Sandra Coke has been missing since leaving her Oakland home on Sunday evening. She is a beloved mother, sister, colleague and friend. Sandra works for the Federal Defender's Office in Sacramento. I was lucky to have worked with Sandra in the early 1990s on capital cases, and since then she has continued to be an incredibly well-respected investigator. Sandra has devoted her professional life with enormous empathy to helping the poor and underprivileged who have been swept up in the criminal justice system and to developing evidence to challenge the unfairness and unreliability of death sentences on behalf of the condemned.
Her disappearance is unlikely to be connected with her work. Here are some links to recent articles about her: Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Tribune.
If you live in the East Bay, please keep a look out. If you have any information regarding Sandra, contact the Oakland Police Department Missing Persons Section at (510) 238-3641 or call the toll-free tip hotline at 855-TIPS-247 (855-847-7247).
At a press conference yesterday, Sandra's sister Tanya, joined by family, friends, and co-workers, announced a $100,000 reward to anyone with information that will DIRECTLY lead to finding Sandra:
Anyone with any information, we are begging you to come forward immediately. You can do so anonymously. We have now set up a new, anonymous hot line and we are urging the community to come forward today and call this number 415-385-5190 or email findsandracoke@gmail.com with any information about my sister. To everyone who has reached out and shown their support for our family, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Here's a link to site that has a
PDF flyer you can print and post around Oakland and the East Bay.
3:37 PM PT: $100,000 reward offered to anyone with information that will DIRECTLY lead to finding Sandra
Fri Aug 09, 2013 at 7:34 AM PT: Police began searching the Solano County Fairgrounds in Vallejo last night. Earlier this week they arrested 56-year-old Randy Alana on a parole violation and are questioning him in connection to Sandra's disappearance. Alana, a man with a violent past, briefly dated Coke more than 20 years ago.
10:04 AM PT: Statement from Sandra's Family today:
“Sandra Coke, our beloved daughter, sister and family member, disappeared on Sunday evening, and she has not returned. We pray for her immediate return to us.
We are enormously grateful for the efforts of everyone – law enforcement, colleagues and friends of Sandra, and members of the public and the media--who have labored day and night -- to find Sandra.
We want to do everything we can at this point to help that search. The police have asked us not to comment on details of the investigation. We will make no additional comments today.
Thank you for your support in the search for our beloved Sandra.”