[Unsolved] Cheryl Coker: The Kroger Parking Lot Mystery
A Bubbly Spirit Gone Too Soon
If you asked anyone who knew Cheryl Lynn Carol Coker to describe her, you'd hear the same three words: bubbly, talkative, and infectious. She was the kind of person who never met a stranger. Whether she was chatting with the cashier at the grocery store or hosting over-the-top holiday celebrations, Cheryl had a larger-than-life personality that lit up every room she entered.
Cheryl was a devoted mother to her two daughters and a hands-on grandmother who spoiled her granddaughter with the same enthusiasm she brought to everything in life. She loved family trips to New York City to see Broadway shows with her mother, Mary. She loved being a hostess. And most of all, she loved her role as a mom and grandmother.
Cheryl was divorced from her daughters' father when she met William "Bill" Coker. To outsiders, they seemed like opposites. Cheryl was bubbly and chatty; Bill was quiet and reserved. Bill adopted Cheryl's older daughter and became part of the family. He was a solid provider who liked structure and routine. For a while, it seemed like a stable, balanced relationship.
But by 2018, cracks were starting to show. Cheryl had discovered that Bill had been unfaithful. She was devastated but determined to move forward. She was planning to move into her own place and start a new chapter in her life.
The Disappearance
On the morning of October 2, 2018, Cheryl Coker vanished. Her SUV was found abandoned in a Kroger parking lot in Riverside, Ohio, with her purse and phone still inside. Cheryl's family knew immediately that something was terribly wrong. Cheryl would never leave her phone behind. She would never disappear without telling anyone.
Bill Coker told police that Cheryl had left the house that morning after an argument. He claimed she had driven off and he didn't know where she went. But Cheryl's family didn't believe him. They knew Cheryl was planning to leave Bill, and they feared the worst.
For a year and a half, Cheryl's family searched desperately for answers. They held vigils, posted flyers, and kept her story alive on social media through the "Justice for Cheryl Coker" page.
The Discovery
In April 2020, Cheryl's remains were discovered in a wooded area not far from her home. Police believe Cheryl was murdered inside her house before being taken to the location where she was found.
The only person of interest in the case is Bill Coker.
The Investigation
Despite strong circumstantial evidence pointing to Bill, no charges have been filed. Police have said they are confident in their case and that the investigation is ongoing. They believe they know what happened—they just need to prove it.
Bill Coker has not been charged with any crime. He has not publicly commented on the case. And Cheryl's family is still waiting for justice.
The Community Remembers
Every October, the Riverside community holds vigils for Cheryl. Her family keeps her spirit alive on the Justice for Cheryl Coker page, posting memories, photos, and updates from investigators. The Ohio Attorney General's office lists Cheryl's homicide as active and unsolved, and names Bill Coker as the only person of interest.
Cheryl Coker was a devoted mother, daughter, sister, grandmother, and friend. She was on the verge of starting a new chapter in her life when she was silenced. Her family is still waiting for answers.
If you have any information about the murder of Cheryl Coker, no matter how small, please contact:
•Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation: 1-800-282-3784
•Anonymous tips: OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/tips
TRANSCRIPT:
Mandy: [00:00:00] What started like an ordinary Tuesday in suburban Ohio quickly turned into a nightmare for the family of Cheryl Coker when she suddenly vanished after a seemingly normal morning when her SUV turned up in a Kroger parking lot with her purse and phone still inside, it was clear that Cheryl had not left on her own accord.
Marker
Mandy: Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast. A True Crime Podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa.
Melissa: Hi, Mandy. How are you?
Mandy: I'm doing great. I still have my Zoom background, that has like Christmas trees and stuff in the back. I, I just turned that on yesterday on November 2nd, so you'll get to enjoy the Christmas spirit with me now for the remainder of
this year, I
Melissa: This is a long time. This is, it's like 20% of the year. This is a
Mandy: I know, well, you know, you always hear complaints about how, right after Halloween is over, like immediately it turns onto Christmas, and I hate to admit that I am that person.
Melissa: You're part of the [00:01:00]
Mandy: I am part of the problem. I love Halloween. I hype up Halloween. I get really into it. But yeah, I like took down my Halloween decorations immediately.
I did not put up my Christmas stuff because, well, my husband also like rolled his eyes a little bit and he was like, you don't really want me to get the Christmas decorations down, do you? And I was like, Hmm.
Melissa: Well, I love that kind of a question. You don't want this. It's not,
do you want me to, it's you
don't want
this, right?
It starts off as like a
statement. My husband does that to me all the time. Like ask a question, don't
say I do, or don't do
something. Ask a question.
Yeah. That's leading the witness. Leading the witness.
Mandy: Uh, yeah, so we haven't quite gotten there yet, but it, we are in spirit. We're on Zoom. I'm in a Christmas house right now.
Melissa: I'm really happy for
you. I, I hope to be
there one day too,
Mandy: Yeah. So, getting into the story for this week, if you asked anyone who knew Cheryl Lynn Carol Coker, to describe her, you'd get the same three words right outta the gate, bubbly, talkative, and someone with a laugh so infectious [00:02:00] that it could take over a room.
She was that person who never met a stranger, whether she was chatting it up at the grocery store, checkout line, or making sure holidays were over the top events that everyone would remember. She just had a larger than life personality. She loved being a hostess and she loved taking family trips like the ones that she and her mom Mary took to New York City to catch Broadway shows, and most of all, she loved her own role as a mom and grandmother. Cheryl had two daughters who she absolutely adored. She was a very hands-on mom who did everything from helping with homework to driving them to cheerleading. When her oldest daughter made Cheryl a grandmother, Cheryl was all in.
She spoiled her granddaughter with the same enthusiasm that she had for everything else in life. She was always planning and always giving. Cheryl was divorced from her daughter's dad, but she later meant William or Bill Coker and to outsiders. He seemed like Cheryl's opposite in just about every possible way.
While [00:03:00] she was very bubbly and chatty, bill was quiet and more reserved, maybe even a little standoffish. He stepped into the father role and adopted Cheryl's older daughter and became part of the family and what, at least from the outside, looked like a pretty stable situation. Phil was a solid provider.
He was someone who really liked structure and routine, and in many ways this contributed to the fact that it was like an opposites attract kind of situation for them. But the thing about opposites attract is that sometimes what might feel balanced in those early years can start to really look like cracks in the foundation later.
And by 2018, those cracks were starting to look more like fault lines. This is something that I Try to tell my kids about getting to know people and giving yourself enough time and not feeling like you have to, you know, just because you feel very strongly about someone when you first meet them.
just sit on that for a while, you know, you don't have to act on it. You don't have to like do anything. You can like still continue getting to know [00:04:00] a person for longer and kind of just seeing what unfolds over time.
Melissa: That's, that's really good for dating, for friendship, for anything. 'cause very rarely have I gone like full metal towards someone, like a friendship. I'm, I'm a slow burner,
but the one I really am. But the one, like, I've had one friendship in my adult life that. And you know which one this is. That went horribly wrong.
And I just tried to be
nice and realize we don't even speak the same language like we are talking, we communicate differently. And it was very passive aggressive. And I was like, oh, Uhuh, this
does not work for
me. But you do a lot of things for your kids and that one of those is letting your kid hang
out with their kid.
And so I
sucked it up for a while.
Mandy: right. You're not bitter. You're not bitter.
Melissa: No, it's the fact that I say, you know who I'm talking
about. And you absolutely
do. 'cause it comes up at least once a
year.
Mandy: least.
Melissa: But back to those cracks Mandy was talking about, They really went back more than a decade. [00:05:00] Around 2006, Cheryl had caught Bill hiding a second cell phone, which is always a classic. Bad sign, red flag, really. So when she confronted him, he did admit to an affair and Cheryl gave him a brutal ultimatum. She said she wasn't going to put up with lies and sneaking around. So if this marriage was something that was going to survive, something had to change, and that's how the koker ended up in what you would call an open marriage. Not the kind of casual open marriage you hear about on a podcast with lots of disclaimers. Cheryl laid out, strict rules, no falling in love, no secrets, and full transparency. This is a pop culture side quest real quick. There's a new Lily Allen song or a album, and. Don't listen to it with your kids, but it's about her husband, the guy from Stranger Things.
You know, the
guy that plays a police officer, he apparently cheated on her for a very long time, and so the album is all about that and one of the lines is like, uh, it can't be with, it has to be with [00:06:00] strangers. You're not a stranger. It's so good.
I sat and listened to the whole album, but
Mandy: sounds just messy enough for me to get into.
Melissa: Girl so messy. So anyway, when I read that first I was like, oh, is that a line from that? Um, but yeah, that's, that's just kind of what was gonna work for them. And if Bill was going to do this, she needed to know about it. And for a while it worked, at least it seemed to keep the peace. But in April of 2018, bill got romantically involved with a coworker, a woman that we'll call Stacey. And from the very start, this wasn't just casual, it was feelings. There were text messages like, I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together. Yeah, that's not
casual at all. that's
fiance speak. Yeah.
but Cheryl wasn't naive. She found these texts almost immediately thanks to an Apple watch, and when she confronted Bill, he promised he'd end it and he said all the right words, but it really wasn't long before she caught 'em again, [00:07:00] sending Stacey these same kinds of messages and for her.
That was it. Cheryl decided that she wanted a divorce, and in September of 2018, bill was officially served and he was not happy about it. The argument actually got so heated that Cheryl later told her friends that she thought Bill had tried to run her off the road afterwards. At home, the situation got even colder. Bill kept the primary bedroom, and Cheryl was stuck on the couch. She was apartment hunting on Facebook and just making plans to try and move out. And then to add insult to injury. Bill decides to go on vacation with his daughter. Great, but also with Stacy.
Mandy: Oh boy. October 2nd, 2018. Started off just like any other Tuesday in the Coker household. Around 7:15 AM Cheryl drove her 15-year-old daughter to school, which of course was just a routine thing. She really was the kind of mom who didn't miss a morning drop off or anything to do with her kids.
By [00:08:00] 7 35, she was back home scrolling on Facebook and sharing posts. Friends saw activity from her account right up until about 7:45 AM and then everything went silent. Meanwhile, bill claimed he had been home that morning, but his story started raising eyebrows Almost immediately. He told the police that Cheryl had said her car battery was dead, and he said he went outside to jumpstart it.
Then he claimed that he talked to Cheryl through a closed bedroom door while she was showering, and he later admitted that he never actually saw his wife as in, didn't actually lay eyes on her that morning. He only spoke to her through a closed door.
So I guess maybe that's like normal in some households.
I feel like if I was talking to my husband about, like my car battery being dead, I don't, maybe I'm just too much of a, an animated person, but I need him to see how upset I am about the situation so that he will jump into action quickly. So that's not a conversation that I would have through a closed [00:09:00] door.
It seems like a little more than just like a quick question, but, he says that he never actually saw her.
Melissa: My battery died Friday and I got a new battery Saturday and I was just like, it, it's dead. And he was like, what noise did it make? And I said, well, the thing said something bad battery. And he's like, okay, that's probably a battery. And I was like, great, can you get a new
one? And that's how it
went. I could have had a conversation behind a, a door, but much like you, like I need you to know this is what's
happened
Mandy: is real. This is a real
Melissa: this. This is a you problem now.
Mandy: But anyway, by 10:48 AM surveillance footage shows Cheryl's 2016 Toyota Highlander pulling into the Kroger parking lot on spinning in Burkhart in Riverside, Ohio. The driver who was dressed head to toe in black with white gloves on, parked the car and just walked away.
But the footage cuts off before anyone can get a clear look at the person's face. Just minutes later, around 10:51 AM Cheryl's phone location data showed it was leaving her home and heading toward that [00:10:00] same Kroger parking lot, and after that it goes dark.
Melissa: By late morning, The timeline started to overlap in an eerie, almost cinematic way between 1109 and 11:10 AM cameras at Spinning Hills Middle School, which backs right up to the Kers neighborhood, captured a figure that was walking towards the house. The person was wearing all black and they had their hood up. They had on white gloves and their face was covered. Multiple witnesses actually saw this and called 9 1 1 within minutes saying that this suspicious man was in all black walking near Utopia Place in Christie Avenue, and then on towards Spring Garden Place at Christie Avenue heading straight towards the middle school and essentially the Kers backyard. Here's where things really seemed to feel wrong. Cheryl's daughter finished school that afternoon and she waited for her mom to call her, which is something Cheryl always did, but the phone never rang By eight o'clock that night, her family knew [00:11:00] something was seriously wrong. Cheryl wasn't home, she wasn't answering the phone, and she hadn't contacted anyone. Her sister, Margie started searching for her. Then called the police to file a missing person's report. Ebola was put out for Cheryl's Highlander as well. The next morning, Cheryl's daughter tried using find my iPhone to see Cheryl's location and it pinged that, you guessed it, the Kroger parking lot and that's where police ended up finding Cheryl's car. Inside the car, they found her purse, her phone, her driver's license, and her credit cards all locked inside. Nothing appeared to be stolen and nothing really looked disturbed. It was like she just vanished. When investigators called Bill to let him know that they found Cheryl's car, he really didn't seem very panicked.
In fact, he told them, well, maybe Cheryl's with another man. After all, they do have this kind of open marriage. Her friends were adamant, First of all, Cheryl wasn't seeing anyone. She was focused on [00:12:00] her kids, her divorce and starting fresh. So the question remains, who parks a car in a Kroger lot?
Then locks it with their phone and purse still inside and then just disappears into thin air. and we have more to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.
Marker
Melissa: And now back to the episode.
Mandy: Cheryl Coker was a loving mom who'd finally filed for divorce after catching her husband Bill cheating again, and just days later she vanished. Her SUV was found parked in a Kroger parking lot, locked with her phone and purse still inside, and surveillance showed someone in all black with white gloves near both the store and the coker home that morning As far as Bill's reaction, he was pretty calm. He told police that maybe his wife had run off with another man, but her family knew better. Cheryl just wasn't the kind of woman who would walk away. As investigators began to piece together the timeline, the inconsistencies in Bill's story only got bigger.
When the police first questioned him, he claimed that he had taken the day off and slept in [00:13:00] late and said he didn't get up until sometime between 10 and 11 that morning. That conveniently left a window of time where he supposedly had no idea what Cheryl was doing or what may have happened to her. He repeated that same car battery story and insisted that Cheryl told him her SUV wouldn't start.
According to him, he went outside to look at it and even set up jumper cables, but when officers later examined the car, they found absolutely nothing wrong with the battery. Still also mentioned having spoken to Cheryl through a closed bathroom door and said that she was in the shower while they talked, He claimed that he never actually saw her in person face to face. Which again is kind of strange because if you have all of this going on that morning, you know, and he says he even went out to her car and jump her cables. And I do find it hard to believe that Cheryl never, like he never laid eyes on her during any of this whole thing that went on that morning.
And it's even more strange. When she suddenly vanishes within a few hours and the [00:14:00] last person who like saw her says they didn't really see her. That's kind of strange. So the police canvassed the neighborhood and found that no one had seen Cheryl leave the house that morning. They also couldn't find any credible evidence that she'd been planning to meet anyone.
One man who was a recently divorced truck driver told investigators that he and Cheryl had been friendly, but he insisted there was no romantic relationship between them, and Cheryl's friends backed that up. They said she'd been focused on finalizing her divorce, not on dating. Meanwhile, Bill's coworker and girlfriend, Stacy admitted to police that she had recently been to Florida with Bill and his daughter, which of course the police are like, okay.
Um, you know, that's a little interesting and during all of this, Cheryl is just at home sleeping on the couch because Bill has taken over the bedroom and really just trying to plan her exit from the marriage. Meanwhile, he's off in Florida with his daughter and his new girlfriend.
Melissa: The daughter is the part that
really throws me off with this
situation. Do [00:15:00] whatever you want, but bringing your daughter is so weird.
Mandy: so weird and Stacey claimed that Cheryl actually gave her blessing for this months earlier, but from what pretty much everyone else said, Cheryl had actually made it very clear that the affair was way over the line, which if he's bringing their daughter around and doing all this and they're not even divorced yet.
Yes, it's over the line for sure. When the police executed search warrants on the Coker home, both of their vehicles and Bill's workplace, they were looking for anything that might connect Bill to Cheryl's disappearance, whether it be cleaning chemicals, tarps tools, clothing fibers, just anything. They even obtained his work logs and surveillance footage, and then another red flag appeared and that was Bill's physical condition.
Melissa: When officers met with Bill that first day, they noticed he had visible scrapes on elbows and swelling around his knuckles. And these were injuries that looked fresh. Bill brushed it off and he claimed he had hurt himself on a forklift at work, but investigators checked with his [00:16:00] employer and found no record of any such injury being reported. He also didn't mention the injury to anyone at the time, And even stranger, just hours after Cheryl's car was discovered, abandoned surveillance video from that same Kroger store captured Bill walking inside around 8:08 PM He was wearing dark clothing and the camera caught a clear shot of a mark above his left elbow that was the same arm that he had claimed was scraped up at work.
He made a quick purchase and then left the store at 8:11 PM. When investigators later asked him to take a polygraph test to clear up some questions about those injuries, bill refused. as the days turned into weeks, his public demeanor really grew to be more defensive. He gave interviews to the media insisting he had nothing to do with Cheryl's disappearance. He said things like, I hope she comes home soon, and claimed there were theories that he couldn't share because he wanted to protect his daughter, but his tone really came off [00:17:00] flat, almost rehearsed, and in one interview he stated.
I didn't do anything. I've never hurt anyone in my life. He also told police that $4,000 had recently gone missing from a shoebox in the couple's closet, and that he suspected that Cheryl took the money before she disappeared. But investigators also began uncovering text messages that painted a darker picture of the days leading up to Cheryl's disappearance. so there's one message from late August that was actually sent from Cheryl's phone to Stacy, who is. Bill's girlfriend and asked whether Stacey would pursue a permanent relationship with Bill if quote Cheryl were to die, or wasn't in the picture end quote, and police just weren't convinced that Cheryl had written that message herself. I don't think you would care. I think you'd be like, have him, at that point you would not say, is it gonna be permanent Now that I'm not, you wouldn't
care. Just get outta here. And then there's a message dated September 24th, just days after Bill was served, the divorce papers [00:18:00] and this one stood out big time. Cheryl had told coworkers that Bill texted her, thanks for putting the nail in my coffin, And she replied to the people in her office I'll be in tomorrow if I'm not dead. So super scary to hear that. And. For somebody to feel like they have to say that it's just, ugh, it just makes you feel bad. So her mother, Mary, and her sister Margie knew immediately that Cheryl would just never walk away from her teenager or her job or her life. They felt in their gut that something terrible had happened, and that Bill knew way more than he was saying. And by early 2019, police were ready to say the same thing.
Mandy: By mid-February 2019, the case had shifted from missing person to something a lot more grim. On February 15th, Riverside Police stated publicly that they had a suspect, but they did not name him yet. The subtext, however, was loud and clear. interviews with Bill and his girlfriend.
Stacy had already been conducted and both had [00:19:00] been described as cooperative, but investigators also reiterated several facts they thought were very important for context. First, Cheryl had filed for divorce and was seeking both custody and spousal support. Bill had been romantically involved with this other woman, Stacy.
They said that Cheryl had briefly met a man socially at a club, but friends maintained that she was focused on leaving her marriage, not starting a new one. Detectives also referenced two jarring text messages that would later become a big deal. It was the August 28th message sent from Cheryl's phone to Stacey asking whether, you know, she would make the relationship with Bill permanent if Cheryl were to die or otherwise wasn't in the picture.
And of course, as we just said, the police doubted she even wrote that. But there was also another text message from September 24th, uh, and it was after Bill was served divorce papers and where he allegedly wrote, thanks for putting the nail in my coffin. And Cheryl told coworkers that she replied, I'll be in tomorrow if I'm not dead.[00:20:00]
So investigators continued executing warrants. They had one for the home, they had one for both vehicles, the digital accounts, and even bill's workplace. They were looking for anything that could speak to violence or a stage disappearance, like cleaning agents, protective gear tools, fibers, biological material, even surveillance logs or timecard like abnormalities.
They kept quietly pressing on the timeline. They were looking at the Florida trip that included Bill, his daughter, and Stacy. They're returned to Ohio late on October 1st. Cheryl's routine morning on October 2nd. as well as the 10:48 AM timestamp at the Kroger parking lot and the 1109 to 11:10 AM Walker that was, you know, walking in white gloves near the Kroger's backyard and they also considered the Find my iPhone ping that they noticed the next day.
At the same time, Cheryl's family and friends had already started their own advocacy circle. They circulated her photo, organized [00:21:00] searches, and Pushed out consistent messaging on community pages. The picture was really simple and devastating. A devoted mom who would not have abandoned her teenager, a car locked with her phone purse, and driver's license, and all of her cards and payment methods inside, and a marriage that was cracking under the weight of an affair that had really blown away every open marriage rule that Cheryl had tried to set.
Melissa: Four days later on February 19th, 2019, police said the quiet part out loud. They named Bill Coker as the suspect and announced that they were investigating Cheryl's case as a homicide. There were still no charges, but the general vibe surrounding this story had really changed. Bill continued to deny involvement to reporters describing Cheryl's behavior as risky, insisting he hoped that she would just come home and added that he again, had those theories, but he can't share them because of his daughter. In the months that followed, the community response transformed into [00:22:00] something steady and visible. Volunteers organized searches around Riverside and surrounding counties. Tips were funneled to detectives. by late March, 2019, a billboard went up near the same Kroger lot where Cheryl's Toyota Highlander had been.
Found the billboard, pictured Cheryl and urged anyone with information to come forward. On October 2nd, 2019, which was the one year mark, family, friends, and supporters gathered for a vigil. they lick candles and repeated the message that Cheryl's mother, Mary had said from the very beginning, Cheryl would not have left her daughter. Investigators for their part kept working on their list. In February of 2020, They executed new warrants, signaling the evidence was still being developed. Digital, physical, or maybe both. The picture that they presented to the public stayed careful, but consistent. Cheryl's Disappearance was not a voluntary walkaway. Bill was the named suspect and and the Kroger Hooded Walker timeline was still the backbone of this [00:23:00] case. And then just as the second spring without Cheryl began to bloom, the investigation took the turn that families dread and detectives expect. It did not come from a tip or a confession or even a lab hit. It came from a couple of people out in the woods doing something ordinary on a quiet Saturday.
And we still have more to get into after one last break to hear word from this week's sponsors.
Marker
Melissa: And now back to the episode.
Marker
Mandy: Before the break, police had zeroed in on Bill Coker. His stories didn't add up. His injuries looked suspicious, and he had refused a polygraph. And then came the text messages, one from Cheryl's phone asking if Bill's girlfriend would stay with him if Cheryl weren't in the picture. And another where Bill told Cheryl that she had put the nail in his coffin.
By February of 2019, detectives publicly named Bill as their suspect, and the case was now a homicide investigation searches vigils and billboards followed, but there were still no arrests. And then nearly two years later, a discovery in [00:24:00] the woods changed everything. It was April 25th, 2020, a really quiet Saturday in Green County Ohio.
Two mushroom hunters were searching the wooded area off of Waynesville Jamestown Road, just outside of Caesar Creek State Park. When they came across something in the brush that stopped them cold, what they first thought was just debris turned out to be human Remains. The site was along a curve of road bordered by thick undergrowth.
It's really not a place that you would stumble into unless you had a reason to be there. When investigators arrived, they found skeletal remains scattered in a small area along with pieces of clothing that appeared consistent with what Cheryl had been wearing. When she disappeared, dark pants, a sweatshirt and sneakers, the body had not been buried.
it looked as though someone had simply pulled off the side of the road and just left her there in a spot hidden just enough to go unnoticed for nearly two years, which is actually pretty remarkable for a body that was just out in the [00:25:00] open,
Melissa: I thought the same thing. Like we hear about that happening sometimes where somebody's been, but there's like attempts to cover them
up. There's attempts to bury them
something, but for somebody to, to just be laying out there, it's so sad
for the entire family that
she was just out there. Nobody
Mandy: Yeah, dental and surgical records later confirmed what everyone feared, which was that the remains were, in fact, those of Cheryl Coker, The very next day after they found her remains would've been her 48th birthday. Police held a press conference announcing this discovery. They called it bittersweet. On one hand, Cheryl's family finally had answers about where she was, but on the other, those answers raised even darker Questions about how she ended up there.
The location, which was 20 minutes from her home, wasn't a place that she would've gone on her own, and the condition of her remains suggested that she had been there the entire time, since October of 2018. Her mom, Mary told reporters that she [00:26:00] still woke up each morning hoping Cheryl would walk through the door, but she said at least we can bring her home.
Melissa: Within weeks of the Discovery, Riverside Police requested that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, take the lead on the case while the department remained actively involved. The autopsy report completed in August, 2020, formally identified Cheryl Coker, but listed the cause and manner of death is undetermined. Her remains have been exposed to the elements for so long with significant animal activity and missing bones that no clear trauma could be established. Still, the coroner noted that the circumstances were consistent with homicidal violence. Cheryl's clothes were intact enough to confirm that she had not been partially unclothed or obviously robbed, and there was nothing to suggest an accident. The autopsy emphasized that the certificate wasn't the end of the story. If new evidence surfaced the cause and manner of death could be amended [00:27:00] for Cheryl's family, it was another heartbreak layered on top of the first. By October of 20 22, 4 years after Cheryl's disappearance, the case remained officially active. Investigators continued working with prosecutors in the Ohio Attorney General's office. Then by 2023, public updates from the AG described Cheryl ER's death plainly. She had been murdered inside her home and her estranged husband, bill Coker remained the only person of interest. Still no charges had been filed. Cheryl's family continued to attend vigils keeping her name alive and pressing for closure. Her sister Margie and Mother Mary both said they trusted the process. They wanted a conviction that would last, not a rushed arrest that could fall apart in court. The state encouraged anyone with any information to call BCI at (800) 282-3782, and reminded the public [00:28:00] that even a small detail, something that was overheard, a location that was remembered, anything really could be the final thing that tips the scale, and that's where it stood. A devoted mother was silenced. A family was still waiting, and one man still walking free beneath the weight of questions that everyone in Riverside could answer, but no one could yet prove.
Mandy: The loss of Cheryl Coker left an ache that still hasn't softened in Riverside. Her family got the answer to the question that haunted them for a year and a half and found out where she was, but they're still waiting for the answer to the bigger question, which is why Cheryl was on the verge of moving into her own place.
She was planning for her future and she was trying to rebuild after years of betrayal. She wasn't a mystery to the people who loved her. She was a mom, a daughter, a sister, a grandmother, and a friend. Police have said they're confident in their case and that the work continues behind the scenes and that the story isn't over.
But from the [00:29:00] outside, the waiting is unbearable. The community still holds vigils every October, and Cheryl's family keeps her spirit alive on the justice for Cheryl Coker page where they post memories, photos, and updates from investigators. The official case summary from the Ohio Attorney General now lists Cheryl's homicide as active and unsolved, and names William or Bill Coker as the only person of interest.
It's believed that Cheryl was murdered inside her home before being taken to the wooded area where her remains were found. If you have any information about the murder of Cheryl Coker, no matter how small it might seem, please contact the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 1 802 8 2 3 7 8 2. You can also leave tips anonymously through Ohio Attorney general.gov/tips.
Melissa: It's always
interesting when they go on record to say, there is a person of interest, basically we're watching you and when we can prove it, we're gonna get
you. And I always,
uh, I always appreciate when [00:30:00] they do that. I'm sure the person that. Is the person of interest doesn't but to have it out there and that person has to live with
that being over their head, you
know.
Mandy: If
anything, at least it gives, you know, that that person has to just be living with, you know, in paranoia
and constantly looking over their shoulder, like Yeah, for sure. And that's definitely a miserable way to live. So yeah, I'm happy that at least there's that
Melissa: For sure, and I mean, I guess it's in any of these stories, it doesn't take much for something to be solved. I they, they really basically know what happened. They just have to be able to show
the evidence that it did happen
that way. So I think it's a matter of, uh, when and not if,
Mandy: For sure. Yeah. And it is so interesting to me. We talk all the time about how it's, it's interesting to see how different legal cases, even though it's kind of a similar crime, like how they play out, because I. And, and kind of frustrating in some ways because there are cases like where you're like, I didn't think they really had enough to go, but it really was a circumstantial case.
And then they still get a conviction. [00:31:00] And then you have cases where it's like everything is literally seems so obvious and then you don't understand why they're not bringing charges or why they haven't tried to do anything. But of course you understand from a prosecutor's point of view, like you don't want to, um, you know, kind of like bring charges too early
and then risk losing.
Right, exactly. So, um, in this case it does seem like. That's where the evidence is pointing. But um, yeah, I really hope that they find that missing link they need so that Cheryl's family can get, you know, finally get closure.
Melissa: Yeah, absolutely.
Mandy: Alright guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode.
We will be back next week. Same time, same place. New story.
Melissa: a great week.
Mandy: Bye.
