IA IA - Elizabeth Collins, 8, & Lyric Cook, 10, Evansdale, 13 July 2012 - #1

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I live next to this lake, my kids (9 & 4) and I walk around that trail frequently (2-3 times/week).

I can tell you that the odds they went swimming, or even attempted to get near the water, near where their bikes were found is remote. The fence was put between the trail and the lake there to keep people away from the lake there. The trail is at its lowest point there, uphill both directions and curving slightly, so that a biker coming up to that area is approaching fairly blind, and if was forced to swerve, the lake is mere inches from the trail there. The lake-side fence runs 50-ish feet in either direction from this lowest point. There is a gate at this point in the fence, leading to a rock jetty that gives access to the drain pipe. The highway-side fence runs along the freeway, which is under construction, reduced from divided 4-lane to 2-lane right there, very congested, very busy. A stopped vehicle there would be almost impossible, much less allowed to remain long. A couple years ago, a car slid off the road and tumbled through the ditch into the fence, about 100 ft from this narrow, double-fenced area of the trail, and it damaged the fence. It has never been repaired. The ditch is incredibly tall grass and weeds, and is difficult to traverse by foot, and there is the constant rush of traffic just a few feet above - seemingly not a place where kids would just go to explore.
 
In the care of their grandmother, Wylma Cook, the girls went bike riding Friday morning. They were last seen at about 12:30 p.m. Friday in downtown Evansdale.

Read More: http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/ev...d32-11e1-a656-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz20nzgC9TI


I am wondering what time exactly they originally left out to bike ride. Had they been out earlier, and come home for lunch?? If they did, what was their mood? Chatty, quiet? Did they talk about where they were riding or what they had done or if they saw anyone?

Or did they just never come home for lunch, and perhaps that instigated the searching in the beginning? Were the older sibs there, did they go look for the girls at first?
 
:welcome:

Welcome Ollipop!! We always appreciate a local's perspective in any cases here on WS. Thanks for posting!
 
katydid23 said:
But if you put a knife to the 8 yr olds throat, you can probably control the 10 yr old long enough to get her in the car. Then you are home free if you zip tie them and put them in the trunk.
Click to expand...

That is true, but I feel all children need to be told if they're in such a scenario to run like hell to find the nearest adult, house, or store to seek help...even if the perp is trying to control the situation by holding their friend at knife point to plead with them to get into a car. At least then.. LE could identify the suspect and possibly save their friend. Right now we have two girls missing and not much to go on. I hate cases like this.
 
HeinekenMan said:
Since it has been discussed a little today, I'll clarify a few things.

First, this is Lyric's Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/lyric.morrissey

The photo is Selena Gomez, a TV star. That is not Lyric.

In July 2011, someone using Lyric's FB signed up for a dating site called Zoosk. It appears in her Facebook wall timeline. I created a Zoosk account yesterday and went looking for Lyric. You can search by area. I found an account under Lyric's mother's name. The profile photo for the account is the same pic of Selena Gomez.

The profile lists the age for her mother as 34. It also shows that she is separated, drinks and smokes socially and is looking for a man.

The site allows you to send messages, chat, browse photos of users, etc. It even will send you alerts when someone checks your profile. It actually shows you who was checking, too. It also shows you which users are logged in and using the site. I was surprised that so many men seemed to be sitting on their computers using the site.

To browse for men in the area, I changed my Zoosk profile to a woman looking for a man. There were a lot of creepy-looking individuals within 5 miles of the Evansdale/Waterloo area. Five of them clicked on my profile.

I was very tired yesterday. So I made a few small errors when I first reported this information here. Fortunately, the wife let me sleep in til 10 a.m. today! One of the errors was that I initially said it was Lyric's account. That seems to be only half correct. It is actually under her mother's name, but I think that all of the info points to Lyric creating it herself. I also initially said that the age on the profile was 37. It is actually 34.

It has been discussed before. But I'll rehash. Some believe that Lyric was attempting to pick out a man for her mother or was trying to set up her mother for a date. There was nothing on her profile, though, to suggest that she had been an active user. I believe it showed that she received a digital rose from someone. I wasn't able to see who sent it.

My intuition tells me that the site itself probably has nothing to do with the disappearance of the two girls. But I wouldn't rule it out completely. Certainly, there are some creepy men on there. It certainly creates a means of communication between Lyric and potential RSOs in the area. It's also possible that it is only one of several sites that Lyric visited.
Click to expand...

Very interesting! Thank you. And weird. Because it doesn't seem like Lyric's mother was looking for dates in July 2011. :waitasec:

According to the photos posted on Lyric's mother Facebook page, there are photos of her mother and her husband all through out 2011 ... including photos of their 14th wedding anniversary posted in September of 2011.

Lyric's FB profile says, "Lyric started using Zoosk" in July 2011 - right around the same time she friended her mother on FB. I don't think Lyric was looking for dates for her mom. (That doesn't look like a woman who is open to dating. :waitasec: Who knows.)

Lyric is 10 years old. I'm NOT suggesting that FB or zoosk is involved in this case whatsoever... but "Facebook requires individuals to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account." And you have to 18 to use Zoosk.

Whoever created that Zoosk profile had access to her FB account login and password. I hope someone was monitoring Lyric's internet use. :confused:
 
Directly across the lake, close enough to almost yell to someone standing there, is a park, with a dock, playground, shelter, etc. Kids play there all the time, there are docks. I have never seen someone swimming. There rarely is a boat on the lake.

For the record, for the entirety of the trail around the lake, there are only about 3 spots, totaling about 50 feet, where you could not be seen from the highway and/or residences on the lake. The bikes were found in the most-sheltered-from-view spot on that trail. It is the least-likely spot to stop to play, as there is no access off the trail due to the fences.

In my eyes, if I were ditching the bikes, or looking for a spot to rummage through a bag I'd found/stolen without being watched, that is the spot on the trail to do so. I'm not convinced the girls took the bikes there. I'm not convinced the girls or anyone who may have taken them threw the bag over - it could very well have been someone who happened upon it afterwards if it was just laying by the bikes.

Also, the woods between the trail and Arbutus are only barely thick enough to even call "woods." At most points, you can see completely through to the other side. Not everywhere, and it is most dense down by the trail there. That spot on the trail is plain spooky and quiet and sort of claustrophobic, even during the day, except for the constant hum of highway traffic almost immediately overhead.
 
Ollipop said:
I live next to this lake, my kids (9 & 4) and I walk around that trail frequently (2-3 times/week).

I can tell you that the odds they went swimming, or even attempted to get near the water, near where their bikes were found is remote. The fence was put between the trail and the lake there to keep people away from the lake there. The trail is at its lowest point there, uphill both directions and curving slightly, so that a biker coming up to that area is approaching fairly blind, and if was forced to swerve, the lake is mere inches from the trail there. The lake-side fence runs 50-ish feet in either direction from this lowest point. There is a gate at this point in the fence, leading to a rock jetty that gives access to the drain pipe. The highway-side fence runs along the freeway, which is under construction, reduced from divided 4-lane to 2-lane right there, very congested, very busy. A stopped vehicle there would be almost impossible, much less allowed to remain long. A couple years ago, a car slid off the road and tumbled through the ditch into the fence, about 100 ft from this narrow, double-fenced area of the trail, and it damaged the fence. It has never been repaired. The ditch is incredibly tall grass and weeds, and is difficult to traverse by foot, and there is the constant rush of traffic just a few feet above - seemingly not a place where kids would just go to explore.
Click to expand...

So do you think the bikes were 'staged' by someone?

And this is not a place that kids go to swim?

Oh, and :welcome: to WS. :fireworks:
 
Ollipop said:
I live next to this lake, my kids (9 & 4) and I walk around that trail frequently (2-3 times/week).

I can tell you that the odds they went swimming, or even attempted to get near the water, near where their bikes were found is remote. The fence was put between the trail and the lake there to keep people away from the lake there. The trail is at its lowest point there, uphill both directions and curving slightly, so that a biker coming up to that area is approaching fairly blind, and if was forced to swerve, the lake is mere inches from the trail there. The lake-side fence runs 50-ish feet in either direction from this lowest point. There is a gate at this point in the fence, leading to a rock jetty that gives access to the drain pipe. The highway-side fence runs along the freeway, which is under construction, reduced from divided 4-lane to 2-lane right there, very congested, very busy. A stopped vehicle there would be almost impossible, much less allowed to remain long. A couple years ago, a car slid off the road and tumbled through the ditch into the fence, about 100 ft from this narrow, double-fenced area of the trail, and it damaged the fence. It has never been repaired. The ditch is incredibly tall grass and weeds, and is difficult to traverse by foot, and there is the constant rush of traffic just a few feet above - seemingly not a place where kids would just go to explore.
Click to expand...

Thanks. So what looks like a dock in the aerial view is actually some rocks and the beginning of the drainage pipe. It sounds like an abduction from the road can be ruled out. If the water is also ruled out, then it seems like two possibilities remain: the girls rode their bikes there and met someone that led them away on the path, or the bikes were put there by someone else. However, if the bikes were indeed there at 12:27, and the girls were seen downtown at 12:15, that doesn't give an abductor much time to ditch the bikes there. That leaves one possibility: the girls met someone there and were lured or taken to a nearby vehicle. That doesn't make much sense to me. If the girls were lured, why wouldn't they take their bikes ... why leave them on the path and walk out of the park ... unless they were asked to help carry something, like a kitten.
 
sreshowtime said:
a friend found this, wanted to share it here

http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/th...cle_94b14cc4-cf32-11e1-9131-001a4bcf887a.html
snipped-
Drew and Heather Collins are is no strangers to adversity. Their faith in God, they say, gets them through trying times.
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting this news article, sreshowtime. I feel so much empathy for the Collins family! The brother looks so sad and scared. Can you imagine being the mom of 4 children and having problems with your pacemaker, and then your daughter goes missing?

LaceSprocket said:
Very interesting! Thank you. And weird. Because it doesn't seem like Lyric's mother was looking for dates in July 2011. :waitasec:

According to the photos posted on Lyric's mother Facebook page, there are photos of her mother and her husband all through out 2011 ... including photos of their 14th wedding anniversary posted in September of 2011.
Click to expand...

That is not Lyric's mother. It is Elizabeth's mother's FB.

I hope today is the day Elizabeth and Lyric are found safe and sound.
 
Ollipop said:
The ditch is incredibly tall grass and weeds, and is difficult to traverse by foot, and there is the constant rush of traffic just a few feet above - seemingly not a place where kids would just go to explore.
Click to expand...

Another long time site visitor, first time posting.

I did notice, when driving east from Waterloo on 380, there was a group of three law enforcement personnel searching the 'ditch' area-- mind you, this is between the road and the tall fence that separates the whole Meyer's lake area from the road. They were having what appeared to be a difficult time with the slope of the ground. This was at 11.30am.

The traffic did seem to be more congested this morning, especially around the Meyer's Lake area, people seemed to be slowing down to gawk.

Praying that these two girls are found soon.
 
Also, concerning how and where the girls had been spotted:

Elizabeth lives directly behind Lederman's Big and Tall store. I believe that the media used that as a reference point rather than the address of her home as more people would know where that is - its not the only business there, but one of the oldest, and has a huge sign. I'm assuming that the g'mother last seeing them at home and them "last being spotted near Lederman's" are reporting the same thing.

The trail the bikes were found on passes withing two blocks of that location, across a fairly busy (for a small town, anyway) street. To get from Elizabeth's home, to the trail, and then to the lake, could easily be done in less than 10 minutes. The trail travels south, past a closed school, past a skatepark, across another fairly busy road (the skatepark AND the local police station are both on that road - the park adjacent to the trail, the LE station less than a mile away). The trail continues for one block through residential backyards, shielded somewhat by trees, then crosses Arbutus and again is sheltered fairly well until it comes to the fence at the highway, where it turns and continues, completely open to view, until it disappears behind the "wooded area" off Arbutus, through the tight double-fenced area, and then up behind the lake, where it is in plain view of both the highway, the park across the lake, and all the houses on the lake.
 
otto said:
Thanks. So what looks like a dock in the aerial view is actually some rocks and the beginning of the drainage pipe. It sounds like an abduction from the road can be ruled out. If the water is also ruled out, then it seems like two possibilities remain: the girls rode their bikes there and met someone that led them away on the path, or the bikes were put there by someone else. However, if the bikes were indeed there at 12:27, and the girls were seen downtown at 12:15, that doesn't give an abductor much time to ditch the bikes there. That leaves one possibility: the girls met someone there and were lured or taken to a nearby vehicle. That doesn't make much sense to me. If the girls were lured, why wouldn't they take their bikes ... why leave them on the path and walk out of the park ... unless they were asked to help carry something, like a kitten.
Click to expand...

It seems a bit odd that one or more abductors were just waiting in the exact area by the lake. I am wondering about the time and place where the girls were last seen. I am wondering why only their GM saw them in the area behind the clothing store. Also, it would be instuctive to find out who else,if anyone was at GM's house that morning and early afternoon...JMO
 
iowagirl319 said:
Another long time site visitor, first time posting.

I did notice, when driving east from Waterloo on 380, there was a group of three law enforcement personnel searching the 'ditch' area-- mind you, this is between the road and the tall fence that separates the whole Meyer's lake area from the road. They were having what appeared to be a difficult time with the slope of the ground. This was at 11.30am.

The traffic did seem to be more congested this morning, especially around the Meyer's Lake area, people seemed to be slowing down to gawk.

Praying that these two girls are found soon.
Click to expand...

Welcome to WS!

:wagon:
 
welcome to websleuths iowagirl319 and Ollipop and all our other new members!

:cheer:
 
Eyespy said:
I am getting somewhat confused by everything in this forum that appears to be hearsay and isn't linked. Where did anyone ever say the girls had asked to go swimming and were told no, or that the grandmother told police that they should look for the girls at the lake? I have not seen any type of link at all to suggest this but it has been mentioned numerous times.

I also don't see where the bikes being found at the lake within a half hour to an hour of the call coming in is unusual, this is not a big town and I would think that the first places LE would look would be general areas where kids congregate, etc. They wouldn't have started in door to door searches right from the start, IMO.
Click to expand...

The MSM mentions the bikes being found, not at 12:27, but 4 hours later:
Lyric and Elizabeth were last seen riding bikes near downtown Evansdale just off Lafayette Road at 12:15 p.m. Friday. Their bicycles were located by an Evansdale firefighter about four hours later on the southeast corner of Meyers Lake along the bike trail.

from here: http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/up...d32-11e1-a656-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz20o6ioHVH
 
The volunteer search ended at about 4:45 p.m. Sunday. Authorities decided at 7 p.m. another full-scale search with the public’s help won’t be held today since the vast majority of people are volunteers, including Evansdale firefighters coordinating the search effort, and need to go back to work.

“Officers are thinking let’s wait-and-see what comes up. Right now there’s nothing more to check, we’ve already covered about 12 square miles,” said Capt. Rick Abben with the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office.

However, Abben said law enforcement officials will continue their around-the-clock investigation and search for the children.

Officers will follow up on tips, interview family and friends and search homes in the southern two-thirds of Evansdale, he said. Police are contacting known sex offenders in the area to learn about their whereabouts on Friday and are looking at other possibilities.
Click to expand...
http://www.kcrg.com/evansdaledisapp...f-Search-for-Two-Missing-Girls-162593266.html
 
Ollipop said:
I live next to this lake, my kids (9 & 4) and I walk around that trail frequently (2-3 times/week).

I can tell you that the odds they went swimming, or even attempted to get near the water, near where their bikes were found is remote. The fence was put between the trail and the lake there to keep people away from the lake there. The trail is at its lowest point there, uphill both directions and curving slightly, so that a biker coming up to that area is approaching fairly blind, and if was forced to swerve, the lake is mere inches from the trail there. The lake-side fence runs 50-ish feet in either direction from this lowest point. There is a gate at this point in the fence, leading to a rock jetty that gives access to the drain pipe. The highway-side fence runs along the freeway, which is under construction, reduced from divided 4-lane to 2-lane right there, very congested, very busy. A stopped vehicle there would be almost impossible, much less allowed to remain long. A couple years ago, a car slid off the road and tumbled through the ditch into the fence, about 100 ft from this narrow, double-fenced area of the trail, and it damaged the fence. It has never been repaired. The ditch is incredibly tall grass and weeds, and is difficult to traverse by foot, and there is the constant rush of traffic just a few feet above - seemingly not a place where kids would just go to explore.
Click to expand...

So if someone was going to ditch the bikes there, how would they get to that spot with 2 bikes? Can they drive into those trees? Drive around the trees?

A couple of grown ups would be noticed riding a kids bike but what if older kids rode them there then ditched them. Did anyone see any other bike riders that day?
 
katydid23 said:
So do you think the bikes were 'staged' by someone?

And this is not a place that kids go to swim?

Oh, and :welcome: to WS. :fireworks:
Click to expand...

That was my first gut instinct. Its not a place to stop, even when you're walking, because its just so tight there with those fences. And, like I said, you can't see ppl coming from either direction, can't see the road, are blocked somewhat by the woods. That tight area, though, is short, only like 30 feet-ish, and then you are again in the open and visible. It just seems like a good hiding spot, not a good resting spot.

The guy who reported seeing the bikes there did so after they had been reported missing. He was riding, had to swerve, and made a phone call shortly after - I believe from the nearby gas-station. Traveling on bike, you could be around the lake and to that station in less than 5 minutes. He checked the time of the call he'd made, and determined that he'd passed the bikes minutes before. It didn't occur to him to report it at the time, but after hearing of the girls he called it in to the police.

I do believe these girls were taken, and I suspect that those woods and that tight spot on the trail are pivotal (along with that driveway that leads back to the pump/lift station). It just seems weird for the girls to get off their bikes there and walk unless the trail was impeded/blocked in some way. But it also seems odd that someone would have been able to "plant" or "ditch" two bikes there, as they'd have to get them back there somehow. I was wondering if someone else - local kids maybe - found their bikes (or saw them get left behind), and "stole/borrowed" them, hopped on that trail and raced down to that spot to check the contents of that bag and tried to toss it into the lake.

You could easily get to that spot from their last-known spotting in that time, but you'd have to be moving there determinedly, not lolligagging. You'd have to head straight to the trail to do so, as getting there by roads takes you through residential roads, traffic, many street crossings, etc. Bikers on that trail would hardly be noticed - it is used frequently and kids racing on it would not raise suspicion. I've never seen a motor vehicle on it except city vehicles/police doing maintenance, etc, including atv's. An atv on that trail would raise alarm/suspicion. Likewise, a boat on that lake would take longer to get in and out of than it would take to cross the lake. I could ride my bike around that lake in the time it takes someone to negotiate the boat ramp with a trailer.
 
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