suggesting where she went from there.
"My concern is the weather. Certainly we're concerned about the condition she was in when she left. But I think the weather is first and foremost," Sgt. Scott McDonald told 24 Hour News 8, adding, "We don't believe she had any footwear on, any coats [or] hats."
In the wake of her disappearance, over one hundred volunteers gathered at the State Farm Insurance building, at 410 East Dr. in Marshall. The volunteers covered a 2-square-mile area around East Michigan Avenue, but no clues were uncovered during the search effort.
"It was successful as far as turnout, but no new information was learned," Sgt. Tim Bryant told the Battle Creek Enquirer.
With each passing day, Courtney's family could not help but fear the worst.
"You see this kind of thing on TV and think, 'Oh, those poor people.' When it happens to you, it's numbing. You can't describe it," said Courtney's sister, Hillary Harris, 41.
Sadly, the family's fears became a reality on March 31 when a kayaker called police and reported a suspicious object floating in Rice Creek. When investigators arrived on the scene, they confirmed that the object was a body and recovered it from the water for transportation to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. The body remained there for autopsy. On April 1, police announced that they had positively identified the remains as those of Courtney Cook.
Investigators have not yet commented on whether foul play is suspected and a cause of death has not yet been released.