Rachel Louise Cooke

Case background and investigation

Rachel Louise Cooke was a 19-year-old college freshman when she disappeared from Georgetown, Texas, north of Austin, on January 10, 2002. She was studying at San Diego Mesa College in California and had come home for the winter break, staying on after the New Year to attend a family wedding, according to KTBC.

Authorities believe she left her parents' house on Navajo Trail, in the North Lake subdivision, at about 9:30 that morning to go running. KTBC reported that a neighbor later saw her roughly 200 yards from the house, apparently walking to cool down at the end of her run. She was not seen again. She had been wearing gray running clothes, a green sports bra and Asics running shoes, and was carrying a yellow Walkman with headphones.

The Williamson County Sheriff's Office describes her as about 5 feet 3 inches tall and 115 pounds, with blonde hair, and with two heart-shaped cherry tattoos on her left foot. Investigators have said they suspect foul play, noting that she had no known reason to leave. Searches and years of investigation have not located her.

Several leads involving vehicles have been examined. According to KTBC, investigators located a white Trans Am that had been of interest but found no evidence linking it to the case, and FBI forensic specialists later examined a vehicle recovered in the Dallas area. Neither produced charges. The sheriff's office has said it has worked through more than 2,000 tips and ruled out numerous people.

A cold case unit took up the file in later years. On January 10, 2020, the eighteenth anniversary, the sheriff's office released new digital sketches of persons of interest, developed with the FBI and a forensic artist after the original witnesses were interviewed again. In January 2021 the office said it was seeking a person who lived in the Georgetown area in 2002, knew Cooke, and was involved in the cattle or horse business, and who investigators think may have talked about the disappearance to an acquaintance. No name was released.

The sheriff's office and the FBI jointly offer a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to Cooke's location. Reports marking later anniversaries describe the investigation as active. No one has been arrested, and Cooke's whereabouts remain unknown.