Family of Missing Rancher Hopes 'America's Most Wanted' Will Lead to Closure

Family Marks Anniversary Of Man's Disappearance

David Cook Disappeared From Bates County Home

POSTED: 8:42 pm CST November 19, 2009
UPDATED: 11:11 pm CST November 19, 2009

Family of Missing Bates Co. Man Not Giving Up

Search for missing man continues

It was one year ago, November 19th, that David Cook was last seen. There is still no explanation as to what happened to him, but one thing the family is certain about is that David had cattle stolen from his property near Virginia, MO between June and November 2008 when he went missing. They believe he had cattle stolen from other locations as well.

The most recent development is that David’s story is scheduled to air on the America’s Most Wanted TV show on December 12, 2009. The show is on Saturday nights at 9/8c on the FOX network. David’s Missing Persons web page on the America’s Most Wanted website will be updated soon with more current information.

The reward is now $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or person(s) responsible for David’s disappearance.

Luck will run out for those responsible for David’s disappearance as this puzzle is completed, and you may hold the one piece still remaining. We need your help. If you know anything about what might have happened to David, please call the Missouri State Highway Patrol at 816-622-0800.

Search Resumes for Missing Bates County Man

Extensive searches for David, conducted by Missouri authorities, friends, and family have yielded no conclusive evidence.

Authorities and family alike suspect the worst: that foul play must have been involved.

More disturbing, David’s whereabouts are a complete mystery, although authorities have a hunch he may still be somewhere in the small town of Amsterdam, Mo.

Over the years, Amsterdam's landscape has been ravaged by large-scale strip mining, in which large mineral deposits are exposed by removing layers of earth. Once all the resources have been extracted, the site is abandoned, resulting in a massive open quarry.

Recently, these quarries have become a major focus in the search for David Cook.

Suspecting the worst, police think David may have been murdered and dumped in one of these quarries.

The pits are difficult to search. Many of the quarries are nearly 100 feet deep, filled with water, extremely dark, and murky.

Adding to the painstaking search is the fact that there are at least ten quarries on the 8,000 acre ranch David managed.

Despite discouraging results, the search for David persists, and now his family has turned to America’s Most Wanted for help.

If you know anything about the disappearance of David Cook, call our hotline at 1-800-CRIME-TV.

The oldest of seven siblings, David always found himself relying on responsibility and hard-work, and his family says he carried this mentality into his adult years.

David and his siblings grew up on a ranch, and their father grew up a rancher.

David, as a child, spent hours upon hours helping his father on the farm, and, as a result, David developed an undying adoration and dedication towards ranching and all that accompanied it.

“This was his joy. He loved it,” says his sister, Judy.

Friends and family all say David was too reliable, too invested in his work, and too much in love with his land and the animals that lived on it to simply wander off and start anew.

“A friendly, easy-going, giving, mild-mannered jokester, [David] didn’t have enemies,” Judy told us.

David didn’t have any vices either. Drugs, alcohol, gambling or anything of that nature, cops say, ever plagued David.

“If anything,” Judy says, “David was a workaholic.”

Nothing other than work occupied his life and, according to his family, David wouldn’t have it any other way.

So what happened to David? There are many questions revolving around his disappearance, and police and family are desperately searching for any information that might lead to the David's recovery.

Sergeant Greg Martin of the Missouri Highway Patrol believes his department may have unveiled some possible motives, but there is no evidence to support any of them.

One possible motive revolves around cattle theft.

“Cattle theft is a way bigger problem than people realize,” Sgt. Martin says.

PASSAIC — The auctioneer sat above the cattle ring and told the crowd what a great herd they were getting ready to bid on: well-tended, top-notch cows and performance-tested bulls.

“They certainly would not be for sale if not for the circumstances,” auctioneer Jim Hertzog said into the microphone.

His voice broke with those words, and he held up a hand: “Give me a second.”

The arena crowd sat stone quiet. Hertzog, wearing a big cowboy hat, took a sip of water.

Then, with game face restored, he started the sale: “All right, boys, let’s take a look at 'em.”

The roundup was bitterly cold, on hands and heart.

With blowing snow, a north wind and temperatures in the teens, workers, including friends and family, herded nearly a thousand head of David Cook’s cattle off the Sterling Ranch in Bates County last week and took them to the Mokan Livestock Market in nearby Passaic, about 50 miles south of Kansas City. Cook kept the cattle on the 10,000-acre ranch, which he managed.

A mystery at the ranch

The ad for last weekend’s “Complete Dispersal Sale” described Cook as a knowledgeable and successful rancher for 35 years who always had a top-producing herd.

It doesn’t say the cattle were being sold because Cook, 55, hasn’t been seen since he disappeared from the ranch one day in mid-November.

His billfold was found inside the house. No disarray; no forced entry. His pickup still sat in the driveway.

“Nobody knows what happened. ... He’s just gone,” said Elsie Cash from behind the counter at McBee’s General Store, about a mile east of the ranch. “He used to stop in here all the time, for food and whatnot. Nice fellow.

“People round here sure are wondering what happened.”

The Sterling Ranch is between the Kansas City Power & Light generating plant at La Cygne, Kan., and Amsterdam, Mo. It’s rough land — a lot of pasture but with brushy hills and strip pits from old mining operations.

The rugged terrain hampered searches by law enforcement and a hundred volunteers.

“Brush is so thick in some places we couldn’t ride a horse through it,” said Judy Transue, Cook’s sister.

The search for answers

After more than a month of diminishing hope, she and others now believe someone took him out of the house and killed him. Over the years, Cook was involved in several volatile situations, including one in which he received death threats for testifying in a federal fraud case, family members and others said.

His daughter asked that her name not be used for this article for fear that she also could be in danger.

She is in her final year of medical school. During the preparation for the auction, she also was taking finals.

“It’s like something out of a movie,” she said this week. “It’s just overwhelming. I’m an only child, so I don’t have siblings to help me with all this. ...

“We’re trying to do what’s right. But if my dad should come back, it would be so sad to him that we’ve sold all his cattle.”

The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s drug and crime control division recently took over the investigation from a local task force. Sgt. Dan Green would say only that investigators are following leads.

“We can’t comment further than that at this time,” Green said.

A reward is up to $80,000.

Transue sat in her Lenexa dining room recently and said the case is difficult because Cook knew so many people from the ranch, cattle business and the power plant, where he also worked. A hunting lodge on the property brought strangers to the ranch.

Her head began to shake as soon as she saw a question coming that maybe her brother just took off ... needed time alone ... had to get away ... went to Europe ... ran off with a woman.

“No way,” she said. Then with a sad smile she added, “If nothing else, David would never leave his cows.”

'What I'll remember about David'

David Cook grew up the oldest of seven children in a farm family near Ballard. He always loved the outdoors and wildlife.

He tried college for a while but eventually quit and went to work. Ranching was what he wanted. He got married and had a daughter. Awhile back, he and his wife divorced. She remains on good terms with his family.

Those who knew him say he didn’t do drugs, gamble, chase married women or have money problems. He was honest, hard-working and well liked.

Hertzog, the auctioneer and one of the owners of the Mokan Livestock Market, met Cook 16 years ago.

“He was a good friend,” Hertzog said. “He and his family are good people. He was very knowledgeable about cattle. The guy worked all the time. Running that ranch and then working at the power plant — he was always going on about three hours of sleep. I don’t know how he did it.

“And here’s the thing: He was always in a good mood, friendly as could be. Take a dull moment, and make it bright. That’s what I’ll remember about David.”

Transue tells this story about her brother:

A few years back, she told him she wanted a colt to raise for riding and asked him to help find one. He did that and then offered to keep the animal at the ranch. Over time, he helped her break the animal.

One day when he finally got a saddle on the horse, he put his boot in the stirrup and was ready to swing himself up when he stopped and glanced at his sister.

He smiled, pulled his boot free and motioned to her — “Get up there.”

“He knew I wanted to be first,” Transue said.

Remembering the moment, she cried.

A family's pain

Mike Cook, a brother, was sitting in an office at Mokan Livestock Market before the start of the auction when the door opened and an employee stuck his head in.

“Mike, we’re getting ready to start,” the man said. “Jim wants to know if you want to say something first.”

Cook shook his head. “I can’t.”

The man nodded and closed the door.

“I don’t even know if I want to go out there because I’ll probably lose it when Jim talks about David,” Cook said.

The past month has been hard on this family. First there was the disappearance and intense search. Then came the realization that David Cook probably was not coming back and that something had to be done with his cattle.

The time of year makes it even harder. For years, 25 to 30 members of the Cook family gathered to celebrate Christmas at the hunting lodge on Sterling Ranch. They would ride horses, and David would show the children the buffalo and elk that lived there. He often sent each child home with a cow’s tooth or set of horns.

“Things are a lot different for all of us this Christmas,” Mike Cook said.

Especially for their father, Millard Cook, 83, who lives in a nursing home in Butler. Not long after his oldest son disappeared, he told Transue: “Find David.”

She took his hand.

“We’re trying, Dad. We’re trying.”