A very detailed and thoughtful analysis -
Gail Cookson
Gail Lenoar Cookson, age 35, disappeared from Sacramento, California in March 1984. Some sources give an alternate date of 11/25/84.
According to some sources, she was last seen leaving a residence, while others state it was her residence. All indicate that foul play is suspected. And that’s all. No other details to be found anywhere.
It’s not all that unusual, particularly in California, for there to be no details on a case, but what is unusual is that her life is as mysterious as her presumed death.
I found no mention of her in the local newspapers of the time. Nobody seems to be looking for her.
The only record of her existence that I could find aside from her vague missing person profiles, were a few listings in the Sacramento city directory from 1971 to 1973.
In each of the directories, she is listed as Mrs. Gail L. Cookson, but has her own listing.
To make analysis of these listings easier, I should quickly explain how city directories handled certain situations.
A married couple, living together, would be combined into one listing. It would read:
Smith, John (Mary) 1234 Main St.
An unmarried female over the age of eighteen would have her own listing, even if she lived with her parents; she would be listed as Miss Mary Smith, or simply Mary Smith.
A widowed woman would have her own listing, but it would reference the husband. It would look like this:
Smith, Mary (wid John) 1234 Main St.
Gail’s listings, however, list her as Mrs. but don’t reference a husband. This could mean she was separated or divorced, or it could mean she was married but her husband was living elsewhere. This was common while a husband was serving in the military or even incarcerated.
Although Gail has her own listing, there are other Cooksons at the same address. This should mean that Cookson is Gail’s married name and that these other Cooksons would have been her in-laws.
There’s an Yvette Cookson. She was born in 1952 and died in 2007. Her short obituary doesn’t mention any family members, it mainly refers to her Jehovah’s Witness ties. I found a high school yearbook photo of Yvette, and she bears such a strong resemblance to Gail, in my opinion, that I can’t help but think they are related. However, she is only 4 years younger than Gail, so she can’t be Gail’s daughter.
There’s a Phyllis Cookson, who was born in 1922, and died in 2001. Again, I found no obituary that lists any offspring. I was able to find that Phyllis was born in Maine, and tried to research obituaries of her parents and siblings but found nothing that lists children of Phyllis to see if Gail was her daughter.
I searched Ancestry for any Cooksons that married a Gail, but the only one I found was too early – long before our Gail was even born. I found no divorce record or declaration of death for her either.
After I’d exhausted all avenues I could find on my own, I submitted a request to the Sacramento Police for any records they could share. Of course my request was denied, citing the fact that it is an open investigation. While disappointing, it didn’t exactly surprise me. What bothered me about this response was that prior to receiving this denial, I was receiving emails stating that they needed more time to search for records prior to giving me a response. In other words, the case is so cold that they couldn’t even find the file, but they can’t share even the basic information because the case is technically open.
So how is anyone supposed to find her?
It aggravates me, especially since Gail would be in her 70’s if alive today, which means anyone who is likely to know what happened to her would be getting up in age too. My hope is that someone who knew Gail will google her name someday and come across this post.
Lastly, the photo at the top of this page is the only one I’ve been able to find. It looks like a yearbook photo to me. Based on her age, she would have been in high school roughly in 1964-1967, and to me, the photo looks like it would be from around that time. It would be great if we could find the source of this photo, as it would at least give us an idea of where she came from, as well as her maiden name, if she was a Cookson by marriage.
I wish I had been able to find more information about her disappearance. Gail’s case, along with quite a few others with similar lack of information, have been hanging out in my draft folder for years. I kept thinking eventually more details would surface. I’ve decided to publish a few of these now in the hope that someone who remembers them, or readers with better research skills than my own will be able to help fill in some of the blanks.
Sources:
Ancestry.com
NamUs
The Charley Project
