The records support the conclusions reached by Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger and Dayton police that the 18-year-old student committed suicide by jumping from a sixth-story window at Stuart Residence Complex. Cook was found deceased outside the complex about 7:20 a.m. by several students who called police.
Cook’s family has disputed that Cook took his own life and has accused the university and Dayton police of engaging in a cover-up.
UD police reviewed text messages between Cook and his family and a former girlfriend. On two occasions in early March, Cook texted his ex-girlfriend about “having thoughts of suicide,” because of their failed relationship, troubles with his academics, probably losing his scholarship, disappointing his family and “drinking and using drugs while away at college.”
Cook’s roommate and another friend, who recruited him to join the school’s debate team, told police they knew Cook was “struggling” in his engineering classes like most first-year students, and that he generally kept his personal life private. But the students expressed disbelief to police that Cook would kill himself because he “always had a smile on his face.” The friends told police they either witnessed or knew when Cook smoked marijuana on campus, but doubt that played a role.
On May 23, Harshbarger said his office’s investigation revealed Cook was under severe stress and had consumed marijuana within hours of his death. The coroner’s office also has concluded that a legally-prescribed amphetamine found in Cook’s system, a drug prescribed to treat his attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, did not play a factor in the death.
Police used subpoenas to review Cook’s two e-mail accounts, two social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) and his cell phone. They also reviewed campus videos, his UD card access logs, interviewed more than 21 people who either knew Cook or had a part in the responding incident.
According to the report, members of Cook’s family turned his personal computer over to Dayton police during the course of the investigation. A forensic examination of that computer revealed texts between Cook and his family and with a former girlfriend. His texts with his family involved their disappointment with his grades and behavior, police concluded.
On March 7, Cook wrote to his ex-girlfriend, “…honestly, I’m having thoughts of suicide,” and wanting “to drop out of college.”
Cook and the ex-girlfriend engaged in another text conversation on March 11, when he apologized to her, told her he loved her and was preparing to take his life.
A Dayton homicide investigator attempted to interview the girlfriend. But after several attempts, no interview ever took place, according to the report.
The police investigation concluded Cook “went to a sixth floor common room in Meyer Hall, removed the screen, and either jumped or fell to his death from that window. The fact that one must climb on the window ledge to exit the window, as well as the distance of Cook’s body from the building indicate that he jumped.”
The allegation that Cook might have been the victim of a fraternity pledge hazing first surfaced just hours after his death when relatives and friends called UD police seeking information.
UD police discounted that possibility after interviewing on-campus fraternity members and officials who said they were “100 percent certain Cook was not a member of a fraternity, nor was he pledging to become a member,” mainly because he did not have the grades to be eligible, according to a UD police report. One of Cook’s friends told police the pair considered joining an African American fraternity and attended a social gathering in the fall, but did not pursue because of poor grades.
The Cook family has hired Florida attorney Christopher Chestnut, who is also representing the family of a student who died from a 2011 hazing involving members of the Florida A&M University band. Neither Chestnut nor Cook’s mother, Jennifer Rucker, were available for comment Thursday.
One of Cook’s friends who with him the early morning of April 2, told UD police he wanted to have a conversation with her but then changed his mind. She blamed herself for not insisting the two talk, which perhaps she believed “she might have been able to prevent his suicide.”
About the Author