Speaker 1: Federal judge from Lackawanna County is in fair condition in
Speaker 1: the hospital tonight after being rescued from the woods.
Speaker 2: Judge Edwin Kosik was missing for almost two days when
Speaker 2: two teenagers spotted his car in the woods in Dunmore.
Speaker 2: We're very thankful to these two young men that saw
Speaker 2: this vehicle happen to be in this area. Fortunately felt
Speaker 2: of their efforts. That's why we stand here today with
Speaker 2: a positive story.
Speaker 1: Hello friends, today bringing a video got some Pennsylvania teens
Speaker 1: found a car lost deep in the forest and then
Speaker 1: were shocked when they found out who it belonged to.
Speaker 1: Fifteen year old Alec Ennisko and his eighteen year old
Speaker 1: friend Joe Delvecchio decided to have some fun and take
Speaker 1: their ATVs out for ride together. This was something they
Speaker 1: did a lot, take out their clads into the now
Speaker 1: very familiar terrain and trails near their homes in Lakawana County, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: They started out as just a regular and normal evening
Speaker 1: for the pair, and off they went to hang out
Speaker 1: and ride. They were planning to just have a good
Speaker 1: time doing one of their favorite things and had no
Speaker 1: idea that their lives were about to change forever, as
Speaker 1: fate decided to cross their paths that night with a
Speaker 1: seemingly random discovery on one of the roads they were
Speaker 1: riding on. As the boys entered the woods, though, they
Speaker 1: noticed something different off in the distance, something they knew
Speaker 1: did no longer fitting the landscape as they'd been there
Speaker 1: many times, both walking and riding their clods. They decided
Speaker 1: to approach the object out of sheer curiosity and realized
Speaker 1: that they had found an abandoned car. Now the teens
Speaker 1: somehow intuitively knew that this was more than just a
Speaker 1: random abandoned vehicle in the middle of the woods. The
Speaker 1: site just didn't sit well with them. They couldn't ignore
Speaker 1: the instinct of something being very wrong with the situation.
Speaker 1: One of the things that struck the two teams is
Speaker 1: odd right away was that the vehicle was stranded about
Speaker 1: a quarter of a mile off the main road. They
Speaker 1: didn't understand how an entire car could just be placed,
Speaker 1: as that's what it looked like to them, right there
Speaker 1: in the middle of the woods, so far away from
Speaker 1: the not so near roadway. As they investigated further, the
Speaker 1: boys also noticed that the car wasn't just abandoned but
Speaker 1: it was stuck. It seemed as though someone had somehow
Speaker 1: made a wrong turn or something and ended up driving
Speaker 1: their vehicle into these woods by accident, like they got
Speaker 1: stuck there and couldn't get out. However, they saw no
Speaker 1: one around. There had to be a driver, they thought,
Speaker 1: how else could the car have gotten here. They had
Speaker 1: not been able to shake the mutual feelings this was
Speaker 1: somehow a very important discovery. They just hadn't been able
Speaker 1: to put together or why it was so important, not
Speaker 1: yet anyway. As darkness fell and the night closed in
Speaker 1: on them, even though they were in the middle of
Speaker 1: the woods and it was now fully nighttime, the boys
Speaker 1: decided to go with their instincts and stay there to
Speaker 1: further investigate what in the world was going on. Something
Speaker 1: inexplicable was urging them to continue searching for answers. The
Speaker 1: car had all of its windows smashed and seemed to
Speaker 1: be stuck on a large log. They knew as well
Speaker 1: that there had to be a driver somewhere. Someone had
Speaker 1: to have driven the car here and gotten stuck, possibly
Speaker 1: even injured, judging with the looks of the broken down
Speaker 1: and smashed up vehicle. If there was a driver and
Speaker 1: the boys were instinctionally sure there was one, then why
Speaker 1: would they leave their car? Why not wait for help
Speaker 1: or get out and use a cell phone to call
Speaker 1: for some kind of assistance. At this point, the boys
Speaker 1: were starting to become very nervous and maybe even a
Speaker 1: little scared. Not for themselves, mind you, but for whomever
Speaker 1: had driven this car out here. Once again, the vehicle's
Speaker 1: condition caused them great concern. They couldn't turn around and
Speaker 1: leave now. Something in their guts were forcing them to
Speaker 1: continue looking into this strange abandoned car. The boys searched
Speaker 1: around and near the vehicle. They looked in the nearby
Speaker 1: woods and underneath the car for clues. Even they were
Speaker 1: trying to find something, anything, they would tell them what
Speaker 1: had happened to here. They were very concerned that someone
Speaker 1: was possibly injured and roaming the woods. They just couldn't
Speaker 1: stop thinking of the driver, whoever he or she was.
Speaker 1: After finding nothing in the area outside of the car,
Speaker 1: they decided to open the unlocked doors and continue examining
Speaker 1: the vehicle, but now the inside of it. Normally, if
Speaker 1: they came across someone else's vehicle, they wouldn't dare open
Speaker 1: it up and start poking through it, But this time
Speaker 1: they somehow knew this was a special case, even felt
Speaker 1: a need or an urged to do so. They looked
Speaker 1: under the seats and checked in the trunk, even looked
Speaker 1: in the glove compartment and console. They looked in the
Speaker 1: side of the doors, anywhere they could think of where
Speaker 1: they could possibly find the identity of the driver of
Speaker 1: the car. While they didn't find a license or anything
Speaker 1: officially stating who the car may have belonged to, they
Speaker 1: did find something with a name on it. It was
Speaker 1: a Sam's Club card bearing the name Edwin Cossick. Now
Speaker 1: they had a name, but didn't know what to do
Speaker 1: with it. After all, how could they even be sure
Speaker 1: this was an accident or that even a person was
Speaker 1: in the car at the time it got stuck and
Speaker 1: the windows got smashed up. Remember, there were two teenagers
Speaker 1: out for a night of fun riding their ATVs, and
Speaker 1: they definitely weren't used to experiencing such strong instinctal urges
Speaker 1: as they had been since finding the car. There's something
Speaker 1: going on here, and luckily they allowed themselves to be
Speaker 1: led by their intuition. They decided to use social media
Speaker 1: to possibly make the situation become more clear so they
Speaker 1: could know what their next move would be. They were
Speaker 1: about to finally get some answers. The boys were about
Speaker 1: to understand just how important this seemingly random discovery was.
Speaker 1: They entered the name Edwin Cossack in a Facebook search
Speaker 1: and were shocked at what they found. To their surprise,
Speaker 1: there was a ton of information linked to this name.
Speaker 1: The boys found that Edmund Cossack was a ninety two
Speaker 1: year old man and also a very well respected federal judge.
Speaker 1: Didn't end there, though, Edwind Cossack had also been missing
Speaker 1: for the past two days, and a large search effort
Speaker 1: and even a federal investigation had been launched. This was
Speaker 1: enough for both Alec and Joe to know that they
Speaker 1: needed to tell someone else about their discovery, an adults
Speaker 1: who would know what to do better than they did.
Speaker 1: Were they going to be a part of a federal investigation? Now?
Speaker 1: To what extent? Would they be in some kind of
Speaker 1: trouble for snooping through a federal judge and missing man's car.
Speaker 1: Now they were scared for other reasons, and because of
Speaker 1: this fear, they rushed home to tell their parents. Of course,
Speaker 1: their parents immediately understood the importance and grabbedy of the
Speaker 1: situation and reached out to the federal authorities without delay.
Speaker 1: The police showed up right away, and the boys were
Speaker 1: happy to help and lead the way to Edwin Cossack's car. However,
Speaker 1: just like the boys had done a few hours before,
Speaker 1: law enforcement searched in and around the abandoned and broken
Speaker 1: down vehicle for any sign of Edwin Kusick, but to
Speaker 1: no avail. The situation had now become a dire emergency.
Speaker 1: Where it was the missing ninety two year old. Was
Speaker 1: he injured and unable to call for help? Had he
Speaker 1: gotten a head injury and left the vehicle dazed and confused,
Speaker 1: and somehow wandered into the nearby woods and gotten even
Speaker 1: further lost. These were questions the authorities knew needed immediate answers.
Speaker 1: A large search party was organized, and the boys were
Speaker 1: surprised at how quickly all this was happening. The situation
Speaker 1: seemed to have escalated very fast. The police included canine
Speaker 1: searches and special teams to go out search for any
Speaker 1: scrap of information that could lead to the whereabouts of
Speaker 1: the missing Judge I was a little scared. Alec and
Speaker 1: Hiscote told the Times Tribune back in April twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: when all this was going on. Alec also admitted I
Speaker 1: didn't think they'd find him alive. The locals became concerned
Speaker 1: when all the missing posters and online message boards concerning
Speaker 1: the case were popping up all over the place. It
Speaker 1: was all around the town, and everwhere they looked, they
Speaker 1: saw reminders that Edwin Cossick was in fact missing and
Speaker 1: possibly in desperate need of medical attention, perhaps lost somewhere
Speaker 1: alone in the woods. I'm shocked. I'm very upset because
Speaker 1: he's a great man and we don't want anything happening
Speaker 1: to him, said Georgia Fish of Madison Township. Even the
Speaker 1: people who never knew Edwin were worried because they never
Speaker 1: experienced a situation like this, someone was actually missing in
Speaker 1: their little town. They were stressed and concerned about the
Speaker 1: whole thing. Georgia Fish was one of those people who
Speaker 1: knew Edwin, and she even drove around town on her
Speaker 1: own in hopes to help the investigators and find any clues.
Speaker 1: I've gone up the mountain Aston Mountain, checking the back
Speaker 1: roads and stuff, just seeing if he made a wrong
Speaker 1: turn somewhere and got lost, she added, because the situation
Speaker 1: was so dire, and also because Edwin Cossick served as
Speaker 1: a federal judge for thirty years in the city of
Speaker 1: scrant and Pennsylvania, the FBI got involved right at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the investigation. According to who was only described
Speaker 1: in the media as a trusted source, Judge Cossack disappeared
Speaker 1: from his home near scrant at around one thirty in
Speaker 1: the morning. It came to be known too that he
Speaker 1: was taking prescribed medication to aid and memory laws. It
Speaker 1: may have been in the beginning stages of dementia. One
Speaker 1: of the only clues in the search for Edwind was
Speaker 1: some surveillance footage which showed him clearly headed toward a
Speaker 1: Bill's local Shopwright Grocery Store in nearby Covington Township. The
Speaker 1: US Marshals also received potential clue in the case when
Speaker 1: information came in that a man looking to be in
Speaker 1: his nineties might have been seen on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Speaker 1: heading toward New Jersey. Needless to say, the legal community
Speaker 1: in Scranton and the people who worked with Judge Cossack
Speaker 1: were shocked and saddened over the situation. He was a
Speaker 1: well respected man, not just all around the community and
Speaker 1: in his own family, but to his peers and colleagues
Speaker 1: as well. Chris Powell, the attorney who argued in front
Speaker 1: of Judge Cousick for decades, said, we want to know
Speaker 1: what happened to him, and everybody has their opinion as
Speaker 1: lawyers among themselves. I was just over in court this
Speaker 1: morning and it's on everybody's mind. After speaking to Judge
Speaker 1: Cossack's family, United States Marshal Martin Payne said that the
Speaker 1: police come to some new information that might have affected
Speaker 1: Cossack's disappearance, but they still couldn't rule out criminal activity
Speaker 1: as well of the potential circumstances. The search continued after
Speaker 1: the police sent a helicopter to fly over the Covington
Speaker 1: Township area and hopes to find new clues. The locals
Speaker 1: were asked to report any strange sightings or activity to
Speaker 1: nine point one. The investigators also asked people in the
Speaker 1: town to contact the police if they had seen the
Speaker 1: judge or his car prior to his disappearance. Judge Causack's son,
Speaker 1: Michael Cossack, spoke out and admitted his main concern was
Speaker 1: his father's deteriorating memory, and he was convinced this had
Speaker 1: something to do with his disappearance. He assumed his father
Speaker 1: had wandered off alone and had forgotten who he was
Speaker 1: and how to get back home. There were also some
Speaker 1: concerns about the weather conditions on the day Judge Cossack
Speaker 1: left in his vehicle, and since he had been missing,
Speaker 1: the authorities realized how desperate the situation was now becoming.
Speaker 1: With each second that passed and no new clues or
Speaker 1: information as to where Edwin was or what could have
Speaker 1: happened to him, they knew they had to do something
Speaker 1: and fast. They used all media channels to inform the
Speaker 1: public about the judge's disappearance and again asked for any
Speaker 1: new information to be reported. Kuzick's race was all over
Speaker 1: the television, but even this did not provide any comfort
Speaker 1: to Edwin's son. He admitted as well that he wasn't
Speaker 1: sure whether this would lead to any new clues. However,
Speaker 1: as luck would have it, the Cossack family's nightmare would
Speaker 1: soon be over thanks to police Canine, who managed to
Speaker 1: pick up the judges sent and led the authorities right
Speaker 1: to him. Surprisingly, Judge Cossack was located where he'd been
Speaker 1: only one hundred yards away from the car the entire time.
Speaker 1: Two teenagers who had originally found the car was shocked.
Speaker 1: They couldn't believe that if they had just searched a
Speaker 1: little bit further they would have found the judge themselves.
Speaker 1: There was a wave of relief over the entire community
Speaker 1: that he had been found alive. Despite his harrowing ordeal
Speaker 1: and reported trouble with memory laws leading up to the
Speaker 1: time of his disappearance, Judge Cossack seemed to be in
Speaker 1: good spirits. He was coherently communicating, even noticing and commenting
Speaker 1: on a new haircut one of the marshals had gotten
Speaker 1: since the last time he had seen him in court.
Speaker 1: Though the air was much lighter now that he was found.
Speaker 1: People were eager to know what had happened to him,
Speaker 1: What had he been doing to have crashed his car
Speaker 1: where he did, and if he was so coherent and
Speaker 1: he was joking around when he was found, then why
Speaker 1: had he decided to lay around on the ground in
Speaker 1: the woods for days instead of just getting up and
Speaker 1: walking out to the road or at least back to
Speaker 1: his car, where he could have possibly honked his horn
Speaker 1: to alert someone of his situation and get help much faster.
Speaker 1: During a news interview after the discovery of the judge,
Speaker 1: one of the officers who was there when he was
Speaker 1: found stated, I don't know exactly how long he was
Speaker 1: in this state for, but it's very possible that he
Speaker 1: was there the whole time. Police officer added, at the
Speaker 1: time he was found, Gossick was wearing the same jeans
Speaker 1: in the same winter jacket that he had had on
Speaker 1: two days earlier when he was last seen. This indicated
Speaker 1: that he had indeed spent two days helplessly lying on
Speaker 1: the ground in the cold. The judge was brought to
Speaker 1: the nearby hospital to be thoroughly checked out, as the
Speaker 1: EMTs and rescue personnel who found him sure if he
Speaker 1: had any internal injuries, but aside from a few scratches
Speaker 1: and bruises, he had no external injuries. The hospital staff
Speaker 1: reported that Judge Cossack was in fair condition and would
Speaker 1: make a full recovery. Though his family and the community
Speaker 1: were overjoyed with this news, they were still eager to
Speaker 1: know exactly what had happened to him and why it
Speaker 1: ended up where he did, and similarly didn't even try
Speaker 1: to get help for himself. Judge Edwin Cossack's official status
Speaker 1: as judge was labeled inactive. Earlier in the year when
Speaker 1: he had started taking the medication for memory loss. There
Speaker 1: were no additional clues found to help with uncovering what
Speaker 1: exactly had happened to him and how he had ended
Speaker 1: up there. None of these questions were being answered, as
Speaker 1: the judge couldn't shed any light on the situation himself
Speaker 1: because of the aforementioned memory loss. He just simply couldn't
Speaker 1: remember anything about what had happened or how he ended
Speaker 1: up in the woods. US Marshall Martin Payin publicly recognized
Speaker 1: Andy Yuesenko and Joe Delvecchio as heroes. Without them, it
Speaker 1: was stated, who knows how long the judge would have
Speaker 1: been left there, lying on the ground in the woods.
Speaker 1: Who knows then what the outcome would have been. The
Speaker 1: boys are indeed heroes. After things had settled down, the
Speaker 1: police came to the most logical conclusion they could as
Speaker 1: to what had happened that night when Edwin Cossack sat
Speaker 1: out in the middle of the night in his car.
Speaker 1: It's most likely he had some kind of incident with
Speaker 1: his memory loss where he forgot what he was doing,
Speaker 1: and even where he was going during the course of
Speaker 1: the driving to his destination. He's already said it was impossible.
Speaker 1: He was suffering from memory loss when he got into
Speaker 1: the vehicle that night, and was therefore doomed from the
Speaker 1: start of his journey. After all, where was he planning
Speaker 1: to go at one thirty in the morning. It wasn't
Speaker 1: usual for him to be out that time of night
Speaker 1: at all, and his family knew of no plans he
Speaker 1: had to go anywhere. Judge, of course, he can't remember
Speaker 1: a thing. The police presumed he had somehow ended up
Speaker 1: taking a wrong turn and crashing his car into the
Speaker 1: log in the World woods where the boys that first
Speaker 1: found it. This probably because him become immediately more disoriented,
Speaker 1: and he ended up walking unintentionally even deeper into the
Speaker 1: woods and further away from help, and then simply chose
Speaker 1: just to lay down, not knowing what was going on,
Speaker 1: or who he was or how he got there. It
Speaker 1: must have been self frightening for the old man that
Speaker 1: he just laid there, unable to move for fear of
Speaker 1: what he might encounter. He most likely didn't even know
Speaker 1: who he was at that point. Now that's a horrible thought,
Speaker 1: be alone in the woods, especially in the dark, and
Speaker 1: not understanding what's happening to you, or having any knowledge
Speaker 1: of all where to go or what to do, or
Speaker 1: even who you are. We're very thankful to these two
Speaker 1: young men that saw this vehicle which happened to be
Speaker 1: in this area. Fortunately, just Marshall Martin Paine said during
Speaker 1: the interview for Fox News in April twenty seventeen. After all,
Speaker 1: the two boys were responsible for the positive outcome of
Speaker 1: the entire situation. During the broadcast, Joe Dolvecchio responded with
Speaker 1: We're glad, he's okay, Glad that we could help out.
Speaker 1: He also added that he would like to become a
Speaker 1: police officer one day. Despite being labels as heroes, the
Speaker 1: two teenagers insist they just happened to be in the
Speaker 1: right place at the right time. Their intuition and instincts
Speaker 1: had immediately kicked in, and they were responsible for saving
Speaker 1: a man's life by following those gut instincts. As unintentional
Speaker 1: as it may have been, it's very lucky. The two
Speaker 1: decided to trust their gut instincts and push forward in
Speaker 1: finding some kind of information to get to the bottom
Speaker 1: of what was going on with this strage and seemingly
Speaker 1: random broken down car. Who knows what would have happened
Speaker 1: had they decided it wasn't worth exploring, or if they
Speaker 1: had decided to just go home when it got dark
Speaker 1: instead of remaining to search for clues. The two young
Speaker 1: men visited the judge while he was in the hospital
Speaker 1: recovering from this ordeal, and though they didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about him prior to their discovery, they decided to meet
Speaker 1: up with him after he recovered get to know him.
Speaker 1: Both Vwin Cossack and his son were extremely thankful to
Speaker 1: the boys for what they had accomplished. Edwin's son, Michael, said,
Speaker 1: I don't know how I can ever repay them for
Speaker 1: helping to bring my father back to me. If it
Speaker 1: wasn't for the boys and their dedication of finding answers,
Speaker 1: the community would have lost an honorable judge and Michael
Speaker 1: Cossack would have lost his father. Joe Dolvacchio and Alec N.
Speaker 1: Senko were honored in Lackawanna County for helping find the
Speaker 1: missing federal judge. They received a proclamation from County Commissions
Speaker 1: at Dunmore High School in a ceremony that was held
Speaker 1: in front of their parents, friends, and schoolmates. Judge Cossack
Speaker 1: was making a fast recovery and was even able to
Speaker 1: attend the proclamation ceremony at the high school. He proudly
Speaker 1: watched the boys received the credit they deserve for saving
Speaker 1: his life. Even added it was an honor to watch
Speaker 1: them receive their award. I'm sitting here today because of them. Well,
Speaker 1: there you have it, folks. What do you think of
Speaker 1: this incredible story of survival, of luck of instincts? Interesting indeed,
Speaker 1: I look forward to your comments on this story, but
Speaker 1: please keep it friendly and respectful. In the meantime, be
Speaker 1: good to yourselves and each other, and I'll see you
Speaker 1: a little farther on down the trail. I'm Steve Stockton,
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you next time.
Speaker 2: Assassssss