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20 Facts About the Evansdale Murders That Will Make You Shiver

About 10 miles Southwest of Waterloo lies a small city known as Evansdale which enjoyed peace for a very long time. However, on 13 July 2012, a shocking incident happened. Two young cousins went missing as they had gone out on a bike riding adventure.

10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins who were blood cousins went out for the bike ride. However, they never returned home which made their parents very worried about their well-being. The continuous search for the two cousins went on for several months without any positive news.

They had been abducted with their bodies to be found seven months after they went missing. On Wednesday, December 5, 2012, two sets of human remains were discovered at Seven Bridges Park by some hunters who were on their routine job. The remains were hidden at a location where no one could see them.

Examination of the remains confirmed that the bodies were of the two missing cousins. Investigations began but there were no suspects arrested nor was the case solved. However, their families who were left devastated are still hoping to get justice.

Here are the 20 Facts About the Evansdale Murders That Will Make You Shiver:

1. The Murder Victims were Aged 10 and 8 Years

In the small city of Evansdale, a shocking thing happened to some young children. 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins were brutally murdered. The two children who were close to each other went missing only for their remains to be found dumped in a hunting ground.

2. Lyric and Elizabeth were Blood Cousins through their Mothers

Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook-Morrissey were blood cousins because their mothers were sisters. Since Lyric ended up spending a lot of time with her grandma and aunts, they spent a lot of time together at family gatherings. The cousins frequently spent out together at family gatherings because they were close in age and had a variety of hobbies.

3. Lyric’s Parents Struggled with Drug Abuse

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Born on 2nd October 2001 in Waterloo, Lyric did not have a perfect childhood like other children. Dab Morrissey and Misty Cook-Morrissey were her parents who also had an older son. Lyric was raised and grew up in Evansdale even though she was born in Waterloo.

However, she was never raised by her parents. She was raised by her grandmother and several aunts. The reason behind this is that her parents were struggling with drug abuse making her childhood difficult.

4. Elizabeth was Raised in a Stable Family

Elizabeth grew up in Evansdale, much like Lyric. She was, however, considerably closer to both of her parents and had a lot more stable family life than her cousin had.

She went to Poyner Elementary School in Evansdale and developed into a bit of a girly girl who enjoyed singing with her classmates, caring for animals, and wearing cosmetics and nail paint. The two had become inseparable and she had a puppy named Gus that she loved to spoil.

5. The Girls Spent Most Summer Holidays Together at their Grandmother’s Place

Lyric and Elizabeth were best cousins who loved each other very much. Their love and bond were clear every summer as they never studied at the same school.

During summer when their schools were closed, they used to spend a lot of their time together at their grandmother’s place. They often played cards alongside Wylma or spent the best part of their day riding their bikes.

6. Elizabeth & Lyric were Dropped at their Granny’s Home Before Going for Biking

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On 13 July 2012, the two cousins were dropped at their grandmother Wylma’s house in the morning hours. The home was located along Brovan Boulevard in downtown Evansdale.

The two enjoyed the company of their family members before deciding on what to do for the day. At around 12: 14 p.m., Lyric and Elizabeth decided to head out to the front yard and off the road for biking.

7. The Girls Rode More than a Mile away from their Grandmother’s Home

The cousins were seen biking on Gilbert Drive, which is about a mile and a half from their grandmother’s home, between 12:30 and 1:00 PM. Meyers Lake, a popular destination for local fishing and recreation, is not very far from here. They were later seen riding together and still on their bikes as they descended the 1000 block of Lake Avenue. This was the last time they were spotted alive.

8. Elizabeth and Lyric Never Returned Home Two Hours after Leaving for Biking

Photo by Daniel Way:

The girls had been away from their grandmother’s house for more than an hour, and they still hadn’t come back. Wylma Cook was getting worried about her granddaughters’ safety, but the family didn’t start to panic until Lyric’s mother, Misty, came home. At this point, they started calling friends and family to find the girls and started their first searches.

Around 2:48 PM, Lyric and Elizabeth’s family decided to file a missing persons report with the local Evansdale Police Department after searching the area near their grandmother’s house without success. The girls had been riding their bikes for about two and a half hours by this point and had never returned home which was unusual.

9. Police Officers & Local Fire Department got Involved in the Early Search

After filing the missing person’s report, it was time for the authorities to be involved. Local parks, schools, and other areas where the girls were suspected to have gone were searched for.

After an hour, the Evansdale police department was joined by deputies from the Black Hawk Sheriff’s Department. Moments later, the local fire department team also joined the search with their bike trails being the lead.

10. The Bikes Were Found Abandoned Raising Major Concerns

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The search for Lyric and Elizabeth went on with some hope being revived later. However, the discovery made by the search team raised some suspicion.

At a trail located in the southeast corner of Meyers Lake, the bikes of Lyric and Elizabeth were found at around 4:00 P.M. The local firefighters had made this discovery and alerted the police department.

11. Elizabeth’s Purse was at the Scene but the Girls Were Not Found

The discovery of the bikes was a major hope for finding the girls, but the hope was dimmed after making another discovery on the scene. A purse belonging to 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins was at the scene.

However, none of the girls could be located at the scene. What made the discovery more suspicious was that there was no trace left at the location. There was also no clue pointing in the direction where the girls might have gone.

12. Security Footage Showed the Girls a Brief Ride but Never Helped

Security footage was acquired from an auction store which was located a short distance from the grandmother’s house in the days following the abduction of Lyric and Elizabeth. The cousins were only visible for a few seconds in this little video, but it revealed them riding away from Meyers Lake at approximately 12:11 PM, which corresponded to the set time frame.

With similar footage from other locations, investigators hoped to be able to pinpoint more of the girls’ bike excursion, but they failed to have any success in locating them. Investigators decided to go ahead and use less effective techniques to find the girls, such as scent dogs, and eyewitness accounts.

13. Lake Meyer was Partially Drained to Allow Searching for the Girls

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The FBI got involved in the search for the two girls. Lake Meyers became an active crime scene because this was the area where the bikes were found. The FBI provided specially trained divers to help in the search.

 However, there was no hope of finding the girls which made the search parties opt to partially drain Lake Meyers. The partial draining of the lake was also fruitless as there were no signs of them or their murdered girls.

14. Known-sex Offenders were Interviewed as the Search Continued

As the search parties continued exhaustive searches, the authorities decided to try something new. They opted to interrogate known sex offenders with the hopes of getting the girls. The known sex offenders were picked through their history of targeting underage victims and those who had an interest in young girls or anything similar.

Several interviews and interrogations of these sex offenders were conducted over this period. Polygraph tests were done on them without any success. This vetting process ruled out any involvement by these sex offenders.

15. Police Believed the Girls were Abducted by a Stranger

It became increasingly obvious that the girls had likely been taken by a stranger, someone they had never met before going missing. Local police continued to get tips from the public for a long time. Police authorities believe that during the first few weeks, they received about 20 tips each hour. However, by the end of the summer, that number had dropped to about 40 a day.

Police appeared to have ruled out any unintentional causes by July 20th, one week after Lyric and Elizabeth vanished (such as drowning, etc.). They were now able to focus their investigation solely on an abduction because of this discovery, and they now firmly believe that foul activity was probably involved in this case. Everyone concerned, nevertheless, clung to the belief that the girls were still alive and might be returned home without incident.

16. Lyrics Father was Accused of Being Involved in the Abduction

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The families of the missing girls were put under intense pressure and scrutiny. The authorizes and the press concentrated more on Dan Morrissey, the father of Lyric Cook-Morrissey. During this period, Dan and Lyric’s mother had divorced.

Dan also had a rough time with the authorities over the period. He was involved in several ongoing criminal cases. What was more astonishing is that he had been released from police custody during the girl’s disappearance.

Other major crimes he was involved in were assaulting Lyric’s mother and multiple drug felonies. With the intense pressure on his side, Dan had to clear his name. He went to the press and media where he continued to plead innocent.

17. The Girls’ Parents Were Actively Searching For Them Months after their Abduction

Months after the abduction of Lyric and Elizabeth, their parents never got tired of searching for them. However, this took a negative toll on Lyric’s mother. On 20th August, Misty was rushed to hospital after being found unconscious at her home.

It was believed that she had mixed her medication with alcohol which resulted in her becoming unconscious. The reality of their children being missing made Misty get hooked on drugs. She was even sentenced to 10 years in jail due to drug-related offenses but was released a year later.

On the other hand, Elizabeth’s parents were also dealing with this loss differently. They spent more time at the Hall of Law giving out flyers and posters with images of the girls.

18. A Group of Hunters Discovered the Remains of the Girls Months Later

Photo by Faruk TokluoÄŸlu: https://www.pexels.com/photo/group-of-police-officer-and-investigators-work-at-crime-scene-7101498/

On Wednesday 5th, December 2012, early in the morning, two sets of human remains were discovered at Seven Bridges Park by a group of hunters. Investigators claimed that the remains were buried in a spot where someone would have had to have been virtually on top of them to find them.

The remains had been partly concealed in a remote part of the park with little to no foot traffic. The remains were probably missed by someone strolling a few feet away from them since they were dumped there. Both of these sets of skeletal remains looked to be female and belonged to young girls.

19. The Identities of the Bodies were Revealed before Medical Examination

Immediately after the discovery of the murdered bodies, their identification was the most awaited thing. Before the medical examination revealed the identification of the two bodies, the police positively confirmed that they were the missing girls. This sent chills and broke the hearts of the girls’ parents who were expecting such news.

20. Lyric and Elizabeth’s Murders Still Remain Unsolved and their Cause of Death not Revealed

The Evansdale murders sent chilling waves across this peaceful locality as such an incident had not happened. After the discovery of the bodies, members of the public hoped for more details.

However, the cause of their deaths has never been made public. What hurts the families of the girls more is the fact that their murder case remains unsolved.

The memories of Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins still run across the Evansdale community. Several commemorations and memorials of them have been held. Their families still hope that justice might be served at one point.