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Nancy Grace

Missing Girls` Family Frustrated by Police Lake Search

Aired July 19, 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. Two little girls, 10-year-old Lyric, her little cousin, 8-year-old Elizabeth, riding their bikes downtown Evansdale, lunchtime, broad daylight. Police then discover the two girls` bikes, Collins`s little purple purse and a play cell phone near Meyers Lake.

Thousands join the search as initial lake-dragging efforts reveal nothing. Experts say kidnap the most likely scenario. Criminologists say it`s as if the two little girls simply vanished off the face of the earth.

Bombshell tonight. Daddy storms out on police after they accuse him of murder. But our investigation reveals Daddy`s miles away when the girls disappear, at his mother`s house with his 15-year-old son in tow. Tonight, both families claim police won`t listen, that the two girls are not at the bottom of the lake.

In the last hours, the home attic searched and the girl`s brother`s computer seized. As precious hours slip away draining Meyers Lake, why would two little girls go swimming fully clothed and wearing their shoes? And tonight, why won`t police listen? Or are they? Fifty-two hours since the draining of Meyers Lake commenced. We are on standby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a completely baffling case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perplexing, and frankly, terrifying mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still no sign of missing Iowa cousins, Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) leaving for a bike ride in Evansdale, Iowa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They play together every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Disappeared into thin air in broad daylight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Meyers Lake remains the focus, since it`s the last place the girls were seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the search activity still involves the lake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A federal dive team will search the deep pockets of water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After an entire weekend of searching, they have very few, if any, clues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m thinking more and more that this was an abduction.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) taken our kids, just bring them back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really hits close to home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How someone got off with a 10-year-old and an 8- year-old at the same time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s just like they vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened to the girls?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Bombshell tonight. Live, Cedar Falls suburbs. Daddy storming out on police after they accuse him of murder. But our investigation reveals Daddy`s miles away when the girls disappear, at his own mother`s house with his 15-year-old son in tow.

Precious hours slipping away as the lake is being drained. And why would two little girls go swimming fully clothed and with their shoes on? And tonight, why won`t police listen? Or are they?

We are taking your calls. Straight out to Jim Spellman, CNN correspondent, joining us there at Meyers Lake. Jim, what`s happening?

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nancy, here at Meyers Lake, FBI teams using sonar equipment are on their way. By Friday morning at the latest, they expect to be in this water, using that sonar equipment to try to rule out this lake as having any valuable information, or indeed the girls themselves, in it.

Meanwhile, the police investigation is ever more focused on the family. Not only Monday night did Daniel, the father of Misty, (SIC) get up and storm out of an interview after police accused him of hurting his daughter, but last night, the family tells me they checked into a local hotel to try to get a little bit of a break from the media, and the police, and the same police officer went to their hotel room, banged on the door to again accuse Daniel of knowing what has happened to Misty, (SIC) of being involved in this.

All the while, troubling details coming out about the family -- past drug use, prison time. And interesting, Nancy, I want to tell you that we found out about the family`s prison history and the drug use when the family themselves came to me yesterday and said, Please investigate this. We know that this is going to come out. We want all of this out in the open. It`s not relevant to the investigation. Investigators...

GRACE: You know what? I agree with you, Jim. I don`t think it`s relevant to the investigation. Hence, my questions about the lake.

Listen, Jim Spellman, you`re one of the single best correspondents that CNN has to offer, but here`s some breaking news for you. If everybody that had a drug offense in their background was under suspicion of murder, about, oh, 50 percent of males in America would be behind bars right now, all right?

So I want to go back to the focus of this investigation. We`ve got the lake being drained. It`s over 50 hours since the draining of the lake. And it seems to be the entire focus of FBI and police. But both families are screaming tonight, Police are not listening to us, our girls are not at the bottom of the lake!

To Tammy Brousseau, joining us along with Jim Spellman there at Meyers Lake. She is the girls` aunt, the little girls, 8 and 10 years old, Elizabeth and Lyric. I want to go to you, Tammy Brousseau. Thank you for being with us.

I understand one of the fathers, Daniel, storms out on police after they accuse him. But what I want to get -- I want to find out tonight is if our investigation correct, that at the time the girls go missing -- and we`ve got a window -- a very narrow window of time, Ms. Brousseau, because the grandmother says, OK, go ride your bikes, girls. It`s 11:30 AM, lunchtime. By 2:00 o`clock, they`re already looking for the girls. That`s a very narrow window.

Our investigation shows Daniel, the father of one of these girls, is at his mother`s house with his teenage son in tow. Tell me if that`s correct or not.

TAMMY BROUSSEAU, AUNT OF MISSING GIRLS: That is correct. I know Dan and I know Dylan (ph) very well. Dan does not have a job right now. He is staying with his mother, Vickie (ph), in Waterloo. He doesn`t even have a car. He knew absolutely nothing about this.

When Mom -- I had met Mom at her house because we had had some plans. She had originally left. When Misty showed up to pick up Lyric, and Mom said, you know, The girls have been off and it`s been a little bit too long, but you know, you guys need to go find your kids, Tammy and I have some other things that we`re doing, and Tammy`s at the house.

So Mom came and got me. We got a phone call back from Drew (ph), Elizabeth`s father, saying, You guys need to get back here and help. So me and Mom jumped in the car, and right away we came back. Kelly -- we picked up Kelly, the 12-year-old son, and we started going to all these places that they`d already checked.

I said immediately to my mom, I said, Take me to Meyers Lake, take me to Meyers Lake. This is approximately a quarter to 2:00 when I asked -- or a quarter to 3:00 when I asked Mom to take me to Meyers Lake.

We pulled into Meyers Lake, right about where Jim and I are standing. And I got up and just jumped out and started asking random people, Have you seen two little girls, one on a mountain bike, you know, gave the complete descriptions of them. And a man -- they have his name. I don`t know who he is. He said to me, Yes, I seen two little girls going west on the bike trail.

And as you can see, it`s a small lake. It`s not a huge lake. So the bike trail wraps around and then comes back east, and that`s where the bikes were, in fact, found.

So when Misty had -- when they`d found the bikes and called us and told us, Misty was standing here with us, Misty immediately called Dan and Dan called his mother. She was at work. She took work off, and she hurried up and picked Dan and Dylan up and came down here and met us to start the search and all of that for the kids, yes.

GRACE: All right. Tammy Brousseau, you`re bringing up a horrible dream. I`ve got this horrible dream where I`m running and the street and I can`t find my 4-year-old twins. And I`m just stopping everybody, I`m shaking them, and I`m going, Have you seen -- and I`m trying to get the words out to describe John David and Lucy as fast as I can. I`m trying to describe them both at the same time.

And nobody`s seen anything, nobody`s heard anything. And I just -- as soon as I get -- I just start running, and I see the next person and I grab them and I`m grabbing them by the shirt and the shoulders saying, Have you seen them? Where are they? And the dream just goes on and on and on, and nobody`s seen anything.

And to hear you tell it, it`s just like that. You get out of the car and you just start running up to people and grabbing them and saying, Have you seen these girls?

Then what happened? Take it from there.

BROUSSEAU: OK. So then we watched the investigators put the crime scene tape up. They were down there for a very long time. I would say approximately three hours, maybe more, you know, doing their investigation.

And we went back around to the southeast side of the lake, where you can actually -- there is an old, like, sewer building. There`s an old garage that sits on this chunk of land that you can actually very easily go down a few blocks and access the back of the lake area from -- from that point you can.

And so, you know, my immediate gut feelings -- you know, because in just this 10-mile radius, there is 200 pedophiles that live in this 10-mile radius. And I`ve -- since the Johnny Gosch case has happened -- I have a 24-year-old daughter -- I have been -- that is every parent`s worst nightmare.

To me, it has always haunted me to see it to happen to other families, to watch your show. My heart bleeds for those people. You never think you`re going to be in this position.

But what I`m saying is, so I -- after the tape came down, I went back in that area and I started doing my own investigation, and looking around and seeing what I could see. And I could so feel that somebody had come down here, had been watching the girls for quite some time -- whether it even started as they left Heather and Mom`s place -- they`d been following them and watching them, seen them come down here.

They know the area very well, watched the girls go around the lake. He knew how to access the back because he seen them heading down there. You know, maybe they were down there, you know, standing on those rocks, tossing them in the water, as kids do.

Anyway -- and it was a very hot, lazy Friday. There wasn`t many people out. I kind of looked around to see because after where the bikes were dropped on the bike trail, there`s about 400 yards of forest, and then that grassy area where I`m telling you that somebody could easily access the bike trail from, park their car along that grassy forest and got out and had a knife or whatever it was, and said to the girls, you know, Get in this vehicle right now or it`s over with for you.

And I could so see that -- that, you know, happening because, you know, where -- where are the girls, you know?

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Well, I`ve got to ask you something. Everybody, with me and taking your calls is the aunt of the little girls. She`s there at Meyers Lake, taking your calls.

And this as the dad of the one of the girls has stormed out on police, as they accuse him of murder. Our investigation reveals that he was actually at his mother`s house at the time the girls go missing, and he had his 15-year-old boy with him. And his mother is there. Now, unless he`s lying, his mother is lying, and his teenage son are all lying, then he was somewhere else.

Not only that, we`ve been told he and the rest of the family have consented to volunteer to take polygraphs, and a lot of them have already taken polygraphs.

With me is Tammy Brousseau. OK, Tammy, a couple of questions. Number one, where you found the bikes, how far are the bikes from the actual water? How many feet?

BROUSSEAU: I would say probably 12 feet from the actual water.

GRACE: OK, so they could have gone down and they were playing at the water`s edge. But Tammy, we`ve got their bicycles. We`ve got their little purple purse. We`ve got a play cell phone, a cell phone that was only used for games, sitting there. But where are their shoes? Where are their clothes?

BROUSSEAU: Exactly. Exactly.

GRACE: So I`m supposed to believe these two girls jumped in with their shoes on?

BROUSSEAU: No, they didn`t. No. Lyric, Misty, myself and my 11- year-old daughter, we have spent the summer swimming almost every day. Elizabeth had black high-top tennis shoes on. Lyric had her flip-flops on. If they were going to go for a swim, yes, they might have went in in their clothes and got wet. They know they would have gotten in trouble for it, but they might have done that. But they would have certainly kicked their shoes off at the water`s edge.

(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 of people 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: Their 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Joining me there at Meyers Lake is CNN correspondent, one of the best, Jim Spellman. Also with us, the aunt of the missing girls, little Lyric and Elizabeth.

They`re just 8 and 10 years old. They go riding their bikes from their grandma`s house. She goes, OK, hurry back for lunch, 11:30 AM, broad daylight. They`re never seen alive again.

Where are they? It`s been over 50 hours since the draining of Meyers Lake commenced, and the family is trying to tell police, they are not in this lake. The dad storms out on police after they accuse him of murder. But our investigation reveals he was somewhere entirely different at the time the girls go missing. With us, Tammy Brousseau, the girl`s aunt, taking your calls.

Out to the lines. Ariel in Iowa. Hi, Ariel. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The question I have is, why do they keep searching the lake when they`ve dragged it and know that the girls wouldn`t be in there? Because if they dragged it, something would have to show up.

GRACE: To Dave Badali, police diving instructor, joining me out of Sarasota. Dave, Ariel in Iowa has a point. They have dredged the lake. That means they -- you explain to the viewers for me where they go along with that giant hook, that claw, hook and pull.

DAVE BADALI, POLICE DIVING INSTRUCTOR: Well, Nancy, you know, dredging and dragging are two different things. And you know, dragging behind a small boat with a net and some hooks, you can pick up some articles, but not everything. Dredging, again, will bring up a lot of stuff off the bottom.

I think right now, what they`re waiting on is the side-sonar to begin because the FBI dive team will employ some high-definition side-sonar with color imaging. And if there`s anything in that lake, they will be able to find it, Nancy.

GRACE: To Jim Spellman. He`s bringing up a good point, Dave Badali. There`s a difference between dredging and dragging. What have they done in the lake so far?

SPELLMAN: They went out with boats and they were using poles (ph), sometimes with nets on the bottom, to go around the lake, that way.

Our understanding of the approach they`re going to take with two kinds of sonar, 360-degree sonar and side-sonar, is that within this lake, there are several deeper sections, up to 20 feet deep that draining the lake wouldn`t even empty. So they`re pausing now because they need at least about 6 feet of water to effectively do this. So they`re pausing now to bring in -- to inspect those deeper sections.

But I have to say, none of the investigators I`ve spoken with here are optimistic that they`re going to find anything in the lake.

GRACE: I want to go back to the aunt of the missing girls. This is Tammy Brousseau. She`s taking your calls, everybody. Tammy, the family is saying police is not listening to them, that the girls are not at the bottom of that lake. Why are you so convinced?

BROUSSEAU: I`m so convinced because, like you said, their shoes should have been there. They would have kicked their shoes off. They knew that they should have been home at a certain time. They knew, you know, at this hour, it had been too long. They had been gone from home too long.

Just a week prior to this incident, my 11-year-old and Lyric out in my neighborhood had taken off, and my daughter knows that I only allow her to go a few blocks. We have a popsicle lady out there who hands out popsicles...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Straight out to Katie in New York. Hi, Katie. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. My question is, isn`t it unlikely that someone would try to kidnap two children at the same time? Wouldn`t that be an unlikely scenario?

GRACE: I agree. I agree completely. To Jesse Gavin, the news director at KCNZ. What`s the police theory on two girls being kidnapped at the same time?

JESSE GAVIN, KCNZ (via telephone): Well, Nancy, they haven`t really expressed any theories at this point about a possible abduction. They`re not even calling it an abduction or a kidnapping at this point, because they want to see exactly what happens when they get the lake -- well, they`re not going to drain it anymore, but when they get the results back from some of these sonar tests of the lake.

I agree with you, I don`t think that that would be the most likely of scenarios, but at this point, there isn`t a whole lot to go off of. As we`ve said a couple of times, the only evidence we really have to work with are the two bikes, the purse, and that phone that were found there by the lake.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a completely baffling case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perplexing, and frankly, terrifying mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still no sign of missing Iowa cousins Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last seen leaving for a bike ride in Evansdale, Iowa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They play together every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Disappeared into thin air, in broad daylight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are live at Meyers Lake and taking your calls. And I`m telling you -- Tammy Brousseau, you`re the girls` aunt. You know them better than any of us. Would they have jumped in fully clothed? Have you ever known them to do that?

And I`m just hung up on their shoes. Their bikes` there, their little purple purse, their little cell phone, that`s play cell phone, it`s all there. Well, where are their shoes?

BROUSSEAU: Yes, they would have never have done that. They just wouldn`t have. The shoes would have been found on the shore.

GRACE: What about their personalities, Tammy? Is one more adventurous than the other one? Would one have made the other one jump in fully clothed?

BROUSSEAU: Lyric is a little bit more, you know -- you know, I can`t really even answer that question, honestly. They`re both -- they`re spontaneous. But Elizabeth had tennis shoe high-tops on. She would have taken those off, for sure. She wouldn`t have jumped in with those on.

GRACE: No.

BROUSSEAU: I don`t believe either one of them would have wanted to show back up with mama -- with grandma babysitting and they`re soaking wet. They would have been in trouble.

GRACE: And let me get this straight. To you --

BROUSSEAU: So, no, I don`t believe they`re in the water. No.

GRACE: To you, Ellie Jostad, and I`m only rushing because I want to get all this information out to our viewers.

Ellie, the father, Daniel, the father of one of the girls, storms out on police after they accuse him, during a meeting, of murder. All right? Isn`t it true that our investigation shows, A, that both families have been cooperative with police, that they`ve either taken polygraphs or they`ve volunteered to take polygraphs, the whole kit and caboodle.

Not only that, tell me about the dad, Daniel, being at his mother`s house with his teenage son at the time the girls go missing, in a different location.

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Right, Nancy. Well, what the police are saying is that the family does continue to cooperate. And Lyric`s parents have both told us that they have taken polygraphs. Now, the father of Lyric, Dan Morrissey, he was at his mother`s house in Waterloo. That`s, you know, miles away. It`s the next town over from where the girls were last seen leaving grandma`s house. So, you know, he says he was there, he was taking a nap, his teenage son was in the house as well as his mother. And, you know, he was there when he got the call these girls were missing and immediately helped to start to look for them.

GRACE: OK, so this grandmother where they were, who was just with us about 72 hours ago, pleading for the return of the girls, that`s not the mother he was with, right? The grandmother?

JOSTAD: That`s right, Nancy, he was with his mother.

GRACE: OK.

JOSTAD: The girls were at, you know, the mother`s mother`s house.

GRACE: Got it. Got it.

Everybody, we are taking your calls.

To you, Dr. Vincent Dimaio, former chief medical examiner, Bexar County, forensic pathologist, joining me tonight out of San Antonio -- Dr. Dimaio, I don`t know any delicate way to put this, but isn`t it true that unless both girls` bodies were tangled up in something down at the bottom of that lake, just assume they jumped in fully clothed and wearing high-top tennis shoes and flip-flops, all right? Just don`t -- just go with that, which doesn`t make sense to me.

But if they did, and they managed to swim all the way out to the middle of the lake, and go down, and get tangled up somehow, they`re not weighted down, get tangled up in brush, other than getting tangled up in brush, wouldn`t their bodies have floated to the top? They would have surfaced by now?

DR. VINCENT DIMAIO, M.D., FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, BEXAR COUNTY, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Yes, because of the heat in that area and the number of days, the bodies would have decomposed. Postmortem gas would have formed and they would have bobbed up to the top of the lake.

In addition, even if they were partially tangled down there, the gas would be coming up to the top of the lake and the cadaver dogs would be going wild, because they could -- they would be able to smell that gas.

GRACE: You know what, you just brought up a really good point, Dr. Dimaio.

Dr. Dimaio, dogs have been brought in. If the girls were underwater at that lake, a cadaver dog can smell decaying human decomp through water.

DIMAIO: That`s correct.

GRACE: Back to you, Jim Spellman, CNN correspondent, joining me at Meyers Lake, along with the girls` aunt.

Jim, dogs have been brought in. FBI dogs have been brought in. They didn`t go berserk, as if there is a dead body in that lake. If you put a dog, a cadaver dog in a boat, Jim, and you take it across the lake, it will go berserk if it smells human decomp in that lake. They can smell through the water, Jim.

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. But, Nancy, I really want -- I want to make a point here. They`re really not putting a lot of resources into draining this lake. There`s maybe about two or three people at a time manning the pump, and they`re going to do this really just to absolutely rule this out.

I think much more of the thrust of this investigation is on the family, not only the interrogations we`ve talked about, yesterday when I was with family members, investigators asked for a key to an attic to search the grandmother`s attic. The family complied, no search warrants. They asked if they could take family computers, they said, sure, no search warrants.

They`ve been really focusing on the family, as far as the public part of the investigation that we can see, as much if not more than on this lake, Nancy.

GRACE: But Tammy Brousseau, talking about that laptop, that computer that was seized, doesn`t that computer belong to a 12-year-old boy?

BROUSSEAU: That computer was actually when Misty and Dan had their own home. Not too long ago when they had their own home, there was a couple of computers there. One was given to them by a friend. One had Internet access, for only a short period of time. So it was used mostly for like Word, you know? There wasn`t a lot of activity via Internet --

GRACE: Who was using it, Tammy?

BROUSSEAU: So --

GRACE: Who was using it?

BROUSSEAU: Dylan, the 16-year-old son of Misty and Dan would use it. Lyric would use it. Misty would use it. I don`t -- I`m not sure if Dan would get on it or not. But those were the computers taken from my mom`s. And when asked if they could, you know, have them, Misty told the FBI, go, take them, take whatever you want. You know, yes, take them. Take our phones, take everything. You know, we just -- we want to focus on the girls and getting them back.

GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Kelly Saindon, former prosecutor --

BROUSSEAU: You know, I --

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: What was that, Tammy Brousseau?

BROUSSEAU: I just wanted to say one more thing, you know, about those bloodhounds that were brought in by the FBI. They did one at a time. One for Elizabeth and one for Lyric. And I was explain to you, so the bikes were found right where those -- the rocky area is, where they`re guessing the girls may have entered the lake at.

But I was there, I watched the bloodhounds continue on into this dense forest area, which is about 400 yards. I watched them go into that area and they positively identified both girls were at that location.

GRACE: Right, at the edge of the water.

BROUSSEAU: And --

GRACE: Go ahead.

BROUSSEAU: Yes, not, you know, not at the -- just at the edge of the water. If you continue on down the bike trail east, there is about approximately 400 acres of forest, dense forest to the left side, and that is where the dogs continued on to and picked up the girls` scent. And that`s when they stopped and brought the dog back and they did the next dog.

The next dog positively identified the next girl`s person to be in that forest. And that`s kind of where I believe it went cold for them. The dogs couldn`t pick up anymore scent. I`m not saying for sure that they couldn`t pick up more scent and go on further, but that is where the investigators stopped, brought the dogs back, told us that, yes, the dogs positively identified the girls to go past the site where the bikes were dropped and farther on into the forest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Vanished into thin air.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Eight-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10-year- old Lyric Cook.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They went for a bike ride then simply vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mom called and said, you know what, I can`t find the kids. They`ve been out riding their bikes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The bicycles were found at a nearby lake, hours after the girls were reported missing.

SPELLMAN: On this side of the lake, people live here. Their backyards are right back up to this lake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s just baffling to try to figure out the pieces to the puzzle.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: One of the girl`s purses was found not too far away in some bushes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I pray God brings them home safe to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Unleash the lawyers. Kelly Saindon, Chicago, Seema Iyer, New York, John Manuelian, New York.

Kelly Saindon, Jim Spellman is telling us the cops are focusing on the family. And I get it. Great, focus on the family, because that`s normally where every investigation starts. But it seems to me that that focus has gone on too long. Even our sources can confirm that the dad was with his mother and teenage son, miles away, when the girls went missing. Unless just everybody`s lying.

KELLY SAINDON, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: You know, Nancy, we`ve seen that, though. We have seen where people are lying, and the issue is, I think, with no other leads right now, they are putting pressure on the family. There is a criminal background. And you know this from a prosecution standpoint. They`re looking to make sure that every T is crossed, every I is dotted.

And so while it`s very frustrating for the family, they have to take a deep breath and understand the police are doing the best they can with the resources that they have.

GRACE: Put her up, please.

SAINDON: And so nobody wants --

GRACE: Kelly Saindon. Listen.

SAINDON: Yes.

GRACE: I`ve been in the system. I have been working with police since I got out of law school in 1984, all right? I`m on their side. But in this case, now I`m a mother, Manuelian, and when I see the sand in the hourglass trickling down, you know the deal, people. Let`s not sugarcoat it. Every hour that pass -- that passes right now means one more hour that the girls could be killed, if they are, in fact, still alive.

Minutes count, Manuelian.

JOHN MANUELIAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely. And obviously, these police officers are looking in -- for the best interest of Elizabeth and Lyric. They`re doing everything they can. You know they are trying to cross their T`s and dot their I`s. Time is of the essence, so they`re doing everything they can, including interviewing the father, the mother, and everybody so that they can rule out and possibly hone in on the actual disappearance and where these girls went.

GRACE: All right. Seema Iyer, defense attorney, don`t just fall over in a dead faint, but I`m not so sure this honing in on the father, Daniel, right now, I`m not so sure that that`s the way to go on this. You know maybe cops know something that I don`t know. I`m sure they do, but it`s hard for me to believe that his mother would lie -- lie for him because she`s also the grandmother of these children, of one of these little girls. She`s the -- she`s the paternal grandmother.

Now, look, my mom might lie for me, but I`m telling you, not over my children. She, a grandmother, no, I don`t see it.

SEEMA IYER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, putting aside that he cooks meth at home and is accused of domestic violence, let`s talk about the kidnapping option.

Nancy, you and I both know that an experienced kidnapper will look at two little girls as prey, knowing that these two little girls, they are cousins, so one little girl is not going to let the other girl go without her. So an experienced kidnapper knows that one is as good as two.

GRACE: You know what, she`s got a point. Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, author of "Dealbreakers," let`s hear your theory.

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, you know, most child abductions occur at the hands of noncustodial caretakers. And so I would cast a wider net with this family, not the primary family, but who were the relatives who were interested in this children? That computer might lead -- yield very important clues.

Nancy, the aunt talks about the little girls as if they`re still alive. She`s using present tense. I think that lifts the veil of suspicion regarding the primary family, don`t you think? Because when the family is involved, they always talk about the missing person as if that person is deceased. She is not doing that.

But what about Uncle Fester or the guy down the block or the babysitter that they were allowing to have access to these children, noncustodial caretakers, and now the family has some degree of guilt and cover-up, because of the access they allowed.

GRACE: Bethany, everything you`re saying is correct, Bethany. As usual. But the reality is, also, the facts. The facts are that the grandmother, who came on with me and answered questions, she`s not afraid of the glaring light of the cameras. You`d have to believe somehow, what, she`s in on it? Because the girls take off on bicycles to go bicycling? So, who, somebody trailing them? A family member trailing them in the car? I don`t -- I just don`t see it.

MARSHALL: You know what, Nancy, though family members notoriously cover up for their own. Mothers do for children, even when a grandchildren -- grandchild goes missing. So I think there is a very real possibility of that.

GRACE: Everyone, a quick break, but I want to remind you about our family album, showing your photos. Here are our California friends, the Drakes. They love to the travel, whale watch, camping trips. Share your photos at iReport Family Album, hlnTV.com/Nancygrace and click on "Nancy`s Family Album."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Two girls on a summer bike ride had disappeared.

BROUSSEAU: It`s very baffling to understand how someone got off with a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old at the same time. It`s as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to the lines, Judy in Iowa. Hi, dear, what`s your question?

JUDY, CALLER FROM IOWA: I was wondering, if they -- I don`t believe they fell in the river and drowned, because the bodies, wouldn`t they have surfaced by now?

GRACE: You know, back to you, Dr. Dimaio, if they fell in while throwing rocks out, I think there`s very little likelihood their bodies would have gotten tangled up in anything at the bottom of the lake. I don`t see that. The only way they would be at the bottom of that lake is if they were taken out and then went down. They wouldn`t have gone out wearing their shoes. So, wouldn`t they have surfaced by now, Dr. Dimaio?

DIMAIO: Yes, they would have been on the surface by now due to decomposition.

GRACE: To Steve Moore, former fed with the FBI. Weigh in, Steve.

STEVE MOORE, FORMER FED WITH THE FBI: I have actually worked with the very team that`s going out there to side scan the lake f they are in there they`ll find it. I think sometimes we`re not thinking about the possibility that they may be looking at this as the fact that they were dumped in the lake, weighed down.

And I`m not sure that there would be decomposition coming to the surface yet. But it`s something that -- why would you not want at least this eliminated? The L.A. team isn`t taking resources away from the search for the girls.

GRACE: I`m not saying stop the draining. I`m just saying, focus out, get off the family, just for a minute, and focus out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two missing girls and we have no idea why.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very outdoorsy.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Last seen leaving for a bike ride in Evansdale, Iowa, on Friday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they play together every day.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Disappeared into thin air in broad daylight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It really hits close to home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are bracing for the worst but hoping for the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Where are little Lyric and her cousin, take a look very carefully, Elizabeth? Just 8 and 10 years old.

Out to the lines, Diane in Kentucky. Hi, dear, what`s your question? Oops. Patty in Florida. Hi, Patty. What is your question?

PATTY, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hi, Nancy. I`d like to thank you first for all the work you do for missing children.

GRACE: Thank you.

PATTY: And also I`d like to ask you if the child predators in the area have been looked at and if they are -- if the police are allowed to enter their premises without a warrant.

GRACE: To -- very quickly give me an answer on this one, John Manuelian, if they are under parole or probation, they can have spot searches in their home, yes/no?

MANUELIAN: Absolutely. They could give up their search and seizure conditions.

GRACE: That`s right. Diane in Kentucky. Question?

DIANE, CALLER FROM KENTUCKY: yes, ma`am. Are they also searching in the wooded area where the dogs went?

GRACE: Good question. Out to the aunt of Elizabeth and Lyric, just 8 and 10, Tammy Brousseau.

Did they search out in the woods?

BROUSSEAU: Yes. That area is very small. It`s not real huge. Yes. It`s been combed through over and over repeatedly. Yes.

GRACE: To you, Miss Brousseau, Tammy, what is your message tonight?

BROUSSEAU: My message tonight is whoever has them, please let them go. We need our girls back. They are probably so scared. They are wanting their mothers and fathers.

We love you, Lyric and Elizabeth. If you can see this, we are here. We are waiting. Please, see into your heart, whoever has them, return our kids home.

GRACE: Everyone, the tip line, 319-232-6682.

Let`s remember Marine Sergeant Jay Hoskins, 24, Paris, Texas, killed, Afghanistan. Purple Heart, three combat action ribbons, three Sea Service Deployment ribbons, also served, Iraq. Black belt, mixed martial arts instructor, devoted to family, god, country. Leaves behind parents, Michelle and Danny, step parents, Chris and Karen. Two sisters, one brother, widow, chandler. Sons, Tristan and Jay.

Jay Hoskins, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially to you. And tonight, a special good night from the Fulton County junior D.A.s, Alec, Amare (ph), Amulia (ph), Karina, Christian, Derek, Dominique, Haley, India, Jamal, Joya (ph), Cammaris (ph), Cammia (ph), Kendall, Tierra, Marico, Morgan, Endally (ph), Rashed, (ph) Sydney, Tashmalik (ph), Ecatterrena (ph), Kayla, Courtney, Simone, Jarkez (ph), chaperones Steve and Claire and Tiffany.

What a beautiful bunch. You know, that keeps you going, huh?

Everyone, Dr. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.

END