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

[Pensfan]

I'm wondering if the purse/phone were thrown over the fence towards the water. That would explain why investigators are interested in water searches. If the water is 4' deep and the youngest is 4' tall, drowning is a very real possibility.

Chart of Meyer Lake's depth.
http://www.winneshiekwild.com/images/pdfs/lm_depth.pdf

 

[otto]

The girls' grandmother last saw them at 12 :15 p.m. in the area behind the clothing store. A person called the tip line and stated that he or she saw the girls' bicycles laying on the ground by the lake at 12 :27 p.m. This person did not see the girls,just their bikes.

If the girls biked out to the lake area, and it took them maybe 10 minutes or so, then something happened to them almost right away.

I doubt that they went swimming...where are their shoes ?

Maybe they slipped or fell into the water after climbing the fence.

 

[otto]

Yes and I'm wondering what kind of current or undertow might there be from the drain pipe that leads under the highway?

MOO

I'm wondering that too. I'm guessing we need to search irrigation maps in the area to see where the drain pipe starts and ends. If the drain pipe and water flow direction is from Meyers Lake, or if the girls thought that would be an interesting place to explore, that could be where they'll be found. I guess that explains why police were searching the river on the other side of the main road.

 

[Kamille]

Maybe they slipped or fell into the water after climbing the fence.

Or were just roaming along the shoreline out of view of the bike trail.

MOO

 

[liz b.]

Maybe they slipped or fell into the water after climbing the fence.

Otto,
I can just about buy it...maybe. Interesting that one of the girls' moms feels that they were abducted...

Interesting too that the girls supposedly never leave the block when they are out playing. And the search by LE went right away to the lake...it sounds like maybe they asked their grandmother IF they could bike out to the lake, and she maybe told them not to ? And this explains why it is not being called an abduction by LE... Tragic, either way...

 

[HeinekenMan]

There MUST be prints on the fence supports if they climbed it. There also might be prints of anyone who helped them to climb. I thought I also saw metal posts going across the fence about midway up. If that's the case, there likely will be shoe or toe prints on that.

 

[Jules71]

Is there a regular facebook page or just the event page?
https://www.facebook.com/events/496061437074360/

I read on fb someone offered up $5000 for a reward. Lots of activity on this fb page. Lots of help, support, volunteers.

 

[Shelby2]

Can a local tell me where Bikini Beach is?

 

[Kamille]

There MUST be prints on the fence supports if they climbed it. There also might be prints of anyone who helped them to climb. I thought I also saw metal posts going across the fence about midway up. If that's the case, there likely will be shoe or toe prints on that.

I don't think you need to climb it to get the the shoreline. I think it ends at the shoreline just after the narrow part of the trail through the forest area. I think the fence on the lake side is just to prevent people from falling into the lake from the trail on that narrow stretch only. Once the trail veers away from the water, the lakeside fence just goes down the the shoreline and probably ends. So you can go down to the end of the fence and probably go around it to get to that area of the lake.

MOO

 

[otto]

Where on the FB page does it mention the purse/phone? I think you might be right that it was thrown over the fence on the lake side. I think of kids climbing over a fence and if you are carrying something you might throw it over the fence and then climb over.

It is said the drain pipe has a screen so fish from the river don't enter the lake.

I found it on this link last night, but I don't use facebook so I can't search. It is one of the earlier comments that links to the original courier article about the girls missing.

http://www.facebook.com/missingcase...?comment_id=931485&offset=0&total_comments=12

Would there be a screen on both sides of the drain pipe, or only on the river side ... also, would it be a full screen or a partial screen only going as high as the water level. Any idea about the diameter of the drain pipe?

 

[otto]

We have heard three accounts of when the bikes were seen/found:

12:27 (a tip called in saying they saw the bikes at the spot at the lake but not the girls) - someone saw this on FB.

3:30 bikes were found (FB?)

4:00 bikes were found (a couple posts up thread)

ETA: "The girls were last seen at about 12:15 p.m. Friday near Lafayette Road riding bikes. Their bicycles were discovered on the southeast corner of Meyers Lake, along with a purse and cell phone belonging to Elizabeth, about 4 hours later."

Read More: http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/ev...d32-11e1-a656-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz20iG6tgNk

"Investigators found their bikes and a purse from one of the girls on the southeast side of Meyers Lake around 3:30 p.m. Friday."

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/983203/391/Search-underway-for-2-missing-girls-in-Iowa

 

[otto]

Chart of Meyer Lake's depth.
http://www.winneshiekwild.com/images/pdfs/lm_depth.pdf

Thanks. So it's shallow near the shore, but becomes dangerously deep and probably cold fairly quickly.

 

[Jules71]

"Investigators found their bikes and a purse from one of the girls on the southeast side of Meyers Lake around 3:30 p.m. Friday."

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/983203/391/Search-underway-for-2-missing-girls-in-Iowa

So we don't know which report is correct:

"The girls were last seen at about 12:15 p.m. Friday near Lafayette Road riding bikes. Their bicycles were discovered on the southeast corner of Meyers Lake, along with a purse and cell phone belonging to Elizabeth, about 4 hours later."

Read More: http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/eva...#ixzz20iG6tgNk

OR

"Investigators found their bikes and a purse from one of the girls on the southeast side of Meyers Lake around 3:30 p.m. Friday."

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/983203/391/Search-underway-for-2-missing-girls-in-Iowa[/QUOTE]

 

[liz b.]

I don't think you need to climb it to get the the shoreline. I think it ends at the shoreline just after the narrow part of the trail through the forest area. I think the fence on the lake side is just to prevent people from falling into the lake from the trail on that narrow stretch only. Once the trail veers away from the water, the lakeside fence just goes down the the shoreline and probably ends. So you can go down to the end of the fence and probably go around it to get to that area of the lake.

MOO

So, it sounds unlikely that they would have slipped,and fallen into the lake ? If I am understanding your post,and in particular the last sentence ? MOO

 

[HeinekenMan]

I don't think you need to climb it to get the the shoreline. I think it ends at the shoreline just after the narrow part of the trail through the forest area. I think the fence on the lake side is just to prevent people from falling into the lake from the trail on that narrow stretch only. Once the trail veers away from the water, the lakeside fence just goes down the the shoreline and probably ends. So you can go down to the end of the fence and probably go around it to get to that area of the lake.

MOO

I was referring to the fence leading to the interstate. I have ruled out the lake as playing a role on this. But it's possible.

 

[otto]

Otto,
I can just about buy it...maybe. Interesting that one of the girls' moms feels that they were abducted...

Interesting too that the girls supposedly never leave the block when they are out playing. And the search by LE went right away to the lake...it sounds like maybe they asked their grandmother IF they could bike out to the lake, and she maybe told them not to ? And this explains why it is not being called an abduction by LE... Tragic, either way...

From casually reading about the case, it sounds like one of the moms is leaning towards abduction while the other is leaning towards the possibility that the oldest one cooked up the idea of going to the lake and the younger on tagged along. I agree that since the search immediately started at the lake - where bikes were found 30 minutes after the search began - there must have been some clues leading in that direction.

 

[HeinekenMan]

Regarding the phone and purse, I don't think we can say for sure at this point whether these items were found with the bikes or near the bikes or on the opposite side of the fence near the bikes. The original post for this thread says that the purse and phone appeared to have been thrown over the fence. The story has been updated several times since then. So we can't really go back and check. If someone knows for certain the exact location of these items, I'd love some clarification.

 

[otto]

There MUST be prints on the fence supports if they climbed it. There also might be prints of anyone who helped them to climb. I thought I also saw metal posts going across the fence about midway up. If that's the case, there likely will be shoe or toe prints on that.

I rather doubt that they'd be looking for fingerprints on a chain link fence.

 

[Jules71]

Someone posted on fb that items were found in Windor and they are sending investigators there (about 2 hrs ago).

Anyone know where/what that is?

ETA: Apparently Windor is on Lafayette heading towards into Waterloo.

 

[Wondergirl]

Scanner Link (Don't discuss here, please move to the Basement Scanner Thread)

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=9086

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8149810&posted=1#post8149810