Cheryl Coker: Coroner unable determine how Riverside woman died

GREENE COUNTY — The Greene County Coroner’s Office announced Thursday an autopsy was unable to determine how Cheryl Coker died.

The final autopsy results were released Thursday afternoon. Some pages of the report, as permitted by prosecutors, will be released Friday morning.

>> Cheryl Coker’s remains found in Greene County

Cheryl Coker’s cause and manner of death are officially listed as “undetermined,” a spokesperson for the office told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell.

Cheryl Coker’s family is in the process of planning a Christian burial for her, however a date has not been scheduled yet.

Cheryl Coker’s remains were found off Waynesville Jamestown Road in April. She had been missing since October 2018.

In June, the Riverside Police Department requested the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to become the lead investigating agency in the Cheryl Coker case.

“With Mrs. Coker’s remains being located in another county, it is the combined belief that the best course of action is for Riverside Police Department to fully utilize the vast resources of the (Ohio) Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification in the pursuit of justice,” the department said in a statement in June. “The Riverside Police Department will still be involved in the day-to-day investigation.”

Cheryl Coker’s bones were found by a man who was mushroom hunting. He told dispatchers some clothing also was found in the field near the bones.

“It’s not a common area for someone to go to,” Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer said. “This happened to be some woods and some overgrowth in the area.”

The Riverside mother was reported missing on Oct. 2, 2018, by her sister Margie Keenan, who had been searching for her sister after Cheryl’s 15-year-old daughter couldn’t reach her mother.

The clothing was taken as evidence and there was also some other evidence on scene that provided coroner’s investigators with a presumptive identification, prior to that identification being confirmed.

>> Related: New details on found bones investigation in Greene County

Search warrants were executed in February 2020 in the Cheryl Coker homicide investigation, Riverside police said a year after Cheryl Coker’s husband Bill Coker was named a suspect in her case. Bill Coker has not been charged

>>Cheryl Coker case: Riverside police name suspect, call disappearance a homicide

Investigation after her disappearance painted a picture of a troubled relationship with her husband leading to a recent filing for divorce.

>>Cheryl Coker case: ‘I’ve never in my entire life hurt anyone,’ says husband

Professional searches from the Midwest chapter of Texas Equusearch made multiple sweeps of targeted areas but didn’t find her.

Mary Carroll, Cheryl Coker’s mother, spoke to WHIO-TV on the anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance in October.

“I want to lash out and I just can’t,” she said at the time. “Your mind’s never off her. Get up, first thing in the morning, take a shower. It’s right there, all the time.”

Bill Coker has maintained his innocence, but in October Cheryl Coker’s family said they don’t believe it.

“It’s basically just finding her, and I can’t imagine what he could have done with her,” Carroll said.

“Someone knows,” Keenan said. “Somebody knows and shame on them.”

Cox Media Group