This is from last August. Apparently there has been an HBO program on it.
A DAD seeking answers in the murders of his daughter and niece hopes that a new documentary about the 12-year-old case will help to spur new leads and apply pressure on investigators to finally sna…
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Murdered girl Elizabeth Collins’ dad thinks cops know killer but have no proof & hopes new doc ‘shakes something loose’
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EXCLUSIVE
PILING ON PRESSURE
Murdered girl Elizabeth Collins’ dad thinks cops know killer but have no proof & hopes new doc ‘shakes something loose’
Taken Together, a docuseries profiling the unsolved murders of Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook-Morrissey, is now streaming on Max
- Luke Kenton, Senior Exclusives Reporter
- Published: 23:24 ET, Aug 8 2024
- Updated: 23:24 ET, Aug 8 2024
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A DAD seeking answers in the murders of his daughter and niece hopes that a new documentary about the 12-year-old case will help to spur new leads and apply pressure on investigators to finally snare the culprit.
Cousins Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10,
vanished while riding their bicycles around the small town of Evansdale,
Iowa, on July 13, 2012.
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Elizabeth Collins (left), 8, and Lyric Cook-Morrissey (right), 10, were found dead in December 2012, five months after they vanished in Evansdale, IowaCredit: Family handout
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Elizabeth's father Drew Collins (above) told The U.S Sun he hasn't lost hope his daughter's case will be solvedCredit: Family handout
Their bikes and a pink purse belonging to Elizabeth were found discarded near a recreational lake within hours of their disappearance, but there was no sign of either of the
young girls.
Hours turned into days, days into weeks, and weeks into months without answers before a heartbreaking discovery would be made on December 5, 2012.
Hunters ambling in the wilderness in the isolated Seven Bridges Wildlife Area happened on two sets of remains that were later identified as Elizabeth and Lyric.
The remains were discovered roughly 25 miles from where the girls were last seen alive.
READ MORE TRUE CRIME
'CATCH THE KILLER'
GRIM HISTORY
A national media frenzy and a sweeping investigation ensued, but no arrests have ever been made in the case.
For Elizabeth's dad, Drew Collins, the wait for answers has been agonizing.
Investigators have remained tight-lipped about the evidence they have in the case, including how the girls were found and how they were murdered.
To this day, Drew doesn't know how his daughter and niece were killed, with police certain that withholding the information will one day help them capture the killer.
Continued below
Drew told The U.S. Sun he has grown accustomed to the weight of his frustrations and lack of clarity over the last 12 years, but he is optimistic the case will soon be solved and answers forthcoming.
Buoying his sense of optimism, Collins said, is the fact a new three-part documentary about Elizabeth and Lyric's disappearance, Taken Together, is set to air on
HBO's Max platform from today - August 8.
Play Video
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"I'm an impatient person and I'm really sick of waiting for answers – I want to know," said Collins.
"I want this person to be arrested but I don't know who it's going to be and when it's going to be, and that's difficult to deal with.
"But with the documentary, I'm really hoping it gets people talking and pulls on the heartstrings of someone who knows something about what happened.
"I'm just hoping it shakes something loose and somebody comes forward.
"At the very least, this will help to keep Elizabeth and Lyric in the public eye, while also putting a little pressure on the state of Iowa to increase what they're doing to solve this.
"Will it work? I don't know. But we've put a lot of work into it and I'm really pleased with how it turned out."
MONSTER 'HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT'
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 the knowledge of 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 3pm.
The last known sighting of the girls came between 12:30pm and 1pm 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 4pm.
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Drew remembered his daughter as a bubbly animal lover and incredible sisterCredit: Family handout
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Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, is pictured aboveCredit: CBS
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The girls were last seen on their bikesCredit: ABC News
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Their bikes were later found discarded near Meyers Lake, a popular local fishing and recreation area
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 key piece of information that leads investigators to the killer.
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."
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.
THEORIES AND DEAD ENDS
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.
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Elizabeth (above) and Lyric's causes of death have never been revealedCredit: Family handout
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Drew said he's confident a break in the case will soon be forthcomingCredit: KCCI
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Michael Klunder remains a person of interestCredit: IOWA Sex Offenders
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.
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.
What had started out as any other day quickly descended into a parent's worst nightmare, he said.
"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 still, no trace of Elizabeth and Lyric was found.
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.
Both of the girls had been found dead, together, deep in a secluded nature reserve.
Drew described the moment as the hardest 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."
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."
You have to be a monster to have done something so evil to them.
Drew CollinsElizabeth's Dad
'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.
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."
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 dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us or call the Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers at (855) 300-8477.
