No one has been charged with killing Cheryl Coker. Investigators have publicly named one suspect — her estranged husband, William “Bill” Coker — but the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office declined to approve charges, citing insufficient evidence, and the Ohio Attorney General’s office still lists her death as an unsolved homicide.1Ohio Attorney General. Unsolved Homicides – Cheryl L Coker Bill Coker has consistently denied any involvement. So the honest answer to who killed Cheryl Coker is that police believe they know, prosecutors can’t prove it, and the case has sat in that gap for more than seven years.
What Happened on October 2, 2018
Cheryl Coker, 45, dropped her daughter at Stebbins High School around 7:00 a.m. and returned to the family home on Christy Avenue in Riverside, Ohio, around 7:35 a.m., according to cellphone records.1Ohio Attorney General. Unsolved Homicides – Cheryl L Coker She used Facebook until about 7:45 a.m. Then all digital activity stopped.
At roughly 10:52 a.m., surveillance cameras captured her Toyota Highlander pulling into a Kroger lot on Spinning Road, not far from her house. The person who stepped out wasn’t Cheryl. The footage showed a figure dressed entirely in black, hood up, walking north toward Burkhardt Road in the direction of the Coker home. Around the same time, a 911 caller reported a suspicious male in all black near the residence.
That evening, Cheryl’s SUV was found locked in the Kroger lot with her phone, credit cards, and personal belongings still inside. A backpack turned up in the parking lot of Clancy’s Tavern containing her purse, medication, and iPhone. Her sister reported her missing that day. Her husband did not. Four days later, Bill Coker told investigators that $4,000 in cash was missing from a box the couple kept in their closet.
A mushroom hunter found her skeletal remains on April 25, 2020, in a wooded area of Greene County roughly a 15-minute drive from the Coker home. The Montgomery County Crime Lab identified her through dental and surgical records.
Why Bill Coker Is the Sole Suspect
On September 21, 2018, ten days before she disappeared, Cheryl filed for divorce from Bill Coker. Investigators treated that timing as significant.
The Riverside Police Department reclassified the case from a missing person investigation to a homicide in February 2019 and publicly named Bill Coker as a suspect on February 20, 2019. The circumstantial case tying him to Cheryl’s death includes several threads:
- The hooded figure who left Cheryl’s SUV at the Kroger walked toward the Coker home.
- At approximately 8:08 p.m. that same evening, another Kroger surveillance camera captured Bill Coker entering the store with a visible injury above his left elbow.
- Cheryl’s sister reported her missing. Her husband did not.
- Four days after she vanished, Bill reported a specific sum of cash missing from the home.
Because the remains were recovered in Greene County rather than Montgomery County, Riverside police formally asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to take over as lead agency.2Dayton Daily News. Ohio BCI to Take Lead on Cheryl Coker Homicide Investigation The Ohio Attorney General’s office identifies Bill Coker as the only person of interest.1Ohio Attorney General. Unsolved Homicides – Cheryl L Coker
Why No Charges Have Been Filed
Riverside police took their findings to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors declined, citing insufficient evidence. Bill Coker has denied any involvement in his wife’s disappearance and death.
The evidentiary problems are concrete. The Greene County coroner could not detect trauma on the skeletal remains, and the official cause and manner of death were classified as undetermined. The coroner’s report noted that the circumstances suggested “homicidal violence” of an unknown cause, but animal activity on the remains and the long interval before their discovery had destroyed evidence that might have told a clearer story.
No one witnessed violence against Cheryl. The surveillance footage shows a hooded figure in black, but the person’s identity was never definitively confirmed from the video alone. There is no publicly reported physical evidence tying Bill Coker to the disposal of her remains in Greene County. A murder prosecution built on circumstantial evidence without a confirmed cause of death is a hard case to win, and prosecutors did not approve one here.
Being named a suspect is not the same as being charged. That distinction has defined the case since 2019.
The Civil Side
Bill Coker’s insurance company filed a civil lawsuit against him connected to life insurance policies taken out on Cheryl. The details of those policies have not been widely disclosed. The suit was settled out of court, and the settlement terms are not public.
Ohio law allows a wrongful death action in circumstances that amount to murder, with a two-year statute of limitations running from the date of death.3Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Chapter 2125 – Action for Wrongful Death Cheryl’s remains were identified in 2020. No publicly reported wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by her family against Bill Coker. Civil court uses a lower burden of proof — preponderance of the evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt — which is why some families in similar situations have won civil judgments without a criminal conviction. Whether that option remains available to Cheryl’s family depends on when the statute of limitations began running, a question tied to when her death was officially confirmed versus when it actually occurred.
Where the Case Stands Now
As of October 2, 2025, the seventh anniversary of her disappearance, no one has been arrested for Cheryl Coker’s death. The investigation remains active with the Riverside Police Department. Bill Coker remains the sole person of interest. The case is listed on the Ohio Attorney General’s unsolved homicides page, and Cheryl’s family continues to push publicly for accountability.1Ohio Attorney General. Unsolved Homicides – Cheryl L Coker
Cases like this one sometimes open up years later through new forensic methods, a cooperating witness, or a cold case review. They can also stay closed when the physical evidence never existed in a provable form. For now, Cheryl Coker’s death sits in the space between strong suspicion and provable guilt, waiting for a piece of evidence that either closes the gap or confirms it can’t be closed.