On a snowy December night in Toledo, Ohio, in 1973, the life of 22-year-old Vicky Lynn Small was tragically cut short. A recent graduate of the University of Toledo, she was a white female who found herself in a vulnerable situation on December 20th when she accepted a ride from a stranger during a heavy snowstorm. That stranger was Anthony Cook, a man who would later be identified as a serial killer.
Instead of taking her to her destination just a block away, Cook drove her to the secluded Ottawa Park. There, he brutally raped and shot her multiple times with a. 25 caliber pistol before leaving her body behind a golf course building. Her remains were discovered approximately four hours later.
The initial investigation into Vicky Lynn Small's murder was fraught with missteps that frustrated her family and likely delayed justice. For weeks, her car was not impounded by the police, and her apartment was not sealed, potentially allowing for the contamination or destruction of crucial evidence. Investigators looked into as many as 100 individuals and examined several firearms in an attempt to find a match to the bullets recovered from the scene, but no arrests were made. Her father, distressed by the handling of the case, voiced his concerns to the Toledo City Council, demanding more decisive action. For years, the case remained unsolved, one of many cold cases that haunted the Toledo area.
It wasn't until decades later that the truth behind Vicky Lynn Small's murder would come to light, not through a breakthrough in the original investigation, but through the confession of her killer. In 2000, as part of a plea bargain for a series of other violent crimes, Anthony Cook admitted to the 1973 murder of Vicky Lynn Small. His confession was part of a deal that also implicated his brother, Nathaniel Cook, in other murders. For his numerous crimes, Anthony Cook received two life sentences. His brother Nathaniel was sentenced to 75 years in prison with the possibility of parole. The resolution of Vicky's case, while bringing a measure of closure, also highlighted the terror the Cook brothers had inflicted on the Toledo community over many years.
