Kyra Cook - Girl with amnesia

[ididn'tdoit]

I was just watching the Kyra Cook case, one of the Pre-Stack Specials.

Kyra was the young girl from Longview, Washington who suffered from a rare case of amnesia. According to police it was most likely caused by her getting hit by a car, Kyra's mom however thinks she was probably assaulted and was hit in the head by the attacker. An unidentified stranger then dropped her off at the Police Station.

At the time she couldn't remember anything, not her name, who her parents were - nothing. However she eventually regained her abilities to paint and speak German but that was just about it. I really felt for her and her mother and I hope she eventually regained her memory

Does anyone know what happened to her? Was there an update?

[justins5256]

Really wish I had an answer for you chief. This is one of those cases I would love to know some kind of an update for. I will say though, that if I was the guy who dropped her off, I probably wouldn't come forward. It seemed this person was in for an intense grilling, whether they were guilty of anything or not.

[DarkDante]

^ I feel very much the same way about this case that you do. Its hard to tell whether or not there was ever any type of resolution to this case being that it was part of Special #2 and only aired twice to my knowledge.

The only thing we can confirm is it wasn't updated by the time special #3 rolled around as it wasn't included in those updates. Nor was any update included in the updates during special #7.

Kyra Cook's case in my opinion would be very hard to solve. I tend to agree with the theory of perhaps an attempted robbery or some sort since Kyra did have posessions taken off her at the time of the attack. I'd probably cast my vote towards that direction more than I would a hit and run. I don't know where I'd figure the mysterious driver into her case just yet. I guess if you believe Kyra was the victim of a car accident, you could draw the line due to his bizarre behavior that he could've been responsible for the accident.

As far as a prognosis for recovery: Amnesia is such a puzzle its hard to determine what Kyra's chances for recovery were. The incident that caused Kyra's amnesia took place in 1986, a year prior to the filiming of her UM segment. From what I've taken from the segment, in that entire year Kyra had not had any breakthroughs as far as regaining any of her memory which probably doesn't bode well for recovery. The segment described she still retained some skills that she had prior to the attack. However, any knowledge she had about her family or personal life came from what she had been told after the attack by other people.

To understand this in layman's terms its probable that the part of Kyra's brain that was affected by the attack did not control the skills she retained after the attack but the part of her brain that stored her memories was affected. Its kind of like when someone has a stroke depending which side of the brain is affected determines what is lost and what remains.

Kyra's form of amnesia seems to be Retrograde amnesia. There is no cure for Retrograde amnesia except as was stressed in the UM segment, its possible that if Kyra's memory was jogged she might have been able to recover somewhat. I personally would find it highly unlikely that her memory would've just returned out of the blue (like it does on sitcoms) but anything is possible I guess.

Its a sad case and what always gets me is how at the end of the segment Kyra says "I look forward to in twenty years having some memories to look back on" or something to that effect. Well its been twenty years now and every now and then I wonder how she's doing. I hope she's been able to have her share of many good memories over the past twenty years. Maybe someday (as it has been the case with other cases) someone will drop in here and let us know how she's doing...

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by ididn'tdoit

Does anyone know what happened to her? Was there an update?

Do you happen to remember what city she was from or the name of the county? I may try and contact the sheriff's dept. there and see if they tell me anything.

OT: Dante your signature is making me ill.....Go Cubs!!!

[ididn'tdoit]

Originally Posted by crystaldawn

Do you happen to remember what city she was from or the name of the county? I may try and contact the sheriff's dept. there and see if they tell me anything.

OT: Dante your signature is making me ill.....Go Cubs!!!

Yes, it was in Longview, Washington state.

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by ididn'tdoit

Yes, it was in Longview, Washington state.

Thanks! Apparently the police officer who was interviewed in the segment still works for that sheriff's department. I sent him an email so I'll be sure and post it if he replies back.

[ididn'tdoit]

Originally Posted by crystaldawn

Thanks! Apparently the police officer who was interviewed in the segment still works for that sheriff's department. I sent him an email so I'll be sure and post it if he replies back.

Wow, thanks CD! I'll keep my fingers crossed!!

[unsolvedmysteriesfan]

Originally Posted by crystaldawn

Thanks! Apparently the police officer who was interviewed in the segment still works for that sheriff's department. I sent him an email so I'll be sure and post it if he replies back.

Crystaldawn, any luck?!

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by unsolvedmysteriesfan

Crystaldawn, any luck?!

No, I never heard back.

[DarkDante]

Kyra Cook article (pre-dates UM)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...o32ji-NlwkOLJQ

[Shahla]

I think if she was hit by a car she would have had more injuries than 'just' a bump on the head.
And wasn't she wandering around for a while before she got that ride? Then it seems to me that person was just doing her a favour: giving her a lift and drove off when it was done. Not so unusual, I guess.

[justins5256]

I never believed she was hit by a car. Like others have said, the injuries just weren't there. Also, she was missing some of her belongings. That makes me think of a robbery type scenario. Perhaps she fought with her assailant and was struck on the head.

UM briefly mentioned that another young blond girl had been assaulted numerous times in the park. I really wish they had given some more info here. Who was this girl? Why was she being attacked repeatedly? Were their suspects (an ex or stalker perhaps)? Was this person ever apprehended?

I can't recall if I posted this here or on the IMDB forum but it occurred to me that perhaps the "Good Samaritan" who dropped her off at the police station may have had other reasons for not wanting to interact with the police directly. Perhaps they had an outstanding warrant. It could have been something as mundane as unpaid parking tickets, that given the scope of the situation seems extremely minor but this person's first instinct was to save their own behind. I think it's possible this person may have just been passing through and not necessarily from the Longview area. They may have missed the media campaign that followed Kyra's identification and recovery.

BTW, good job finding that article, Dark. I have found that many newspapers are converting their mirofilms to jpegs, gifs or some other viewable formats and putting them on Google. It makes for some interesting reading as keyword searches we may have done on the cases years ago that didn't lead to anything are now yielding results.

[JackKerouac1989]

Originally Posted by justins5256

I never believed she was hit by a car. Like others have said, the injuries just weren't there. Also, she was missing some of her belongings. That makes me think of a robbery type scenario. Perhaps she fought with her assailant and was struck on the head.

I think that is most likely what happened. I recently rewatched this segment and that part at the end where she says she can't wait for twenty years to pass so she'll have twenty years worth of memories again was real sad
It's been more than twenty years since the segment aired and I can't help but wonder how she's doing now and if she ever got some memories back and was able to move on.
I wish there was a way to find out how she's doing now.

[TheCars1986]

I saw this one for the first time on my DVR yesterday (the Farina hosted episodes). I don't even know what to make of it. I know some people (including Kyra's parents) believe she was assaulted and was the victim of a robbery, which is quite possible. I just don't see how the guy who gave her a ride would have been the one involved. Although it's strange that he would just drive away after dropping her off, I find it even more strange that after attacking her he would leisurely sit on the hood of his car and wait for her to walk to him. How would he know she would have amnesia!? While other amnesia cases seem somewhat farfetched, this is one of the few that is pretty believable. Other cases of amnesia seem to have a motive for their sudden loss of memory, I can't think of one in this case. And IIRC, it was over a year after the incident when the segment was filmed and she still said she had no memory of anything from her past. I doubt someone would have been able to keep the ruse up that long.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I saw this one for the first time on my DVR yesterday (the Farina hosted episodes). I don't even know what to make of it. I know some people (including Kyra's parents) believe she was assaulted and was the victim of a robbery, which is quite possible. I just don't see how the guy who gave her a ride would have been the one involved. Although it's strange that he would just drive away after dropping her off, I find it even more strange that after attacking her he would leisurely sit on the hood of his car and wait for her to walk to him. How would he know she would have amnesia!? While other amnesia cases seem somewhat farfetched, this is one of the few that is pretty believable. Other cases of amnesia seem to have a motive for their sudden loss of memory, I can't think of one in this case. And IIRC, it was over a year after the incident when the segment was filmed and she still said she had no memory of anything from her past. I doubt someone would have been able to keep the ruse up that long.

I know this was a while ago, but do you recall if the Farina episode had any sort of an update?

Did they mention the other assaults that were going on in the park?

Not a big deal if you don't remember. Just watched this last night and was wondering about updates and if the other assaults in the park were solved, or if anything more was said. I can't find much in cyberspace, unfortunately.