Police said Cotter’s daughter, an MSU junior majoring in international relations, jumped from an electrical tower and killed herself in a small Indiana town.

Her mother, however, disagrees.

She said shoddy police work and a coroner’s incorrect suicide ruling have marred the investigation.

For months, Cotter has fought to clear her daughter’s name with little success. From neighboring police agencies to the Indiana attorney general to state governors’ offices, Cotter has spent countless hours looking for somebody to take up her cause.

But the question remains whether there is enough evidence to prove police wrong in their ongoing investigation of Rylan Cotter’s death.

Searching for a reason

In the early afternoon of Jan. 9, 2008, a maintenance worker at Brassie Golf Course in Chesterton, Ind., found the body of Rylan Cotter. She was 28 feet from the base of an electrical tower, lying with her arms outstretched, keys in one hand, a lighter in the other and a small cut on her left wrist wrapped in toilet paper.

Rylan left East Lansing by herself at about 2 a.m. Jan. 7, 2008, and checked in to a Benton Harbor hotel at 3:30 a.m. She checked out alone eight hours later and drove to Chesterton.

While in Chesterton, a town of about 10,000 residents located 20 miles from the Indiana-Michigan border near Lake Michigan, Rylan stopped at a travel bureau to look at a map of local trails, according to witness reports. She also went to an unidentified local business to buy a box cutter and the allergy medicine Benadryl, police said. She was not seen with anyone at either stop.

In the early evening, Rylan was seen by Chesterton resident John Jackson, who was walking his dog, on a trail near Brassie Golf Course, located about two and a half miles from the nearest major road. Cotter parked her car — a maroon 1997 Oldsmobile 88 — near the Prairie-Duneland Trail, got out to walk and returned to her car in a short time. She sat in her unstarted car and Jackson walked away.

He would be the last known person to see her alive.

To date, nobody knows why Rylan would leave East Lansing in the early morning hours and drive to Chesterton.

Rylan did not have any known contacts in Chesterton, and phone and e-mail records do not shed any light on her reasoning.

Searching for evidence

Chesterton police arrived on the scene of Brassie Golf Course at 1:15 p.m. two days later. Rylan was found about 500 feet south from the Prairie-Duneland Trail and a half mile from her car.

The subsequent investigation was performed by the Chesterton Police Department, led by Lt. Dave Cincoski. With few answers and questions about how the investigation was conducted, Cincoski has come under fire from Rylan’s mother and her supporters.

Nancy Cotter and others have questioned whether Brassie Golf Course was closed and whether golfers were allowed to continue rounds while detectives investigated the initial scene on Jan. 9 — an example she cited of poor police work.

The course’s general manager, Duane Borcherding, said six members were on the semi-private course that day and “there were probably a couple on the course” during the investigation. Borcherding said police advised the golfers to stay away from the area where Rylan’s body was found.

Cincoski said he couldn’t verify whether golfers were on the course during the investigation but said there were no golfers near the scene.

Officers also did not close off the trail where Rylan was last seen by Jackson, Cincoski said, adding “there was no need to cordon off the bike trail.”

Kenneth Ouellette, a retired police detective and licensed private investigator who has worked on death investigations, said security during an investigation generally is a priority and “you want to cordon off a pretty good area” when investigating a death. That area is dependent on the investigation scene circumstances, said Ouellette, who is not familiar with the Cotter investigation.

“There’s no magical number,” Ouellette said. “It could be 10 feet or it could be a mile.”

Accounts on how quickly police canvassed the neighborhoods around the tower where Rylan was found also have been a point of contention.

Cincoski said police interviewed residents who live near the tower the day Rylan’s body was found. Residents who live closest to the tower, however, said police interviewed them anywhere from a few days to two weeks after her death.

Cotter said the reported delay in canvassing neighborhoods near the scene could be the result of an insistence by Chesterton police to handle the case without assistance from other police agencies.

Cincoski said Chesterton police received “personnel, property, equipment and assistance” in the investigation from Indiana State Police, Michigan State Police, neighboring Porter police, the FBI, Benton Township police, Mason police and MSU police.

When contacted about their role in the investigation, Indiana State Police, Michigan State Police, Porter police, the FBI and Benton Township police said they did not assist in the investigation in any way.

Searching for help

With few answers, Cotter said she has requested to look at evidence police recovered in their investigation but has been turned away.

Cotter said she wants to check for any irregularities in her daughter’s appearance or mannerisms on a video taken from the Chesterton business where Rylan was seen buying the box cutter and Benadryl. She also has requested an inventory of evidence taken from the scene and her daughter’s car, but that request has not been granted in recent weeks.

Cincoski said police will not release evidentiary information until the case is closed, per department protocol.

Ouellette said families and friends can sometimes be helpful in reviewing evidence, but there have to be parameters.

“You’ve got to be very, very careful about what you tell families during the investigation,” Ouellette said. “They’ve got to be on board with you 110 percent. You can’t have any leaks.”

Cotter also said she would have wanted — and still wants — additional police agencies to assist Chesterton police.

“I don’t think they’re hiding anything,” Cotter said. “I just think they wanted to put to rest any fears in the town and wanted to be the heroes to solve the case.”

While Cincoski said he doesn’t see a reason why another police agency couldn’t take a fresh look at the case, he said there is no need.

“I don’t see any reason to, nor has there been any physical evidence to substantiate any different findings,” Cincoski said.

Searching for a cause

Two months after Rylan’s body was found, Chesterton police and an Indiana coroner ruled that she climbed the electrical tower and jumped to her death.

Porter County Coroner Victoria Deppe, who performed Rylan’s autopsy, found multiple fractures ranging from her ribs to legs, as well as lacerations to her right lung and liver that caused her death.

In her coroner’s report, Deppe listed the cause of death as “blunt force trauma to chest/abdomen” with the contributing cause of a “jump.” The manner of death was listed as “suicide.”

Deppe determined Rylan committed suicide based on the injuries she sustained, physical evidence at the scene and interviews with Rylan’s friends.

Rylan had never made suicidal comments or attempted suicide before, but Deppe said there were “soft signs” such as slight changes in behavior. Rylan had skipped several classes, was spending more time alone and had been doubting her ability to make an impact in a war-torn Darfur, where she dreamed of helping, her mother said.

Rylan also was found to have non-lethal dose of diphenhydramine, also known as Benadryl, in her system.

After Deppe’s ruling, Chesterton police suspended their investigation of Rylan’s manner and cause of death while keeping a criminal investigation open. No arrests have been made.

Searching for answers

While police and Deppe agree on the suicide ruling, Nancy Cotter does not. She points to several factors that indicate her daughter might not have jumped from the tower.

Residents who live near the tower where Rylan Cotter was found have said it is unlikely that she would have been able to climb the tower in the driving rain that flooded northern Indiana during the time Cotter was estimated to have died.

A Chesterton woman 6 inches taller than Rylan said she tried climbing the tower and was unable to reach pegs about 10 feet off the ground that are required to scale the tower. The woman, who is familiar with the investigation, asked for anonymity because it is illegal to climb an electrical tower and she had concerns for her safety.

While he could not confirm or deny Rylan was able to climb the tower, Jim Fitzer, a public affairs manager for Northern Indiana Public Service Company in Merrillville, Ind., which uses the tower, said the towers are “designed so that people can’t” climb them.

Cincoski and Deppe said “physical evidence at the scene” explained the ruling that Rylan jumped from the tower. Both declined to elaborate on the type of evidence because the case is still open and all information required to be released by Indiana law has been disseminated.

Nancy Cotter noted that the coroner’s report did not indicate any injuries to her daughter’s arms or head or any bruises, which Cotter believes would have been sustained from climbing or falling from the tower.

“I’ve had several people try (climbing the tower), and they end up with bruises between their elbow and arm pits. They have bruises on their knees if they got that far,” Cotter said. “To my knowledge, Rylan had no bruises.”

Deppe said there doesn’t have to be any head or neck injuries in a fall consistent with the one she said killed Rylan.

Nancy Cotter also noted that there was a more accessible tower near the trail. To reach the tower where she died, Rylan likely would have had to walk on Prairie-Duneland Trail, traipse through a ravine bordering the northwest end of the golf course and walk about 500 feet to the tower.

At the same point along the trail where Rylan likely entered the golf course is a tower to the north. It is about 100 feet off the trail and visible from the trail.

Rylan, who kept a detailed journal, also did not leave a suicide note or write about suicide. While friends noted a change in Rylan’s behavior prior to her death, Nancy Cotter said her daughter likely was missing classes prior to her death because she was coping with the illness of a close family member.

Cotter said her daughter was missing some classes, but attending those that pertained to her love of African culture, such as the Zulu language.

Searching for change

With the conviction that her daughter did not jump from the tower and the fact that nobody — to the knowledge of police — saw Rylan jump, Nancy Cotter said a coroner can’t rightly call her daughter’s death a suicide.

Cotter has been supported in her call for a change to the manner of death by John Evans, a former coroner and current county commissioner where Rylan’s body was found. Evans and Cotter argue that Deppe cannot definitively call the death a suicide because mitigating circumstances leave open the possibility that Rylan was the victim of a crime.

“When you look at the death, I think there are many indicators that the suicide verdict is accurate,” Evans said. “But there are many indicators that don’t say that, so how can you weigh them both and put the stigma of a suicide on a family when you don’t know for certain?”

Deppe said she is “100-percent certain” in her finding after her review of the case.

Cotter has requested a coroner’s inquest, a process in which evidence related to the autopsy is reviewed by a jury and a decision is made about the manner of death but has not been granted one. For a coroner’s inquest to be initiated, the presiding coroner must start the process, a fact that has angered Cotter.

“I think it’s ridiculous that a coroner would have to admit to making a mistake and have to invoke their own inquest,” Cotter said. “To me, it’s the fox guarding the chickens.”

Deppe said she has not been contacted by any agencies about initiating a coroner’s inquest in the Cotter case and does not believe one is necessary.

“It’s not something you see routinely in the state of Indiana and there is no other evidence that has been presented here,” Deppe said.

Searching for closure

After more than a year since Rylan’s death, her mother and friends have balanced coping with her absence with pressing police for answers.

Many believe Rylan, described as a generous woman with kindness in her heart and a twinkle in her eye, was the victim of foul play or another manner of crime. They can’t picture a situation in which their whipsmart, free-spirited friend would jump to her death without first confiding in her mother, with whom she shared a close relationship.

“Just knowing the kind of person she was, and from the investigation standpoint, the puzzle doesn’t fit together to indicate suicide,” said Jessica Hummel, Rylan’s roommate the year she died.

“On top of that, there’s just my own personal thoughts, which I know is quite a few other people’s thoughts, that she was so close with her mother, that if she was that unhappy, if she wanted to end her life, she would have left something for her mom.”

Cotter said she will fight endlessly to honor her daughter by searching for what she believes is the truth.

“Before I go to my grave,” Cotter said, “I’m going to clear my daughter’s name.”