IA IA - Elizabeth Collins, 8, & Lyric Cook, 10, Evansdale, 13 July 2012 - #22

[Copper]

That brings me back to a question I had earlier. If the photo with the two sheets was taken today, then the sheets can't be covering the bodies because the bodies were removed on Thursday. So what are they covering?

Didn't LE refuse to say if the remains were buried or not? Maybe the sheets are covering shallow graves?

 

[GrainneDhu]

I think so too. That means IMO they were NOT held for months at some location. They had on original clothing. I wonder if they washed up from the river (stream)? Seems weird to me though as most don't run north... only a few odd do.

The Wapsipinicon River runs roughly from the north to southeast of Iowa (where it joins the Mississippi) but has lots of twists and turns where it will temporarily run north until the next bend. It runs more than 20 miles north of Evansdale, where the girls disappeared.

 

[Marilynilpa]

I would think to preserve the evidence from where the bodies were lying. I believe it started raining either last night or this morning.

That makes sense. I just assumed the scene would have been processed yesterday soon after the bodies were found, but maybe things didn't move quite that quickly.

 

[GrainneDhu]

Hi Grainne, do you guys have Kudzu there? We have it here and it is horrible. One can see a basketball roll in it and then after going to the exact place still cannot find it. I understand about the jungle foliage.

We don't have any kudzu here except for one highly secret experimental patch run by the state botanist "somewhere in Iowa." Scarily enough, it appears the darn stuff can and does survive hard freezes.

What we do have in plenty is bindweed and poison ivy. Not only does it hide your basketball, you'll probably get a rash from looking for it!

We also have lots of stuff that we just call brush. Weeds that are between knee high and waist high, including hemp, ragweed, Queen Anne's lace and a whole lot of other stuff. Plus we have a plague of locust and mulberry trees (spread by birds eating the seeds).

 

[callyn]

That brings me back to a question I had earlier. If the photo with the two sheets was taken today, then the sheets can't be covering the bodies because the bodies were removed on Thursday. So what are they covering?

Maybe I'm confused but today is Thursday. Couldn't the photos have been taken today sometime before the bodies were removed? Not saying the bodies are definitely under the sheets, I can't tell.

ETA: Oh, you must have meant the bodies were removed Wednesday. Time for bed. fftobed:

 

[Akweks]

I have a thought FWIW: Girls abducted near a body of water by a fisherman with a boat. Fisherman takes them to 7 bridges location with intention of putting them in the boat and dumping them further up river without realizing, due to the bend in the river, that it was impassable because of the drought. Perhaps that is why the bodies are in that particular location.

 

[AmandaReckonwith]

Case archive is updated for today:

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm166/crankycrankerson/Elizabeth%20Collins%20-%20Lyric%20Cook-Morrissey%20%20-IA-/

For anyone (guests) who are not familiar with the case archives...
It is a safe site (and ad-free) to click on and contains everything I can find on this case from the beginning to end. Pics, vids, articles.

(in addition to this case, there are lots of others as well. Names you may have heard of and some you surely have not) Just follow the link in my siggy for the main page index.

 

[Dr. Know?]

The killer or killers came right down that road to the area. They had to know it was there, I would think from reading many locals say they had no idea it about 7 Bridges Park. Probably after it was down listed & became a primative park it wasn't known. So you are looking at someone who knows that area. jmo

 

[GrainneDhu]

I agree Grainne but JVM already put horrible thoughts in my mind. I want to take everthing posted that was said on her show with a grain of salt but can't shake it just yet. I can't imagine a family hearing that stuff. If this was put out just because it showed two sheets on the ground and assumed the girls bodies were not intact & Abben said "bodies" not remains, I'll be pretty po'd as that's stretching it too far. Good gosh.

(I did swear I'd never believe anything on HLN again from NG or JVM so I better remember that, huh?)

I am so, so, so hoping that nobody in any of the affected families is watching NG or JVM.

I have faith in Chief Deputy Rick Abben. He's an Iowan, he seems to be protective and careful of the families. I believe that he knows they don't need such images in their minds and he's trying not to contribute to any such insensitivity.

For another thing, his living does not rely on TV ratings.

 

[Marilynilpa]

Maybe I'm confused but today is Thursday. Couldn't the photos have been taken today sometime before the bodies were removed? Not saying the bodies are definitely under the sheets, I can't tell.

ETA: Oh, you must have meant the bodies were removed Wednesday. Time for bed. fftobed:

Sorry, my post was wrong. I did mean Wednesday, not Thursday.

Maybe I should be going to bed, too.

 

[GrainneDhu]

Could someone refresh my mind please? How far away was this from Jessica Ridgeway?

About 800 miles. I can't imagine ARS would be able to pull off such a trip without anyone noticing.

 

[lisser]

I've tried to read up as much as I could. I've seen it mentioned a few times that the area was in a drought over the summer. Is it possible that the level of the river was quite a bit less than it is now. Would a 4X4 vehicle have been able to drive right in close to where the bodies were, through the river if it was shallow enough? Looking at the picture of where the taped off area is, it almost looks like there could be tire tracks coming out of the river close to where the white tarps are.

 

[Joe Friday]

In the summer, it would have looked like a wall of foliage right up to about five feet of the road or however wide a margin the county mows there. Something the size of a body could be within 3 feet of that mowed margin and not be found until after the first hard frosts of fall.

I'm not joking when I talk about the Iowa jungle.

As hot and dry as it was this year the vegetation didn't really grow that fast or high. Here is a picture of a searcher 30 or so hours after the girls went missing, The weeds were not that high at that time.

JMO

ETA: Goes more towards how hard it would have been to drudge through the foliage to get to where the girls where found at the time the girls went missing, than Grainne's post.

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/...ch-for-2-missing-eastern-iowa-girls-continues

 

[Dr. Know?]

Knowing that some had never heard of the area, live in the area, that would date them too in a way, possibly. The park became primative & dropped by the state or county in what year?

This is for reference only (hey Otto). It shows how much land is owned by the county. 2000 acres of the area the girls were found near. Curious as to who owns it.

http://www.co.bremer.ia.us/webres/File/docs/Conservation/Wapsi Greenbelt Map 001.jpg

eta, curious as to who owns the land where the girls were found. I want to check property records. Knowing if it's the county or private owner would be interesting to know...

 

[Joe Friday]

The sheets were placed there probably to keep the media from putting out pictures of two decomposing bodies. That would be horrible for the families to have those kinds of pictures plastered on t.v. or in the papers. I'm sure there were reporters and cameras trying to get closer, but those pics were probably shot with a telescoping lens. I can't imagine them allowing them to get very close, they won't normally let them stomp around at a crime scene, because they're gathering evidence. Who knows? Somebody could find something that could identify the perp. A cigarette butt, an empty coke can, a handkerchief, maybe a discarded shirt.

Those photos showing white sheets I think were taken from an airplane or helicopter.

JMO

 

[Pensfan]

I have a thought FWIW: Girls abducted near a body of water by a fisherman with a boat. Fisherman takes them to 7 bridges location with intention of putting them in the boat and dumping them further up river without realizing, due to the bend in the river, that it was impassable because of the drought. Perhaps that is why the bodies are in that particular location.

Welcome to Websleuths!
:welcome:

 

[GrainneDhu]

As hot and dry as it was this year the vegetation didn't really grow that fast or high. Here is a picture of a searcher 30 or so hours after the girls went missing, The weeds were not that high at that time.

JMO

ETA: Goes more towards how hard it would have been to drudge through the foliage to get to where the girls where found at the time the girls went missing, than Grainne's post.

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/...ch-for-2-missing-eastern-iowa-girls-continues

If you look at the background visible between the searchers, you can see waist high vegetation. I think the photographer looked for an area with low vegetation in order to get a good photo. I'm guessing that those searchers are moving along a road, maybe a gravel road, where the verges are mowed back a couple times a year and so are kept somewhat open.

It looks to me like there is milkweed and thistle visible in the foreground, which are plants typical to places that are occasionally mowed.

 

[Old_Hippie]

We don't have any kudzu here except for one highly secret experimental patch run by the state botanist "somewhere in Iowa." Scarily enough, it appears the darn stuff can and does survive hard freezes.

What we do have in plenty is bindweed and poison ivy. Not only does it hide your basketball, you'll probably get a rash from looking for it!

We also have lots of stuff that we just call brush. Weeds that are between knee high and waist high, including hemp, ragweed, Queen Anne's lace and a whole lot of other stuff. Plus we have a plague of locust and mulberry trees (spread by birds eating the seeds).

BBM: I'm in NE Arkansas and we've had some very hard freezes in the past 10 years. That kudzu survives anything and everything.

 

[hollyblue]

I didn't edit my post soon enough. I do not believe we are allowed to discuss this person (or anyone) until a POI is named.

They were a person of interest......since LE publicly showed their van at the store and were asking people via MSM who knew anything to come forward. The guy did voluntarily and nothing has been heard since...and he was presumaly cleared. Small business and likely used by hunters every year. IMO

 

[otto]

Knowing that some had never heard of the area, live in the area, that would date them too in a way, possibly. The park became primative & dropped by the state or county in what year?

This is for reference only (hey Otto). It shows how much land is owned by the county. 2000 acres of the area the girls were found near. Curious as to who owns it.

http://www.co.bremer.ia.us/webres/File/docs/Conservation/Wapsi Greenbelt Map 001.jpg

eta, curious as to who owns the land where the girls were found. I want to check property records. Knowing if it's the county or private owner would be interesting to know...

Thanks for the link. I was looking for GIS maps of the area this afternoon ... but you saved me a lot of time!

In this link, you can see the names of property owners
http://beacon.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=330&LayerID=3621&PageTypeID=1&PageID=2344