True Crime Society - The unsolved murders of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins

Lyric Cook-Morrissey (10) and her cousin Elizabeth Collins (8) went missing in Evansdale, Iowa on July 13, 2012. Their bodies were found in December that year. Now, more than 12 years later, their murders remain unsolved.

As some background into the girls, Lyric was born on October 2, 2001. Her parents were Misty Cook and Dan Morrissey. Lyric had a brother, Dillin.

Lyric’s childhood was not an easy one. When Misty was 8 months pregnant, she was arrested on drug charges. Misty was jailed and Lyric was raised by one of her aunts until she turned four. Misty has been in recent trouble for drugs charges, and as we are telling the story chronologically, we will delve more into that later. Lyric’s father Dan also has a criminal history.

Lyric attended Kingsley Elementary School. Family members have said that Lyric loved being outdoors and enjoyed going fishing with her dad. She loved sledding and playing cards with her grandmother. Lyric also loved being with her cousins and they would often spend time performing dance routines.

Elizabeth June Marie Collins was born on July 31, 2003. Her parents were Drew and Heather Collins. Heather is Misty’s sister. At the time of her murder, she was a student at Poyner Elementary School. Elizabeth had three siblings.

Her family have said that Elizabeth loved ‘girlie’ things like getting her nails and hair done. She loved singing, riding her bike and enjoyed softball and hockey. Elizabeth loved spending time with her mother – they enjoyed shopping and having dinner together.

The day that the girls vanished was Friday, July 13, 2012. They were last seen in Evansdale, Iowa, population of around 4,500. According to crimegrade.org, Evansdale scores a C+. The C+ grade means the rate of crime is about the same as the average US city. Evansdale is in the 51st percentile for safety, meaning 49% of cities are safer and 51% of cities are more dangerous.

That day, the girls were dropped off at the home of their grandmother, Wylma Collins. She was watching the children while their parents worked as it was summer break. Misty had just started a new job at a convenience store. Wylma allowed both girls to go out to ride their bikes.

Callie, Elizabeth’s sister, was four years old at this time. She said that she remembers asking if she could go on the bike ride. “I said, ‘But can I go?’ and she said, ‘No because grandma is not going to come with,’” Callie said.

They were seen at around 12.23pm on Brovan Boulevard. They were spotted between 12.30pm and 1pm on Gilbert Drive, near Meyers Lake. Meyers Lake is a popular recreation area.

When the girls did not return home as planned, Wylma called the girls’ parents. The alarm was first raised at 2.48pm that day, around 2.5 hours after they were last seen.

Police began their search very quickly. By 2.50pm, three squad cars were searching the area. You have to remember that Evansdale is quite a small town, so by 3.15pm, neighboring towns sent their law enforcement to help.

At 4pm that day, the girls’ bikes were found along with Elizabeth’s purse on a trail at Meyers Lake at 4pm. Some reports say that Elizabeth’s cell phone was in the purse.

By 4.30pm, the girls were entered into the National Crime Information Center, which is a national FBI database. At that time, the fire department began dragging Meyers Lake, looking for any trace of the girls.

Automated messages were sent to residents in the area at 4.40pm, asking anyone with information to come forward.

The media were notified of the girls being missing at 5.30pm. Divers began searching the lake around this time.

At 6.30pm, police and volunteers started searching the woods in the area. This search ran initially until 3.30am the following day, July 14.

Drew would later talk to the media about the nightmare. “We were worried from the beginning,” Drew he said.

“We would’ve never let Elizabeth go out on a bike ride like that. It was different for Lyric as she was a little bit older, but Elizabeth was too little.”

He said that panic really set in when Elizabeth’s purse was found.

“That was the moment when it hit me that something really wasn’t right,” he said.

“So we kept on looking and looking but we couldn’t find them anywhere.”

At 7pm on the night that the girls vanished, the Iowa State Patrol airplane joined the search using infrared to try to locate them. Authorities also began interviewing sex offenders in the area.

The FBI became involved in the case at around 8pm. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children began emailing and faxing photos and descriptions of the girls to truck stops, stores and public places within a 100 mile radius of Evansdale.

FBI agents arrived in Evansdale on July 14 at 7am. They arrived with their Child Abduction Response Team.

Volunteers kept searching until 7.30pm on that day.

The phones and computers of the parents of both girls were taken for investigation and examination.

Cadaver dogs were taken to the lake on that day and divers continued searching Meyers Lake.

Police also began looking at dumpsters and figuring out what locations they should be searching landfill for.

Over the coming days, the searches for the girls continued. They searched Meyers Lake until July 19 – nothing related to the case appears to have been found.

By Friday July 20, one week after the girls vanished, the focus of the investigation turned fully to abduction as all other causes (accident etc) were eliminated.

According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette which was published on July 25, 2012, Dan (Lyric’s father) was scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial conference which was to cover four separate cases. In one of those cases, he was alleged to have assaulted Lyric’s mother Misty. The couple were estranged by that point.

The Gazette said other cases against Dan charged him with possessing, dealing, and making methamphetamine and he faced 235 years in prison if convicted. Dan had just been released from prison in May 2012, after spending six months incarcerated.

Some media reports say that Dan knew he was about to be taken back into custody, so on the day before the girls vanished, he went to see Lyric. He said she ran up to him and he hugged her.

The same article by the Gazette also indicated that Dan and Misty had taken multiple polygraph tests. According to IowaColdCases.org, at the same time, investigators said Dan and Misty were not considered suspects in the girls’ disappearance, and were looking into their backgrounds and that of their associates only so as not to discount any possible leads.

According to an article from Sky News, Misty took two polygraphs. The first was inconclusive and she apparently passed the second one.

Afterwards, she told the Associated Press: “It went well. They can rule me out of their book and move on to something else.”

A spokesperson for Elizabeth’s parents said they had been “co-operating 300%” with police ever since the girls disappeared.

On Wednesday, December 5, 2012, hunters came across two bodies in the Seven Bridges Wildlife Park in Bremer County. This area is around 25 miles from where the girls were last seen. Police were called to the site at 12.45pm that day.

The following day, Chief Deputy Rick Abben held a press conference to announce that police were confident that the bodies were those of Lyric and Elizabeth. He said there were no other missing person cases in the area that matched the description of the remains. He also said that the remains belonged to people of a smaller stature.

The remains were taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Officer for further testing and positive identification.

On Monday December 10, 2012, the medical examiner confirmed that the remains did belong to Lyric and Elizabeth.

To date, no other information has been released about the causes of death for the girls, or the condition that the remains were found in. It is believed this has been withheld as it is only information the killer/s would know and this can help rule out any false confessions.

Elizabeth’s family held a memorial for her on December 13. Lyric’s funeral was held on December 29, 2012.

Drew spoke about the time leading up the discovery of the bodies. “Those five months were unbearable. It’s still unbearable now […] it’s all I live and breathe.

“You just never imagined something could happen in a small town like this. It’s a safe area.

“You hear about these kinds of things happening but nobody ever thinks it could ever happen to their family – until it does,” said Drew.

On February 6, 2013, it was announced that the trail and park at Meyers Lake, where the girls were last seen, would be renamed as the ‘Trail of Angels’ and ‘Angels Park’ in honor of the girls. Jeff Dawson, Chairman of the Evansdale Parks Department told KCRG “We thought if you’re riding your bike or walking, it’s a nice way to memorialize people that you don’t want to forget.”

The city of Evansdale also said that July 13 would be declared ‘Lyric and Elizabeth Day.’

Six months after the girls were found, authorities released some new information. They said that three separate witnesses had come forward with information about a white, older-model SUV being in the area at the time. This vehicle was said to be similar to a Chevy Suburban or a Ford Bronco. The vehicle was seen parked on Arbutus Avenue on the day that the girls vanished. That street meets up with the bike trail where their bikes were eventually found.

Two of the witnesses said they had seen the SUV parked between two bike trail signs. The third witness said they saw the vehicle parked near the woods – only a few hundred feet from where the bikes would be found.

All three eyewitness statements said that the vehicle was in the area between 11.30 and 12.30pm on the day that the girls went missing.

“There (are) just a lot of reports, a lot of information to read through,” said Mike Roehrkasse with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. “Now that there’s a little bit of a lull, we are able to start poring through those reports and make those connections.”

Two of the witnesses came forward during the initial investigation, before the girls were found. The third came forward later and said they assumed that someone had already told police about the SUV.

In 2013, police announced that they were looking into a possible connection between Lyric and Elizabeth’s murders, and the murder of a teenager named Kathlynn Shepard. They were also looking into any other possible connections with missing people in the state.

“Thankfully, we know for every county, every city, what unsolved missing persons cases they have,” said Gerard Meyers, assistant director of field operations of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation told USA Today. “We’ll want to look and see if there are any attributes from those cases that are at all consistent with this case.”

In terms of Kathlynn, she was 15 when she was abducted in May 2013 in Dayton, Iowa. She was kidnapped along with Dezi Hughes (12). The two had been on their way home from school.

Michael James Klunder (42) was the abductor. He took the girls to a hog confinement lot where he worked and he zip-tied them so they could not escape. Dezi managed to run away when Michael took Kathlynn to another part of the property.

Michael took his life later that day.

Kathlynn’s body was found on Friday, June 7, 2013 in the Des Moines River. Her cause of death was “multiple sharp and blunt forced injuries,” and was certified as a homicide. An autopsy showed the injuries were to the head, said Gerard Meyers, assistant director of the Department of Criminal Investigation.

In terms of Michael’s criminal history, he served about two decades in prison, from 1992 to 2011, for previous kidnapping and assault charges.

However, in May 2014, DCI Special Agent Mike Roehrkasse with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said they were confident that Michael was no longer a person of interest in the Lyric and Elizabeth’s case.

In September 2013, Dan was sentenced to up to 90 years in prison. He has a mandatory minimum of 30 years served before he will be eligible for parole.

As we mentioned earlier, he had been facing 235 years but he entered a plea agreement limiting his exposure to no more than 45 years behind bars.

By July 2014, the reward for information in the case had reached $170,000. That is around $225,000 today. $150,000 of hte money had been raised privately.

In August 2014, the Evansdale police held a press conference. They revealed that they believe the abductor was likely local and familiar with the Evansdale area.

This information about the offender was released at the time and this summary is from Iowa Cold Cases:

The offender is familiar with both Meyers Lake/Angels Park in Evansdale and Seven Bridges Wildlife Area in Bremer County;

The suspect chose Seven Bridges because he or she was familiar with the area and knew it was secluded;

The offender blends in with and may be part of the Evansdale, Bremer, and surrounding communities;

The suspect likely used “quiet coercion” to gain the girls’ compliance into leaving Meyers Lake, using a ruse or threats of violence.

The suspect may have been experiencing stress related to legal troubles, spousal problems, employment difficulties, financial strain, or mental health issues in July 2012;

The suspect may avoid discussing the case or showing interest in the matter but is likely following developments in the media;

The offender may have attempted to abduct children or adults in the past;

Following the disappearance, the suspect may have altered his or her physical appearance, such as changing hairstyle and facial hair. The offender’s vehicle may also have been altered with a new paint job or re-upholstery.

Analysts’ experience with prior abduction cases points to one person being involved, but there are cases where more than one person was involved, The Courier said.

Police held another press conference in February 2015. Evansdale Chief of Police Kent Smock said they were focusing their efforts on anyone who might be familiar with the remote Bremer County woodland where the girls were found. “I think you will all agree with me that Seven Bridges is extremely remote,” Chief Smock said. “We have no doubt that the person or persons responsible for this crime are very familiar with Seven Bridges.”

A 2016 article indicated that tips were still coming in for the case. “Justice will be served. I do believe that. It just takes time to go through all that stuff and all the information and all that,” Drew Collins told KWWL.

In 2017, Mitch Mortvedt, head of field operations for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, spoke about Misty and Dan to the media. “I think people are confident in saying they didn’t have an active role,” However, that doesn’t rule out anything coming in in the future.”

Police also gave an update on the status of the case. By July 2017, authorities had interviewed more than 1,000 people and looked into more than 300 sex offenders. They were also said to be looking into a new lead that involved a sex offender.

Jeff Altmayer, 58, was charged with trying to entice children in Jasper, Monona, and Grundy County by offering them $100 to get in his van. He was arrested and accused of trying to lure a 6-year-old girl into his car near Onawa. KWWL reported on July 12, 2017, that Jeff is also suspected in two other incidents — one happening last June near the Dike City Park, and another a couple weeks later near Clay Street Park in Cedar Falls.

A police spokesperson was asked about a possible connection between Jeff and Lyric and Elizabeth’s case and the response was

“The most I would say is that he is one of our leads and I will leave it at that.”

“It’s very concerning to us when you have an individual like that that has the access that he does through his employment at the time to basically roam the state or roam the Midwest,” Mitch Mortvedt said.

2017 was also the year that the Delphi murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams happened. There are some obvious similarities – both cases involved two girls who were abducted and murdered while out on trails.

Delphi and Evansdale are around 400 miles or a 6 hour drive apart.

The Indiana State Police worked with Iowa investigators but eventually said that despite similarities, there is no reason to believe the two cases are connected.

In July 2017, Misty spoke to the media and revealed that she had given birth to a daughter, Abigail.

“After Lyric, I didn’t think I would be willing to have any more kids, and God had other plans, and we were really, really blessed to have her in my life,” Misty said. “It’s amazing.”

According to the Des Moines Register:

She cares for baby chicks on a farm, along with her boyfriend, Zack Frazer. The work is hard and the days are hot. They like to go camping and have fun as a family.

“I’m living again and that’s good, but it’s tainted every day with a sadness and a loss, just something that’s deeply missing from my life,” Misty said.

“Here I am. I am living and I’m doing lots of things,” Misty said. “I’m amazed every day how beautiful things are and how happy I can be and how much I can enjoy my family and home.

“I just wish that Lyric and Elizabeth were here to enjoy that with us.”

Misty spoke to the media in 2022 about her legal issues. “It was just really more than the mind or the emotions can handle,” she said. “I just wanted to numb my thoughts and my feelings and I know from my past a very good way to do that. And so I just went right back to it. And it worked. It did what I wanted it to do for quite a while. Until I went to prison.”

In 2023, Misty was arrested on drug charges again. She and Nathan Slaughter were charged with Possession of Methamphetamine – 3rd Offense, Possession of Marijuana – 3rd Offense, Gathering Where Controlled Substances Are Used – Methamphetamine, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. All of the charges, except the drug paraphernalia charge, are class D felonies.

There is nothing online that we can find out about the outcome of these charges.

In 2024, on the 12th anniversary of the girls being found, Drew spoke to the media.

“Whoever did this is a monster,” he said. “They shouldn’t be out. They don’t deserve to breathe free air. I don’t want them to do this to another family, another child.

“Every day I wake up with this. It doesn’t go away. I will never stop until I foind out who did this. They deserve justice. No matter what (the girls) didn’t deserve this. Whoever did this needs to pay.”

There has been a new documentary on the case come out on Max called ‘Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth?’

One of the episodes takes a focus on Michael Klunder’s possible involvement in the case. He is still considered a person of interest in the murders of Lyric and Elizabeth.

In the series, Drew also confronts someone who he believes may be a person of interest in the case. That person was an associate of Michael’s.

“When I found out about him being friends with Klunder, I thought this has to be him,” he said. “But police couldn’t place Klunder in Evansdale [at the time], so that’s a problem.

“But it’s interesting: you have another double abduction, and it’s a guy that you were in prison with that you were best friends with in prison, and you’re here living like eight doors away.

“This guy’s daughter used to ride the school bus with my daughter.”

“I’m not 100% on him though,” added Drew. “He’s not top of my list.

“I have other people that are more interesting to me than that guy.”

Drew and Heather ended up divorcing in 2017. Drew spoke to the media about the toll that his daughter’s murder had on the family.

“Everything went to s**t for us afterward, including my marriage, which was even harder on the kids,” he said.

“After Elizabeth died, it was like a semi-truck drove through our house at 9 pm while everyone was sitting around watching TV.

“There was nothing that wasn’t damaged. Everything was damaged after that.”

“I’m really sick of waiting,” said Drew. “I want to know who this person is and I want to see this person arrested.

“But I’m also scared to death because I’ve been wondering all this time what happened and who this person was, but I also wonder how hard it’s going to be when I find out all the things I don’t want to hear.

“Which is what was done to them and what their last moments were like.

“The hard part ain’t over yet. Finding out the answers to all those questions might be the hardest part of all.

“You don’t want to think of somebody hurting your child, but obviously they were hurt, and when those answers come they’re going to be hard to hear.

“But, at the same time, I need to know.”

Despite the divorce, Drew and Heather are amicable and they have established the Elizabeth Collins Foundation together.

Info about the foundation:

The Elizabeth Collins Foundation is a non-profit organization and shall operate exclusively for education and charitable purposes and will work towards enriching community safety in the areas of sex trafficking and abduction.

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