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Comment by Brenda on September 19, 2011 at 12:48pm

http://www.nampn.org/cases/cooper_ryan.html

Comment by Brenda on July 30, 2011 at 10:43pm

Happy Birthday Ryan..

Comment by Brenda on June 15, 2011 at 6:12am

Family of man missing since 1999 hope arrests lead to body

1:11 PM, Mar. 3, 2011

Ryan Cooper before Cooper Sr. vanished in 1999. / Photo provided by Cooper's family
Written by Gary Craig
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Local News
Jamie Lantz was six months pregnant with Ryan Cooper’s daughter when he vanished in 1999.
The couple also had a 3-year-old son. Since then, Lantz has told the children about their father, the suspicions that he was murdered and his body hidden, and the even more troubling belief that his cousins were responsible.

Now those two — James Kendrick, 36, and Pablo Plaza, 35 — are accused in federal court of Cooper’s slaying. The two could face the death penalty.

Lantz, 34, has heard the suspicions for years, and she hopes the two can provide answers to the mystery of Cooper’s whereabouts.

“We really want answers and closure and hopefully they will tell us where Ryan’s body is and he can get a proper burial,” Lantz said.

Federal prosecutors Wednesday accused six Rochester-area residents of involvement in the killings of Cooper, who was 23 when he disappeared, and Francisco Santos, who disappeared from Rochester in the fall of 1998. Santos’ body was found in May 1999 in a makeshift grave at the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in Erie County. He was 27.

Also charged with Santos’ killing are: Pablo “Paul” Plaza, 38; Janine Plaza Pierce, 57; Edwin Negron, 34; and Angelo Cruz, 34. They too could face the death penalty.

Federal authorities also indicted five other Rochester-area individuals they say were involved in drug-trafficking with the six accused in the slayings. Almost all have pleaded not guilty at arraignments. Two, including Kendrick, have yet to be arraigned in federal court.

Kendrick is also accused of running a criminal enterprise since 1993.

Bail hearings will be scheduled for many of the accused in coming weeks.

Cooper was full-blooded Native American and much of his family lived on the Cattaraugus reservation, Lantz said.

His mother died last year, she said.

“That was his mom’s one wish before she died of cancer that she would know what happened to Ryan,” Lantz said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman is trying to arrange attorneys for the six facing possible capital punishment. Federal policy requires that they have one attorney well experienced in capital defense and another with some training and experience. Those numbers are limited in western New York, where there are now 20 individuals accused in federal court in Rochester and Buffalo of “death eligible” crimes.

GCRAIG@DemocratandChronicle.com
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/Story_not_found