Ryan Cooper Missing Person Case

Apr 17, 2011

Feb 26, 2024

Ryan

Cooper

49

22

65 inches

185 lbs

American Indian / Alaska Native

Male

In the late spring of 1999, a 22-year-old man named Ryan Cooper was last seen in Rochester, New York. The exact date of his disappearance is somewhat uncertain, with reports indicating he was last seen around May 16, 1999. At the time he went missing, Ryan was a young father with a three-year-old son, and his girlfriend was pregnant with their daughter. A member of the Seneca Nation, many of his relatives resided on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation, a significant distance from Rochester. Ryan had distinctive tattoos, including a cat, a joker, the word "Indio," and "JH Ryan." He also had scars on his left cheek and lip from acne. Years went by without any answers for Ryan’s family, a period of painful uncertainty compounded by the death of his mother from cancer in 2010, who passed away without ever knowing what became of her son. A significant break in the case finally came in March 2011, when federal authorities indicted several individuals as part of a large-scale investigation into a violent drug trafficking ring that had been operating in the Rochester area since 1993. Among those charged were two of Ryan's own cousins, James Kendrick and Pablo Plaza. The charges against them were numerous, including drug and weapons offenses, and the murders of both Ryan Cooper and another man, Francisco Santos, who had disappeared in 1998. The subsequent legal proceedings revealed a grim narrative. Investigators believe the motive for Ryan's murder was his knowledge of the Santos killing. As a member of the drug gang himself, Ryan was aware of the details surrounding Santos's death and where his body was buried, and other members of the organization feared he would cooperate with law enforcement. In 2014, Pablo Plaza accepted a plea agreement, admitting his involvement in both murders and providing chilling details about Ryan's death. He stated that he was present when two individuals beat Ryan to death. Two years later, in July 2016, James Kendrick, identified by authorities as the ringleader, was convicted on multiple charges, including the murders of both men. Despite these convictions, Ryan Cooper’s body has never been recovered. Authorities believe his remains were brutally dismembered, possibly with a wood chipper, and then discarded in garbage bags near railroad tracks in Rochester, leaving his loved ones without a final resting place to visit and a case that, while legally closed, remains a source of unresolved grief.

May 16, 1999

Rochester

New York

Monroe County

No

10000

Rochester Police Department

Rochester

New York

Monroe County

14614

185 Exchange Blvd, New York

5854286595

Local

Law Enforcement

EROC05115

Rochester Police Department

Black

Brown

Brown

08/31/2026