Case Details
- Photo URLs:
-
- Missing Since:
- Missing Since 05/01/1999
- Missing From:
- Missing From Rochester, New York
- Classification:
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Gender:
- Male
- Race:
- Race Native American
- Date of Birth:
- Date of Birth 07/30/1976 (48)
- Age:
- Age 23 years old
- Height and Weight:
- Height and Weight 5’5, 185 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description:
- Distinguishing Characteristics:
- Distinguishing Characteristics Native American male. Black hair, brown eyes. Cooper’s nickname is Chewy. He has acne scars and a scar on his left cheek and his lip. He also has several tattoos, including a cat, a Joker, the word “Indio” and the name “JH Ryan.”
- Details of Disappearance:
- Cooper disappeared in Rochester, New York, sometime between May and July 1999. He left behind a young son and his pregnant girlfriend. His family mostly lived far away, on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation.
Years later, in 2011, his cousins James Kendrick and Pablo Plaza were arrested for Cooper’s murder. They were part of a large group involved in drugs and violence. They were also charged with killing another man, Francisco Santos, whose body was found on the reservation. Kendrick was the leader of this criminal group.
Plaza confessed to being present when Cooper was beaten to death. The reason? Cooper knew about Santos’s murder and where the body was, and the gang feared he would tell the police. Kendrick was later convicted of both murders.
Cooper’s body has never been found. Police think it was cut up, possibly using a wood chipper, and thrown away near the train tracks. Everything points to him being murdered.
- Agency:
- Rochester Police Department 585-428-7114
- Source Links:
This person was missing Missing Since 05/01/1999