SPEAKER_01 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_00 0:47

And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Today we're joined by someone whose connection to Crystal's case is both deeply personal and uniquely shaped by time. Hannah Mossbrucker, the younger sister of Crystal Cook. Hanna never had the chance to meet Crystal. She wasn't born yet when her sister was killed, and yet Crystal's presence has always been part of her life, shared through family memories, stories, and the legacy her sister left behind. Growing up, Hannah came to know Crystal not through lived moments, but through the voices of those who loved her. Through the stories, she's built a connection to a sister she never met, one grounded in love, remembrance, and a deep sense of who Crystal was. Now, as her family continues to carry Crystal's memory forward, Hannah's voice becomes part of a chapter that is still unfolding, one shaped by the recent parole process for the person responsible. It's a moment that brings reflection, emotion, and the responsibility of speaking on behalf of someone's life that was taken far too soon. Today, Hannah joins us to share what it means to grow up with this legacy, to stand alongside her family during moments that matter, and to ensure that Crystal's voice continues to be heard. Because Crystal's story hasn't ended. It continues through Hannah, through her family, and through the ongoing pursuit of honoring her life. Thank you for being here and welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Hi, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

So we want to start off, Hannah, just by um sharing a little bit about yourself and what you would like our listeners to know about you.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Um, well, I'm a pretty simple gal. Um I of course have grown up with the I would say shadow, obviously, of Crystal being my older sister and um trying to kind of navigate that as a whole. Um it doesn't sound like much, I feel like, to a lot of people because like, you know, I wasn't there yet, but I can tell you it is it is a lot and it's been quite a journey. Um but I think as an adult now it's been nice to be able to, you know, kind of use my voice and help my family, you know, to continue to fight for um keeping Crystal's name out there and her story alive and where we want to kind of see the story go in the future.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

So growing up, when did you first begin to understand who Crystal was?

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Um, I would say almost, I mean, right away. Cause the whole thing that happened, I mean, it really shaped I mean, my whole childhood, though from the way my parents raised us to the relationship that I had with my like extended family, you know, there's just it really did affect every single aspect. And so I think very early on I was aware of like that she should be here and that um you know things should have been different, but they weren't, and I guess that's where we're at today.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

What are some of the stories about Crystal that have stayed with you over the years?

SPEAKER_02 4:25

That's kind of a tough one because it's taken uh my family kind of a lot of years to really like it took my dad a long time to process it. So like, like I said, we're very aware of what had happened and like how it shaped you know our lives and everything. But like early on there wasn't a lot of stories to kind of hear about. So I guess at the moment I can't even really think of of a particular story.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Can you tell us based on um what your family has shared with you about Crystal, um, how would you describe her?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Well, I definitely know it sounds like uh he was the life of the party, and she lit up a room and she walked into it. And I mean, I've seen pictures of my sister. She was beautiful. I mean, she was gorgeous, and you could just see, like, even in the pictures from when she was a kid, she was just like a light. And I think I think it's interesting because you know, you hear a lot of times you hear people talk about, you know, loved ones who are gone now, um, how they lit up a room and how you know they were the life of the party, and like they were just, you know, this amazing human being. And I truly think that was true with Crystal. Like, she, you know, there's pictures of her dancing, and she's always smiling, and she's always happy, and she just she almost emanates joy, and I think that that is that was who she was. She was a happy, energetic, she just had a zest for life.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

How you mentioned this a little bit earlier, but can you say a little bit more about um how being a part of this family and the experience and the things that happened with Crystal have shaped who you are today?

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Well, I mean, it completely shaped my parent parenting style, the way they raised us, the way that we kind of learned to interact with people. It's not necessarily fear-based because I'm not afraid, and neither of my siblings never have been. But we're cautious, definitely more so, I feel like when it comes to meeting new people, to sharing information. There's always kind of like a in the back of your head, like you don't want to get too, you know, open about information, or you won't want anybody to know too much about you until you're, you know, for sure that they're they're good people, and it affected um my relationship with my grandparents early on because there was kind of a split in the family. Um I think it would have been right after I was born, um, with kind of like my immediate family, so like my parents and then my extended family. And so I didn't really know that like the first six years of my life, I think, and was probably around that long before we kind of got back together, and then I was fortunate enough to establish a relationship with all of them. But yeah, it definitely affected everything.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

And can you tell us um some of the ways that your family and you have kept Crystal's memory alive over the years?

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Well, the biggest thing I would say definitely is that every year on her birthday, which is January 19th, we always have some sort of um celebration. We always try to, you know, take time to stop and think about her and remember her and talk about her and make sure that she's not forgotten and that her name, you know. And I mean, I plan on continuing to do that as long as I am alive um with my husband. And you know, if we have a family someday, we will always take that day to remember her. Um, and then like through this whole process, I I'm the one who created the Facebook page and I kind of ran it, and I got the opportunity to kind of um be the voice for the rest of my family and whatnot, but that has been a way to get her name out there and her story out there, and hopefully, you know, have an impact on people and have a lasting impact that you know her name is everywhere. And then obviously, um, I know my dad touched on the nonprofit that we've set up in her honor to help like youth and troubled young women and you know, just young women in vulnerable situations who might need help, and then their families through the process. And I think that putting her name on there, obviously, that's a way to create a legacy and preserve a legacy that she didn't have the opportunity to create herself.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Can you remind our listeners? I I want to get it right. I believe the Facebook page is Voices for Crystal.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Yes, it is Voices for Crystal, and we started it right before the parole hearing um back in March, and it really took off almost right away. We gained a lot of followers, and we just hit almost 300,000 views since it was created, and that's not even counting all the content um that we shared with like the the news outlets. Um, and um we're all very proud of that to be able to um obviously be a voice bar.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

And you mentioned the uh Crystal Rose Cook nonprofit, and we know that um this is a very important part of honoring Crystal. And tell us a little bit about what that foundation means to you personally.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Well, I will be very heavily involved with the nonprofit. Um, I will be helping make the decisions and choose what we do with it and whatnot. And um it is very important to me because I want to be able to use her name and her story and kind of use what happened as a way to hopefully do something good to help other families and other victims and you know, people who need help and um whether it be with the parole process, getting through that, because you know, we know firsthand now how horrendous that process is for a family. Um, or help you know, if we can help investigate and help figure out, you know, people need help with like private investigators and whatnot in the future. Hopefully we can we can kind of do that. But so yeah, I think mostly it's important to to just have her name attached to something that hopefully makes a huge lasting impact on lots of people.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Well, one thing that's really compelling about what you're saying too is even as we started our own journey with this podcast, I mean it we it kind of evolved over over time. You know, we we didn't really set a path, we kind of let it discover itself. And we we found even just from this platform, how many people were just reaching out and needed help. And so it was it was more um it was a lot more than I was ever anticipating. And so I can certainly see how a foundation like what you're trying to set up is gonna be really, really helpful to people.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

I think it's amazing doing and like I'm sure I can't like to be able to get people's voices out there the way that you guys do, I think is truly incredible and help with you know finding information and connecting people to the story, like uh even with our Facebook page. Um, you know, when we first set it up, we had all of these people reaching out to us when they started learning the story and like the parole hearing was coming up because they had no idea what was going on. They did not know that it was happening. You know, they people, friends of Crystals came forward with good stories about her, and people came forward with information and stories about the individual who murdered my sister and wanted to, you know, give this, try and get this to, you know, like the parole board and like you know, get the word out there, and it was a great way for that to happen. I think that that had a huge impact on the way that the parole hearing did end up going was that we were able to bring forward so many people and get the word out there to write letters to the parole board and you know, just have a way to get information out there because you know people don't know what they don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

That's true. And so something else too that I wanted to point out. I've actually been thinking about this since we we talked to your dad, and um, there's something very um compelling in his voice. It's an interesting combination of devastation and anger, and even beyond the what he shared as far as the story, I just keep remembering how he told the story. And so I'm looking forward to seeing what our our listeners respond to and what type of feedback they have and how they can help, because I know it was it was really impactful to me personally.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Yeah, my dad is a how do I want to say it, he's a force to be reckoned with.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

I can tell.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

When he when it especially when it comes to protecting his family and doing what he believes is right, he is a force to be reckoned with. That's the only thing I can really say to accurately describe that. And as his daughter, um, to watch him go through what he has gone through my entire life. I'm 25 years old, and I have spent my entire life watching this, to watch him come to the point where he is right now being able to tell the story, being able to voice his feelings and his thoughts, and take his energy and put it into, you know, trying to set up this nonprofit and you know, help families, and trying to make sure that Crystal's name is always remembered and make sure that you know he said his life mission is to keep the individual who did it in prison. And he means it. Let me tell you, he means it. That's not something that he says lightly. And I mean, we all of course support him and back him, but yeah, he's it's amazing actually to watch him and to listen to him. Even when I was listening to him when he recorded with you guys the first time, it was um I had tears in my eyes because I listened to him and I have a unique perspective as his daughter, um to share him with Crystal as siblings and to watch him go through that grief. I mean, that's that's one of the actual worst parts for me of this whole thing is I not only lost the opportunity to ever know my sister, I have watched my dad like a little piece of him, you know, is gone forever because she's not here. And as his other daughter, there's just something I don't even know how to put the words, um that just breaks my heart, you know. It it's hard to watch, but I'm so proud of him.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

It's making me think of one of the other uh families that we supported. It's a missing person out of um South Florida, and he's been missing since 1979. And his brother came forward and spoke with us, and it was the first time he had spoken publicly about his brother's disappearance. And we are very close with this family and um his nieces, and they just were there, they were saying very similar things to you. Like, we are so proud that he was, he's finally able to speak publicly. And while it was difficult to to watch an experience, it did give him an opportunity to do what he just hasn't felt comfortable doing for what, 50 years now, a really, really long time. Um you talked, you used the word horrendous when you talked about the parole process. Can you talk a little more specifically about some of the barriers that your family encountered and how you navigated those barriers?

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Yeah, I'd love to address that because I think that other families and people who might not know, you know, what they're going to have to deal with or what they're going into should have at least some sort of warning. Um, because it was horrendous. It was it was terrible. I mean, we're honestly we're lucky we even found out that it was coming up. Um, I think the grace of God, to be honest. And then, you know, from every every step of the way, it was like trying to, you know, climb up a hill in mud. Like it was just terrible. Every time we tried to submit letters to the pro board, the um and I know my dad's on the victim specialist, um, I believe was her title. And um I interacted with her a lot of times throughout the process. And I will tell you, keeping my cool was difficult. Um, and I'm not usually a well, that's not true.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

I'm a little little uh, but um there's a there's a place for sassy. I'm I'm a I'm an advocate of sassy.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Well, I felt it coming out a lot going through that. Um because you know, as every we had, you know, all these people wanted to submit letters and they were trying to she was trying to tell us, you know, like we couldn't, and then it would change of like, oh well, we'll take these, but we can't take these other ones. And you know, she would do I tried to submit a letter from one of the family members originally, and he said, Well, we're all we're not accepting any letters. I was like, Oh, this is from her uncle, you better take this letter. And then it kind of, you know, like shifted, like, oh, okay, well, it's family, so we'll take it, but we can't take any more. And I just found it so infuriating because I was like, We have all of these people who want to voice, whether it's in support of us, or they knew the individual back in the day, or they knew Crystal and they you know knew her story, and you know, just wanted to like re you know, just make it say it again that you know, this was a young woman who lost her life at the hands of a man who does not care and he feels no remorse. And every step of the way she just made it so difficult. And I mean even one of the things this might sound kind of stupid, but one of the things even in the poll hearing is you're you have to go through security because you know it's held in the prison, and you can only take like a few snacks, and you can take like a bottle of water, and they all have to be checked. Well, we ended up being in there for eight hours. It was originally scheduled for four. There was nothing done, like, you know, no drinks, no snacks, no nothing. Like, if you're a victim's specialist, there were so many things that she could have done to make this easier for people. And I think if you're gonna hold that rule, you have to. be empathetic. Like you have to try and at least attempt to make this process maybe bearable for families who are going through the unthinkable, you know, reliving it. And there was just like there's no consideration for these families and the victims who are, you know, having to deal with this again. No nothing. And it's just like I said, one thing after another. And it's bad enough to start with that, you know, we're having to go through this and relive it. It would it's it's very tragic, I think, that it's almost like the the justice system is designed to like take care of the criminal more than the people who have suffered. And I think that's really a shame because when you're already when you're already dealing with this, having to fight them on it as well is truly terrible.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Yeah, we have been talking um a lot about what what you just said about who's being prioritized, right? And and who's being, I guess quote, taken care of. And obviously we 100% agree with you. And like we're really advocating and I know that you guys are um as well really focusing on um being victim centered, being the being centered on the family of the victim. You'll see lots of times like I don't even like to like in some of the higher profile cases, they're referred to by the person, like the national highly profiled cases are referred to by the person who committed the crime. And I'm like, why are we saying it? We should be calling, you know, when we're discussing it, we we should be talking about the victim, naming the victim and not not naming the people who are responsible for what happened to them. So I mean it is a shift. So how did you navigate some of these barriers? Did you guys like, did you just start Google searching how to do this? Like, because this is I think one of the keys of the foundation is is that you all navigated it and got a successful outcome and your desire is to help families to be able to navigate it so their experience isn't as horrendous as yours.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Oh we yeah I mean we started anybody that we could find to reach out to me and my sister especially because we had the the time and the resources and we kind of have the know how with our job to like be able to find information and whatnot and we found every I mean I we spent hours emailing news outlets and TV stations and radios and I'm radio stations and um we sent an email to almost every county in Oregon to their board like their their chairperson their board members their mayors we the governors I mean everybody we found an email for the parole board we sent as much information as we could we just didn't stop because we didn't know nobody was like reaching back out and like you know helping us so we just kept pushing because we needed somebody to pay attention and I mean we finally got a few news outlets but we still you know um there was a incredible lack of awareness for like the counties that he was hoping to be released into. We reached out to all of them and I gotta say nobody really seemed to care too much. But um the prison whoever we could figure out I mean we re we actually reached out to some different true crime podcasts and shows which is actually one of the reasons that I'm so grateful that uh you guys have picked up the story as well is because there was a lot of people who didn't reach back out to us and I guess we just any anybody that we could find to contact we we contacted and we tried to get the story out there. And there was a few people that did reach back out. We had a a mayor of one of the counties in Oregon he reached back out um and the the Facebook thing was obviously huge in getting the story out there. So I guess there's there's no playbook you just kind of I guess do whatever you can do.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Yeah you think I was gonna say um you know what you're describing is kind of what we've told a lot of our families that we work with already is you know you have to become the annoying you know knock at the door you can't give up you you can't just send off an email and expect someone to get back to you have to go knock on their door. Even in our situation you know we we've been known to get involved with the sheriff's departments in certain areas and we found that in many cases in fact almost all cases we haven't gotten responses until we go and knock on their door and just say you know get in person and say we want to speak to the sheriff. And even sometimes that doesn't work and you just have you have to be one of those people that just absolutely refuse to go away and as a result you know we're starting to see some positive you know positive direction in a number of cases but you know your dad said something to something that I I thought about and that was you know it goes back to why the foundation's being created because he said what happens to people who don't necessarily have the money to throw at this that that I have he said that I'm like and so I'm thinking about all the different underserved families that you know we we work with which is not even a drop in the bucket to this problem. Because you you even said something earlier that I couldn't agree with you more is the system seems to be designed to protect the criminal. I don't understand that I mean they've taken the rights away from someone else and yet we're concerned about their rights and their process and and while I while I think we definitely need to follow a process I mean people are innocent or proven guilty. I get all I mean I believe in all that I don't believe in you know spending more time protecting their rights than you know going through that process and actually having that evidence and looking at these things and you know and really and really kind of digging into what happened and then once we've made a decision the decision's been made. I mean the you know so putting families in a position where they have just this absolute horrendous thing to go relive over and over and over again and get no results and having these the the whole story about the victim's advocate protecting the person who's on parole I actually found that just tragic yes especially the we're not taking any more letters I would have been like what do you mean you're not taking we still have people who want to speak like that I think that would have really been a a moment for me to to get as you described sassy. And I want to I want to share this I mean something just occurred to me while we're talking is we originally had an invite on a different podcast to come speak about some of our missing people and we were almost ready to do the recording and the guy calls me up and says hey we can't take you on the show and so I I said why and he said well it would be a conflict of interest and so I'm like wait a second you represent the Sheriff's Association and you're telling me that a podcast that's about victim advocacy and missing people is a conflict of interest I'm I'm like dude you got your priorities mixed up yeah and I mean it it's crazy like just you know watching the whole process of how true that is of how it you you start to wonder like if people are actually on the victim's side I guess and exactly uh why the decisions that are made are made is uh another thing I thought I just was thinking of too is and I mu dad might have touched on that as well um the limiting of people for the parole hearing um I thought was kind of ridiculous because they're trying to limit you first it was like I believe 15 people and then it was like oh well maybe we can do 20 and then they were like oh the limit's 25 and we had that room packed.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

I mean my family we all came out and they're not used to that you know they even made the statement oh well since COVID you know most people just choose to you know do this over Zoom and like nobody you know makes an appearance anymore and whatever and we were like well that is not us we will be there we'll see you Tuesday all day like we'll be outside the door you better unlock it like you know I mean we have people who want to show up who want to support us and I I honestly um I feel like that was probably I in the parole members board members' minds I feel like that was probably a thing that they made note of was how many people that room was packed. You know that's a in my opinion that's a very big statement of these people mean business and they're here and you know they care about this. Like I feel like you can't ignore that and at least you shouldn't be able to so the the sentence was a life sentence obviously with the possibility of parole as you're talking can you tell us about the outcome of the parole hearing well obviously he was um they chose to give him eight more years before he's eligible for parole again and while that is a win in some ways it's also it's a very mixed feeling because you're talking about you know this individual who you know murdered my sister and I don't think and I don't think anybody in their right mind thinks that he should even ever be given the option of Pearl. I mean I think that's absolutely crazy that that's even an option on the table. And so it is good that he was given the additional eight years but you're also over here like okay so in eight years we have to go through this again. We have to once again stand up and try and fight this and make sure that he never leaves prison because this is a very dangerous individual and I I can't even imagine what would happen if he let this guy back out on the streets. I mean the thought it scares me. I mean he he killed my sister that's not in my opinion that's not redeemable. There is no way that that is ever I don't care how many classes he may have taken I don't care how many self you know um learning path career whatever things he's taken that doesn't that doesn't change and even if you do the fact is that you killed somebody and you need to stay in prison forever. And I want to take that and circle back to um the foundation and the nonprofit and so what are your hopes for the impact of the nonprofit um not just for Crystal but for others I hope the impact is that someday when maybe family is facing what we were facing going into a parole hearing and not having any idea how to handle it or what to do I hope if they Google what do you do I hope if they talk to somebody I hope that somebody can say there is this foundation this place that you can go to there are people that you can call that will help you navigate this. There are people that will explain to you what to do and they will send somebody to walk into it with you if you need it to be supported I want it to be so big that people know that they have somewhere to lean when they face this process and the all future you know pieces of the process that um the victims families are left to deal with and try and face after such a horrendous crime is committed. Is there anything that you wanted to share that we didn't give you an opportunity to talk about um I actually would there's just uh one point that I really like to make my grandfather and Crystal's grandfather my dad's dad passed away unfortunately last Friday and that has been another grief to try and navigate but I just wanted to say that um him and my grandma um when this happened to Crystal um they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars helping find her and my grandpa's logging crew became search parties.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

They looked everywhere they did everything that they could to try and help bring her home and my grandpa is now with her again and um I just wanted to put that out there that he was an amazing man and he did everything he could to help her and that that he's with her again now and 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 TragedyAtrueCrime Podcast at gmail dot com or by visiting our website www dotyatrucrime podcast dot com. Thank you for listening and we hope you'll join us next time