Cookie Sherron Jacobson, 49, was last seen at her Tempe, Arizona home near McClintock Drive and Southern Avenue on September 21, 1998. Her husband, Bill, saw her that morning; when a friend arrived later to pick her up for a night class she didn’t answer the door. Her purse, shoes and car keys remained at the house and she was reported missing the next day.

Investigators focused on immediate family early on. Bill passed a polygraph; results for the children were problematic. The 13-year-old daughter Laura had an inconclusive test. The 16-year-old son Aaron’s polygraph indicated deception, and he later told police he and his sister had disposed of their mother’s body behind the home after finding her deceased in bed. Cookie’s blood was found in a nearby trash can, but despite arrests for second-degree murder and facilitation, both children were released within hours for lack of sufficient evidence.

Officers and city workers searched the Butterfield Station Landfill for 59 days, sifting roughly 8,000 tons of garbage without finding remains. An anonymous tip in 2003 was deemed credible but the caller was not identified. The case remains open, the children listed as the primary persons of interest, and Cookie’s whereabouts and cause of death are unresolved.

If anyone knew Cookie, her movements in Tempe that week, or has information about the landfill search, please share what is known.