SPEAKER_00 0:00

In Tragedy, a true crime podcast, we discuss missing persons' cases, violent crime, and other sensitive topics that may be difficult for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Our show is a place where every story matters and every voice deserves to be heard. To support this podcast, you can subscribe at www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com for early access to new episodes. And join our Facebook community, Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast, for updates, discussions, and ways to support the families we feature. Welcome to Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast. I'm Elisa.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

This series is brought to you in part by Cowlitz Regional News. Find them on Facebook under Cowlitz Regional News for all things news, including local, regional, and national. That's Cowlitz Regional News. Find them on Facebook. Even after the trials are over, even after the headlines disappear, even after years begin stacking themselves between the present and the moment everything changed. Some stories stay alive because the people left behind refuse to let them disappear. And this is one of those stories. Today I want to tell you about Crystal Cook. Not just the crime, not just the investigation, but the life of the center of it all and the family who, more than two decades later, are still carrying her with them. When people hear the words true crime, they often expect timelines, evidence, the details of violence. But the truth is the most important part of any story usually happens long before any of that. It happens in the ordinary moments, in family dinners, phone calls, and inside jokes that no one else would understand. It lives in the small things people remember years later when they're trying desperately to hold on to someone they lost too soon. That's where Crystal's story really begins. Not in the year 2000, not in a courtroom, not in the aftermath. It begins with a young woman whose life mattered deeply to the people around her: a daughter, a sister, someone whose absence would permanently reshape the lives of the people who love her most. And when those closest to Crystal speak about her, there's something that becomes immediately clear. They are not trying to preserve a case, they are trying to preserve a person. In 2000, Crystal Cook was murdered. The crime sent shockwaves through the people closest to her, leaving behind the kind of grief that doesn't arrive all at once, but settles slowly into every part of life. The kind that changes birthdays, holidays, the sound of a name spoken out loud. There was an arrest in the case and eventually a conviction. The person responsible for her murder was sentenced. And for many people outside a family's immediate circle, that's often where the story ends. A conviction can feel like a conclusion. Proof that justice moved in the way it was supposed to. But families know something the rest of the world often doesn't. A conviction is not the same thing as closure. Because no courtroom outcome can restore what was taken. No sentence can recreate the future someone should have had. And no legal proceeding can stop the quiet moments when grief unexpectedly resurfaces years later. For Crystal's family, life did not split neatly into before and after. Instead, loss became something they learned to carry, some days heavier than others, some days impossible to ignore. And over time, that grief evolved into something else too: determination. A determination to make sure Crystal's life would never be reduced to a single act of violence. More than two decades have passed since Crystal's murder, but recently her family found themselves standing once again in the shadow of the case that changed their lives forever. In March, a parole hearing was held for the person serving time for her murder. For families of homicide victims, parole hearings can feel like a reopening of a wound that never truly healed in the first place. Suddenly, years collapse inward, memories resurface, emotions return with a force that time never really erased. And while the legal system may view these hearings as procedure, families experience them very differently. For them, it's personal, deeply personal. It means preparing once again to speak for someone who no longer has a voice of their own. It means revisiting pain that never fully disappeared. And it means confronting the terrifying possibility that the person responsible for so much loss could one day walk free. For Crystal's family, the hearing was another reminder that the story is not confined to the past. It still lives with them every single day. But if there's one thing that stands out in Crystal's story, it is this. Her family refused to let grief become the only thing left behind. Out of unimaginable loss, they created the Crystal Rose Cook Nonprofit, an organization dedicated to advocacy, awareness, and support for others impacted by violent crime. And there is something profoundly powerful about that. Because tragedy has a way of isolating people. It can make families feel invisible, unheard, abandoned after the public attention fades away. The work being done in Crystal's name pushes back against that silence. It says her life mattered. It said her story still matters. And it says that even in the aftermath of devastating loss, something meaningful can still grow. Not because the pain disappears, but because love remains. And sometimes love becomes action. There's a tendency in true crime to focus only on endings. But the people who love Crystal are still writing the next chapters of her story every day. In their advocacy, in their memories, and in their refusal to let her be forgotten. And that's what this series is about. Not just what happened to Crystal Cook, but who she was, the people who continue to carry her forward, and the lasting impact one life can have long after it's gone. In the episodes ahead, you'll hear directly from those closest to her. You'll hear memories, reflections, and conversations shaped not by headlines, but by love, loss, and resilience. Because remembering someone is more than looking backward. Sometimes it's an act of continuing forward. In the conversation you're about to hear, Lee Cook reflects on Crystal's life, the lasting impact of her murder, the recent parole hearing, and the work now being done through the Crystal Rose Cook nonprofit to continue her legacy and help others. But more than anything, this is a father talking about his daughter. Here's our conversation with Lee Cook. Today we're joined by someone whose life was forever changed by an unimaginable loss. Lee Cook is the father of Crystal Cook, who was murdered in 2000, a tragedy that continues to impact her family to this day. In the years since, Lee has turned his grief into purpose. He's been actively involved in advocacy work, including his efforts with the Crystal Rose Cook nonprofit, dedicated to honoring her life, raising awareness, and seeking justice. Recently, the family faced another difficult milestone. A parole hearing held in March for the person currently serving time in connection to Crystal's murder. It's a moment that brings renewed emotion, reflection, and continued determination in their pursuit of justice. Lee is not only here as a father, but as a voice for his daughter, sharing who Crystal was, the lasting effects of her loss, and what this chapter means for their family moving forward. We're grateful he's willing to speak with us to honor Crystal's memory and to help us ensure that her story is not forgotten. Thank you for being here and welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

So we would like to start um this conversation with learning about Crystal. So let's start out. Can you tell us about Crystal and who she was as a person?

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Well, when this all started, she was a sixteen-year-old young lady that um loved animals. I mean she was very close with her grandmother. She spent a lot of time with her grandmother. Um she was just a very you t just your typical teenager that liked to have fun.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

What are some of your favorite memories of her that really capture her spirit?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

You know, that's one of the difficult things going through this because I've really I mean she one of I guess one of my memories is that I have a hard time sometimes getting past what happened or even to even talk about the memories and stuff. One of them was is she had an exchange student from Japan. She really loved uh they came over and they became very close and and she um actually went to Japan and spent some time with this exchange student and stuff too, and she just really loved their culture and stuff and um and she just she really loved animals too.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

What do you wish more people understood about her?

SPEAKER_01 10:23

How much she is missed and the life she never got to live. I mean, obviously, she never got to get married. She never got to have kids, you know. Every holiday, you know, we have a her birthday, you know, January nineteenth is just a very difficult month for our family and stuff. Just I mean, I always say it's I I hate January more than any uh month of the year just because of you know, obviously you love her, but it just brings up a lot of pain and heartache knowing that she's not with you and you know, a lot of people like to say, you know, you gotta focus on the good things and the memories and the stuff you had to have, but it it's it's easier said than done.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

And for our listeners, this is a crime that um has been solved. Typically we cover unsolved crimes. So can you walk us through a little bit about um the the trial in the beginning and the solving of the crime?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Well, Crystal went missing pretty much right after her and I'm even getting confused just with the emotion trying to do the processes and stuff, but she came she went missing when she was sixteen and she was missing for almost a year. We you know, we were doing search parties, you know, we were doing flyers, you know, I was very the newspaper articles in the newspaper. I mean, there we hired my parents hired private investigator. I mean, we had a private investigator on it, we had police when she went missing and stuff, and um and we were trying to find every lead we could possibly find and and um and this went on for like almost a year and then what was kind of pivotal in the situation or the murder of Crystal was that um I owned a hotel there in Longview, Washington, and it was kind of a landmark and and I'd called I was really getting frustrated with the police department because there was really not anything being done and and um so I called the Longview Daily News and they wrote an article and anyway b the the essence of the article was me kind of ripping the police department ap apart because there was nothing being done and then and then a few days later, um I got a call on my office phone at the hotel there and there was a message and the message was from uh a Paul and it was and I never met this individual, didn't know who it was when they called me, but he explained who he was when he called me and left a message. It was actually the dad of the guy, Mike, the individual that murdered my daughter, and he was um wanting to tell me give me some information. Well, I never returned his call. I called the police department and talked to Detective Stafford and he picked him up and bring him in and stuff, and basically Paul was in pr in jail and he turned on his son because Paul and his uncle Mark helped cover up the murder. They both knew what happened, and he testified against his son because his Paul's mom had died and he wanted to get out of jail and go to her funeral. And that's what actually was the pivotal point in solving the murder of my daughter.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

And what has been the most challenging part of navigating the justice system?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Everything. I mean, it's I mean, the first thing everybody wants to tell you is, you know, don't talk to the media, you know, you just have to trust us and let us do our job and stuff. And I I gotta be honest, if we'd if we'd have done that in the in solving the case, if we would have done that in the parole hearing, I believe this individual would there was a possibility he could have been on the street today. We did everything we could. I mean, whether it was the parole and whether uh it was the solving the case and stuff to especially my parents when it came to Crystal. At first I was kind of in denial. I didn't want to believe like something like that could happen. So I I was for a long time after she went missing, I was just I literally was hoping and praying that she just ran away. I gotta be honest.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

You recently went through a parole hearing in March for the person convicted of this crime, and what was that experience like for you and your family?

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Uh it was horrific. It was um not only did we have to release relive every detail of the uh the murder, again, and I always state the daughter my crystal, I mean crystal my daughter, because I just I don't I don't want every anybody to ever forget it. But um not only did we have to relive every aspect of that, which brung up a lot of emotions. I mean, even even with our family and stuff, you know, when we were going through the original case and stuff, but then we we had to take a lot of proactive steps actually to make sure that there was no way that he was gonna get out on parole. I mean, we had I mean I mean we had informants in the prison. We I mean we actually that's how the voices for um Crystal Facebook got started. My daughter Hannah actually um manages that, but um that's how that got started was to try to get awareness and to get people involved in the process of the parole process, um, whether it was writing victim letters to the parole board, whether it was coming to the parole hearing. I mean, um, and you know, Dawn, which Calais Regional News, I mean, she really she put out a really powerful article on their on their digital paper there that uh really helped us gather more support. And then we I mean, and I don't know how detailed you want to get into this, but there's just a ton more details if you want to spend a little bit of time on those.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yes, we would definitely like that. It sounds like this is something that you kind of had to figure out and maneuver on your own, and we would love for you to share that experience for other families who are going through that.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Well, the first thing is I what I would say is one of the biggest issues we had um was actually dealing with the victim advocate office out of Salem, Oregon, for the Department of Corrections. It was we felt we every time we talked, for one, they didn't they didn't even notify us of the parole. I mean, obviously we are the ones that actually figured it out and got involved in the process. Um every time when it came to the victims' letters, we had a lot of when we got the uh Facebook page, voices for crystal going. You know, we had people sending in letters and stuff, and I mean we were finding constantly um that the Robin who headed up the victim's advocate office was constantly trying to do something to stop us from engaging in the process, whether it be limiting the number of victim letters that could go in, down to we've got in a huge um fight over. We had a bunch of um uh people that wanted to participate and go to the parole hearing, and she was telling us that we were gonna have to start telling some of these people, they we're talking family members here, that they could not um that they weren't gonna be able to go and stuff. And so anyway, my sister really fought that fought and uh thought and um so we ended up getting everybody to go, but if we we if we would have just listened to her, a bunch of the family would not have been able to go because she was trying to stop us from having these people go. And then we were even into a situation where um we had an individual call us, his name was his name was Al, and he's um he's worked with the Oregon prison system for like 30 years, and he was he was trying to call us. He'd called my mom, and my mom was really scared because the individual that murdered my daughter actually threatened her life too. And then through this process, getting all the parole, hearing paperwork, pack it, and stuff, we found out that this guy had been scamming a bunch of people out of a lot of money, and he had actually a lot of money in bank accounts um in prison. So my family, which is obviously I I live in North Dakota, but they're uh not too far from the prison, was concerned because this guy is uh a very evil individual, that he was gonna try to hire somebody to actually hit man to actually take them out. So they were continuing with they were dealing with that aspect of it. So this Al guy calls and um he talked to us, he said that I better kind of explain it. Al has a friend in the prison. Al's been dealing with the prison system for 30 years. He had a very close friend, he was married to Alex, who's in the prison, and he was in very close association with Mike, who murdered my daughter. So we had this informant in the prison that had been writing these letters, wrote like 12 letters to the parole board, started out, I don't know, somewhere around six months from the parole hearing, maybe even sooner than that. Well, he called us because the victim's advocate office was saying they couldn't find these letters, which you know, after everything that happened and everything that came out, we think they just threw them away because they didn't want to submit them into the parole hearing. But so Al got a hold of us and started talking to us, and he submitted the letters to us, and we got them put in the parole hearing. And the reason I share this is because these letters were very um instrumental in him getting to uh him, he actually got denied parole and it got extended. For another eight years before he can actually go up for parole again. And I don't believe, well, I know everybody that's been involved in this process knows that that would have never happened if Al had not got a hold of us, and and we were able to get those letters presented to the parole board, which the victim's advocate office fought us on that too. They did not want us, they were not going to allow us to submit those letters, but we went around them. We actually started put with petitioning the office of the parole board. We started writing the governor. I mean, uh, we went to we did everything we could possibly do to um get his parole dem denied.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

One one question I have is I mean, I I keep hearing the term victim advocate and you know, blocking of letters, blocking, you know, what what would be the purpose of blocking those letters, letters if they were a victim advocate? Uh maybe that's the ultimate question, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Well, it is, and I the way I felt about this victim advocate through the process, um, my sister felt like she was doing it intentionally. I felt like she was just completely incompetent. That was my in in in my dealings with her and meeting her at the parole board and stuff. I felt like she was completely incompetent in the job she was doing, is what I thought. She had no empathy for the victims. She had no she did not for being a victim advocate, she had no self-awareness of of what people were going through and dealing with this process.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

I think you're talking about compassion, sort of what it sounds like to me. I I hear you. If you're in that role, that one of your characteristics should be compassion for what the family is going through. It's not just like a structured checkbox. These these come in, these don't, these could like that to me, this seems like you have to have a specific skill set to be able to do that job in the way that it needs to be done.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Yeah, because I'm just listening to the story and I'm just going, okay, so I I don't know what the details are around the letters at all. Um, but I was like, why would you want to block them? Why would why was that even be why would that even be part of the conversation? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

And those those letters were very powerful. I mean, and and I will say this the parole, there was three members on the parole board, those letters were so powerful that that parole board, that probe parole hearing was scheduled for four hours because they had another one after that. So that parole board started. Um, it was more like an interrogation when they started the process um with the um with his attorneys and stuff. And they this went on for almost eight hours. I mean, there was nobody at any lunch. We were locked in the we had to go through security checks. We had to literally go through uh prison gates and go into a room where everybody sat in there for eight hours. I mean, the the I I I will say that um the members on the parole board, they those guys did a very good job. They I mean they didn't leave any stone unturned, and they and those letters, again, I want to emphasize those letters were central to their um interrogation's not the word, but it was more like a trial.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

And so, what would you like the decision makers and the public to understand about the impact that that hearing had on your family?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Well, I I think they need to understand that, you know, even though it's been 25 years, that has not changed anything. It has not got any easier emotionally to deal with the situation. I I would almost say from my personal experience, I think it's been harder now. Um, I don't know if it's because a person gets numb originally. I don't know if it was because I ran away from it, because we moved. I mean, we, you know, me and my family moved, you know, to North Dakota, got away from it. And, you know, maybe it was easier for me as an individual in our family to kind of shut it out at times and avoid, you know. I mean, you know, there was the holidays, you know, were really hard, especially her birthday, and there were situations of stuff, but you know, it was still, I think personally, I I had kind of cut myself off from it somewhat emotionally. But going through the parole hearing, it changed everything. I I I mean, I feel like I'm literally reliving originally when it happened. I'm around, you know, my and I know I've been very my family, it's been very difficult, my family, because the anger and the emotion and the I mean the need to do something to somehow try to make this situation right. And we are doing things. I mean, we've got a full-on investigation going into the uh prison right now. I was just on the phone with the inspector general from Oregon yesterday, and uh getting every week we're getting an update on this investigation because they're the one thing those letters brung out was the crimes that this individual is still committing in prison. It's not that this individual has stopped doing anything, he is still selling drugs, he's scamming people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. He's got a full-on business, uh con business going out of the prison through the internet and the phone system. Uh, he's in privileged housing in the prison system because he narcs, he's a narc for the Snake River Correctional Institution. There's the possibility that there's actually, there's not the possibility, but there's actually correctional operators involved in some of this. And and all that is, and that's not just talk. This is we we have a private investigator that's working on it in the prison system. We have Al, there's two informants in there. We get at least once a week updates, what's going on there. Talked to Inspector General yesterday, got an update. We're working on, I mean, I've been in contact with Malher County, which is where Ontario, Oregon is, which is where Snake River is, with the district attorney there. I've been in contact continuously with Josh Pond out of Columbia County, Oregon, which where the case was originally tried, uh, the district attorney there. I mean, and that's just a part of what we've got going on this right now.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

And this is all coming out from what was uncovered during the parole hearing. Is that what I'm understanding?

SPEAKER_01 29:47

This is all coming out from those letters that the informant wrote that got submitted to the parole hearing. Yes. We would not have known any of this if it was not for those letters. And that's what I was trying to emphasize earlier.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

And this is the power of keeping someone's name out there, right? Not just letting it go because the this person came forward because they know about Crystal and they know what happened and want it to be part of the solution, right? Not part of the problem, which seems like something you've been describing um quite quite frequently. So this is part of why we do our work so that we are giving families an opportunity to keep the um turn up the volume, right? Keep the spotlight on the horrible event that happened moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yeah, you have to keep making waves. I'm telling you, if you if you're going through the situation and I and this is one thing I will say, if you're gonna trust the law enforcement, which there's nothing wrong with trusting them, but if you think in most cases they're gonna do it by themselves and get it this resolved and get it resolved in a way that uh even when this individual was prosecuted, it was not prosecuted correctly. There was other stuff involved that were working with district attorneys trying to get additional charges, brought and stuff. People have got to get involved in this process. The criminal system is, I don't know, it's pretty messed up in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

We're going to take a short pause here in our conversation about the life and legacy of Crystal Cook. In the next episode, we'll continue our discussion with Crystal's father Lee as he reflects on the years since her murder, the recent parole hearing, and the ongoing work being done through the Crystal Rose Cook nonprofit. You've been listening to Tragedy, a true crime podcast. Our purpose is to honor victims by sharing their stories through the voices of friends, family, and those whose lives were forever changed. If today's episode resonated with you, we encourage you to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast so these important stories continue to be heard. Together, we can preserve their memories and ensure their voices are never forgotten. If you have ideas for cases we should cover or questions about what you heard, you can connect with us through our Facebook group, Tragedy a True Crime Podcast, on X at Tragedy Podcast, by email at TragedyAtrue Crime Podcast at gmail.com, or by visiting our website www.tragedyatrucrime podcast.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us next time.