IA - Elizabeth Collins, 8 & Lyric Cook, 10, Evansdale, 13 July 2012 -Media/Maps/TmLne

December 1, 2012

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) --- The Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office says an anonymous donor is offering to add up to $100,000 to a reward for information leading to the return of two missing cousins and the arrest and conviction of those responsible for their disappearance.

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November 19, 2012

EVANSDALE, Iowa --- Authorities hope a separate reward will help them locate two cousins who have been missing since July.

Anyone who provides a tip leading to the girls is eligible to receive the money. Currently, a $50,000 reward has been offered for an arrest and conviction

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November 13, 2012

To Whom it May Concern:

We would use your name, but we don’t know who you are. Or maybe we do? Maybe you are someone who knows the girls? Maybe you are someone who just acted upon an impulse? Maybe you planned to take them? We don’t know, because we don’t know who you are.

But we can sort of imagine that you must not have had the things you needed to grow up feeling safe and loved. Because only someone who hurts inside would hurt another person and their family. We’ve all heard the saying, “Hurt people, hurt people.” We believe that is true.

We are so sorry for whatever happened to you, when you were growing up. Certainly, all children do not receive all the love and care they deserve. Some are even abused by those who are supposed to have taken care of them.When that happens, it is very wrong.

Taking the girls from us has caused much pain, pain for them, pain for us and our families. Since the time you took them, maybe you’ve wondered more than a few times, how you could ever make it right. How to be a hero, not a monster. Things probably look pretty hopeless for a good outcome.

We want you to know that we are praying for you to do the right thing. By releasing the girls, everyone wins. Even you. The person who took them.
Imagine how it will feel to have everyone remember that you were the one person, in all the missing children cases, the one person who cared enough to let the girls go! You will not be remembered as the one who took the girls, but as the one who let them come home.

Our lives have not been the same since July 13. Please, let our girls come home to us.

Do the right thing. Be a hero.

Sincerely
Drew and Heather Collins
Dan and Misty Morrissey-Cook

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December 14, 2012
by Holly Hudson
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- As they have all along, the people turned out for Elizabeth Collins.Hundreds waited in line to speak to and comfort the girl’s family members during a visitation preceding the Life and Love of Elizabeth Celebration at Heartland Vineyard Church on Thursday.

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By TINA HINZ
December 13, 2012
EVANSDALE, Iowa --- The community will gather tonight to celebrate the life of Elizabeth Collins. But absent will be any service for her cousin, Lyric Cook-Morrissey.
Brousseau, the older sister of Misty Morrissey and Elizabeth's mother, Heather Collins, recalled a converation with Misty on Dec. 5, the day the news came the girls' bodies had been found.
"She had a very calm voice, but I know my sister, and just her tone I could tell it wasn't good," Brousseau said. "I said, 'Misty, just tell me.' And she said, 'Tammy, they're dead.'


Heather Collins recently told KWWL she has not spoken to her sister, Misty, in quite some time, and that it was her sister's wishes to hold Lyric's services at a later date

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By RYAN J. FOLEY and DAVID PITT - AP
— Dec. 6 8:34 PM EST
EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) — Northeast Iowa residents who have been holding out hope that two young cousins missing for five months might be home for Christmas were grappling Thursday with the news that hunters likely found the girls' bodies.
Hunters found the bodies Wednesday in a rural wildlife area in northeastern Iowa, about 25 miles from Evansdale, the city of 4,700 where the girls were last seen. Authorities found their bikes and a purse near a recreational lake in the city, and their disappearance sparked a massive search and kidnapping investigation involving the FBI, state and local police.

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Story Updated: May 3, 2013 at 8:49 PM CDT
The service for Elizabeth Collins is scheduled to begin 11 a.m. Saturday at Waterloo Memorial Park Cemetery. The funeral will be open to the public. The funeral service is being held now because the state medical examiner had been conducting an autopsy on Elizabeth and her cousin, Lyric Cook.

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May 02, 2013 9:00 pm
by Jeff Reinetz
WCF Courier

On Wednesday, 23 emergency operators from the communications center were bestowed with the with the honor of Dispatcher of the Year for 2012.

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10:03 AM CDT Apr 29, 2013
KCCI-TV
WATERLOO, Iowa —A domestic assault trial for the father of one of the cousins abducted in Evansdale and later found dead has been delayed.

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March 30, 2013
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports (http://bit.ly/14y10PI ) 36-year-old Daniel Morrissey of Waterloo is charged with trying to make methamphetamine and possessing simulated meth sometime between Dec. 1 and his Feb. 11 arrest for failing to comply with conditions of his pre-trial release.

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April 02, 2013 2:45 pm
Heather Collins, the mother of Elizabeth Collins, says a service for her daughter will be held May 4 at Waterloo Memorial Park Cemetery.

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KCRG
Story Updated: Apr 12, 2013 at 5:07 PM CDT
WATERLOO, Iowa — A memorial service was held Friday for Lyric Cook, one of two girls who disappeared from Evansdale in July 2012.

Wilma Cook, Lyric’s grandmother, said the service came at the insistence of Lyric’s father, Daniel Morrissey. He made the request three weeks ago and he was released from jail for the service.
Daniel Morrissey entered guilty pleas to seven meth and marijuana felonies in March in Black Hawk County District Court.

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March 02, 2013 5:15 am
by Jeff Reinitz
WCF Courier
WATERLOO, Iowa --- The father of one of the missing cousins pleaded guilty Friday to drug charges that could land him in prison for more than two centuries.
“I’m tired of fighting ... I just want to take responsibility for what I’ve done,” Morrissey said.
Morrissey’s drug charges stemmed from three cases and included possession of meth and marijuana with intent to deliver, conspiracy to manufacture meth, possession of meth and marijuana and possession of lithium and pseudophedrine with intent to make meth.

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February 06, 2013 6:15 am • By the ASSOCIATED PRESS
EVANSDALE, Iowa --- A park and trail in Evansdale that's close to where two cousins were last seen alive is being renamed in their memory.
The park at Meyers Lake in Evansdale will now be called Angels' Park in memory of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins.

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January 25, 2013 2:30 pm
by Mike Wiser
WCF Courier
DES MOINES, Iowa — A Republican state senator called for Statehouse public hearings on the death penalty during an emotional news conference Friday.

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Emily Schettler
Indy Star
January 2, 2013
Details of when and how the cousins were killed will remain confidential as the investigation into their deaths continues, Evansdale Police Chief Kent Smock said Wednesday.
“Part of that is, the only people that are going to know this information are the people who are responsible,” Smock said. “At least until somebody is arrested and we’re comfortable with that, that’s information we’ll keep confidential.”

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