Gale Annette Cook, 39, was found dead in a wooded area of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 12, 1995. An autopsy determined she had been strangled with a ligature. She had last been seen alive eight days earlier, on October 4, near Front Avenue SW and Wealthy Street SW. Originally from New Jersey, Cook was living in Haslett, Michigan, at the time of her death.

Cook’s murder was one of roughly 17 unsolved murders or disappearances of women in the Grand Rapids area in the mid-1990s; the cases shared similarities that led investigators to consider a possible serial offender. For years the investigations produced few leads and grew cold. A later forensic genealogy match linked DNA to Garry Artman in the 1996 murder of Sharon Hammack, and Artman later made a deathbed confession to multiple killings, but authorities have not publicly said whether Cook was among those he admitted to killing. DNA has excluded Artman in at least one other victim, suggesting there may have been more than one perpetrator.

Cook’s case remains unsolved with no arrests or charges announced. If anyone has information about Gale Cook, where she was living or who she was with in October 1995, please come forward.