Teacher of the Year finalist feared spouse

Sandra Cook told a Brevard County judge that she was in fear of her husband when she filed for divorce in January, citing what she called his “anger management issues.”

Cook’s divorce petition also asked for a restraining order to keep her husband, 60-year-old Ricky Cook, from returning to the home they shared in Melbourne. However, court records show that the requested restraining order or emergency injunction was never filed. Petitions for a restraining orders need to be formally submitted and a judge must hold a hearing on the matter, according to court officials. That never happened in this case.

Cook’s sister, contacted by Rockledge High School officials after she didn’t turn up for class Monday morning, found Cook’s body in her home. Cook, who had been a finalist for Brevard Public Schools’ Teacher of the Year, had been shot and killed in her bed, police said.

Her husband’s body was also located in the home with a gun nearby, police said. The couple had been married nearly seven years.

But, according to Sandra Cook’s divorce petition, her husband, a retiree who was self-employed in the construction industry, left home for work in November and never returned.

Cook told her attorney that in January, her husband returned to the home they shared unannounced, carrying a crowbar and making threats.

“She was home and she looked up and hewas at the sliding glass door with a crowbar,” said Cook’s sister Ann Quesada. Sandra Cook filed for divorce on Jan. 6. Ricky Cook filed a response with the court Jan. 26, denying many of the claims made by his estranged wife.

Ricky Cook also had other pending legal trouble. Records show he had also been arrested Dec. 30 on a grand theft-related charge by Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies.

Police reported that Cook removed a tractor from a property without permission and took it to his second home in West Melbourne.