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Nancy Grace
No Clues in Disappearance of Two Iowa Cousins
Aired July 17, 2012 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Cedar Falls, suburbs. A massive search under way for two little girls, 10-year-old Lyric and her little cousin, 8-year-old Elizabeth, the two girls riding their bike downtown Evansdale, lunchtime, broad daylight. We learn police discover the two girls` bikes, Collins`s little purple purse and a play cell phone near Meyers Lake. As over 1,000 volunteers join the search, initial dredging efforts Lake Meyers reveal nothing.
Bombshell tonight. Police, family, volunteers vow they will bring the two little girl cousins home alive, as experts say kidnap the most likely scenario, while criminologists say it`s as if these two little girls have simply vanished off the face of the earth.
Tonight, with us and taking your calls, the girls` families desperate for help. Tonight, the search for the two little girl cousins, just 8 and 10.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rescue crews search for 10-year-old Lyric Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two girls on a summer bike ride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left their grandmother`s house for a bike ride. It`s the last time anyone saw them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities found their bikes and a purse near a lake.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the police found the bikes, that`s kind of when it got serious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the girls` purses was found not too far away in some bushes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, those are the only traces left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Family members do fear that someone abducted the cousins. But so far, investigators have found nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s just baffling to try to figure out the pieces to the puzzle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a 24/7 search operation by law enforcement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Meyers Lake remained the focus since it`s the last place the girls were seen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hundreds of people are helping in the search for Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Combing corn fields, looking deep into a lake, going door to door, state and federal agencies including the FBI are on the ground helping with the search.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But so far, searchers have come up empty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s just like they vanished (INAUDIBLE) nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace, I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Live to Cedar Falls suburbs. A massive search is under way at this hour for two little girls, 10-year-old Lyric and little cousin, 8-year-old Elizabeth, the two girls riding their bikes, downtown Evansdale, lunchtime, broad daylight.
Tonight, the search for the two little girl cousins just 8 and 10. And joining us exclusively in primetime tonight, their families who are literally begging for your help to bring their girls home alive.
We are taking your calls. I want to go straight out, before I go to the girls` family, to CNN correspondent Jim Spellman, who`s joining us there at Meyers Lake. Jim, thank you for being with us.
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Nancy. This investigation currently is on two tracks. On the search and rescue track, after several days of hundreds of people from the community searching fields and wooded areas all around here and finding nothing, they`ve decided to drain this lake to be absolutely sure there`s nothing important to the investigation in this lake.
The second track is the law enforcement track, that the FBI has been added to the mix. Just yesterday, FBI scent dogs came here, worked with the family to get scents out of shoes from these little girls to try to find any sort of lead. We know that they did get a scent and they were able to follow it for some distance. We`re not sure where that`ll lead them or if it will become an important part of this investigation yet, Nancy.
GRACE: Jim Spellman, CNN correspondent joining me there at Meyers Lake. Boom (ph). Jim, I want to go over what you just said. You told me that scent dogs have been brought in and they were smelling the little girls` clothing and shoes? Did I hear that?
SPELLMAN: That`s right, Nancy, out of the girls` shoes. Family members were lined up so that the dogs could eliminate their scent. They then followed the scent from where the girls` bikes were found. And we know that the dogs went not too far, but into a wooded area at the end, the terminus, of this bike path. And that`s as far as we know that the dogs got.
Again, we don`t yet know the importance of that. But we know that they have definitely amped up this investigation by bringing in those dogs, Nancy.
GRACE: OK, Jim, I hate to backtrack over what you`re telling me, but I`m hearing new facts. I`m trying to digest that and fit it into the facts that I already know about Elizabeth and Lyric`s disappearance.
Everyone, at this hour, literally minutes count. Anything you can do to help find these girls, whether you live in the area and you can go be a volunteer, whether you think you saw them, whether you think you know something, this is the tip line, 319-232-6682.
Jim, I want to go back over what you just said. I`m learning something new right now, that scent dogs, after smelling in the little girls` shoes and their clothing, eliminating family members, started smelling at the bikes. And instead of going down into the water, which I don`t think that two little girls are going to go swimming in their clothes anyway -- but the dogs didn`t go towards the water, they went back toward the bike path?
SPELLMAN: They did, back towards the bike path, which ends in kind of a wooded area. Nancy, the way this lake is laid out, there`s a bike path that is sort of a U. And in the far corner of the U is where the girls` bikes were found.
And the bike path does not continue past that. It`s a densely wooded area with freeway on one side, a fence, a pretty tall fence, then the bike path, then another fence and then the water. The girls` bikes were found on the bike path between the two fences, and the purse was found between the fence and the shoreline.
GRACE: OK, tell me that one more time. And if you don`t mind, Jim Spellman, draw me the U in the air and show me where on the U the bikes were found as it relates to the water.
SPELLMAN: Sure. Nancy, if this is the U and this was the lake, right here, this is the -- this would be the southeast corner of the lake, you have a highway right here. Then you have a bike path. That`s where their bikes were found. Then another fence, and the lake in here.
This end over here, where we`re standing right now, there are homes, there`s a park, et cetera. This end is just woods and the bike path that ends.
GRACE: So are they close? Is there a fence between the girls and the highway?
SPELLMAN: There is a fence between the girls and the highway, between the bikes -- where the bikes were found and the highway, and a fence between where the bikes were found and the water, though you don`t have to go too far to get around that fence to get to the water, Nancy.
GRACE: Oh, I`m seeing it. They`re pulling it up right now. So there`s a fence between the bikes and the highway, the girls and the highway. Let me see that shot again, Liz. Between the path and the lake? Is that what you`re saying?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) that was open.
GRACE: Oh, I`m hearing...
SPELLMAN: Yes, there is, although...
GRACE: ... something. Somebody`s telling me...
SPELLMAN: ... the fence between...
GRACE: ... about a gate being opened.
SPELLMAN: Yes, there was a gate -- there was a gate there that was open. It wouldn`t be difficult to get through either a hole in the fence - - which is not too close, several hundred yards away from where the bikes were found that leads up to the highway. It looks like that at one point, there was a traffic accident there, and they never repaired the fence.
And there also is another gate farther down. It wouldn`t be impossible to get from one side to the other. It wouldn`t be a huge deal to do that.
GRACE: Joining me right now, in addition to Jim Spellman joining us there at the scene at Meyers Lake, the mother of 10-year-old Lyric is with us, Misty Cook-Morrissey. Also with me, Wylma Cook, the missing girls` grandmother. Ladies, thank you for being with us.
MISTY COOK-MORRISSEY, MOTHER OF MISSING 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL: Thank you for having us.
GRACE: First out to Lyric`s mother. Ten-year-old Lyric, everyone, out riding bikes with her cousin, her 8-year-old cousin, when they seemingly just vanish into thin air. And right now, asking for your help is Lyric`s mother, Misty Cook-Morrissey. Misty, thank you for being with us.
COOK-MORRISSEY: Yes. Thank you.
GRACE: Misty, that day when she goes missing, let`s take it from the top. What happened, starting in the morning?
COOK-MORRISSEY: I left for work at 8:30 AM. She gave me a hug and a kiss and told me she would text me and let me know when I got off of work where she would be, either at Heather`s in Evansdale or back at our mother`s home in Waterloo.
I left for work. At 2:00 o`clock, my mother, their grandmother, called and said she couldn`t find them. They`d been on a bike ride, and you know, to come directly to Heather`s home. I only work just up the street. I came directly there.
My mom had been driving around looking for them. We stood in the yard and talked for a few minutes. Heather pulled up, had not been able to find them. It was about 2:20, 2:30 PM. And so Heather said, I`m going to the police station. And that`s when she went to the Evansdale PD to involve them.
GRACE: Now, Ms. Cook-Morrissey, you work not too far away. Where do you work?
COOK-MORRISSEY: I work at K.C.`s (ph). It`s a gas station/general store, which is just a couple of miles up the road from where my sister lives.
GRACE: Ms. Cook-Morrissey, where would the girls typically ride their bikes? And listen, you`re speaking to somebody, when we grew up, we could get on our bikes and ride until it was supper time and that was OK. And in your area, it`s a very, very low crime rate. It`s a lot of rural, wooded area where you`d think girls would be safe.
So tell me, what`s their normal bike route, or do they even have a normal bike route?
COOK-MORRISSEY: I don`t think they have a normal bike route, but they are not allowed to just ride freely for hours or until dark. They do have a little bit of freedom, so they`re allowed to go, you know, maybe two or three blocks away and stay within those blocks. An hour, check back in is kind of the standard that we hold with them, and mostly, they stick with it.
So it was very surprising to see that they had come this far, if, indeed, they did, you know, ride this far.
GRACE: Had they ever ridden around Meyers Lake before?
COOK-MORRISSEY: To my understanding, no. I`m not sure. I don`t think so. It`s quite a bit away.
GRACE: Did Lyric have a cell phone?
COOK-MORRISSEY: She has a cell phone that was at my mother`s, so she didn`t have one on her, no.
GRACE: OK. So she was going to text you after work, after you got off of work, from her grandmother`s cell phone. All right. That day, we know they`re missing at 2:00 o`clock. We know that much.
Now, apparently, a neighbor has come forward, like in the last hours, Ms. Cook-Morrissey, somebody named Robert Carpenter (ph), who says he saw them in the afternoon.
Hold on. Let me go out to you, Ellie Jostad. What do we know about this new person -- new to me, anyway -- emerging, Robert Carpenter? What time does he place the girls alive and well?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, Mr. Carpenter told "The Des Moines Register" that he was out watering his yard. He says it was sometime between noon and 3:00 o`clock when he saw the girls ride by.
Now, he`s a little closer to the lake. He`s about two blocks or so away from Meyers Lake. He says at the time, he didn`t think anything of it. And it wasn`t until he learned the girls were missing that he noticed -- you know, he maybe saw them that afternoon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No sign of two missing Iowa girls. It`s as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a completely baffling case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hundreds are helping in the search for Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their bikes were found, but there`s no sign of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After an entire weekend of searching, they have very few, if any, clues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The bicycles were found by a lake, but the mother of one of the girls doubts they would have gone there on their own.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s not an area that they frequented. They didn`t go far from home, either of the girls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s like they just vanished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Family members do fear that someone abducted the cousins. But so far, investigators have found nothing.
GRACE: There is an answer! We will find these girls! A 10-year-old and 8-year-old little girl go for a bike ride on a summer morning. They are not seen again.
We are taking your calls. Out to Donna in Tennessee. Hi, Donna. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had a question about the cell phones, but I think that was answered. What about the area around where the bikes were found? Are there any tire tracks, any tire tracks on the other side of the fence?
GRACE: Good question. Joining me is Jesse Gavin, the news director at KCNZ -- KCNZ. Jesse, thanks for being with us. What do we know about potential tire tracks, if any?
JESSE GAVIN, KCNZ (via telephone): Well, there hasn`t been any word on that from authorities. And Nancy, actually, that -- they mentioned earlier in your show there is a big hole in one of the fences near the lake. That is from where a few years ago, somebody had crashed off of the interstate and into the lake and they never got around to repairing that gate. That may have been how some people have gotten down closer to the lake.
But at least at this point, it doesn`t appear that there are anything fresh -- or isn`t anything fresh in the way of tire tracks or anything like that around that bike path, even though it is very close to an interstate highway.
GRACE: To Robyn Walensky, anchor with TheBlaze. Robyn, weigh in. What do you know?
ROBYN WALENSKY, THEBLAZE: You know, what bothers me about this case, Nancy, is that you have a feisty 10-year-old and an 8-year-old, two little girls out in the middle of the summer, full of energy, riding their bikes.
So were they snatched by a stranger or strangers, plural? It would seem that it would be very difficult for one person to perhaps, you know, take them and throw them in the back of the van or whatever. It just seems maybe more than one person is involved in this.
GRACE: Everybody, we are taking your calls. And with me is Misty Cook-Morrissey. That`s Lyric`s mother. And now joining me, Wylma Cook, the grandmother. Wylma Cook, thank you for being with us.
WYLMA COOK, GRANDMOTHER (via telephone): You`re welcome.
GRACE: Ms. Cook, tell me what you saw that day, the day the girls go missing.
COOK: Well, I took her from my house -- I live in Waterloo, and her mom left for work. She rode with me to Heather`s house, my other daughter in Evansdale. And I go there every day for four or five hours, and she always goes with me. And because Heather is not well and she has four little kids. And we did a daily routine that day at, you know, in her house doing things, eating breakfast and all that stuff.
And so it was at 11:30, they asked me if they could go for a short bike ride, and I said yes. And they`ve done this millions of times. And they`ve never, never went that far. I could go outside and yell their names, and they would eventually hear me.
And this day, they just didn`t come back. And so Kelly (ph), Elizabeth`s brother, he`s 12 -- I hopped in my car because the dad came home, and I went searching Elk Run. We were down by Meyers Lake. We drove all over every little park and Evansdale, Elk Run, every mentionable place, downtown area. And we couldn`t find nobody.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Two little girls staying with their grandma ask to go to for a bike ride, a bike ride right in the middle of the summertime, broad daylight. What could be more innocent, more all-American than that?
With me right now is the grandmother, Wylma Cook. Her two little granddaughters, 8 and 10, go for a bike ride. They have not been seen since. At this hour, a local -- Meyers Lake is being dredged and drained. So far, those efforts have revealed nothing. In fact, scent dogs start with the bikes and go away from the water.
We are taking your calls. Out to Ms. Wylma Cook. Ms. Cook is the grandmother of 8-year-old Elizabeth and 10-year-old Lyric. Ms. Cook, you were taking me through that morning. So they asked to go and ride their bikes, and that`s about what time?
COOK: 11:30.
GRACE: 11:30.
COOK: And Lyric knew that we were going to be heading for home at 1:30 because her mom got off at 2:00.
GRACE: Did they have -- either one of them have on wristwatches?
COOK: No.
GRACE: Did either one of them have a cell phone?
COOK: Elizabeth had one, but it wasn`t activated. It was just for playing games -- in her purse, her purple purse.
GRACE: You know, Ms. Cook, I just don`t see these two little girls going into the water either skinny dipping or in their clothes.
COOK: There has been no nothing about that water, that lake. And the two little girls, they would have took their shoes and flip-flops off. Elizabeth had high black-tops (ph) on. They would have never went in that water and swam and came home dripping wet. I don`t think they would have even knowed the way to Meyers Lake.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rescue crews search for 10-year-old Lyric Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: How could a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old little girl have enemies anyway? Tonight, the search is on for two little girls, just 10 and 8 years old, growing up in the heartland simply asking grandma could they go for a bike ride before lunch in the middle of the summer. They`ve never been seen again.
Now, as we go to air, I`m getting word from a neighbor, Robert Carpenter, that he can spot them, place them between 12:00 and 3:00 going - - I believe he said, Ellie Jostad, in front of his home?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Yes, Nancy. That`s correct. He lives just a few blocks from that Myers Lake and he says he saw them ride by, didn`t think any of it at the time.
GRACE: OK, the 12:00 to 3:00 window, I don`t know how much that`s really helping me, because, Ellie, I can`t -- the grandmother is giving me 11:30 in that same area. Now if he`s saying is more toward 3:00, now that`s helping me, that`s giving me three more hours.
So, how -- where is he getting 12:00 to 3:00? Jim Spellman, CNN correspondent, joining me at Myers Lake.
Do you know about this Robert Carpenter, a neighbor? He`s given me a three-hour window, I don`t know how much that`s helping me, other than really just confirming the grandmother`s story, but I have no reason to doubt her. So can we narrow his observation down any more toward 3:00?
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the bikes were found at 3:30, Nancy. So that doesn`t really help too much to narrow it down, although, you know, it does keep them sort of this in this neighborhood.
What I find so fascinating is the geography of where the bikes were found because again, it`s this kind of dead end area, and if there was an abduction that happened, how would you get two girls, all the way to the end of -- it`s a 10-minute walk from the end of this bike path at the very least to the end of it where you might be able to get to a car or something like that. Walking up this hill through a hole in the fence to the side of the interstate, seems like an unlikely scenario.
But with no other clues being found after all of these intensive searches, it`s still a puzzle. I spoke to an investigator today here on site who said it`s like the girls just evaporated, Nancy.
GRACE: So, Liz, give me mock-up of what Jim Spellman is describing, some type of a diagram that I can look at and show the viewers.
So you`re telling me -- let me go to Jesse Gavin, Jim.
Jesse, so what -- I`m hearing from Jim that even if somebody snatched the girls from that spot, and this is where the neighbor comes in, this Robert Carpenter person, who spots them through his window. If he spots them more toward 3:00, I think it does help actually, now that I`m analyzing it, it`s got them alive and it closes the window during which a kidnap could have taken place, and it also more likely than not rules out any attempt to going swimming in this lake, all right, because that was always a possibility out there.
Now the scent dogs are telling me that`s not what happened, they did not go toward the lake, and the grandmother and the mother are telling me these girls are not going to take their clothes off and jump in naked, and they`re not going to go in and come home dripping wet. So to them their voluntary entrance into that lake is, in my mind, ruled out.
That would be like me leaving this anchor desk and hopping into a lake outside of CNN. OK? That`s not going to happen. Voluntarily.
So his sighting if it`s closer to 3:00 actually is helping me. So, Jesse, my question to you, following up on Spellman`s comments, how difficult would it be if the girls were snatched? How quickly could they be taken to that road based on their bikes as the point of the snatch?
JESSE GAVIN, NEWS DIRECTOR, KCNZ 1650AM: Well, like Jim said, it wouldn`t be the most likely scenario. Obviously that is kind of an area that`s closed off to main roads since it is a bike trail. Obviously it`s very close to an interstate, but it would be kind of tough to get to that interstate.
The other thing you`ve got to keep in mind, Nancy, about that interstate is it`s being worked on right now. There`s a lot of construction activity going on right there. So there`s going to be backed up traffic, traffic is going to be slowed down, so any kind of suspicious activity that happens in that area, it`s going to be seen by a lot of people. And obviously we`ve only got one person that`s come forward, says he anything that day. So I think that going back to the interstate, that`s something that you can probably rule out as well.
GRACE: With me tonight, literally begging for your help, the grandmother of these little girls that told them to go ride their bikes, innocently, they have done it many, many times before. And why not? Are we at a point in America where our children can`t ride their bikes in broad daylight at lunchtime on a summer morning, 11:30?
Wylma Cook is with us also. Ten-year-old Lyric`s mother, Misty Cook- Morrissey is also with us.
I want to go back to Misty and Wylma.
Misty, I`ve spoken to the grandma, let me ask you, would your girl have gone swimming? Would she have gone into that lake? Would she have jumped in her clothes or stripped down and jump in?
MISTY COOK-MORRISSEY, MOTHER OF MISSING 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL, LYRIC: I don`t think she would have stripped down and jumped in. I don`t know if she went in in her clothes. We have spent the last six weeks at lake swimming, (INAUDIBLE) Lake, we`ve gone to Bern`s Pool a lot. So we`ve been swimming, I mean, almost daily for the last six weeks. You know, so I don`t rule out that she --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Would she jump in in her clothes?
COOK-MORRISSEY: It doesn`t seem likely with her clothes on. That I don`t think so.
GRACE: Well, her clothes haven`t been found anywhere, all that`s found are the two bikes abandoned on that -- on that bike path. Playing cell phone, a cell phone that`s been deactivated that she can play games on, and a little purple purse belonging to one of the girls. So they didn`t take their clothes off and jump in in their underwear, that didn`t happen or their clothes would have been right there.
So my question to you is, would it be out of character for your little girl on a bike ride to jump into the water with her clothes on and her shoes?
COOK-MORRISSEY: That would be out of character, yes.
GRACE: Everybody, we are taking your calls. Out to Jason. Hi, Jason, what is your question?
JASON, CALLER: Yes, I have a quick question. Have any of the parents done a polygraph?
GRACE: I understand that the entire family has been completely cooperative.
Robyn Walensky, anchor with "The Blaze," what do you know?
ROBYN WALENSKY, ANCHOR/REPORTER, THE BLAZE: Yes, the mother voluntarily went in, other family members, the father as well, and they have been cleared.
Nancy, I just want to point out one thing that has not been mentioned tonight. And that is that there are about 10 sex offenders living in that town of about 5,000 people. And they, too, have been interviewed by police and I understand that they have been cleared. But in a 10-mile radius, Nancy, there are 200 plus registered sex offenders.
GRACE: Wow. Unleash the lawyers. Darryl Cohen and Doug Burns.
All right, Darryl, weigh in.
DARRYL COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, we all know that whatever happens the end of the road is not a good one. It scares me to know that these girls` scents were left, when the dogs said no, it tells me they were picked up by someone and I think it was probably voluntarily. That frightens me, because it tell me that something happened where these girls went to someone on their own volition.
GRACE: Doug Burns?
DOUG BURNS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think that`s right, and I`ll tell you why, Nancy, because the most important thing that I`ve heard is that these girls did not ever ride as far as that lake. So working off the previous point, the point is, it seems to me, that they may have been grabbed. And then the bikes and them taken into an area and the bicycles deposited in the area of the lake and that`s extremely troubling.
GRACE: With me tonight, the girl`s grandmother and the mother of 10- year-old Lyric.
Everyone, our family album back. Showcasing your photos. Here our Michigan friends, the Hilliard-Turgeons. They love hot summer days at the pool, the local library, bike riding, playing UNO and McDonald`s Sundays. Well who wouldn`t?
Share photos through iReport family album at hlnTV.com/nancygrace and click on "Nancy`s Family Album."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Eight-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10-year- old Lyric Cook.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They went for a bike ride then simply vanished.
COOK-MORRISSEY: My mom called and said, you know what, I can`t find the kids. They`ve been riding their bikes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The bicycles were found at a nearby lake, hours after the girls were reported missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back, we are taking your calls. Two little girls ages 8 and 10 vanish on a hot summer morning, the heartland.
Straight out to C.W. Jensen, retired police captain, joining me out of Cape Creek. Weigh in, C.W.
C.W. JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Nancy, I`ll give you one more theory, I worked a chase about 20 years ago where two boys, 8 and 10, were sexually assaulted and then murdered in a park on Labor Day. This guy was able to go up and they were brothers, but neither one of them would leave the brother`s side so to give you one more scenario that`s chilling, you know, the girls are friends, they may not have wanted to leave the other one, might not have wanted -- known what to do.
So in my mind since I have worked a case like this, I could see one suspect being able to take two girls.
GRACE: Out to Dr. Leslie Seppinni, clinical psychologist and author.
Dr. Seppinni, what do you make of the theory earlier advanced that it was someone the girls know, hence there would not be that much difficult leading them down that path, even from the point of their bicycles?
LESLIE SEPPINNI, PSY.D., CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, it`s quite possible that they knew the person and they felt comfortable with the person and the person may have said, hey, I can take you on a bike path and we can have a lot of good times. However, what the gentleman just said before I think is really very interesting, because there is a case in which just a few months ago they showed on the "Today" show how one man with an ice cream truck was able to lure five boys on to the truck.
And they did it to show how easy it is if you have one kid that the other kids feel loyal, or feel that they have to find and trace and be with the other kid. So it is very possible that this was one person.
One thing that I have a question for for the parents is, did these girls have a routine? In other words was it common for them to go bike riding and go to grandma`s house so many times a week? Is it possible that somebody in the area have been watching them? Because it seems like this was very well organized and planned for these girls to get the Myers Lake, to disappear, there`s no footprints, there`s no other traces for the dogs. So this had to be very well organized.
GRACE: Good question. Let`s go to Lyric`s mom, Misty Cook-Morrissey. Also with us, the grandmother, Wylma Cook.
Was that their pattern, Miss Wylma?
WYLMA COOK, MISSING GIRLS` GRANDMA, LAST TO SEE THE GIRLS ALIVE: No, it wasn`t no pattern, because we were always at Heather`s house in the morning and they could have went for a bike ride maybe 9:00, for a short bike ride, and come back. And there was no pattern.
And then another thing I want to say is down by the lake, going, not the bike path, somebody could have snatched them along the road. If there was two people in a van, they could have thrown those kids in their van with their bikes and there`s another way to drive by the houses and get to the end of that trail and they could have chunked the bikes down there with the children.
GRACE: To Misty Cook-Morrissey, explain to me again what Miss. Cook is saying. I think I get it but I want to understand it as it relates to that bike path and where the grandma`s home is.
COOK-MORRISSEY: OK. OK.
GRACE: So what is she saying?
COOK-MORRISSEY: I just started -- I just started the job at Casey`s, so the last five days, Lyric and Elizabeth have been playing at Heather`s every day, taking bike rides, so as far as a pattern, yes, could somebody have been watching them there, and seeing that they play together, that hang out together, this last week. Yes, that could have happened.
What she`s saying is at the end of the U that you were shown, the trail comes around here, the bikes were found here, You come to that end of it, this bridge is out into a wooded area and right here is a big patch of grass where you can pull your vehicles up on to and that`s where we parked our vehicles to get back on the trail and go back this way.
So that`s what she`s saying, that someone could have very well come into that grassy area on the south side of the trail that ends as far as being able to walk or ride a bike.
GRACE: OK, Jim Spellman, joining me there at Meyers Lake, OK, this is the first I`m hearing of a quasi-parking area on a grassy turf near where the bikes were discovered. Would that have been access for someone to park there, dump the bikes and keep going?
SPELLMAN: Yes, it could -- it sort of connects the neighborhood actually quite close to the police station to this back end, that would definitely have to be somebody who was waiting there, because the bike path and the direction that the scent dogs went would lead them down this bike path, someone would have to know that they were there to be on that end, almost ready to intercept them, Nancy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Where are these two little girls, an 8-year-old and 10-year- old? Two little cousins go riding bikes around 11:30 a.m. on a summer`s morning. Their grandmother tells them they can. By 2:00, she realizes they are gone.
To Dr. Joy M. Carter, chief forensic pathologist, Marion County, joining me tonight out of Indianapolis.
Dr. Carter, thank you for being with us.
DR. JOYE M. CARTER, M.D., CHIEF FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST, MARION COUNTY, INDIANA: Thank you.
GRACE: If there is evidence in the water, how could or would it destroy DNA or forensic evidence?
CARTER: Generally, fresh water`s not going to destroy DNA evidence. It may cause some artifact. Very carefully look at anything recovered from the water and compare that with known artifacts they have. As much as they can recover, they are going to have to use and utilize to find these little girls, whoever did something to them.
GRACE: Dr. Carter, what about the heat? It was over 90 degrees that day.
CARTER: The heat is going to be a problem to one of the artifacts because DNA is protein, it does break down. But those trained investigators are used to dealing with those artifacts, anything they can find will be of help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two missing girls and we have no idea why.
COOK-MORRISSEY: Very outdoorsy.
SPELLMAN: Last seen leaving for a bike ride in Evansdale, Iowa, on Friday.
COOK-MORRISSEY: And they played there every day.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Disappeared into thin air in broad daylight.
COOK-MORRISSEY: They really hits close to home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re bracing for the worst but hoping for the best.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out to the lines, Phoenix, Iowa. Hi, Phoenix, what`s your question?
PHOENIX, CALLER FROM IOWA: Hi, Nancy. First, I would like to say I`m a very huge fan of yours. Your twins are just beautiful.
GRACE: Thank you.
PHOENIX: My question is what evidence are they expecting or what is it that they are expecting to find by searching vehicles at this point? Is there something specific or --
GRACE: Good question. Jesse Gavin, news director, KCNZ in Cedar Falls, what`s the answer to that Jesse?
GAVIN: Well, I think they`re just looking for whatever clues they can get, Nancy. Obviously, to this point, there haven`t been many. They found the bikes, they found the purse, they found that deactivated cell phone. At this point, that`s all that law enforcement really has to go off of. So I think that stopping the vehicles, that`s kind of a dual purpose thing.
A, it`s to get people aware of the situation, to give them some of these missing posters that we`re seeing all over town here in the area. Secondly, it`s just to see, you know what they could possibly find.
GRACE: Right.
GAVIN: Casting a wide net.
GRACE: To Misty Cook Morissey, this is Lyric`s mom. What is your message tonight, Misty?
COOK-MORRISSEY: Be on the look out. Look of our kids. Look for anything that`s strange. Keep your eyes open. And definitely contact the police if you see that. I mean that`s our message. We just want everybody to get involved and the more coverage we can get, the more people we have out there with their eyes open, the better.
GRACE: And tour, the grandmother, Wylma Cook what , what is your message tonight?
COOK: I just want my kids home, my grandkids. I want everybody to try to find them. I want them alive. I want them back home with me. I want to thank everybody for everybody`s help out there they have been just fabulous, all the friends and churches and everything.
GRACE: Wylma, when you saw them right away that day what was your last image of them?
COOK-MORRISSEY: Just the normal image, don`t be gone very long and we realized they left 11:30. By 12:30, we were not happy because they weren`t back. And that`s when Kelly, my 12-year-old grandson from Heather`s house, the dad was home so we went searching right away and by 2:00, Heather couldn`t find them either so she went straight to the police station and the police went out right away.
GRACE: Tip line, 319-232-6682. There`s a nearly $16,000 reward.
Let`s stop and remember Army Private Michael Murdock, 22, Chocowinity, North Carolina. Killed, Afghanistan. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Afghanistan Campaign Medal. Loved mud running, four-wheeling. Favorite team, Tar Heels. Leaves behind parents Walter and Jennifer.
Michael Murdock, American hero.
Thanks to our guest but especially to you for being us. And a special good night from Chantal, heading to the university to work with under privilege children.
And American war hero`s memoir, "RPM: Rocking in the Free World." Ryan Means` 31-year journey serving Special Forces, loving his two little girls and wife Heather before losing his battle with cancer.
Everyone, Dr. Drew up next. Tonight, our prayers with Lyric and Elizabeth. I will see you tomorrow night at 8:00 sharp eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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