Items Found During Search May Belong to Hellen Cook

UPDATE: BENTON COUNTY, Mo - Thursdays search for Hellen Cook has come and gone without any sight of her. Hellen wandered off from a family lake property on July 13 and police are still searching with the help a robust volunteer effort.

More than 200 volunteers gathered on Thursday morning all with hopes of finding her alive. The search was somewhat disappointing. Volunteers searched an area of woods near Truman State Park and found three articles of clothing.. a pair of shoes and a scarf.

Police believe they belong to Cook, the items were found near a small pond where search efforts have previously been focused.

“We have had people in that area, I know it was hit fairly hard the first night that the original report was made. But the items were in thick prairie grass,” Benton County Sheriff Rick Fajan said.

Howard Cook, Hellen’s husband, said earlier today that efforts were the best so far and he is still holding out hope.
“I choose to be optimistic, I choose to believe that we are going to find her and she’s going to be okay,” Cook said.

Volunteers want their efforts to succeed and to assist a neighbor in need.
“It would mean a lot, it’s a small community, a pretty tight-knit community. It doesn’t matter if you know somebody personally or not, it’s community,” volunteer Kerry Keys said.

A police helicopter will be used during the next leg of the search to survey the pond area where the clothes were found. Previously an air search of the same area didn’t yield any clues to Cook’s whereabouts.

Nearly 300 People Show Up Too Search For Missing Warsaw Woman

WARSAW, Mo - Hellen Cook has been missing since July 13th from Warsaw, MO at family's lake property. Her family is trying to find her!

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Cook has Alzheimer's and may be trying to make the 106 mile trip home to Buckner, MO. If you have any information please call the Benton County Sheriff's Office at 660-438-9555

Volunteers Needed to Aid in Search for Hellen Cook

WARSAW, Mo - Volunteers are needed today to help look for a missing woman in the Truman Lake area.

Hellen Cook has been missing since July 13, when she walked away from her family's lake property in Warsaw.
Family members think she may be trying to get back to the family's home in Buckner or to the Blue Springs, Missouri area.

The Benton County Sheriff has agreed to organize a hand-to-hand search if enough volunteers can be provided.

A Missouri State trooper detective will also be meeting with everyone who saw Hellen Cook on her last day and interview each of them again to try and gather more information about Cook's whereabouts.

Today's search will start at 9am in Warsaw in Benton County, Missouri. Volunteers are asked to meet at the corner of Highway 7 and Cold Springs Road.

The Alzheimer's Association said that Alzheimer's victims will generally curl into the fetal position in small crevices when they've become disoriented or confused.

Anyone with information about cook's whereabouts should call 9-1-1.

Ground Search Planned for Missing Hellen Cook

WARSAW - Days have come and gone, and police still have no leads to the whereabouts of Hellen Cook. Hellen is the 72-year old Alzheimer’s victim who vanished nine days ago from Warsaw, Missouri.

Five members of Hellen Cook’s family met privately with officers from the Benton County Sheriff’s Department on Monday for about two hours. It’s been more than a week since they’ve seen their beloved wife and mother, who recently celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary. Family members tell me they requested this meeting to coordinate their own search efforts with those of law enforcement. “It’s been a week and two days now,” Terri Cook, daughter of the missing woman said. “We need to find her, and we need to find her soon.”

Police have no new leads as to finding her lost mother. “The sooner we can do that, the better,” Howard Cook, Hellen’s husband, said. “We’re choosing to believe she’s still alive and that just makes the immediate action more necessary.”

The Cook Family plans a massive man-to-man search for later in the week, where they hope to cover every inch of land in the area where the Buckner resident was last seen. “They tell us Alzheimer’s patients frequently hide in small crevasses, window wells, and small places you wouldn’t be looking,” Terri Cook said.”That’s what we’re doing.”

Kansas City Police officers plan to donate a team of search dogs to assist the Benton County Sheriff’s Department, and a detective from the Missouri Highway Patrol plans to re-interview the last few people who saw Hellen Cook before she vanished on July 13th.

“We’re not giving up yet,” Howard Cook said. “We’re hoping that if not before, we hope this massive search come Wednesday yields a result.”
Cook’s family members say they’ve watched her suffer the effects of Alzheimer’s disease for close to four years. They’re aware that it’s not uncommon for these patients to become confused and wander off. They just didn’t know she’d be gone for so long.

Terri Cook says she’s in search of volunteers to help search for her mother either this Wednesday or Thursday.