OCILLA, GA (WALB) -- One family is still searching for answers, desperate to find out what happened almost 14 years ago when Candy Cook was found dead in Tift County.
"No day goes by that she's not thought of," said Tonya Jewett, Cook's older sister.
Cook's immediate family is still grieving over their loss from September 2003.
"This is where Candy lays," sighed Jewett pointing to Cook's cemetery plot.
"And this is where I'll go, right beside her," uttered Martha Bowling, Cook's mother.
Candy Cook died at 32.
"I always told her I was going first, but she said, 'oh no I'm going before you do,'" chuckled Bowling.
Her family still doesn't have answers about her death.
All they know is a farmer found her body, decomposing in a field behind the Tift County Airport in late September of 2003. She was strangled.
Now nearly 14 years later Jewett still wants to know what happened.
"We want answers. She's been gone for so long, since 2003. And we want closure," said Jewett.
Jewett is begging the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Tift County Sheriff's Office to figure out what happened, and why.
"Candy's not living in peace until we solve this," said Jewett.
Bowling said she wants the Tift County Sheriff's office to do more.
"I have called and I have called, and there's not much more I can do. I have been to that sheriff's department in Tifton and begged and pleaded. That's not doing no good," said Bowling.
Bowling said she's talked to detectives there, as well as investigators at the GBI to learn more.
Still, she struggles with grief each day.
"It's never over. People say it gets better, but it don't," said Bowling.
Cook's family visits the Pinetta Baptist Church cemetery weekly, to keep her spirit alive.
"She was a good person. She had a good heart, funny; she was crazy," said Jewett.
Her family is persevering, in the hope that they'll get answers.
"I feel like Candy's with me every day. And it's just like she's telling me not to give up, and I guess I never will give up," said Jewett.
Jewett and Bowling are begging anyone who may have any information to come forward.
Her family said that when there is closure, everything will be alright.
