HAYWARD — A Chabot College student journalist died while covering the war in the Ukraine; now, his mother is on a quest to get her son’s body back to the United States.
In a post on a fundraising site, Christine Cook said the U.S. Embassy in Kiev informed her July 26 that 41-year-old Titawny Cook had been found dead.
“I am devastated and full of loss over my son’s death,” Christine Cook wrote on an online fundraiser intended to pay for Titawny Cook’s return.
The fundraiser is seeking to collect $25,000. By Friday morning at 11 a.m., it had raised nearly $15,500.
“I am desperately just trying to get his body back to the United States,” Christine Cook wrote. “I need your help to do so.”
Christine Cook wrote that her son’s death came amid “suspicious circumstances” and that his body was found 20 minutes from his apartment in Kiev. Titawny Cook, a former U.S. Marine who saw a tour of duty in Iraq, went to the war-torn country last year.
“Even though he served in the military, the information I am getting is they are nicely telling me that it is on me to bring him home since he was not on active duty,” Christine Cook wrote. “With Ukraine being at war with Russia, their airports are closed. The only way to get Titawny home is to ground transport him to another country and then fly him from there to here.”
Titawny Cook’s decision to cover the war was recognized by the Chabot Spectator, the college’s student newspaper, last October. He told the paper that he “always wanted to come to Ukraine” and that it was a “goal of mine to come to this country in this time of war.”
Chabot College is on its summer break and campus officials did not comment when contacted Friday.
Christine Cook said that the process of trying to get her son’s body back has been filled with panic-inducing moments that the support from the community has helped her overcome.
“The continued outpouring of love and support from so many people is beyond what I could ever imagine,” she wrote. “To all of you I wake up with hope and gratitude.”
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