The Murder of Heidi Bernadzikowski
On April 20, 2000 police in Dundalk Maryland, near Baltimore responded to a call. They would find Stephen Cooke Jr. in the middle of his front room floor holding the bloody body of his girlfriend, Heidi Bernadzikowski. He would say that he had come home to find her there with her throat slashed. Police were almost immediately suspicious of Stephen and everyone knew it. Some believe they were simply suspicious because he was the closest person to Heidi and everyone knows those are the ones who are first looked at. Others say the suspicion came from several other things such as their was no forced entry into the home and nothing appeared to have been stolen. But, the most suspicious thing of all was the fact that investigators learned that just one month before her murder a life insurance policy for $700,000 had been obtained on the twenty-four year old and Stephen was the beneficiary. But, investigators had no evidence to prove Stephen was guilty. ...