Missing
Cookie Sherron Jacobson
Cookie, approximately 1998
Date and time person was reported missing : 09/21/1998
Missing location (approx) :
Tempe, Arizona
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 09/16/1949 (71)
Age at the time of disappearance: 49 years old
Height / Weight : 5'4, 145 pounds
Description, clothing, jewerly and more : A knee-length blue denim nightshirt, a gold wedding band and a gold necklace with a Hebrew love symbol pendant.
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian female. Light brown hair, hazel eyes. Cookie has a surgical scar on her knee. Her ears are pierced.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Cookie was last seen during the evening hours of September 21, 1998 inside her residence near McClintock Drive and Southern Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. She has never been heard from again. All of her personal belongings were located inside of her home. She was reported missing on September 22, the day after her disappearance.
Authorities believe Cookie's son, Aaron, then sixteen years old, murdered his mother that night and was assisted in the disposal of his mother's remains by his thirteen-year-old sister, Laura.
Ten days after Cookie's disappearance, Aaron confessed that he had found her dead in bed and Laura helped him dispose of her body because they feared they would be blamed for killing her. He said he wrapped her body in a yellow bedsheet and placed it in a trash can behind their house.
Cookie's blood was found in the trash can, but there wasn't enough blood to prove she had died. One of Aaron's friends stated Aaron and Laura had wanted to kill their mother. In addition, Aaron failed a polygraph about his mother's disappearance; Laura's polygraph results were inconclusive.
Aaron was arrested for second-degree murder and Laura for facilitation to commit second-degree murder, but the lack of corroborating evidence forced investigators to let them go within hours and continue working the case.
Cookie's children remain the prime suspects in her presumed homicide. Aaron and Laura did not have a good relationship with their mother before her disappearance, although there were no reports of domestic violence. Since her disappearance they have both have left the Tempe area.
Authorities believe Cookie's body is in the Butterfield Station Landfill, but they searched through 7,500 tons of trash for 59 days and found nothing.
In 2003, an anonymous individual called a local television station with a tip on Cookie's disappearance. Investigators considered the caller's information useful, but they were never able to identify the individual or contact him or her again.
Cookie's case remains unsolved.
Other information and links : ncy
Tempe Police Department
480-350-8311
September 2021 updates and sources
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are not known. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2�5% of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
Several organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and imAge at the time of disappearance: s of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
The Arizona Republic
KSL-TV
The Arizona State Press
KPHO 5
October 12, 2004. September 22, 2015; picture added, Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : updated.
Interactive Missing Person Search Map
