It was November 18, 2004. Stephen Michael Lankester-Cox (March 13, 1966 – missing Nov 18, 2004) was at his mother’s house on 3665 Walden Lane, Acworth, Cherokee County (Tribal Land) in Georgia, when he received a phone call.
His mother, Sherron Lankester, heard him say to the caller that he could see the headlights of a car coming up the driveway. He left around 10PM and was never seen again.
We don’t know who the caller is, what kind of car came up to the house, who drove that car, who owned that car, where they were heading, etc. We just know that Stephen vanished that night.
Stephen Michael Lankester-Cox (38) also known as Steve Cox, is listed on the NamUs website as missing.
His identifying details are: white male, approx 6’1″ and between 170-185 lbs. His curly hair and facial hair are brown. His eyes are blue.
Steve has some distinctive physical features. He has metal screws in his left elbow and a scar of approximately 6″ long. According to his mother, both his arms were broken during childhood. The left ear is pierced. According to the FBI, there is a tattoo of a crown of thorns on his upper left arm and a rose tattoo on the left side of his chest. He had broken his right kneecap which caused him to limp.
If you check the FBI’s website you see that foul play is suspected. The authorities believe that a gaming establishment in Cobb County, Georgia was going to be robbed. On Nov 18, 2004 the game room attendant reported a suspicious person to Cobb Police. This person was gone when police arrived. There is no evidence that this person was indeed Steve. It is not clear either if that gaming establishment was robbed maybe later that night.
From the Atlanta Constitution from Dec 31, 2004 I know that local police contacted Metro Area Police Departments to find out if any gaming establishments were robbed that night. They found two. One in Gwinnett County and one in Woodstock. But Steve was not involved in either one. Despite that, the authorities do believe that Steve was somehow involved in possibly a robbery or an attempt and that he died either during or shortly after. His remains have never been found. As for the robbery theory or his possible homicide, there is no direct evidence either.
When Steve did not return home nobody was immediately worried. His mother reported him missing on Nov 22 when Steve’s probation officer stopped by the house and told her that her son had missed his appointment. In the 90s, Steve had been arrested three times: aggravated assault, obstruction and other charges including a misdemeanor for possession of marijuana. He never served time in prison.
Steve did not drive. He did have a car but it was left at his mother’s house. The sedan was a black and silver 1988 Ford Thunderbird. The license plate information is not given online.
Online I found that when he went missing, Steve was wearing jeans, a checkered dress shirt over a blue t-shirt, and boxers. As jewelry, Steve had a pinky ring with a small tiger eye.
Interesting detail, Steve wore his Harley Davidson boots that night. Those boots were found on Jan 1, 2005 according to the NamUs website.
I assume they refer to his mother when they say that the boots were approx.”1 mile from my home.”
The information about the boots is not repeated in this interview from 2016. That interview gives more information about the case but as I cannot find those details in newspapers, I have only mentioned the information from the Atlanta Constitution, the FBI, and NamUs.
Steve Cox never knew his father who died in the Vietnam War according to this article. Steve was a carpenter and the father of two children.
Contact information
If you have any information, please contact the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office at (770) 928- 0239 or call Investigator Robert E. Haugh at (770)928-0239 or Lieutenant Michael J. Grier at (770)928-0239. Stephen Michael Lankester-Cox’s case number is 04-101103.