BIRTH: March 6, 1995
DEATH: May 30, 2007
Amanda "Mandie" Coco ~ Age 12
Mandie, 12, was murdered by her father, Christopher Coco, a few weeks after she reported that her father was molesting her. After murdering Mandie, he shot and killed him self in what police labeled a murder-suicide.
People said they always thought Mandie’s father, Christopher, was an odd man who screamed at children and sported a pistol strapped to his hip. He would threaten them and tell them he killed his wife and buried in the back of the house. People said Mandie would walk around with bruises on her arms and legs. The week before her father killed her, she sported a cast on her arm. Her friends, and others said she always made excuses as to how they happened. She told friends that her father molested her and mostly did it on holidays.
Police went to the apartment to check on Mandie at the request of KidsPeace, where she was enrolled, because she had not been seen at school in a while. Police got no response when they knocked on the door and when an officer returned about six hours later and noticed flies clumped on inside windows, the officer became suspicious. He had the building manager let him inside the apartment where he located Mandie.
Mandie and her father’s bodies were found upstairs next to each other, on a bed, and a 9mm semiautomatic handgun was found under Christopher Coco. Police were not certain how long they had been dead, but they believed it was more than 24 hours.
There were no signs someone had broken into their apartment. The windows were locked and both doors were deadbolted from the inside. One door had a snow shovel wedged under the doorknob and another door had a crutch jammed under the knob. Mandie and her father lived in the apartment alone.
OTHER LINKS:
Dad killed daughter, self in East Stroudsburg
Murder victim Mandie Coco tried to ‘hold fast’ to her dream
Friends and Family Honor Pocono Murder Victim
Mandie Coco celebrated at memorial service
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