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'SCARED TO DEATH'
Dad fears worst is yet to come as he’s still in dark about way Elizabeth Collins, 8, & her cousin Lyric Cook were killed
The first episode of Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth? debuted on MAX last week
A HEARTBROKEN father whose daughter was abducted and murdered with her cousin 12 years ago said he's desperate to find their killer but terrified to learn how they died.
Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, vanished on July 13, 2012, while riding their bicycles in the small town of Evansdale, Iowa, about 130 miles from Des Moines.
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Months passed without any sign of the young girls until a heartbreaking discovery was made on December 5 – 25 miles from where they were last seen alive.
Hunters ambling in the woodlands in the isolated Seven Bridges Wildlife Area happened on two sets of remains that were later identified as Elizabeth and Lyric.
No arrests have even been made in the case, and investigators have kept all evidence close to their chests, not even disclosing to the girls' loved ones how they were killed or any details regarding the crime scene.
Investigators say the reason is that those are details only the killer would know, and closely guarding that information may be crucial in later snaring the culprit.
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For Elizabeth's dad, Drew Collins, learning to accept the myriad of unknowns in his daughter's case has been an insurmountable task.
While progress in the investigation appears to have been slow, Collins told The U.S. Sun he's confident the hunt is nearing its conclusion and answers will soon be forthcoming.
Collins said he will relish the moment he gets to look his daughter's killer in the eyes for the first time but fears the worst of his heartache is still yet to come.
"I'm really sick of waiting," said Collins. "I want to know who this person is and I want to see this person arrested.
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"But I'm also scared to death because I've been wondering all this time what happened and who this person was, but I also wonder how hard it's going to be when I find out all the things I don't want to hear.
"Which is what was done to them and what their last moments were like.
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"The hard part ain't over yet. Finding out the answers to all those questions might be the hardest part of all.
"You don't want to think of somebody hurting your child, but obviously they were hurt, and when those answers come they're going to be hard to hear.
"But, at the same time, I need to know."
PUSHING FOR ANSWERS
A new three-part documentary about the girls' case, Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth?, debuted last week on MAX.
Collins participated in the documentary and told The U.S. Sun how he hoped the show would help "shake something loose" in the case or compel someone harboring vital information to come forward.
The three-episode series, directed by a local news photographer who worked the case, Dylan Sires, will air weekly.
Collins plays a central role in the show and even surreptitiously confronts a person of interest about their potential involvement in Elizabeth and Lyric's deaths.
On the morning of July 13, 2012, Elizabeth and Lyric had been dropped off at their grandmother's home in downtown Evansdale to be watched while their parents worked.
Without knowing Drew or Elizabeth's mom, Heather, the girls' grandmother, Wylma Collins, had allowed the pair to go off on a bike ride alone at around noon.
But when the girls failed to return home after an hour, Wylma grew concerned and contacted both sets of parents before the police were finally called sometime around 3 pm.
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The last known sighting of the girls came between 12:30 pm and 1 pm along Gilbert Drive, a stone's throw away from Meyers Lake, a popular local fishing and recreation area.
Their bikes and Elizabeth's purse with her cell phone still inside were later found on a trail at the southeast corner of the lake at 4 pm.
What happened next is not known, but officials have said they believe the culprit used “quiet coercion” to abduct Lyric and Elizabeth.
Investigators said the location of where the girls' remains were located could be a critical piece of information that leads investigators to the killer.
You have to be a monster to have done something so evil to them.
Drew Collins
Collins shares the same philosophy, telling The U.S. Sun he has always believed the killer was a local who is most likely still lurking in the surrounding community.
"If you knew the area and where they were found, how remote it is, and also how remote the area where their bikes were found is, then you would know it was somebody local. So I always have that feeling in the back of my mind," said Collins.
"If I go to the bar or something, I always wonder, after speaking to someone or seeing someone who sees a little off, could this be the guy?
"You're always thinking of this stuff because you're looking for answers [...] and I can't wait for that to be over."
Collins added, "I am tired of wondering. That’s one of the harder things; you’re always wondering who it is and why. You wonder if you made someone mad, or if it was someone who just saw two girls alone and took advantage.
"My life is spent running these things through my head constantly. Trying to figure it out, trying to make sense of it, and it’s all pretty senseless. So you’ll never do it."
POTENTIAL TIES EXPLORED
In the years since the girls vanished, other high-profile murder and abduction cases near Evansdale have led to questions about possible connections to the deaths of Elizabeth and Lyric.
One of those cases is the Delphi murders, a double homicide of two young girls, Libby German and Abigail Williams, who were killed in an Indiana woods in February 2017.
Parallels between the two killings were drawn, but investigators never established a link between the crime scenes.
One case to have been closely examined by investigators was the abduction of 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard and a 12-year-old girl from Dayton, Iowa, in May 2013 – less than a year after Elizabeth and Lyric’s abduction.
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The 12-year-old victim was able to escape, but tragically, Kathlynn’s body was found a few weeks after the abduction.
The man responsible for the abductions and murder, Michael Klunder, took his own life the same day the discovery was made.
Klunder is still considered a person of interest in the Evansdale case and is the central focus of the second episode of Taken Together.
In the final episode, Collins confronts an associate of Klunder's who was living less than a football field's distance away from him when Elizabeth and Lyric disappeared.
Collins said making the documentary was an emotional rollercoaster.
He also said watching the footage back and revisiting the early days of the investigation was a particularly challenging experience.
"It was hard to watch," said Collins. "The reliving it all takes you back to all those emotions and feelings you had in the first days when everything was still very fresh and while they were missing.
"I was kind of losing it during those days, so taking myself back to that place was tough."
A PARENT'S NIGHTMARE
In an interview with The U.S. Sun in 2022, Collins recounted how he returned home from work early on July 13, 2012, to be told by Heather the girls were missing.
He said what had started as any other day quickly descended into a parent's worst nightmare.
"We were worried from the beginning," Drew said in November 2022.
"We would've never let Elizabeth go out on a bike ride like that. It was different for Lyric as she was a little bit older, but Elizabeth was too little."
When Elizabeth's handbag was discovered strewn over a fence later that afternoon, Drew said he really began to panic.
"That was the moment when it hit me that something really wasn't right," he said.
"So we kept on looking and looking but we couldn't find them anywhere."
As days passed without any progress, volunteers came out in their hundreds to assist police and provide comfort to the girls' families.
Candlelight vigils, volunteer searches, and press conferences were all held, but no trace of Elizabeth and Lyric was found.
Elizabeth and Lyric's Disappearance: A Timeline
Friday, July 13, 2012:
2:48pm: Cousins Lyric Cook Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins are reported missing.
2:50pm: Evansdale police search the home and the area using three squad cars.
3:15pm: Black Hawk sheriff’s office sends four cars to help. Fire department requested to help and uses a Gator to check bike trails.
4pm: Firefighters find the girls’ bike at Meyers Lake.
4:30pm: Girls' names are entered into the National Crime Information Center, a nationwide FBI database that includes missing persons.
4:30pm: Fire department begins dragging Meyers Lake.
4:40pm: County Emergency Management Agency notified and begins Everbridge automated messages to phones in the area to alert residents.
5pm: Canvas of lake neighborhood beings.
5:30pm: Officer meets with Collins to obtain photos of the girls.
5:30pm: Media notified of the disappearance.
5:30pm: Divers with Cedar Valley Underwater Search and Rescue, a local team of volunteers, is called to help search the lake.
6:30pm: Law enforcement and civilians conduct search of wooded areas. This continues until about 3:30 a.m. the following day.
7pm: Iowa State Patrol airplane with forward-looking infrared joins the search. Authorities begin interviewing local people listed on the state Sex Offender Registry.
8pm: Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified. FBI brought in. STAR-1, an Iowa search and rescue group, is contacted.
8:30pm: NCMEC begins emailing and faxing photos and descriptions of the girls to truck stops, stores and public places within a 100 mile radius of Evansdale.
The FBI eventually joined in the search, sending trained divers to Meyers Lake to search for the girls. Again, investigators came up empty-handed.
For the following five months, Drew, Heather, and their three other children all waited in agony for updates.
"Those five months were unbearable. It's still unbearable now [...] it's all I live and breathe.
"You just never imagined something could happen in a small town like this. It's a safe area.
"You hear about these kinds of things happening but nobody ever thinks it could ever happen to their family - until it does," said Drew.
A DESTRUCTIVE WRECK
When the phone rang on December 5, 2012, Drew answered.
It was the family's minister on the phone, asking them to come down to City Hall immediately.
It was there that the heartbreaking news was broken to Drew, his now ex-wife, and their three children.
The girls had been found dead together, deep in a secluded nature reserve.
Drew described the moment as the most challenging thing he's ever had to go through in his life.
"After all that anticipation and hope and all the work we did to try to find them, and for that be the outcome was just devastating," he said in 2022.
"You look at the faces of those two girls and you just think there was no way anybody could hurt them. They were so nice, nobody can hurt them. They're too sweet.
"You have to be a monster to have done something so evil to them."
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Today, the scars and feelings of heartbreak remain fresh for Drew and his three other children, now aged 24, 18, and 16.
Describing what it's been like for his kids to grow up under a grey cloud of uncertainty and heartache cast in the wake of Elizabeth's death, Collins said each of them are "broken in their own ways."
"Everything went to s**t for us afterward, including my marriage, which was even harder on the kids.
"After Elizabeth died, it was like a semi-truck drove through our house at 9pm while everyone was sitting around watching TV.
"There was nothing that wasn't damaged. Everything was damaged after that."
'WE'RE COMING FOR YOU'
Various persons of interest and potential suspects have been looked into over the years, and more than 2,000 tips have been investigated, but an arrest has never been made.
For a time, the eye of suspicion was cast over Lyric's mom and dad, Dan and Misty Morrissey, both of whom have colorful criminal histories concerning various drug offenses.
Authorities now say they do not believe suspect Lyric’s parents of any wrongdoing, but years of suspicion soured relations between the family.
I'm also scared to death because I've been wondering all this time what happened and who this person was, but I also wonder how hard it's going to be when I find out all the things I don't want to hear.
Drew Collins
Despite limited progress in the case over the last 12 years, Drew Collins says he still has absolute faith in law enforcement to get the case solved.
For their part, local police have repeatedly stressed the case is not cold and tips and lines of investigation are still being analyzed and pursued.
Jason Ellison, a detective with the Bremer County Sheriff’s Office, told The U.S. Sun in 2022 that the investigation into the girls' deaths remains active and ongoing.
"As far as case progress, we continue to look at every lead [and] tip we receive and evaluate what level of resources is appropriate for follow-up," he said.
"We are constantly reevaluating the information we already have and always trying to keep the investigation moving forward [...] we are continuing to actively work on the case and it is not sitting dormant in a file cabinet."
Drew said he has a gut feeling that a break in the case will soon be forthcoming.
"They're gonna get this guy," he said. "It's just a matter of time.
"They're doing everything they can, and I have 100% faith in them to catch whoever did this.
"I think they know who it is, but they just don't have enough proof at the moment.
"But every day that passes, I feel we're getting closer."
Speaking directly to anyone who knows anything about his daughter and niece's murders, Collins warned: "We're gaining strength and we're coming for you. We're not going to stop until someone is in jail.
"The other thing is, I don't just want the person that did it, I want to know who helped, who covered it up, and who knew but decided not to come forward.
"I want to know all those things and I think the day is coming.
"We're on the cusp of things changing."
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The reward to find the person who murdered Lyric and Elizabeth is now more than $100,000.
If you have a tip, email the Division of Criminal Investigation at [email protected] or call the Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers at (855) 300-8477.