Posted: 08/07/2013 03:26:07 PM PDT
Updated: 08/07/2013 08:14:12 PM PDT
OAKLAND -- Three days after criminal defense investigator Sandra Coke disappeared from her North Oakland neighborhood, those closest to the 50-year-old woman became more convinced with each passing moment that the single mother had been abducted, having no reason to leave the life she so deeply cherished.
Coke's co-workers, family and friends gathered Wednesday afternoon at her home in the 600 block of Aileen Street to raise awareness of her disappearance, posting missing persons signs throughout the neighborhood and making teary pleas for the public's help in bringing her home.
Those who know Coke said it would make no sense for the woman to leave her daughter or harm herself. Coke was happy, they said, and
had celebrated her 50th birthday just two days before she disappeared.
The day of her disappearance was a typical Sunday for Coke, who spent a quiet day with her 15-year-old daughter at home. As the weekend was drawing to a close, the woman told her daughter she was going to investigate a tip about Ginny, her beloved cocker spaniel mix, who went missing when her home was burglarized May 8.
Coke said she would return home after making a stop at Walgreens and drove away in her white Mini Cooper convertible about 8:30 p.m., relatives said. She never returned home that evening, and her vehicle was discovered two days later in a West Oakland parking lot.
"This is just so very strange," said Wendy Springer, 50, Coke's best friend. "She has just been so happy. The only thing weighing on her was Ginny."
Springer and Coke's younger sister, Tanya, theorized that Coke's disappearance is related to her months-long search for the dog and said that Sandra Coke had posted signs and billboards throughout the East Bay offering a $1,000 reward for her dog. Those signs resulted in numerous false tips from people who had no information but wanted the $1,000 reward, according to Springer and Tanya Coke, 49.
Co-workers and her supervisor at a federal public defender's office in Sacramento said there was no reason to believe Sandra Coke's work investigating decades-old death penalty cases for defendants had anything to do with the disappearance. The longtime investigator of capital and criminal cases devoted her life to helping the poor and underprivileged and had hardly made an enemy in her years spent in the Office of Federal Public Defenders.
Tanya Coke also said that her sister had recently tried online dating and had dinner with a man about two weeks before. But she said that meeting went well and that she had no reason to believe it had anything to do with the disappearance.
Nevertheless, Tanya Coke said, she wants Oakland Police to search
every lead possible.
"We want the police to leave no stone unturned," Tanya Coke said. "This is the family's worst nightmare."
Sandra Coke is a black female with a medium complexion, who stands about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighs about 150 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black and white shirt and dark jeans.
Anyone with information about her disappearance is asked to contact Oakland Police at 510-238-3641 or call a toll-free tip hotline at 855-TIPS-247.
Contact Erin Ivie at eivie@bayareanewsgroup.com. Contact Paul Rosynsky at prosynsky@bayareanewsgroup.com.
