Do you know who killed John Cook in 1991?
On the rainy morning of March 23, 1991, John Cook, a 49-year-old male from Wausau, Wisconsin, was tragically killed in Knoxville, Tennessee. He and his wife, Yvonne, were on their way to a vacation in North Carolina and had pulled off Interstate 275 to check their map. While they were stopped on an entrance ramp, an assailant fired into their van, striking John Cook twice in the head with. 22 caliber bullets.
The gunman then entered the vehicle and drove them to a rural part of Knox County. After demanding money from Mrs. Cook, the assailant pushed Mr. Cook's body out of the van. He then attempted to shoot Yvonne, but had trouble reloading his weapon. A passing motorist frightened the attacker, who then fled the scene in the Cooks' van. John Cook died from his wounds at the scene; an autopsy later revealed that while the gunshot wounds caused a loss of consciousness, they might have been survivable with immediate medical attention.
For nine years, the case remained cold with no suspects identified. Yvonne Cook struggled to recall the face of her husband's killer. A breakthrough came in 2000 when Knoxville police received a tip from Mary Storm, who said her dying brother, Earl Storm, had information about the murder, implicating his step-grandson, Ernest Salyer, and Salyer's friend, Howard Walter Thomas.
Following this lead, detectives located and questioned Ernest Salyer, who claimed that on the morning of the murder, Thomas had called him for a ride from a car wash. Based on this and other statements from Salyer's family, Howard Walter Thomas was arrested and charged with the felony murder of John Cook. During the trial, Yvonne Cook identified Thomas as the man who killed her husband. Salyer and his family also testified against Thomas, with Salyer and his ex-wife claiming Thomas had confessed to them that he had accidentally shot Cook while firing at random cars. Howard Walter Thomas was subsequently convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison.
