Elizabeth Collins, 8 and Lyric Cook,10 Iowa missing/found dead

[Lady Cop]

wcfcourier

EVANSDALE, Iowa --- Drew and Heather Collins are is no strangers to adversity. Their faith in God, they say, gets them through trying times.

Friends say the family of six has plenty of experience.

In November 2010, Heather almost died. Her heart gave out and she needed to be shocked back to life, Heather and local emergency workers said.

Drew left the house just before Heather’s heart problem, but returned to get his wallet to find his wife on the floor. He called 911 and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Evansdale paramedics arrived quickly, officials said, and used a defibrillator to revive her.

“She’s one of our miracles,” said Lisa Deitrick, an Evansdale Fire Rescue emergency medical technician. “Now this happens.”

Last week, friends say Heather started having problems with her pacemaker requiring hospitalization.

Yet, all her and her family can think about is Elizabeth and Lyric. Finding the girls is their only concern.

“I’m grateful for everyone who has came out to help,” Heather said.

Clark Way of Des Moines, one of Drew’s best friends, and his girlfriend, Renee Wrabek, said the Collins family are the best people they’ve ever met. Even though Heather’s health hasn’t been the best lately, friend say the Collinses and their four children help others whenever they can and volunteer within the community.

That’s one of the reasons why the outpouring of support from the Cedar Valley and beyond is so enormous, friends said.

“Talk about a family that’s gone through hell and back. Now their child goes missing,” Wrabek said.

The Collins own Planetary Tree Service in Evansdale. Marlene Schaefer, who also owns a local tree service with her husband, volunteered to hand out food and drinks on Sunday.

Though their business competitors, Schaefer said the Collinses are good friends.

“He (Drew) keeps teasing me. ‘Why don’t you work for me?’” Schaefer said. “They are remarkable, good people.”

[chaze77]

Wonder if there was a custody battle or bad blood between the mom and the dad?

Here's an updated article... sadly, it contains no new info. I wonder if they've finished dragging the lake yet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/16..._ref=crime

[Lady Cop]

no more civilian/volunteers searching. pros only.
Police have said they do not believe girls are in the lake.















Capt. Rick Abben, with the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office



Heather and Drew Collins, parents of Elizabeth

[chaze77]

I wonder if the girls were ever actually at the location their bikes were found, or if the bikes/purse were dumped there by whoever took them. Seems like that part of the trail is one of the few places around the lake that is almost completed secluded- may make for a good spot to dump something without being seen.

[Lady Cop]

Evansdale Water Works confirmed draining Meyers Lake ‪#evansdalesearch

[Jimbone]

I fear these poor little girls are long dead.

Very very sad.

[RJs-Ex]

I keep wondering how likely it would be that someone would be able to abduct both girls without any obvious signs of a struggle anywhere? Is there anywhere they could've fallen and been hurt and just haven't been found yet? I know Iowa is flatter than flat, but maybe a well, a quarry, or even a silo? I just get the feeling the girls' disappearance is due to an accident and not an abduction.

[chaze77]

I keep wondering how likely it would be that someone would be able to abduct both girls without any obvious signs of a struggle anywhere? Is there anywhere they could've fallen and been hurt and just haven't been found yet? I know Iowa is flatter than flat, but maybe a well, a quarry, or even a silo? I just get the feeling the girls' disappearance is due to an accident and not an abduction.

I think a perp could pretty easily control two little girls if they had a weapon, or was able to get a hold of one child, and threaten to harm her if the other one didn't do as told. I have two children- ages 14 and 7. If they were out together and someone grabbed my 7 year old, her older sister wouldn't leave her side for anything.

It's also possible there's more than one perp, though I guess that's less likely.

[Cheyne]

I believe that one perp could easily take both girls. Elizabeth at 4' 1" and 80 lbs. is smaller and lighter than a bag of seed. She would be easy to grab with no sign of a struggle. Once a perp had her, it would be a matter of telling Lyric what he wanted her to do (get in the truck or whatever) or that he would kill Elizabeth. These cousins seem to be as close as siblings, I think that Lyric would do whatever she could to keep the perp from harming Elizabeth.

At their ages, they wouldn't understand that the perp was lying and no good would come from this. The urge to escape would be overridden by the urge to believe if they did what they were told no harm would come to them.

[chaze77]

Apparently Jane Velez Mitchell interviewed the parents of the girls' (or at least one set) today on HLN. I can't find the interview online. Did anyone see it?

[Lady Cop]

didn't see JVM. but here are the Collins parents:

http://www.ksdk.com/video/default.aspx?b...8194560001


Parents of missing girl: Our friends and family are still looking

EVANSDALE, Iowa -- Heather and Drew Collins, parents of eight-year-old Elizabeth Collins, talk about their missing daughter.




Drew Collins, front, is comforted by his wife Heather Collins, center, during a prayer vigil held in honor of the Collins' missing daughter Elizabeth Collins, 8, and her cousin Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, of Waterloo, at Heartland Vineyard Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Monday.

PART OF LAKE TAPED OFF
dock is being removed.




Lyric

[Lady Cop]

wed. morning. 0800. no news.





Lyric's parents Misty and Dan Morrissey



dad

[Cracker]

I check on these girls, always nothing. I can't imagine.

[Lady Cop]

hmmmm interesting.




CNN PRODUCER NOTE The search for two missing girls in Iowa has shocked the US and caused headlines across the country. iReporter Anelia was by Meyers Lake in Iowa, where the two girls' bikes were found, when she saw Vicki Weikert, the paternal grandmother of Lyric Cook, sitting nearby. Weikert said her granddaughter had "as big a heart as you could get" and refuted various rumours around the families involved. "The grandmother's perspective offers a counter narrative to the rumors that fly around in the absence of real developments. It also spells out - from her perspective - the turn of events," our iReporter added. The search for the two girls, meanwhile, continues, with authorities preparing to drain Meyers Lake for clues.


by ANELIA K. DIMITROVA

As investigators say they plan to reinterview family members in the case of the two missing Iowa cousins, a grandmother says family members are not involved in the disappearance of her granddaughter, Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10 and her cousin, Elizabeth Collins, 8.

"if you look up dysfunctional in the dictionary, you re gonna see our pictures," said Vicki Weikert, the paternal grandmother of Cook-Morrissey, as crews continued to drain an Evansdale lake in the vicinity of where the bikes and a purse were found, "but we will fight to the death for our children."

------------------------------------------
I THOUGHT FBI WAS ALREADY IN!


CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley plans to make a direct request to the FBI director to provide “all assistance available” to the search for two missing Evansdale girls.

Braley, who mentioned his sons played in an Evansdale baseball program when they were younger, is making the appeal at the request of one of the families of the missing girls -- Lyric Cook, 10, and her cousin Elizabeth Collins, 8, who went missing Friday. He did not say which family.

By speaking directly to Director William Mueller, Braley hopes to make sure the “FBI is fully engaged and taking this seriously.”

The FBI has significant and unique resources, he said, such as the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and rapid response teams that apply the most current expertise available in missing child cases.

“If there is a reason to believe an abduction has occurred, which there certainly is in this case, they have a child abduction rapid deployment team” that can provide divers and other search-and-rescue assistance, Braley said during a conference call with reporters July 18

[ramseycat]

I just know these girls are dead. I have a bad feeling. These things never turn out ok.

[Lady Cop]

1. police have removed computers from grandmother's house.

2. father was being polygraphed and interviewed by police and walked out. doesn't prove anything of course, except he is frustrated.

Family members tell KCCI that the interrogation started with them.

"You tell them (detectives) the truth and they say, 'You're holding something back,' and you're not. What is left to talk about? You know, we go over and over and over again. It made me feel like, yeah, they're looking at me like a suspect," said Dan Morrissey, Lyric's father. "But as far as what I know, I know the truth, I know I am telling the truth, so it is offensive."

As Meyers Lake continued to drain and kayakers kept up their search, family members comforted Morrissey. Police are questioning the entire family, including his wife.

"(I was) polygraphed, questioned and interviewed, absolutely," Misty Cook-Morrissey said.

The Morrisseys said they don't have a lawyer and don't intend on getting one. Instead, they're spending their time at the lake and on national TV.

[Lady Cop]

A trash collector with Black Hawk Waste Disposal empty trash receptacles on Clark Street Wednesday, July 18, 2012, in Evansdale, Iowa. Law enforcement officials have called for all residential and commercial trash in the city of Evansdale to be set aside in the Black Hawk County landfill to be searched through by those involved in the ongoing investigation for missing Elizabeth Collins, 8, and her cousin Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10

[LuciferLynn]

Still nothing concrete? Jeez. I keep checking because I want to see "they found them alive!"

[chaze77]

Well, it's starting to look like maybe this is a case of a family member harming these girls. IMO, this is starting to look like other cases of late, cases in which dad/step-dad harmed the child that's missing. I'm thinking about Hailey Dunn as an example. Why else would Dan Morrissey walk out of the police interview? Police won't identify him specifically as a suspect, but he's claiming (angrily) that they're treating him like one. Not to mention, he has a criminal record. Doesn't look good.

[Lady Cop]

dan daddy is a meth addict. he is going to trial soon on new charges. Lyric was living with grandma.
he does not live with wife either.
Misty Cook pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute meth in 2003

he has many charges.

i know that does not mean he harmed the kids :(


The day before Daniel Morrissey's daughter disappeared, the court set a September date for him in connection with drug charges that allege police found items used to make meth in his home in December.

Morrissey also has a pending domestic assault charge stemming from an August incident where he allegedly assaulted Misty Morrissey.

One of his alleged accomplices in the drug case had a pretrial conference the day of the disappearance, and another codefendant was scheduled to plea the following Monday.

Misty Cook pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute meth in 2003. Misty Morrissey is charged under her maiden of Cook.



stubby little baggy-ass druggie. who marries that? another druggie.