Speaker 1: Hunting for Answers is a production of the Black Effect
Speaker 1: Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Welcome to Hunting for Answers, a
Speaker 1: true crime podcast. I'm your host Hunter, and Today's episode
Speaker 1: marks the beginning of our three part series about a
Speaker 1: Tennessee woman's life that was tragically cut short in the
Speaker 1: fall of twenty fourteen. It's a case with extremely haunting
Speaker 1: circumstances that remains unsolved till this day and left a
Speaker 1: family desperately searching for answers a decade later. In this series,
Speaker 1: I spoke to some of those who knew her best,
Speaker 1: her three siblings. Their memories paint a picture of a
Speaker 1: vibrant life even as they continue searching for the truth
Speaker 1: behind its sudden end. This is the story of Nina Cook.
Speaker 1: In October twenty fourteen, a woman's remains were discovered in
Speaker 1: an abandoned church building in Whitehaven, a town nestled in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Through dental records and a recognizable surgical rod in her leg,
Speaker 1: the remains were identified as twenty eight year old Nina Cook,
Speaker 1: a vibrant young woman with budding dreams and ambitions. She
Speaker 1: did pageants, obtained her real estate license, even began her
Speaker 1: own trucking company. A dedicated, loving sister, the type to
Speaker 1: never miss sending a birthday card, and a second mother
Speaker 1: to her younger siblings, was suddenly gone, her whereabouts unknown
Speaker 1: for months. But before we dive into the timeline and
Speaker 1: circumstances surrounding nine as untimely death, must first understand who
Speaker 1: she was and the profound impact she had on those
Speaker 1: around her. Nina grew up in Memphis with her siblings.
Speaker 1: While each had different relationships with her, they all shared
Speaker 1: one common thread, Nina's deep love for her family. Her
Speaker 1: older sister, Lydia, remembers her childhood made so much brighter
Speaker 1: because of Nina.
Speaker 2: So I would say that my relationship with my sister
Speaker 2: growing up, my childhood was so much better because she
Speaker 2: was in it. We spent a lot of time together
Speaker 2: in Memphis, but I think my dad. The most memorable
Speaker 2: times were when my dad would come and get both
Speaker 2: of us and we would travel together, so riding in
Speaker 2: the backseat of the car, getting in trouble for giggling
Speaker 2: too much the whole way, the road trips that we
Speaker 2: would take, whether it was to Florida or Kentucky, putting
Speaker 2: on our makeup together in the bathroom, taking too long
Speaker 2: when my dad wanted us to get ready really fast,
Speaker 2: making fun of the fact that he kept making us
Speaker 2: eat wheat bread. We had tons of inside jokes and
Speaker 2: we were always getting in trouble together because we could
Speaker 2: not stop laughing.
Speaker 1: The bond between these sisters was evident to anyone who
Speaker 1: saw them together. Nina was a very affectionate person and
Speaker 1: never shy about showing love to those who meant a
Speaker 1: lot to her.
Speaker 2: I loved how affectionate she was. She was always holding
Speaker 2: my hand, always calling me boo, rubbing my face, wanting
Speaker 2: to do my hair. So we have tons of pictures
Speaker 2: and memories together where we're walking through the mall, we're
Speaker 2: at the park. No matter where we were, we were
Speaker 2: captured holding hands from the back, so we were just
Speaker 2: like two peas in a pod.
Speaker 1: One memory Lydia shared with Nina took place at a
Speaker 1: Kentucky park.
Speaker 2: One of the funniest moments we had was we were
Speaker 2: trying to get away from Dad at this park. It's
Speaker 2: a huge park in Kentucky that he would always take
Speaker 2: us to, and so we convinced him to pay for
Speaker 2: us to get on the paddle boats. So we're on
Speaker 2: the paddle boats, right, and we were young, we were teenagers.
Speaker 2: We get on the paddle boat and Dad's like, you know,
Speaker 2: you have X amount of time to be on these
Speaker 2: paddle boats to make sure you're back over here. We
Speaker 2: were like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we get on
Speaker 2: the paddle boats and we were We went with the
Speaker 2: intention of taking a long time to just really, you know,
Speaker 2: share with one another and kind of make Dad a
Speaker 2: little mad. But we got stuck. We were tired, and
Speaker 2: we got stuck in the middle of the lake. So
Speaker 2: we took much much longer than we originally expected. But
Speaker 2: we were laughing so hard we could not up enough
Speaker 2: strength to move the paddle boat to the other side,
Speaker 2: and we thought we were gonna have to call for help.
Speaker 1: Those seemingly small moments like running off in a paddle
Speaker 1: boat with your sister have become some of the most
Speaker 1: treasured memories that Lydia has helped close. While Lydia experienced
Speaker 1: Nina as a sister and best friend, Nina's younger siblings,
Speaker 1: Kenya and Chris knew a different side of her after
Speaker 1: their mother passed away. Nina seven two more of a
Speaker 1: parental role.
Speaker 3: Kenya says having her is an older sister was great.
Speaker 3: She did a lot for me, I think for me,
Speaker 3: and I can't speak for Chris, but like I'm hearing
Speaker 3: Amanda talk about all the handholding and the love w stuff,
Speaker 3: and I think for us, we had her more as
Speaker 3: a parental figure, So it was like she was kind
Speaker 3: of more a mom.
Speaker 2: Figure to us.
Speaker 3: So we didn't really get a whole lot of the
Speaker 3: hand hold and all that because my mom passed away. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was seventeen, but even before then she was not
Speaker 3: as far as present in our household. She was not
Speaker 3: there due to her own struggles. So she definitely took
Speaker 3: on that role of making sure we had what we
Speaker 3: needed clothes, and making sure we had what we needed
Speaker 3: for school, and just trying to support us in any
Speaker 3: way she could, showing up for stuff for school, helping
Speaker 3: us by clothes, supporting us through for me through college,
Speaker 3: helping with prom things like that, just being there, you know,
Speaker 3: to talk to, fussing at me, like Amanda said.
Speaker 1: For Chris, who was much younger, Nina was everything. Christmas
Speaker 1: was particularly special with her around. He remembers how she
Speaker 1: always embodied the spirit of the season woo.
Speaker 4: So what was my relationship like with my big sister.
Speaker 4: In a word, I can just describe her as Santa Claus.
Speaker 4: That was my Santa Claus. Pretty much anything that I
Speaker 4: needed or wanted or didn't even know that I need, uh,
Speaker 4: she was there, you know, very involved with my school.
Speaker 4: I mean just one of the earliest memories I can remember,
Speaker 4: from like second third grade, fourth grade, just randomly just
Speaker 4: pop in. I went to Ottawad Elementary and just randomly
Speaker 4: she would pop in, you know, just on the last period,
Speaker 4: you know, just to let people know. That was around
Speaker 4: the time, you know, dealing with the loss of a
Speaker 4: mother in like six You know, she took a really
Speaker 4: really involved hand, especially in my upbringing, letting people know,
Speaker 4: you know, he does have family, he does have support,
Speaker 4: We do show up for him.
Speaker 1: Nina didn't just provide material things. She was invested in
Speaker 1: Chris's education and future. She pushed him to excel. Even
Speaker 1: during summer break.
Speaker 4: I remember in her apartments she kept a room specifically
Speaker 4: for me, so you know, I had real prench treatment
Speaker 4: going over there. You know, games, I have my Spider
Speaker 4: Man whole set up everything that I needed over there.
Speaker 4: So in the event that I was with her, I
Speaker 4: could study. She was really on me about my academia,
Speaker 4: even in summertime, where I think I'm supposed to be chilling,
Speaker 4: She's like, uh, no, you need to know about the
Speaker 4: great Black inventors. I'm like, it's great black inventors. I'm
Speaker 4: I'm eight of nine. I want to play video games.
Speaker 4: I want to go out with my friends. Like She's like, no,
Speaker 4: you need to know who invented this, that and that,
Speaker 4: and I need a research paper from you. At the
Speaker 4: end of.
Speaker 1: July, Nina understood and explained some of the realities her
Speaker 1: younger brother might face, and made it her mission to
Speaker 1: help prepare him as much as possible.
Speaker 4: One of the things that she would always preach to
Speaker 4: me is that as a black man, you oftentimes would
Speaker 4: have to work twice as hard and really to just
Speaker 4: continue to push my good grades. My sister was an inspiration,
Speaker 4: much like Kenya in the sense that a lot of
Speaker 4: people don't know. I looked at her old report cards.
Speaker 4: She didn't make nothing lower than a three point eight GPA.
Speaker 4: I spent a lot of time with her. There wasn't
Speaker 4: a weekend that I can remember from about eight to
Speaker 4: right up in the time of you know, her passing
Speaker 4: and different things, and she was just you know, city
Speaker 4: to city, state to state. You know, she would travel
Speaker 4: a lot that I wasn't with her on a weekend.
Speaker 1: The consistent theme in her loved one's memories is Nina's
Speaker 1: unwavering presence, love and dedication, and despite having her own
Speaker 1: life and ambitions, she always made sure her family never
Speaker 1: felt alone. But beyond her role as a daughter, sister,
Speaker 1: and caregiver to her younger siblings, Nina Cook was a
Speaker 1: young woman with big dreams and passions. Panya describes her
Speaker 1: as a driven and charismatic person who knew exactly who
Speaker 1: she was.
Speaker 3: Very confident, I would say, very much knew who she was.
Speaker 3: Very much a hustler in a good way, very much driven,
Speaker 3: go oriented. Just she just was very very charismatic. She
Speaker 3: made friends easily, very supportive. A girl's girl for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think anyone who knows her or even
Speaker 3: just meeting her, she could make you feel comfortable and
Speaker 3: just confident. She was just a good person overall, good personality.
Speaker 1: Not not had a big personality and always kept it
Speaker 1: real to those around her. But one quality miss.
Speaker 3: I would say probably her sense of humor at times,
Speaker 3: looking back, some of the stuff I didn't think it
Speaker 3: was funny in the moment. She was very very loving
Speaker 3: and balsy though, but in a good way. But she's
Speaker 3: definitely very opinionated and would give you her opinion unsolicited,
Speaker 3: no matter what. She didn't care if you liked.
Speaker 4: It or not.
Speaker 3: I miss just her sastiness, how outspoken she was. Just
Speaker 3: he knew it was coming from a good place, even
Speaker 3: if the delivery wasn't the sweetest, softest. She was very,
Speaker 3: very outspoken in a blunt person. So you definitely have
Speaker 3: to have tough skin, but she's gonna tell you the truth.
Speaker 1: Lydia recalls Nina's creativity and how she always made room
Speaker 1: to forgive.
Speaker 2: I admired her generosity, her capacity to love and forgive.
Speaker 2: She was very forgiving. She had a really big heart,
Speaker 2: but also her her tenacity and her drive. She was
Speaker 2: super driven, very creative. It was really important to her
Speaker 2: to take care of everyone around her, especially her siblings,
Speaker 2: like she loved us. Sometimes she would try to act
Speaker 2: like the big sister to me. She's a big sister
Speaker 2: to Chris and Kenya. Sometimes she would try to tell me,
Speaker 2: you know what, I needed to do and how I
Speaker 2: needed to live my life, and how you're gonna raise
Speaker 2: these kids and make sure you love on them enough.
Speaker 2: And uh, she was. You know, she's very fierce for
Speaker 2: her capacity to forgive and love and her generosity. It's
Speaker 2: probably what sticks out the most.
Speaker 1: Something Tanya believes many people might have overlooked about Nina.
Speaker 3: Just her good intentions. She wanted to do a lot now.
Speaker 3: She had a lot of goals and ideas and dreams.
Speaker 3: Wanted to own her own trucking company. I don't think
Speaker 3: many people know that she had started to develop a
Speaker 3: trucking company called Stratosphere Carriers, and she wanted to be
Speaker 3: a freight broker. I think a lot of people probably
Speaker 3: don't know how smart and intelligent she was because she's
Speaker 3: very beautiful, and so people will probably look at her
Speaker 3: and automatically assume, you know, superficial things. They didn't know
Speaker 3: that she's very intelligent and very smart and very business
Speaker 3: a lot of business savvy and just very much about
Speaker 3: you know, development and growth. So I think that gets overlooked.
Speaker 1: Nina's interests weren't only limited to business, however. Chris reveals
Speaker 1: a side of his sister that few might have known about.
Speaker 4: The love of basketball. I don't think many people realize
Speaker 4: that she was an avid basketball fan. Even if she
Speaker 4: couldn't play, she loved the game. One of the first
Speaker 4: stories that she told me about was about a little
Speaker 4: known guy named Michael Jordan. Uh So, he played for
Speaker 4: the Chicago Bulls, and she would tell me he was like.
Speaker 4: She was like, man, Chris, like you know bedtime stories.
Speaker 4: Jordan used to fly through the air and I'm talking
Speaker 4: about what you mean says fly? It's like, no, he
Speaker 4: would float so high, and I'm thinking, like, literally, this
Speaker 4: guy's flying through the air. The infamous free throw line dunk.
Speaker 4: I don't know, y'all can look it up on YouTube,
Speaker 4: where the Jordan logo was formed. She loved that memory
Speaker 4: of Michael Jordan. So I don't think many people realize
Speaker 4: how much of a sports fan she was.
Speaker 1: This picture painted by Nina's siblings reveals a multifaceted woman,
Speaker 1: nurturing yet ambitious, beautiful yet intelligent, strict yet loving, and
Speaker 1: direct yet forgiving. With all of these recollections, it's almost
Speaker 1: impossible not to imagine Nina's future. She had ambition, drive,
Speaker 1: and her desire to build something substantial. Like most, she
Speaker 1: had a vision for her future, but what happened to
Speaker 1: derail that future, and most importantly, who is responsible for
Speaker 1: her death and why?
Speaker 2: For her capacity to forgive and love and her generosity's
Speaker 2: probably what sticks out the most.
Speaker 1: The qualities that made Nina special, her generosity, her forgiveness,
Speaker 1: her trust may have also made her vulnerable. But we're
Speaker 1: getting ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 4: For now.
Speaker 1: We need to understand that Nina Cook wasn't just another statistic.
Speaker 1: She was a woman who left an impact on everyone
Speaker 1: around her.
Speaker 4: You know, she would give you the shirt off her back.
Speaker 4: You know, she was such a giving and caring person.
Speaker 4: You know there would be times randomly where she would
Speaker 4: just come check in on me, can you my grandmother?
Speaker 4: You know, just dropping money off, dropping so much money
Speaker 4: off in fact, you know that. You know she would
Speaker 4: just give it all out her family. Just such a
Speaker 4: thank giving, caring person about her family. Her family was
Speaker 4: really her world.
Speaker 1: In Part two of this series, we'll dive into the
Speaker 1: circumstances surrounding Nina's initial disappearance, those last conversations with loved ones,
Speaker 1: and a horrifying discovery that led to a year's long
Speaker 1: investigation anyone with information regarding Nina Cook's case to contact
Speaker 1: the Memphis Police Department. Their number can be found in
Speaker 1: the description box below. As we close out this episode,
Speaker 1: don't forget to hit the follow button to stay updated
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Speaker 1: us us on another episode until next time. Hunting for
Speaker 1: Answers is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
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