Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins

Case background and investigation

On the afternoon of July 13, 2012, cousins Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, set out on a bike ride near Meyers Lake in the small town of Evansdale, Iowa. When they failed to return home, family members went looking and found their bicycles and some personal belongings abandoned near the lake, but no sign of the girls. The disappearance triggered one of the largest searches in Iowa history, drawing hundreds of volunteers, the FBI, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, with divers dragging the lake and search teams combing the surrounding countryside. The fact that the girls' bikes were left behind at the lake suggested they had been taken quickly and against their will, and the case drew national attention as the search dragged on with no confirmed sightings.

For nearly five months there was no trace of the cousins. Then, on December 5, 2012, hunters discovered their remains at the Seven Bridges Wildlife Area near Readlyn in Bremer County, roughly 25 miles north of where the girls had last been seen. Authorities confirmed the deaths were homicides, but the condition and rural location of the remains, combined with the passage of time, left investigators with limited physical evidence. The case shifted from a frantic search for two missing children to a homicide investigation that has stretched on for more than a decade.

Investigators have pursued an enormous volume of information over the years, receiving on the order of two thousand tips, interviewing more than a thousand people, and scrutinizing hundreds of registered sex offenders. A multi-agency effort involving the Evansdale police, the Bremer County Sheriff's Office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the FBI has kept the case active, and officials have periodically said they believe someone in the community knows what happened. A substantial reward — reported at around $150,000 from the FBI and private donors, plus a separate Crime Stoppers reward — has been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Despite the sustained effort, no one has ever been charged in the killings. Over the years several names have surfaced publicly, including a convicted sex offender who abducted two other young girls in a separate 2013 case before taking his own life, but authorities have not confirmed any person as the killer, and various leads have been examined and set aside. The families of Lyric and Elizabeth have channeled their grief into advocacy, including a foundation created in the girls' memory to support families of missing people. More than a decade later, the murders of the two Evansdale cousins remain unsolved, and investigators continue to appeal for the tip that could finally bring answers to a case that shook the small Iowa community and drew national attention through documentary coverage.