OSBURN — Compelling details of the death of Brianna Cook, a 17-year-old from Pinehurst who was discovered hanging in her father’s bathroom in the early morning hours of Oct. 26, may provide a link to the ongoing death investigation of Dylan Parker.

That’s the theory of Cook’s mother, Teresa Palin, who’s doing all she can to find out what happened to her daughter.

Parker, 18, went missing after attending a party on Two Mile Road in Osburn on Jan. 11. He asked his mother, Mona Rupp, to pick him up from a gas station south of the party and said he would walk there.

His body, though, was discovered north of the party in a heavily wooded ravine in the Two Mile Gulch area on Tuesday, Jan. 21 — 10 days after he went missing. It was a tense time in which the Silver Valley community took it upon themselves to search for the Kellogg teenager.

And now Palin says a number of details could connect the fate of the two teens.

Several months apart, both teenagers left from the same home, at the same time of the night and apparently began walking down the same road, Palin said.

“There’s no way it’s a coincidence,” she said.

Cook, who did not go missing, was picked up by her sister and a couple of friends in Osburn after apparently leaving the party because she was upset. She was then driven home to her father’s house in Pinehurst.

It was about an hour later — 1 a.m. — that Cook’s father found his daughter hanging in his bathroom. Palin said he would not have been able to hear anything occurring inside his home because he sleeps with a fan right next to his head.

But Cook’s death, which Palin said was initially deemed a suicide by a local police officer, is part of an ongoing investigation by the Idaho State Police.

Michael Van Leuven, an ISP detective, said last week that Cook’s case is labeled as a “death investigation” and that they are not characterizing it as a homicide or suicide as evidence continues to be gathered and interviews are conducted. 

Lonny Duce, the Shoshone County coroner, said the cause of death on Cook’s death certificate is still listed as undetermined. 

Palin obtained a copy of her daughter’s autopsy report, which was conducted at the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office. A summary of case findings states that Cook suffered from “asphyxia due to hanging by ligature” and “blunt impact to the head” with a “contusion of forehead.”

“Everybody knew Brianna couldn’t tie,” Palin told the News-Press. “There’s no way she could have tied that series of complicated knots.”

Moreover, Palin said her daughter “could not stand the feeling of not being able to breathe” and was outspoken against suicide. She once told her family she would never do that to them, Palin said.

Palin said her daughter was on her knees when she died even though she was found hanging by her father. The autopsy report, Palin said, concluded that the teenager had bruising on her knees and that investigators know the impact on her forehead was from a circular metal object.

“All I want to know is what happened to my daughter,” Palin said. “She deserves that... She was only 17. I’ll never see her get married and never know her children. I’ll never know what she could have done with her life.”

Palin said that on Saturday, Jan. 11, her sister visited the same home in Osburn to ask the people there about Brianna and if they knew anything about her death. At one point during the conversation Palin’s sister was having about Cook, Dylan Parker allegedly entered the room and was told everything was fine and to go back out, Palin said.

Several hours later, Parker went missing. The cause of his death has not yet been determined. The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office, in a press release issued late Thursday, said the preliminary results of an autopsy report performed Wednesday on Parker “did not reveal any signs of foul play.” Undersheriff Rod Plank said they are not ruling anything out and provided no further comment. Toxicology results will not be available for up to two weeks, the release stated. 

Palin, who said she has been doing investigating of her own, continues to search for the truth.

“We are a small community and we will come together and we will stand for each other’s kids,” Palin said. “And we will fight together.”