KU one win away from Final Four berth See B1
The Weekender Saturday, March 26, 2016
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Missing Iolan: ‘Person of interest’ in custody Family says hopes dim Cook will be found alive
them back together.” Indeed, he was spotted by another family member the day he disappeared, seeking an item to repair a toilet for a friend, Dryden said.
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Law enforcement officers announced Friday the arrest of a “person of interest” related to the disappearance of Iolan Shawn Cook. Allen County Attorney Jerry Hathaway said in a press release that Joshua Knapp was arrested in Linn County on unrelated warrants out of Allen County and Vernon County, Mo., and on a no-bond warrant issued from the Kansas Department of Corrections. Hathaway described Knapp as a “person of interest” in Cook’s disappearance. Cook has not been heard from since March 13, Hathaway said. Hathaway urged anyone with information regarding Cook’s disappearance to contact Crime Stoppers (800) 222TIPS, the Iola Police Department, 365-4960, or the Allen County Sheriff ’s Department, 365-1400. WORD OF Knapp’s apprehension was a welcome bit of news for Cook’s family, which has grown increasingly desperate and frustrated. “Most importantly, we wanna find Shawn,” said Iolan Christina Dryden, Cook’s cousin. The family has received scores of messages from acquaintances of Cook’s,
Josh Knapp Knapp’s and others who may have been the last to see the 33-year-old before his disappearance. “We’ve heard all sorts of rumors, stories about found bodies here and there,” Dryden said. “I got a message (Thursday) that supposedly they found a body in LaHarpe. That’s a new one.” But while some of the rumors are quickly debunked — such as Thursday’s about a body in LaHarpe — the family has heard others that they fear are the truth, and that Cook likely has been killed. “We don’t think he’s still alive,” Dryden said. “No matter what,” interjects her mother, and Cook’s aunt, Becky Reaves. “We just want them to send him home.” DRYDEN, Reaves and Destiny Cook, Shawn’s sister, spoke Thursday with the Register about the ongoing investigation and circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Cook was last seen by his
Shawn Cook and his cousin, Christina Dryden aunt the afternoon of March 12, when he left his and Reaves’ house in the 400 block of South Kentucky Street. Cook shares the home with his aunt, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, diabetes and other ailments. He serves as his aunt’s personal care attendant. “He told Aunt Becky that he was going to be gone for a while,” Dryden recalled. “He left and never came back.” The family sensed trouble from the beginning, when Reaves fell ill that afternoon and was taken to the hospital. “Our calls went straight to his voice mail,” Dryden said, “and that was very unusual.”
“After a couple of days went by, I knew something wasn’t right,” Reaves said. “Shawn and I have a bond. Whenever he’d leave the house for any reason, he’d call me two or three times a day, just to say, ‘How you doing, are you OK?’” “Shawn’s a mama’s boy,” Dryden said. “Even though she’s not his mom, she was like it.” Cook’s young daughter lives in Kansas City. “He’d FaceTime her each night before she went to bed,” Reaves said. “He was very good at fixing things,” Destiny Cook said of her brother. “As a kid, he would take apart TVs and put
BUT EVEN though she suspected trouble almost immediately, Dryden waited until the evening of March 17 — almost four days after his disappearance — to notify the police. Dryden said she did so for two reasons: 1. Cook is an adult. 2. Cook also has an extensive criminal history. “He’s done some horrible things, but it was more along the lines of drugs or stealing, not murder or beat-you-up type of things,” Dryden said. “But growing up, he did get involved with some bad people, and he stole from them, and he’d go into hiding.” And police at first questioned if this was the case, Dryden continued. “But when he was in trouble, or hiding from police, the first thing he would do is go to a family member, because he’d expect a family member to help him,” she said. “He’d have gone to my mom, his sister. Back in the day, he might be in the middle of doing drugs, and he’d stop and call a family member.” Cook spent most of his life in Kansas City, where he often found himself on the wrong side of the law. It was part of his decision to move to Iola in 2013. It was not an easy transition. Within months of his arrival, Cook was arrested, first on a pair of forgery counts stemming from attempting to get a prescription filled. Then in early 2014, Cook was See MISSING | Page A6
Lawmakers rush to pass school funding plan By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
Businesses feted A pair of long-standing businesses were honored Thursday at the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet. Above, Bob Johnson accepts a plaque on behalf of the Iola Register. With Johnson is Carol Sager, Chamber executive director, and Chamber board president Loren Korte. At left, Jim Arnott accepts a plaque on behalf of the Iola Pharmacy. Tom Byler of the Kansas Small Business Development Center was the keynote speaker. The event was at Miller’s on Madison. About 100 attended the event. REGISTER/
RICHARD LUKEN
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 104
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican supermajorities in the Kansas Legislature raced Thursday to approve a new plan to reshuffle education spending, hoping to head off the state Supreme Court’s threat to shut down public schools statewide if lawmakers don’t fix the funding problems by the end of June. The Senate approved the bill 32-5, and the House passed it hours later, 93-31, sending it to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who is expected to sign it by early next month. The votes came only two days after bills containing the plan were introduced in the House and Senate, and GOP leaders took special steps to move with unusual speed. Republican leaders said they were moving quickly to allow the court plenty of time to review the plan ahead of the June 30 deadline. The justices ruled last month that a 2015 finance law denied poor districts their fair share of more than $4 billion in annual aid to the 286 local dis-
tricts. Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson, an architect of the plan, said the court has “the hammer of closing the schools.” “We must respond,” the Andover Republican said. But an attorney for four school districts suing the state predicted that the high court would reject the Republican leaders’ response — a redistribution of $83 million a year, without an overall increase in state spending. Because the plan guarantees that no district loses any aid it already has been promised for the next school year, most of them —including the four suing the state — would see no change in their aid overall. Twenty-three would see small increases, covered by the state tapping an exist-
“My friends tell me I have an intimacy problem. But they don’t really know me.” — Garry Shandling, comedian 75 Cents
ing pot of emergency school aid. The four districts also argue that the state isn’t spending enough money overall on its schools, but the Supreme Court is still reviewing that question. A lower-court panel ruled last year that the state must boost its aid by at least $548 million a year. “This is a thinly veiled attempt to move money from the left pocket to the right Sen. Ty pocket,” said Masterson John Robb, the attorney for the districts. “I don’t have any question but the court’s going to reject this.” Predictions like Robb’s led Democratic Rep. Jim Ward, of Wichita, to accuse Republicans of “playing Russian roulette with our schools” in passing the plan. The House’s debate grew unusually heated when Rep. John Whitmer, a Wichita Republican, suggested Democrats had no proposals and See FUNDING | Page A6
Hi: 50 Lo: 28 Iola, KS