IA IA - Elizabeth Collins, 8, & Lyric Cook, 10, Evansdale, 13 July 2012 - #18

[RNER]

But, Dan backed out of his deal the day before. So who could benefit? Is there another case pending?

I don't think Dan DIRECTLY had anything to do with the disappearance, but I believe his affiliations and criminal background had EVERYTHING to do with it!

He changed his plea THE DAY BEFORE the girl's went missing, which will result in a trial, thus implicating other people.

The "other people", as well as Dan have already benefited...the trial has been delayed twice.

In my opinion, Dan was "the middle man" in a much broader drug/criminal ring that involved many "players" and "other people" in higher levels of a drug ring. These "other people" would be able to pull off a successful abduction/disappearance and cover their tracks, elude LE/FBI, and silence witnesses or other "players" through intimidation, fear, and/or money.

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Fath...-in-Court-Friday-163986616.html?m=y&smobile=y

Quote: "Cook said Morrissey had been expected to accept a plea agreement July 12, the day before the girls vanished, but decided not to do so because he was not ready to go jail. She said prosecutors had shaved his sentence from more than 45 years to 30 years and then to 10 years, with a mandatory five years behind bars, because of his cooperation." 45 years to 5 years??? HMMM

I am sure Dan's talking and identifying some "other people" and "players".

 

[Sunlight]

Well, LE said the family is cooperating fully didn't they? That could mean a number of things....Not talking enough or talking too much.

One thing one can point to is that the trial has been delayed a couple of times so far, due to the situation of the children.

GMA said that DM had narc'd on people. Perhaps there have been some results.

It is really hard to say what is really going on.

TB believes it was possibly a pedophile.

MOO

 

[TxLady2]

I'm not sure where the idea that the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Department has only 5 employees came from.

In actual fact, BHCSD has 102 deputies and another 33 support staff.

http://www.bhcso.org/ContentPage.aspx?name=history

Evansdale has its own police department, which consists of 8 full time officers, 6 part time officers and 8 reserve officers for a total of 22 available officers.

http://evansdale.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={C382F505-BDE5-4CF8-9228-DE5E15DC7960}

Yes, the Evansdale PD and the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Department have been working together since the very beginning (Rick Abben is part of the BHCSD).

Black Hawk County is the 4th largest county of Iowa's 99 counties. It has a population of 131,000 people, includes 11 incorporated towns or cities and 6 unincorporated towns.

Much as people who do not live in Iowa like to imagine it is Mayberry, it really isn't. Where I live is more like Mayberry! There's only 17,000 people in my entire county and the largest town has less than 12,000 people. Black Hawk County is way more urbanised.

Thank you. I was referring to an earlier post that referenced the SD having only 5 staff. It was obviously an opinion, or perhaps confusing the SD with the local PD.

 

[Sunlight]

I think an important thing is to observe what people do and where they go.

 

[RNER]

I know this seems far-fetched, but has anyone considered the girls and/or other family members being involved in The Witness Protection Program? It does include family members as well as "witnesses" in high-profile cases.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-witness-protection-program.htm

 

[Sunlight]

I know this seems far-fetched, but has anyone considered the girls and/or other family members being involved in The Witness Protection Program? It does include family members as well as "witnesses" in high-profile cases.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-witness-protection-program.htm

I don't think it is far-fetched at all; especially, because this case had a plea deal that would reduce the number of years served by decades. If any narc'ing was successful...there may have been specific threats to perhaps one of the girls. Not all members of a family would necessarily be in the loop.

I do not believe any member of the family abducted the children, no matter what their personal problems are and have been. No way.

Like I said above, observe...MOO

OTOH...it could very easily have been a perverted perp. MOO

 

[RNER]

I don't think it is far-fetched at all; especially, because this case had a plea deal that would reduce the number of years served by decades. If any narc'ing was successful...there may have been specific threats to perhaps one of the girls. Not all members of a family would necessarily be in the loop.

I do not believe any member of the family abducted the children, no matter what their personal problems are and have been. No way.
Like I said above, observe...MOO

OTOH...it could very easily have been a perverted perp. MOO

I agree!

 

[RNER]

I know this seems far-fetched, but has anyone considered the girls and/or other family members being involved in The Witness Protection Program? It does include family members as well as "witnesses" in high-profile cases.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-witness-protection-program.htm[/QUOTE

IMOO...This would explain the family demeanor of appearing to be and described as inappropriate (laughing, smiling, partying, not searching, etc) for the nature of the disappearance.

Could the girls have been located and placed in Witness Protection?
Wasn't Dan (and/or others) reported to have been "absent" from public functions and media coverage recently?

Like I stated, "far-fetched", but...................

 

[TxLady2]

I don't know if that is the scenario in this case. But in this article they talk about Pimps were luring the kids through social media, targeting ones who came from “dysfunctional” families and offering them gifts.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/25/fbi-rescues-7-kids-held-as-sex-slaves-in-us/

The FBI, working alongside state and local authorities across the U.S., rescued 79 minors being held as sex slaves, the agency announced Monday.

We've had rings caught around here, gang members befriend runaways and use them at hotels, a man was caught transferring girls to Florida. Why would kidnappers seek rewards when they make so much money from whom they sell or transfer girls to? Sex slavery has always been and in countries all over the world, including here.

They'll even hire homeless people to either watch them or help find them, etc. I've been reading some articles, but wouldn't link they're too sad.

This is from 2006, so you can imagine how much worse it has gotten... http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1596778&page=1
From the article...The FBI estimates that well over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from 9 to 19, with the average age being 11.

And so many people don't think this goes on in America, only south of the border. Young girls and boys can bring high prices, and wealthy men will pay thousands of dollars for one "visit" with them. There are some sick, sick people out there!

 

[ShyViolet]

I know this seems far-fetched, but has anyone considered the girls and/or other family members being involved in The Witness Protection Program? It does include family members as well as "witnesses" in high-profile cases.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-witness-protection-program.htm

That is a theory I like, because it would mean the girls are safe and unharmed. But, it seems counterproductive to me to have a nation on the lookout for two girls who are meant to be hidden for their protection.

 

[GrainneDhu]

I don't think Dan DIRECTLY had anything to do with the disappearance, but I believe his affiliations and criminal background had EVERYTHING to do with it!

He changed his plea THE DAY BEFORE the girl's went missing, which will result in a trial, thus implicating other people.

The "other people", as well as Dan have already benefited...the trial has been delayed twice.

In my opinion, Dan was "the middle man" in a much broader drug/criminal ring that involved many "players" and "other people" in higher levels of a drug ring. These "other people" would be able to pull off a successful abduction/disappearance and cover their tracks, elude LE/FBI, and silence witnesses or other "players" through intimidation, fear, and/or money.

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Fath...-in-Court-Friday-163986616.html?m=y&smobile=y

Quote: "Cook said Morrissey had been expected to accept a plea agreement July 12, the day before the girls vanished, but decided not to do so because he was not ready to go jail. She said prosecutors had shaved his sentence from more than 45 years to 30 years and then to 10 years, with a mandatory five years behind bars, because of his cooperation." 45 years to 5 years??? HMMM

I am sure Dan's talking and identifying some "other people" and "players".

The thing is, it's good news for anyone that DM may have been able to implicate because he'd already turned down the plea bargain. Plea bargains in meth cases in Iowa are usually offered contingent on testifying against one or more other people.

Turning down the plea bargain means that DM does not have to testify against anyone else. It probably means that he won't testify at all, since "they were all guilty as sin but I didn't do anything wrong" is not a viable defence.

The plea bargain he turned down is pretty typical in Iowa meth cases. There's nothing about the prison time proposed that raises my eyebrows. I've seen so many other cases with similar plea bargains in the last 15 years.

Abducting Elizabeth and Lyric just meant that DM probably turned over to LE every single detail he had on anyone.

If the perp abducted Elizabeth and Lyric to try to prevent DM from giving LE information, they did the equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot while standing on a banana peel with the other.

As for the continuances granted, they probably would have been granted anyway due to the sudden change of plea. His attorney would have said that there hadn't been enough time to prepare the case, the judge would have said okay, here's your new date. Again, I've seen a bunch of meth cases in Iowa in the last 15 years and I honestly can't remember a single case that went to trial where one side or the other didn't request at least one continuance.

Judges tend to be pretty understanding about continuances because they don't want to leave it as grounds for appeal.

If this had been a fifth or sixth continuance, I'd think there was something odd going on. But two continuances? That's nothing.

 

[GrainneDhu]

Thank you. I was referring to an earlier post that referenced the SD having only 5 staff. It was obviously an opinion, or perhaps confusing the SD with the local PD.

<snort> Even the Evansdale PD has more than 4 times as many officers available as that opinion or misstatement.

While people keep trying to paint Evansdale as another Mayberry, it really isn't. It is way, way more urban than that. When visiting a friend who lives there, I've never seen it as a small town. It has always seemed like a quiet area of a large city, which is basically what it is.

 

[otto]

The children were abducted and no one knows where they are. That's a fact.

 

[RNER]

The thing is, it's good news for anyone that DM may have been able to implicate because he'd already turned down the plea bargain. Plea bargains in meth cases in Iowa are usually offered contingent on testifying against one or more other people.

Turning down the plea bargain means that DM does not have to testify against anyone else. It probably means that he won't testify at all, since "they were all guilty as sin but I didn't do anything wrong" is not a viable defence.

The plea bargain he turned down is pretty typical in Iowa meth cases. There's nothing about the prison time proposed that raises my eyebrows. I've seen so many other cases with similar plea bargains in the last 15 years.

Abducting Elizabeth and Lyric just meant that DM probably turned over to LE every single detail he had on anyone.

If the perp abducted Elizabeth and Lyric to try to prevent DM from giving LE information, they did the equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot while standing on a banana peel with the other.

As for the continuances granted, they probably would have been granted anyway due to the sudden change of plea. His attorney would have said that there hadn't been enough time to prepare the case, the judge would have said okay, here's your new date. Again, I've seen a bunch of meth cases in Iowa in the last 15 years and I honestly can't remember a single case that went to trial where one side or the other didn't request at least one continuance.

Judges tend to be pretty understanding about continuances because they don't want to leave it as grounds for appeal.

If this had been a fifth or sixth continuance, I'd think there was something odd going on. But two continuances? That's nothing.

So, he TURNED DOWN the plea deal and DOESN'T HAVE TO TESTIFY AGAINST ANYONE ELSE?

Not to be snarky, but I'm confused....

What happens in the trial and why have one? How does he defend himself by not implicating others? Does he just give in and go to trial, not testify, and take the judgement and sentence? Does he hope and pray that he gets off on a technicality?

IMOO...It seems like a lot of "delaying" the inevitable, especially considering his daughter is missing!

 

[Simp]

The children were abducted and no one knows where they are. That's a fact.

That's the post of the thread!! I'm gonna put my spin on it though!!
The children were abducted and one or two people know where they are, no one knows who that one or two people are. That's a fact.

 

[RNER]

The children were abducted and no one knows where they are. That's a fact.

SOMEONE knows!:crazy:

 

[GrainneDhu]

I know this seems far-fetched, but has anyone considered the girls and/or other family members being involved in The Witness Protection Program? It does include family members as well as "witnesses" in high-profile cases.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-witness-protection-program.htm

Well, any large program can be messed up (look at the mess called Windows 8 <snicker>) but I've never heard of something like this happening.

I'm not sure who would have gone into witness protection since all the adult family members seem to be present and accounted for. I don't think there is any way that two minor children would be taken into the witness protection program without getting permission from their parents (and the parents would no doubt go into protection with the children).

The whole point of witness protection is to avoid attention on the witness, especially media attention.

 

[SapphireSteel]

<snort> Even the Evansdale PD has more than 4 times as many officers available as that opinion or misstatement.
While people keep trying to paint Evansdale as another Mayberry, it really isn't. It is way, way more urban than that. When visiting a friend who lives there, I've never seen it as a small town. It has always seemed like a quiet area of a large city, which is basically what it is.

The original "5" comment was by me, and has been completely taken out of context.

I personally have no clue how many officers Evansdale have.

I was merely pointing out that the Evansdale LE did everything right in this investigation, from day one, in response to criticism they had "wasted time" draining the lake.

I was trying to illustrate that even though they were a (comparatively) small department they handled this very, very well from the first hour, and that they only had so many trained staff available to do so.

Somehow this has been interpreted as an insult which is the OPPOSITE of my intention.

 

[Reverie]

I know this seems far-fetched, but has anyone considered the girls and/or other family members being involved in The Witness Protection Program? It does include family members as well as "witnesses" in high-profile cases.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-witness-protection-program.htm

Respectfully, I don't think LE would have drained the lake if the girls were safely tucked away in Witsec. Unless you're thinking they found the girls and ferried them to safety AFTER the lake was drained/ searched? I suppose it depends upon the extent to which LE is willing to go to capture drug offenders.

Does anyone here know if any other family members have seemingly disappeared into thin air?

Otherwise, the girls would be in Witsec alone. Doesn't make sense to me, but who knows? Anything is possible.

 

[LadyPirate]

I do not think the girls could be in any type of witness protection program. If they were, for one thing, the police and the FBI would know about it and there wouldn't be anybody looking for them. They would not have been reported missing and grabbing the attention of the media. I'm pretty sure they would not have been taken and put in such a program without the knowledge of the parents.

They were taken by either a perp or maybe it was someone who had something against the Dad.