Courtesy photo Tama News-HeraldCora Ann Okonski
AKA: Cora Ann Miller
Age at Report: 23
DOB: March 1977
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Missing From: Tama, IA
Tama County
Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: April 16, 2000
Cora Ann Okonski, a 23-year-old young mother engaged to be married the following month, left her Tama, Iowa, home around 9 p.m. on Sunday, April 16, 2000, and headed to the store to buy cigarettes. She was never seen again.
Tait Otis Purk, 33 – Okonski’s live-in companion and the man she planned to marry — told police he had stayed home to care for Okonski’s two-year-old son, Austin, and that he’d last seen his fiancée walking west on 5th Street in Tama.
Courtesy photo Tama-News HeraldPurk, who believed she’d just gone to a friends home, said he spent the following day trying to track her down. He knocked on a number of doors, but got the same response from all of them; Okonski had not visited them the night before and they hadn’t seen her.
Purk had to work the second shift that night in Grinnell, but left a note on the door for Okonski to let her know Austin was at his family’s home. The note was still on the door when Purk returned home from work.
Early Tuesday morning, Purk contacted Tama police, who advised him to come in and file a missing persons report.
According to police records, Purk and Okonski sometimes had a “stormy” relationship, and both had reported threats from the other in the past.
Court records cited by the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier showed Purk had been charged with domestic assault against Okonski just a few months earlier in December 1999. A no-contact order was put into place at that time, but both Purk and Okonski later filed to have the order cancelled; they were trying to work things out and talked of marrying the following May.
The assault case was dismissed in March of 2000. Nearly three weeks later, Cora Ann Okonski headed down a street to purchase cigarettes for the two of them and vanished without a trace.
Okonski had moved to Tama from Chicago, Illinois, about one year prior to her disappearance and worked as a waitress at the King Tower Cafe on Highway 30 on Tama’s east edge.
Austin has been in the care of relatives since his mother vanished, and Okonski’s family said it would be uncharacteristic of her to abandon her child.
Courtesy photo Tama-News HeraldPurk is currently incarcerated on unrelated federal drug charges related to manufacturing methamphetamine. He was indicted for conspiracy to manufacture meth, possession of pseudoephedrine and being a felon and user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm.
He has denied having any knowledge of his fiancée’s whereabouts, and is not being called a suspect in her disappearance. He is scheduled for release from prison in February 2017.
Okonski had her own share of run-ins with the law and was a suspect in cases that included narcotics, domestic violence, and burglary. At the time she went missing, an active warrant existed for her arrest on a charge of failure to appear at a pre-trial conference as a witness.
Due to the outstanding warrant, Okonski does not appear on the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Missing Person Information Clearinghouse list. Police said persons cannot appear on both “wanted” and “missing” lists at the same time.
On September 18, 2003, Tama police published an appeal in a local newspaper asking the public for information regarding Okonski’s disappearance. It also served as a reminder, said Tama Police Chief Dan Wilkens, that police were still working the case.
Cora Ann Okonski
Community members rose to the occasion and tips began to surface.
Armed with a search warrant, the Tama Police Department, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and four other agencies began an extensive four-day search of a rural farm on Iowa Highway 21 near Irving, Iowa in Tama County as well as an Irving salvage yard. Nancy and Don Purk – Tait Purk’s cousin — owned the Highway 21 property outside Belle Plaine, and the new leads indicated Okonski might have been out at the property the night before she disappeared.
A police department press release stated the occupants of the location were cooperating with the investigation.
Items sought – which officials felt might point to the young woman’s whereabouts – included clothing, jewelry and other unnamed items.
Bone fragments and some articles of clothing collected during the search were sent to the DCI labs in Des Moines to determine whether the bones were human or if the clothing belonged to Okonski.
Wilkens told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier on Oct. 3 that the lead was a result of tireless efforts on the part of Tama police officer John Carr.
“He is a good investigator. He is a good officer. He took the original call and he is just refreshing (the case),” Wilkens told the Courier.
DNA results revealed the bone fragments came from an animal, and other evidence failed to lead to any other resolution.
Courtesy photo Tama-News HeraldOn the eighth anniversary of her disappearance, police told the Times-Republican their emphasis remains on determining the whereabouts and well being of Okonski in order to bring closure to Cora Ann’s family, particularly her son — now a grown man.
Police also continue to seek out individuals who knew Okonski in efforts to establish biographical information about the young woman’s life before she vanished. That knowledge, they said, could aid in the investigation. They reiterate to the press that there’s more to the case than just a missing person.
Said Det. Carr in a Tama News-Herald article acknowledging the 10th anniversary:
“Cora chose a dangerous lifestyle. [Her] apparent high-risk lifestyle choices also increase [the] likelihood that she may be a victim of an accident, misadventure or homicide.”
While she lived in Tama, police told the News-Herald, she also was listed as the victim of two burglaries involving assault with intent.
Okonski’s family, from Oak Lawn, Illinois, and police have conceded — and did so as early as 2003 – that they believe Cora Ann is dead. In a 2003 telephone interview with the News-Herald, Okonski’s adoptive father, Jerry Okonski, who lives in Chicago’s suburbs, said the family “is convinced she is dead.” He stated at that time:
“Cora Ann is the kind of girl who would maintain contact with us at all times when she was away from here. If somebody killed her, we hope they would be brought to justice. We want to find her body or remains and have a proper burial.”
There is one other solemn reminder Okonski isn’t just “missing”; the 23-year-old received Social Security disability payments. She stopped claiming them after April 16 – the date she last was seen alive.
Shortly after media covered the 10th anniversary of Okonski’s disappearance, Tait Purk, 43, wrote a ‘Letter to the Editor’ of the Tama News-Herald, disputing a small detail the newspaper printed regarding Purk’s account of the last time he saw Okonski.
Purk wrote:
“The article says that Cora “borrowed” $5.00 from me. That is not true and I am upset that being stated in the article that way. I will tell you about this day and you can go verify what you want.”
According to a News-Herald story published June 11, 2010, Purk wrote the letter — dated May 27 — from the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. The News-Herald office received it on June 2.
Purk also wanted to make known his efforts to locate Okonski.
The full contents of his letter read:
May 27, 2010
Mr. Spears,
I am writing to you about the article in the paper “Where is Cora.”
I would tell you for the most part the article was done well. But I do take issue with it stating I said something that i didn’t say. I want you to please go and verify what I state to you and you may print any of it you wish.
The article says that Cora “borrowed” – $5.00 from me. This is not true and i am upset that being stated in the article that way. I will tell you about this say and you can go verify what you want.
It was palm Sunday as they call it, and everything was fine. Cora said she was going to go up to the church with Austin and she said she would be right back. I though this as weird because she never went to church any other time. But she is a Catholic I guess as her family are also. The church is one block from our house. She goes and when she comes back she had some branches from a plant long and skinny. She put them on the wall and we stated talking about things and I said to her we wait for a while in getting married. She got upset and said she was going for a walk.
She left and she was gone all day and came back late in the afternoon 6 or 7. I stayed at the house all day with Austin and I cleaned the house and watched movies and took care of Austin. She didn’t say much of anything she showered and said she was going to the neighbors house for a second.
She left and came back a few minutes later with a writing tablet and went into the bedroom and was writing for a little bit than she came out to the living room and asked “Do you have any money.”
I said for what, she said she needed smokes and I gave her 6-7 dollars for her to get us both some. I watched her walk up 5th St. and she never came back. That is what I see when I think of her.
I went everywhere I could think of her being the next day and everyone said she never came over to anyones house. That was Monday.
I went to work in Grinnell that night 2nd shift and Austin was at my familys house. I left a note on the door telling her where Austin was and the note was still there when I got home.
When we got up I called to see if she was in jail or to find out if they could check in Marshalltown and I was told to go to the police station and report it that she left and I had Austin.
Everything after that has been a nightmare. A lot has happened in my life. i ain’t going to say what I have been through over all this, this isn’t about me.
I just don’t like it when things are taken out of context. I have never given up hope that everyone gets answers most of all Austin she loved him and he her.
Thank you
Tait Purk
Leavenworth, Kan.
Courtesy photo Tama News-Herald/John Speer In the April 22 News-Herald story, “Where is Cora?” editor John Speer asked Tama Police Det. John Carr how often Cora Ann’s case is on his mind. “Daily,” Carr replied. “I want to solve this before I retire from the police force.”
Police Chief Dan Wilkens told the News-Herald that despite the 10 years gone by, “It remains a very active case.” Okonski is Tama’s only active missing persons case.
In the same article, Carr briefly referenced one more set of interviews police would conduct to clarify new statements that had surfaced in the community, and said it gave them “the hope of new information or direction.”
Wilkens and Carr were reluctant to divulge any further details about what they described as “another plan” to follow in the spring.
Tama police continue their appeal for additional public assistance. They ask that anyone who knows anything that might be related to the case to contact them. Cora’s family deserves closure, they continue to emphasize, and her son needs to know what happened to his mother.
Courtesy photo Tama-News HeraldIf you have any information regarding the disappearance or death of Cora Ann Okonski, please direct it to the Tama Police Department at 641-484-3223 or Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.
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