NEWS 8 EXCLUSIVE
DALLAS — The murder trial of Delvecchio Patrick begins this week in Dallas County District Court 292.
The case has repeatedly been delayed.
As Deanna Cook's family awaits justice, they sat down with News 8 to talk about the trauma associated with finding her body.
"We kept calling [police] ... no answer, no answer," said Vickie Cook, the victim's mother.
Deanna Cooks' mother, sister and two daughters discovered her body after trying and failing to get police to check on the woman at her home.
"I shouldn't have had to find my daughter like that; she shouldn't have to find her sister; and they sure shouldn't have had to see their mother like that," Vickie Cook said.
Deanna Cook had been strangled and drowned.
The family said she had tried to escape her ex-husband, Delvecchio Patrick, for years.
"He said it," Vickie Cook said. "He said he was going to do it. He said it."
News 8 obtained 911 tapes of Deanna Cook begging for help in the weeks leading up to her death.
"He's already tried to kill me three times," she said in one of the calls. "I'm really just fed up with this. I can't keep moving and changing my life because of this."
On August 12, 2012, Cook made her last 911 call for help. It's in that call you can hear her beg for her life before she's murdered with the call still being recorded.
"I don't recommend nobody to hear it," Vickie Cook said.
The 911 operator didn't know where Deanna Cook was calling from, and didn't make her call a top priority. The officers who responded stopped first at a convenience store before they went to the victim's home. The officers never entered the residence.
Cook's family went to her home two days later.
Her sister, Karletha, knocked down the door. That's when her mother found Deanna's lifeless body. That moment — as the women screamed in distress — was also captured on a 911 call.
"And when I went in, I didn't see anything but water," she said. "Water was everywhere."
Deanna Cook's daughters say it's difficult growing up without their mother.
"You have family and stuff, but it's not like having your mother smile, waking you up in the morning," said Aniya Williams. "That is what we are missing out on."
Delvecchio Patrick was arrested and charged with Deanna Cook's murder. Jury selection for his trial is now scheduled to begin Tuesday.
