Kriti Mehrotra
The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was left unnerved when a man named Stephen Cook was found dead outside a strip mall convenience store in midtown on November 28, 2018. He was a proud father of one who had allegedly long been involved with some drugs, as per A&E’s ‘The First 48: Snatched,’ but his death was a lot more complex because he had been killed. The 54-year-old reportedly had no known enemies, so it took investigators a few days to apprehend the perpetrator and bring his family some much-needed closure.
Stephen Cook Was the Victim of a Hit and Run
Since Stephen Cook was born in 1964 to a Homemaker and a Navy SEAL officer, he grew up around the globe prior to ultimately graduating from high school in suburban Oklahoma. He subsequently decided to settle down in the Sooner State for good, where he married Alisa Ray Cook, and they welcomed a beautiful daughter, Jennifer Cook. According to the show, the family man had a great career in construction before he shone as a car salesman, but things turned upside down following his divorce in the 2000s.
According to Alisa Ray, Stephen was an extremely attentive husband and father, as well as a naturally charismatic individual, but he seemed to have a tendency not to play by the rules. That’s what led to their separation and his allegedly going down the wrong path, with Jennifer claiming she still remembers she was 4 or 5 when her father really started spiraling. Therefore, by the time late 2018 rolled around, the 54-year-old was only sporadically in contact with family, had been hospitalized a few times, and was without shelter (homeless). However, he was trying his best to get back on his feet.
Stephen was barely making it day to day, yet he still had quite a reputation in the community for being caring, generous, and kind, even when he absolutely didn’t have to be. So, when he was found lying unresponsive outside Ryan’s Convenience Store on the strip mall at South Braden Avenue, Tulsa, a friend didn’t hesitate to administer CPR while a witness called 911. It was 8:05 pm when the call was placed, and emergency services rushed to the scene, but it was already too late — he was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries to the head and skull, with signs of an indentation on the right side of his face and tire track marks on his forehead.
Surveillance Footage and Witness Statements Proved Crucial in Stephen Cook’s Case
With the 911 caller having witnessed part of the crime and remaining on the scene, officials quickly determined that a silver SUV was involved. She believed Stephen was injured and pushed out of the vehicle as it fled the scene, following which someone who seemed to know him came running from the laundry place next door. According to her account, this stranger gave him CPR while she spoke to the dispatcher, only for him to then step away, write a statement, give it to a patrol officer, and leave for good. Her account was partly corroborated by security cameras in the laundry mart and around the corner of the strip mall – we say partly because he was never in the car to begin with.
According to the surveillance footage, Stephen was indeed hanging out with a man near the laundry place before the incident; the man matched the woman’s description. They also showed he was quietly folding his clothes inside when the crime occurred in the parking lot, which drove him to rush out in hopes of helping. He was thus never really considered a suspect, but officials had a lot of questions for him, and the fact that he abruptly left made things difficult because he also struggled with homelessness. The clips of the incident showed the victim approaching the silver SUV with something small in one hand as soon as it arrived.
According to the video, Stephen spoke with the driver for a few minutes before the vehicle suddenly reversed, stopped for a millisecond, and reversed again, dragging him along a few feet. While the car immediately fled the scene, the 54-year-old somehow managed to get up, stumble straight to the sidewalk, and collapse there while people ran to help. It was by pure chance that a detective found Stephen’s friend from the scene walking along a nearby street the next morning, and he agreed to answer their questions. He claimed he’d been the one to call the generous man he considered a mentor to the strip mall after finding a designer bag abandoned there for a few days.
Stephen Cook’s Killer Was Identified Within Days of the Incident
According to the friend, he suggested to Stephen that they could sell the purse for a few hundred dollars and use the cash to split a hotel room and some food for the night. That’s when the latter allegedly said he possibly knew someone who might purchase the bag before contacting them, which inadvertently became the catalyst of the entire ordeal. Since the purse was missing from the scene, authorities theorized the driver of the silver SUV snatched it from the 54-year-old’s hands and killed him in the process of fleeing. The theory was supported by surveillance footage from a nearby apartment complex that captured the vehicle entering the parking lot minutes after the 911 call.
The cameras also showed the driver sifting through something small – like a purse – on his lap for a few minutes before getting out and roaming the complex. According to investigators, the suspect’s face as well as tattoos on his neck and hand were clearly visible on the back gate camera, prompting them to issue a Be On the Lookout (BOLO). Not long after, a patrol officer contacted the homicide unit and identified the perpetrator as a known criminal named Derrick Hughey, known on the streets as Drake or Draco. According to records, he has an extensive criminal history, including convictions for robbery, multiple assaults, false declaration of ownership, destruction of property, and battery on an EMT, for which he served 2 years in prison.
Derrick Hughey is Currently Incarcerated in a State Prison
While investigators were able to find the car Derrick had been driving at the time of the crime within a couple of days and ascertain that it belonged to a friend, locating him was harder. In fact, it was the same identifying patrol officer who arrested him on December 2, 2018 – he saw the 25-year-old walking by while he was conducting an unrelated traffic stop on someone else. Derrick declined to answer any questions during his interrogation. He was subsequently charged with second-degree murder and larceny. In 2019, he pleaded guilty to the former count and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Therefore, today, at age 32, Derrick is incarcerated at the maximum-security Oklahoma State Penitentiary, where he is expected to remain until he completes his term.
Read More: Stephen Moore Murder: How Did He Die? Who Killed Him?
You must be logged in to post a comment.