When two young cousins go out for a bike ride and never come home, a community has to ask: is a predator living among them?If you have any information about the disappearance and murders of Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins in 2012 in Iowa, please email any tips to [email protected], or text 274637 and include the word “CEDAR.” You can also remain anonymous by calling 815-300-8477. If you would like to join audiochuck in supporting the Elizabeth Collins Foundation, which educates the community on child safety and the dangers of child abduction and sex trafficking, please visit their website by clicking here.You can learn more about The Good segment and even submit a story of your own by visiting The Good page on our website! Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-lyric-cook-morrissey-elizabeth-collins Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit crimejunkie.app/library/ to view the current membership options and policies. Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllcCrime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Chapter 1: What happened to Lyric and Elizabeth?
But like Ashley said, verdict aside, all we had hoped for was some type of closure for the families by the end of all of this. Of course, this conviction won't give them Abby and Libby back, but hopefully they've found at least some of the answers they've been searching for. Answers that, unfortunately, not every family gets in seven years or 10 years or even a lifetime.
But that doesn't mean we should ever stop fighting for them. So let's jump back into today's story where justice is still yet to be served.
Heather Collins is running errands on a hot Friday in July of 2012. Friday the 13th, in fact. But she's eager to get home and relieve the babysitter, a.k.a. Grandma, her mom Wilma. She's got her hands full, Heather's got four kids, and Wilma's also got her granddaughter from her other daughter, Misty.
Heather's also hustling home because as she told reporters Nicole Agee and Aaron Hepker with KCRG, she has promised one of her daughters, Elizabeth, that they would go out that afternoon to get invitations for her ninth birthday party. So when she pulls in the driveway and walks in ready to let grandma clock out, she expects Elizabeth to be there waiting.
But Wilma says that she's on a bike ride with Misty's daughter, Lyric. Lyric is 10, so the two are like inseparable. And it's not weird that the two went off on a ride together, but it is weird that they haven't been back yet. Wilma told them to be back soon, but it's been like over an hour by this point.
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Chapter 2: How did the search for the girls begin?
But, you know, Wilma didn't panic for the same reason Heather is doing her best now not to panic. They live in this tiny safe suburb of Waterloo, Iowa called Evansdale. Everybody knows everybody and people look out for each other. The girls know a ton of kids in the neighborhood. Elizabeth is a chatterbox. So they likely just ran into some friends. They lost track of time.
So Heather heads back out to drive and search for them. Sure that the girls are just going to pop up at any moment. But the thing is, they don't. Misty shows up after getting off work a little after 1 to get Lyric. They still aren't home. And before long, Heather's husband, Drew, gets home too. Still, no sign of the girls. And by now, this is when Heather is panicking. Mm-hmm.
According to more reporting by Hepker and Agee, Drew suggests that they go knock on some doors, start looking around even more, check the neighborhood playgrounds, whatnot. But each door they knock on, it is the same. We haven't seen them. They haven't been by here, not here. Like, have you checked there? And at a certain point, they feel like they've checked everywhere.
And there is no sign of these girls or their bikes. So at 2.48, Heather walks to the Evansdale Police Department to report the girls missing, right to the chief of police himself, Chief Kent Smock. And Chief Smock sends a couple of officers to the Collins house to get more details, do a quick search, making sure the girls aren't hiding or sleeping in the house somewhere.
And when they're confident they're not, a ground search gets underway. Sometime between 4 and 5, Chief Smock swings by the Collins house where the family's been trying to sit tight because a firefighter found something. Two bikes about a mile away at Myers Lake, and he wants Drew to come with him to ID the bikes. As soon as Drew sees them, his stomach drops.
They are definitely Lyric and Elizabeth's. They're on this tiny peninsula that kind of juts out into the lake. And the gate that should be locked, like should be shut to block off the peninsula, is wide open, which is how it was when the bikes were found.
Do the girls normally come out to this lake?
Not on their own, but like, you know, there's a first for everything, right? Like if they did that, though, they're worried now that maybe the girls came out to the lake to swim. It's a hot July summer day. Maybe they went too deep or who knows. But like now they have this whole lake that they have to search.
Is there anything there with the bikes, like their shoes? I mean, they wouldn't wear their shoes to go swimming, like any of their stuff?
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Chapter 3: What were the initial findings in the investigation?
Exactly. And that's not the only moment of tension between the authorities and the families. Misty actually describes this moment in a Max documentary that was done by Dylan Sires. She says there's this moment when she asks the cop, like, who's actually searching the island in the middle of the lake?
And the cop is like kind of, she says, super dismissive, like kind of like mind your own business thing. Like, we'll get to it when we get to it. And this upsets Misty so much that she's like, well, if you're not going to get to it now, I will. And fully clothed, like, and there's actually local news footage of this because they're out there by this time.
Her and one of the dads just start walking, again, fully clothed into the water out to the island. If investigators can't get to it, they will swim out there to do it themselves.
You know, if you want something done right. Right.
And that's what they did. But they don't find anything on the island. Now, even though the ground searches are going to go on through the night, by 9 or 10, investigators tell all of the parents, like, you should head home. Just get some rest. But they don't want to because they feel like even though the searching might continue, they're worried that they might be focused on the wrong place.
Like, all of the focus is on the lake. And the parents aren't convinced that that's where the girls actually are.
Honestly, I was going to stop you and say same. Like, why would Elizabeth's purse be on the fence on the other side?
Exactly.
Opposite direction of the lake.
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Chapter 4: Who were the primary suspects in the case?
This is like a swimming accident.
I know. So that night, Drew calls Chief Dan Trelka of the Waterloo PD. And Chief Trelka, he gets it. His gut tells him that there's more going on here than a couple of girls who like swam and maybe accidentally drowned. And if he's right about that, no number of volunteers searching in and around the lake is going to get the girls home.
So that night, he notifies the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI gets notified as well. Now, there isn't like an FBI field office in this tiny town of Evansdale or even in that region, not even in the state, actually. But Nicole Agee and Aaron Hepker report that by coincidence, the FBI already had loads of agents in that area working a fraud investigation. Oh.
So they redirect a bunch of them to Evansdale and search efforts get off to a more robust start the next morning. Investigators from both DCI and the FBI are there, along with investigators from Evansdale PD, the Waterloo PD and the Blackhawk County Sheriff's Office. Now, the effort to drag the lake and the ground search is all continuing. Like, they still got to check the box, which I get.
But they search it all the way through Sunday and nothing in that lake turns up or anywhere else. And by that point, people on the ground have also covered an area of 12 square miles, but there is just nothing. They even get so desperate that they drain the lake at one point. But it's in vain. That is not where the girls are.
DCI and FBI agents focus in on canvassing and conducting interviews, starting with the families. Nothing about Heather and Drew raises any flags. But Misty and Dan seem to be another story. Both Misty and Dan have significant histories with substance use disorder, along with criminal records, most of it related to drugs.
In fact, Dan is supposed to go to trial in just a few months on mostly drug-related charges, but ones that carry serious time. Like, he turned down a plea offer that included a 30-year sentence the day before the girls disappeared, and that was supposed to be the compromise?
Right, I'd say that's a plea. With 30 years?
Yeah. I mean, what he was up against was a lot higher.
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Chapter 5: What led to the reclassification of the case?
We've had cases where people are on like blood pressure medication and they opt to refuse a polygraph because like they don't know that's going to affect things. Right.
But drug use aside, they have Misty, who said she's clean. And even hers, though, comes back inconclusive, which they must have put a lot of weight on because at that point, the script just flips. Things get super confrontational and they accuse Misty and Dan of killing the girls, or at least of knowing who did. Mm-hmm. Dan ends up storming out mid-interrogation.
They both lawyer up and they just stop cooperating.
Which I'm sure makes them just look even more suspicious. I mean, it becomes like a vicious cycle.
Well, and not even just suspicious to investigators, but to Heather and Drew as well. The temperature does kind of cool off a bit. Like, eventually Dan offers to get clean to sit for another polygraph. Misty offers to sit for another one, too. The second time they both pass. So you could say that, again, early days, things were just so heightened emotions. Right.
Yeah. Are the investigators looking at anyone else, like, besides the family?
I mean, I'm sure they're looking at friends, family members, neighbors, your neighborhood sex offenders, obviously. But they're not getting anywhere with any of it.
Thankfully, though, even though they don't have a specific suspect in their sights, it does seem like police have officially moved away from any kind of accidental drowning theory because exactly a week into the investigation, the case is reclassified as an abduction. And investigators try to find security camera footage of the girls.
The problem is we're talking 2012, like the ring doorbell camera or stuff like that isn't quite as prevalent like in neighborhoods.
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Chapter 6: What evidence was found in the aftermath?
For sure. When all is said and done, they get one. There is one camera from a business close to the Collins house that caught the girls for like a few seconds on a grainy, blurry video riding by on their bikes, which doesn't do much other than confirm Wilma's timeline about the girls heading out on their bikes at about 12.15.
By the time Elizabeth's ninth birthday rolls around on July 31st, they still have nothing. This is a full 18 days after they disappeared. But though she's not there with them, there is something comforting to Lyric's mom, Misty. The belief that wherever they are, whatever has happened, they are at least together.
And Lyric is no doubt doing all she can to protect Elizabeth, looking out for her younger cousin like she always does. Reporting from KCRG says that sometime that fall, investigators have a really hard conversation with Heather and Drew, probably Misty and Dan as well. They want them to be prepared for what's going to happen if the girls are found.
They said if it's good news, if the girls are found alive, they're going to be told to go to the hospital. If it's bad news, they're going to be told to meet investigators somewhere that's not the hospital.
Which makes the calls that they all get from a local pastor on December 5th all the more gut-wrenching because they're all told to go to Evansdale City Hall as quickly as possible because investigators are going to be waiting there for them. Okay.
And what investigators tell them is that earlier that day, a couple of hunters had stumbled on two small sets of human remains about 30 minutes north of Evansdale in this big wooded area called Seven Bridges Wildlife Area in Bramer County. Formal identifications still need to be made. But as soon as investigators show them pictures of the shoes found with the remains, they all know.
145 days after they vanished and 20 days before Christmas, Lyric and Elizabeth have been recovered. And Drew described the conflicting and complicated feelings that kind of washed over him. He has this kind of long quote that he told Nicole Agee and Aaron Hepker. And I don't even want to summarize it because it's just so raw. So I'm going to have you read it for us. Mm-hmm.
He says, quote, But then you've got guilt. It's the worst thing. I can't think of anything worse.
I think it's got to be something that so many loved ones of missing or murdered people can relate to. No one wants all this time searching to end in the discovery of remains. Like you, everyone wants that happy ending. But after months of sleepless nights and questions with no answers, there is some relief in finally knowing. I always say it's like instead of every possibility, like you can...
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Chapter 7: How did the investigation evolve after the discovery of remains?
And then she heard his truck start up. And a lot of kids, people, whatever, would probably be frozen with fear, but not Desi. She ran into the giant woods behind the pig confinements, and she just ran and ran and ran the whole time, hearing Michael's truck creeping down the surrounding country roads as he tried to hunt her down.
And after what felt like an eternity, she reached a farm, ran into a couple of men standing outside, and begged them to call 911. And all she could really get out was that her friend needed help now. One of these men, who was the owner of the farm, told the other guy, like, grab your gun, go drive to those pig confinements. I'm going to help Desi.
And basically, if that Michael guy is there, like, make sure he stays there. But when this friend comes back, he said all he could find, it wasn't Michael, not even another girl. All he found was a pool of blood. Desi was saved, and they ultimately determined that Michael was Michael Klunder. He was the son-in-law of the man who owned those pig confinements. He was also a registered sex offender.
Now, deputies made a beeline to this guy's house about 10 miles away. And while they were there, outside, Michael's wife pulls into the driveway. And when they asked her where her husband was, she told them, I don't know, but like, I just got this text from Michael, like a very cryptic text, because basically all it said was he loved her and that he was sorry.
Before long, Michael's father-in-law ends up finding him on another property he owned. He had taken his own life. And then 18 days after that, Kathleen's body was found in the Des Moines River. Now, obviously, when the dust settles a little bit on that case, that's when everyone wonders the same thing. Was Michael the guy who had taken Lyric and Elizabeth?
Mm-hmm.
Now, they end up finding out that he was familiar with Seven Bridges, that area that they said, like, someone had to know this place. He had been sent to some sort of juvenile detention facility in that general area for assaulting a girl back in 1986 when he was just 15 years old. And he ended up escaping from that place. And guess where he was found hiding out? Seven Bridges. Yep, Seven Bridges.
So it might have been unknown to a lot of Iowans, but it was not unknown to Michael. And guess what? Remember how I said there had only been three double abductions in the state since 1991? Yeah. The 1991 case involved two toddlers.
Okay.
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Chapter 8: What can we learn from the patterns of abductions?
His phone is 100 miles away.
Where is he? I know. I know. Like, I would say, does he have an alibi? We don't know. I would say probably not. I know police have said that they believe he was at home or at work. But like, again, to me, that's not like if you believe you don't know. And even if you even if he was at work. Apparently his working could put him on the road sometimes anyways. So it's not inconceivable.
You can make a hundred mile trip there and back easy in a day. I mean, you travel.
It's like 115 miles from my house.
And you make day trips here all the time. Now, maybe they've got more that they just haven't disclosed. I kind of wonder if there's like some M.O. stuff that we aren't privy to because I haven't talked about Lyric and Elizabeth's autopsy results or manner because that's never come out. Oh, even to this day. So the only thing I feel like would maybe inform their thinking is that.
OK, but I feel like we don't see a lot of consistency in pattern with his other stuff, though. So, like, why would that like is there enough to say like this isn't something he would do based on the wide variety of ways he's assaulting people in the past?
And I don't have like a ton of like detailed detail. Right. Like we know we have the most detail about Kathleen and Desi. All like we know is maybe like that he choked the toddler. I don't know if something happened to the other toddler. I don't have details about these other attacks on like single victims.
So it is possible there is stuff that is, you know, for these solved cases is none of the public's business and has not been released. I don't. And again, maybe I'm just like making stuff up. But like. And like to me, what his M.O. is, is he's a predator.
Right.
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