Barbara Cooper's Remains Found

By Dan Hust
HANCOCK — August 7, 2007 — The tragically inevitable news arrived on Saturday:
The body of Barbara Cooper, 74, of Roscoe, was found about a quarter after two that afternoon – 12 miles down the Beaverkill from where her SUV was swamped by June 19’s flash flooding.
Newly married to her beau for the past 13 years, Donald Cooper, Barbara Clarke Cooper never made it to her daughter’s home in Long Eddy, where she was headed that evening to look after her grandchildren.
For days after Spring Brook devastatingly yet briefly breached its banks, searchers roamed the valleys of Delaware County’s Town of Colchester, along with the shorelines of the Beaverkill near Roscoe.
But even searching as far west as Cooks Falls, would-be rescuers found themselves disappointed and frustrated.
This past Saturday, it was a summer resident, enjoying the sunny weather along the Beaverkill in the Town of Hancock, who came upon Cooper’s remains and notified the State Police.
Identification was made from Mrs. Cooper’s jewelry. The manner and cause of death pending review by the Delaware County coroner.
Four people died in the June flooding, and one of them, Gertrude Melvin of Andes – who was visiting her daughter Elaine Finkle in Roscoe – is still missing.
In the search for Melvin, Delaware County officials plan a foot search from Cooks Falls to East Branch and also to drain Hodge’s Pond.