Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED A SERIAL KILLER: The Cook Brothers

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

In January of 1981, 18-year-old Cheryl Bartlett Fann was walking home late at night with her fianc Bud, when they were suddenly abducted and taken to an abandoned garage. The assailants, Anthony and Nathaniel Cook had already kidnapped and killed at least two people in Toledo, Ohio. Cheryl recounts in her own words her resilience and the keen insights that helped her outwit the would-be murderers.Tempo - Check out TempoMeals.com/SURVIVED for 60% off your first box!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode contains stories involving violence against children. Listener discretion is advised. Anthony and Nathaniel Cook have been arrested after a decades-long killing spree unprecedented in Toledo history. These serial killers were ruthless. Evil, demonic, psychopathic. This campaigned to war was the issue of the thing was dead. He started coming across the street. My heart started beating really fast.

Walking through. I heard the gun click back, and that's when I knew they were going to kill me right then. I had them hugged each other. I pleaded with them to please let us go. And they said no, that my time will come. And shot one time. I see them walking down the street. Then got out of the truck and followed up behind them.

I had to come. Real people who faced death and lived to tell how. This is I survived a serial killer. I am Cheryl Fran, and I survived a serial killer. In January, 1980, I was 18 years old, and I was taking care of my two-year-old. My son's father and I, we were living together in Toledo. His name was Bud. Bud was a meat cutter at a local grocery store.

We didn't have a car, so I would walk to the store to meet them so you wouldn't have to walk by himself. That night, Bud's brother, Don, was with my son. Around 12.30, I walked down Seeger Street. It took me about 15 minutes to walk to the store. I met Bud, and we went back the same way. way that I came. We were within 20 feet of our house. I seen a man across the street in a green army jacket and a ski cap. He started walking a little bit faster and then he started coming

across the street. My heart started beating really fast and I looked at Bud and he just said, don't worry you're with me. He came up to us. He was a black man with a beard. And the next thing I knew, he pulled a handgun. It was the first gun I've ever seen in my life. It crossed my mind that this is a robbery. We offered Bud's watch, wallet, just so he would leave us alone. He put his hand out for us to give him this stuff, and he just stuck in this pocket.

I thought, okay, he's going to let us leave. That's all he wanted. And then he threw two ski caps at us and told us to put him over our face. over our face. The man said, they'll shoot you if you start to run. I have the ski mask over my face. It wasn't totally blacked out. You could see through the fabric.

It was very dark. I didn't know what was going to happen. And then I remember in Bud's wallet was our address where our son was at. All I could think was he was going to kill me and then go and get my son. And that's when he made us walk down an alley. This is the voice of Anthony Cook.

I walked through the alley, walk in the bandit garage, around the corner. He pushed the gun and Bud's back and told us to stop right here. I was able to look a little bit then, because I lifted my mask up. Someone was coming. He was very tall, and he was husky.

and he had an army jacket on two. He waves in the first one, and my heart dropped. That's when I realized there was two of them. My heart started beating even faster. Brian Dugger is an investigative journalist. About eight months before Cheryl and Budwer attacked, there was a young couple, Sandra Pogorski and Tommy Gordon, that were sitting in a car.

Two black men forced their way. into the car and took them to a field in western Lucas County. I got a cow. He broke in rain. I think I shot three, four times. And he was on the ground. Terry Austin is a legal analyst. At that point, Sandra was raped and stabbed multiple times.

They left her for dead, but she did survive. And she eventually was able to get help. And Sandra told police, one of them was bearded, and she said one person called the other abductor, Tony. But there was nothing else for the police to go on, and the case eventually went cold. They just told us to go into the garage. Bud was trying to stay cool, so he wouldn't agitate them. I was hysterical. My heart hurt from being scared.

I pleaded with them to please let us go. And they said, no, that my time will come. They put the gun to Bud's head, and then the first one had a knife to my throat. The second one told the first one, Tony, I will go first. And that's when I was told to take my pants down. I was in shock, and I refused.

And that's when he took the knife. When he took the knife deeper into my throat, I heard the gun click back, and that's when I knew they were going to kill me right then. Part of me wish that they would just kill me. I was raped by both of them. I couldn't catch my breath. My heart was pounding so fast, it felt like I could have had a heart attack.

When they were done, one of the guys told Bud to hold me tight, because it would be the last time that he would told me. I was petrified. Who was going to raise my son? That's all I could think about. We just kept telling each other we loved each other and things were going to be okay, even though we were pretty sure they weren't. Ten days before Cheryl was attacked, police find the naked body of 19-year-old Connie Sue Thompson and a culvert out in rural, Lucas County. I couldn't let her go. And I just pick up a piece of wire and start choking. At this point, police did not necessarily make a connection with the Gordon and Pagorsky abduction.

But this was another young woman who was taken off the streets of Toledo and ended up dead. The body was decomposed. And so the authorities were not able to get much forensic evidence. There wasn't anything that the authorities could use to try to trap down any particular suspects. In the garage, Bud held me so tight that it felt like I couldn't breathe even more. I had to hug each up and shot one time. I heard the gun go off, but I didn't feel where it went in. There was no pain at that point, but I started screaming, and then they ran out.

I think it was because they only had one bullet. The fact that they had only one bullet indicated that there wasn't any premeditation on the part of whoever did this. The urge just took over them to abduct this couple. Because I did not feel the bullet go in me, I thought everything was going to be fine. But Bud made me turn around. There was a big puddle of blood. That's when we realized I was hit. But I wanted to call the ambulance or the police

because he was afraid I was going to die right there. I could see our house. But we didn't go home because my son was there. If I did die, I wouldn't have wanted to be in the apartment with him there. The first house we went to, they wouldn't answer the door. The second house, there was a little old lady. She's seen me bleeding and she told us to go away. And I thought, I'm dead for sure because I couldn't.

I couldn't keep moving from house to house with a bullet in me. It was at the third house. The man, he let me come in. Bud sat me there and called the ambulance. The way seemed like forever. I was bleeding all over the place. I had a hard time breathing. And I got really weak.

Everything was like a blur. I thought pretty sure I was going to be gone. I was not going to make it. and then I've lacked out. I'm trying to start the year strong, but by the time I get through a long day, the last thing I want to do is cook something from scratch. That's where Tempo has been such an enormous help for me.

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Rules and restrictions may apply. When I woke up in the hospital, if I remembered everything, the two men. The rape, the gunshot. Bud was hysterical, so they sedated him. The doctor said that my right lung collapsed and the bullet hit my pancreas, my liver,

and then I had internal bleeding in my ovaries. I was in the hospital for four weeks. When the police come out, I was able to get him a full description. That description was two black men, one bearded, one wearing a green army coat, and one of the attackers had been identified as Tony. That matched the description in the Sandrick Bogorski and Thomas Gordon case. At that point, police believe that they're dealing with possibly serial killers. Just two weeks later, the police found the body of 12-year-old Dawn Bacchus.

She was found in an abandoned theater in the basement. basement. Picked up the cinder block and a throw up the cinder block on the head. In late March, another young couple, Scott Moulton and Denise Zyakowski were brutally murdered. Open up the trunk and fired

multiple times to make sure that they were dead. Just a few months later, Darryl Cole and Stacey Malonic were for found in the trunk of their car, beaten to death. I had used it down before, and I didn't want to get a consistent M.O. And they conveniently brought a baseball bat.

This was a really terrifying time in Toledo. Bodies were starting to pile up. The police still had no suspects. Then in September, a tragic event blew the case wide open. Todd Sable, Leslie Suwiki, and Leslie's father, Peter Suwiki were attacked by an individual in the back of a van. A fight broke out and the suspect shot Peter Suwiki and Todd Sable multiple times. Tragically, Peter ends up dying.

The police were able to get a detailed description of the attacker from both Leslie and Todd. He was a bearded black man that certainly matched the description in several other attacks. Ultimately, the sketch artist was able to draw a picture that could be disseminated into the public. Several days later, a police informant said that, hey, that looks like my friend Tony Cook. Tony Cook was a handyman, and back in the 70s, he actually served some time for armed robbery. Anthony Cook perfectly matched the sketch. So the police arrest him. They had him in the Peter Swiki case because you had two surviving witnesses who both identified him.

Police believed that Tony Cook was behind the other attacks. But unfortunately, they did not have any concrete evidence to tie him to those cases. On March 13, 1982, Anthony Cook was convicted of killing Peter Zawiki, and he received a life sentence. but there's still one big problem. Police know that there is a second suspect out there, and they still haven't caught him. I worried about the other one. I was afraid that he could find me.

Police knew that Peter Swicki murder was the one that Tony Cook committed by himself, but there were two men involved in many of these killings. And by some of the descriptions given to them, that person did sort of match Tony John. brother, Nathaniel Cook. Unfortunately, a photo of Nathaniel Cook was put in a lineup, and neither Sandra Pagorski or Cheryl Bartlett

were able to identify him. He just kind of blended back into society for the next 15 years. And when you think about Cheryl, it meant she had to live with the fear for the longest time. Maybe he's here, maybe he's looking for me. I was constantly watching over my shoulder. Fifteen years later, in 1997, the Lucas County prosecutor learned some new information

about DNA testing. So they decide to use this new tool on some of the unsolved murders back in the 1980s. In Sander Pagorsky's underwear, they found some semen stains, and when they sent it away for testing, they were able to actually determine that there were two distinct profiles.

Tony and Nathaniel Cook. Nathaniel Cook was immediately arrested, and of course Anthony Cook was already serving time in prison. Both were charged with the murder of Tom Gordon and the rape of his girlfriend, Sandra. When I found out that they finally caught both of them, I thought everything was going to be okay, and I felt relieved.

At this point, the police want to solve all these other crimes too. Unfortunately, they don't have DNA evidence to connect the brothers to those crimes. Eventually, the prosecutors cut a deal. They agreed to let Nathaniel Cook out of prison after 20 years if they admitted to everything. Both brothers thought this was a good deal,

so they agreed to talk. Let's start on Bartlett, the one in the garage. Can you fill us in on that one? I had robbed him. I think I took the dude to watch. I thought a little way later. I read the girl. Nathan was with me.

Tony ultimately admitted to all the killings. The police certainly believe that he was involved in others. Nathaniel only admitted to killing three. Don Bacchus, Tommy Gordon, and Connie Sue Thompson. Tony Cook received. another life sentence, Nathaniel Cook actually received 20 years because of the plea deal. I felt relieved and I was happy that they were put away, but my life was never the same again. Bud and I separated probably about a year after it happened. He couldn't cope with me being attacked.

This case highlights the different faces of humanity. On the one hand, you had pure evil. But on the other hand, you have the strength, the perseverance, the courage of Cheryl. What I want to say to Anthony and Nathaniel is you may took my innocence and my dignity away when I was 18. But I'm 58 years old right now and there's nothing you can do no more to harm me or hurt me. I was able to rebuild my life. I am through with being a victim. with being a victim. I am a survivor. Pluto TV, we're celebrating Black History Month with our free curated collection of Black

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