Slain Madeline Bills was standout high school basketball player who was weeks away from graduating with a 4.0 GPA
The fears of an Oklahoma teenage girl became a heartbreaking reality as her ex-boyfriend stands accused of raping and murdering her.
The shocking details of the case paint a chilling picture of betrayal and violence.
Madeline Bills, the 18-year-old standout high school basketball player with a promising future, had expressed genuine fears to her friends about her ex-boyfriend, Chace Cook. She was also taking precautions to alter her sleeping arrangements out of fear for her safety.
These concerns, as revealed in a police affidavit, unfolded tragically when Madeline’s lifeless body was discovered in her bedroom on April 22 last year.
Despite Cook’s initial claim of Navy training in Texas, investigators uncovered surveillance footage that placed him at the scene of the crime on the night Madeline was found dead. The timeline of events revealed an unknown suspect climbing over Madeline’s fence, a vehicle matching Cook’s car near her home, and the suspect entering and leaving her poolside-bedroom in the early hours.
Autopsy results confirmed Madeline’s cause of death as strangulation, with a disturbing discovery on Cook’s phone—a video allegedly showing him raping her while she lay unconscious.
Cook’s alibi quickly crumbled under scrutiny as detectives presented evidence of his presence near Madeline’s home the night she died.
Facing charges of rape and murder, Cook remains in custody as the legal proceedings unfold. Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn filed a death penalty motion, stressing the alleged crimes as “especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel.”
The community mourns the loss of a promising young athlete, and Madeline’s family grapples with the devastating confirmation that her fears were tragically realised.
