IA IA - Elizabeth Collins & Lyric Cook - Found Deceased - Evansdale - 13 Jul 2012 #39

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For those who have not already joined, there's a Facebook group for Elizabeth & Lyric that aims to be a solid source of information. The Evansdale Murders - Unsolved Homicides. Also of note, there is hope of HBO releasing a documentary about the girls' disappearance this Fall. Hopefully these two things can help generate some new attention.
 
When it comes to the question of whether or not LE was able to recover DNA, maybe it was impossible to recover DNA from the girls after being left in the elements (and maybe not). Maybe they put their bikes down on the trail on their own and he never touched them (or maybe not). BUT... I feel certain he's the one who threw that purse over the fence. There's no reason why Elizabeth would want to chuck her purse, and she may not have even been able to throw it high enough to get it over. It was recovered by LE fairly early and taken in as evidence. A few skin cells, a sweaty hand, a hair? Unless he was planned and prepared enough to be wearing gloves, which goes against the crime of opportunity theory, he touched that purse.
 
Ommmm said:
When it comes to the question of whether or not LE was able to recover DNA, maybe it was impossible to recover DNA from the girls after being left in the elements (and maybe not). Maybe they put their bikes down on the trail on their own and he never touched them (or maybe not). BUT... I feel certain he's the one who threw that purse over the fence. There's no reason why Elizabeth would want to chuck her purse, and she may not have even been able to throw it high enough to get it over. It was recovered by LE fairly early and taken in as evidence. A few skin cells, a sweaty hand, a hair? Unless he was planned and prepared enough to be wearing gloves, which goes against the crime of opportunity theory, he touched that purse.
Click to expand...

I believe so too. I think this case will be solved and it's just a matter of time.
 
*Saturday will mark 12 years since two eastern Iowa cousins vanished in Evansdale, and investigators say they are not giving up on the case
www.live5news.com

12 years since disappearance of Evansdale cousins

Saturday will mark 12 years since two eastern Iowa cousins vanished in Evansdale, and investigators say they are not giving up on the case.
www.live5news.com www.live5news.com
 
imstilla.grandma said:
*Saturday will mark 12 years since two eastern Iowa cousins vanished in Evansdale, and investigators say they are not giving up on the case
www.live5news.com

12 years since disappearance of Evansdale cousins

Saturday will mark 12 years since two eastern Iowa cousins vanished in Evansdale, and investigators say they are not giving up on the case.
www.live5news.com www.live5news.com
Click to expand...

It is hard to believe that it is 12 years since the extremely tragic day when the news broke that Elizabeth and Lyric were missing. I remember hoping and praying they would be found alive, discussing the case with all of you who have been posting here since the beginning and watching all the press conferences to see if there were any developments.

It is infuriating that Elizabeth and Lyric’s murderer(s) has escaped justice for the past 12 years and, tragically, it took so long to find their remains. I really hope the documentary called ‘Turn Yourself In’ about the case is still going ahead. It would be great if this could draw public attention to the case, and hopefully it will provide the tip(s) law enforcement need to find the monster(s) responsible.

Elizabeth and Lyric’s loved ones continue to be in my thoughts and prayers. They have not been forgotten, and we have not given up hope that they will get justice.
 
I would like to hear updates as well. I recall that clothing was used to confirm identification ... a shoe? We tried to estimate what would be left of the bodies after 5 months. There's a formula I've used, but don't have handy, using variables of temperature, dates, and decomposition rates to predicts what remains.

DNA on the purse should be possible, and Lizzie's phone. I doubt anything could be retrieved from the bodies. The question is whether trace evidence that was collected in 2012 has been tested using today's more advanced DNA testing options. Even a small trace could lead to a genealogical trace and narrowed down to a suspect.

Elizabeth's father alluded to sexual assault in later interviews. Is that confirmed. If so, why? Were all clothing found?

I hope Misty has a lot to say about onliners suggesting that she had a drug debt, so her daughter was kidnapped to satisfy that debt. Rude, but what a fiasco it created.

The film: Turn Yourself In
 
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I've always been curious about Lyric's cousin who took Lyric for a walk to meet two males at a nearby park one evening. Lyric was so late returning that her parents phoned police. Lyric and her cousin showed up just as police arrived, so it was quickly resolved.

That was a week before Lyric and Elizabeth left their grandmother's house on bikes to ride around the alley, and then they took off to an area that Elizabeth knew through a friend: the leech infested manmade Meyers Lake.

I'm curious whether meeting older males with her cousins caused Lyric to act older than her age and to want to appeal to older males. Was Lyric approached in the alley behind the auction house, in the mall parking lot, via dating apps, or was it pre-arranged that she would meet a friend on the lake trail that day?
 
My impression is that Lyric wanted to get to the lake trail that day at noon, and Lizzie new the cycling trail. Why did Lyric want to get to get to that trail? Did she enlist Elizabeth to get her there? That's what it looks like.

There are limited possibilities for how Lyric was enticed to ditch her grandmother and take Lizzie as a tagalong. The meeting of two older males a week earlier with Lyric's cousin matters. Alternatives are that Lyric and Lizzie were approached my someone in the alley behind the auction house who lured them to cycle quite a distance without permission and park their bikes near the lake access gate. That is where Lizzie's purse was found - apparently tossed over that fence.

First evidence suggests that the girls parked their bikes, Lizzie's purse was tossed over the fence, and both girls crossed to the other side of the fence to retrieve the purse and Lizzie's phone. Then, they probably walked along the shore towards the 1980s+ Meyer's Lake party area that has vehicle access.

They were put in the back of a van, driven 20 miles North of Meyers' Lake, and left in an abandoned youth camp after bridge collapse cut access. The area is popular for hunting and fishing. No one notices a gunshot or two in the night.

Has cause of death been revealed?
 
Things that got my attention from Taken Together episode #1 (scroll and roll if you plan to watch the documentary later)
  • The girls DID make it to the lake with their bikes. A man driving along the interstate saw them walking and pushing their bikes on the back side of the lake. It was gated off. The gate was open. This would be near where their bikes were found. (MOO- I don't know that many people ever went to the back side of the lake, if at all.) It's a small town, the man knew it was Elizabeth as he knows her family. He recognized her but didn't think anything of it, until he later heard that the girls were missing. We can safely retire the theory that the bikes were staged.
  • A woman driving along the front side of the lake saw a man with two girls. He had one girl over his shoulder and the other beside him. It appeared that one of the girls was struggling with him. She assumed it was a parent dealing with a kiddo who just didn't want to leave the park and (again) didn't think anything of it until she heard the girls were missing. She does not know if this was, in fact, Lyric & Elizabeth. Part of her hopes that she didn't witness their abduction. She saw a white van in the area.

Anyone else watching the documentary is welcome to chime in with details.
 
Things that got my attention from Taken Together episode #2 (scroll and roll if you plan to watch the documentary later)
  • The girls still had their shoes on, Lyric in flip flops, when discovered at Seven Bridges. They may have walked to the spot they were found. Although other explanations could still be possible - carried without dropping a flip flop, etc.
  • Only 15 dual abductions since the 1970's. Lyric & Elizabeth were #16. Less than a year later #17 occurs. Also in Iowa. About an 1hr 45 min away from Evansdale, in Dayton IA.
  • Brave Dayton survivor, Desi, gives a full account of her terrifying experience with Michael Klunder. Her friend, Kathlynn, was brutalized to the point of overkill. Police will not reveal Kathlynn was SA.
  • Klunder was released from prison 17 months before Lyric & Elizabeth disappeared. His prison chaplain stated he "would not be surprised if he (Klunder) was involved with the abduction of the Evansdale girls."
  • Iowa represents 1% of the national population but 3 of the very rare dual abductions have happened here in recent years. Michael Klunder is irrefutably responsible for (at least) two of the three.
  • Parallels between the two cases - dual abduction, girls similar in age and physicality, abductor got rid of bags and purses while fleeing crime scene, he left victims near or in a river
  • Klunder ran away from a residential juvenile home (Bremwood in Waverly, Iowa) as a teen and was found hiding in Seven Bridges park.
  • It would be next to impossible for MK to have been in Evansdale that day, due to the data that they collected. They didn't say what the data was, but allude to cell phone tracking data. Klunder was ruled out.
 
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