MAYSVILLE, Ky. — The Maysville Police Department and the loved ones of Eugenia Harris Cooley need help finding the grandmother who has been missing since before the holidays.
Police said Cooley was last seen walking near her home in the Great Meadow Homes community on Dec. 21 at around 1 p.m. A surveillance camera captured Cooley walking toward Clark Street.
Cooley's family told WCPO they fear something bad could have happened to her.
The 47-year-old moved to Maysville last year after living for some time in Florence. Despite moving more than an hour away from her children who reside in Cincinnati, Cooley's eldest daughter, Keyila Isome, said she always stayed in contact. Isome picked her mother up to bring her to Cincinnati for a few days before dropping her back off in Maysville on Dec. 13.
"I gave her a hug, a kiss. She told me she loved me. I told her the same thing and I walked out," Isome said. "Everything seemed fine. It didn't seem like she was worried about anything. She didn't seem like she was sad or depressed. I didn't get no alert as to think that something was wrong with her."
Days later on Dec. 19, Isome said she and her sister, Jasha Westbrook, received a strange text message from Cooley.
"It said, 'I love all my children. I miss you. I love you' and I text her back and I didn't get no response back. I felt like something might have been wrong after I didn't get a response," Isome said.
After more days of no response, the siblings said they drove to Maysville on New Year's Eve to check on their mother. Her front door was unlocked but Cooley wasn't at home. Her keys were hanging on her bedroom doorknob and her wallet was inside a duffel bag.
"When we first came in there was a Christmas present on her steps and a case of waters that hadn't been picked up," Cooley's son Jael Westbrook said.
The siblings found that odd and called the police to report their mother missing. They stayed at her home that night in the hopes that Cooley would return, but she never did. That's when their mother's disappearance took an even stranger turn.
"We were going through some things and we checked the trash — two trash bags that were in her personal trash (can) — and found purses of hers that were thrown away and all of our childhood pictures — all of our pictures, all of our photo albums — everything was in the trash," Jasha Westbrook said. "Both of her phones were stuffed inside of a glove and also in the trash and so that kind of rubbed us all the wrong way and we ended up calling the police back over."
Cooley had no car, no known boyfriend and no history of mental health issues or drug use. Her family is at a loss and so are the police.
Detective Ryan Hull spoke with WCPO on Tuesday about the search for Cooley. He said it's uncommon for people to go missing in the community and described this case as unusual. Cooley has been missing for more than two weeks, and despite extensive efforts to find her, there are no leads.
"We're going through tons and tons of video right now trying to locate her. One of the problems is because of the delay in when she went missing to when it was reported, some of our video has been cut," Hull said. "In the apartment complex where she lives there actually was a camera that was facing towards her apartment door but that camera wasn't working at the time of course."
Hull said he's called local hospitals and the services Cooley used for transportation. He learned Cooley got a ride to a doctor's appointment on Dec. 18 and that a woman who works at the apartment complex gave her a ride across the Ohio River into Aberdeen the next day — the same day Cooley sent her final text message to her daughters — and told him Cooley seemed distraught.
Hull said he's not sure who put Cooley's phones in the trash. After checking the devices, he found they were last used at 8 a.m. on Dec. 21. The last time Cooley was ever seen was just a few hours later.
Given the circumstances, Hull said foul play could be a possibility.
"That's why we're putting a lot into this right now," Hull said. "We would do it for any missing person but we're pretty sure this isn't a person who just went away with somebody for a romantic weekend or something, this seems — especially around Christmas time it happening — usually even if she went away with someone she would have been back by now."
Cooley's family said they worry Maysville police aren't taking her disappearance as seriously as they are. They organized a private search party for Cooley on Jan. 4 and plan to organize another one soon.
"We've been doing our part," Jasha Westbrook said. "We're just really concerned and confused."
Hull said his department has searched too, traveling the entire length of the city including along the riverbank and in wooded areas.
"We have been working diligently. We've been going through cell phones. I've been going through video, knocking on doors. Just because they don't see us doesn't mean that we're not doing anything," Hull said. "We consider everyone around here family and even she — she was an outsider who came from Northern Kentucky down here a year ago — we consider her one of ours. We are working very diligently to try and find Ms. Cooley and we hope we do. But it's getting hard."
Cooley is described as being 5-foot-7 with brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information on Cooley's whereabouts is asked to call the Maysville Police Department at 606-564-9411 or submit an anonymous tip through Tip 411.
"If anyone has seen her or know where she's at, please let us know," Isome said. "We love her very much. She's very loved. We just want to make sure that she's alive and safe."
