Cheryl Coker, known as a ‘bubbly’ Ohio mother to family and friends, was found dead over a year after she vanished.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, authorities named William “Bill” Coker as the sole suspect in 2019, in the disappearance of 46-year-old Cheryl, of Riverside. Police previously said the beloved mom of two daughters was likely deceased.
Cheryl’s husband, Bill Coker, was reportedly a serial cheater who allegedly had a previous affair years before his wife disappeared. In 2018, he was secretly seeing another woman behind Cheryl Coker’s back, according to friends, yet didn’t want a divorce because he thought it would look bad on his image.
Cheryl Coker filed for divorce in late September 2018. The following month, no one could find her.
According to investigators, a “suspicious male” was spotted on surveillance camera October 2, 2018, at Spinning Hills Middle School at around 11:10 a.m., hours after Coker dropped her daughter off at the school. The school is around half a mile away from Cheryl’s Riverside residence, off of Christy Drive.
Detective Travis Abney of the Riverside Police Department previously said that Coker never made it to work at KLD Associates. The man was spotted in four different cameras at the school, one of which showed him walking toward Cheryl’s residence.
The following evening, Coker’s 2016 Toyota Highlander was found at a strip mall parking lot by Kroger, around half a mile from her home. Her driver’s license, phone, and purse were located inside the locked vehicle. Security footage showed the vehicle pulling into the parking lot at around 10:45 a.m.
Someone dressed in all black with a hood pulled over their head, exited the vehicle and walked through the parking lot, going northbound toward Burkhardt Road. Around 20 minutes later, someone called 911 and reported a “suspicious male” walking close to Coker’s residence.
On April 27, 2020, mushroom hunters discovered human remains on private property that was “not a common area for a person to go to.” The remains were positively identified as Cheryl Coker.
Authorities are treating the case as a homicide investigation, although no one yet has been arrested. Bill Coker reportedly has been “reluctant” to take a polygraph test.
“No one would not dressed all in black like a ninja would still have all their regular random burglary clothes. Maybe pull the cap down. That works! But then goes to a parking lot and parks her car. That is somebody that knows she goes to that Kroger. I bet you money,” Nancy Grace said on Monday’s “Crime Stories,” airing on Fox Nation and Sirius XM.
“Who in her life would match that behavioral profile?” expert guest Dr. Bethany Marshall added. “Who was the drama queen? Who was preoccupied with her? Whoever did this had a big personality.”
Cheryl’s sister, Margie Keenan, told police that Cheryl’s divorce was “messy,” as she tried to get sole custody of her youngest child.
Riverside police said search warrants were executed in the case in February, a year after they named Bill Coker as a suspect and said they believed Cheryl Coker was dead.
Check back for updates.
[Feature Photo: Cheryl Coker/Handout]
