Today we look at the unsolved murders of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins that have been called the Evansdale Murders. Evansdale, Iowa is a small city in Black Hawk County and is normally not a place that attracts much attention outside of election season but the city is now known for being the site of a terrible double murder.
Lyric Cook was born on the 2nd October 2001 in Waterloo, Iowa, the only daughter of Dan and Misty. Lyric would be raised by her grandmother, Wylma, primarily as her parents struggled with drug abuse problems. Despite the problems with her parents Lyric was a lovely young girl, she enjoyed cheerleading and gymnastics and was a lover of the outdoors. She was also an active member of her local church and like most young teenagers at the time was a huge fan of the boy band One Direction, she was that much of a fan, Lyric had along with her two cousins nicknamed themselves the “Bradford Badboys” after their love of Zayn Malik, a member of One Direction.
Lyric’s cousin Elizabeth Collins was born two years after Lyric on the 31st July 2003. She was one of four children born to Drew and Heather and was close to all her siblings but was known to boss them around. Elizabeth was a typical young girl who loved makeup and enjoyed singing and taking care of animals, she had a dog called Gus who she loved dearly. Elizabeth also enjoyed playing hockey and loved to hang out with her friends, she was described by one of her teachers as “...always the last to finish her lunch because she was always talking.”
Lyric (10) and Elizabeth (8) were very close as they were similar in age and as Lyric spent so much time with her grandmother and aunt, the two were always around each other. They would spend a lot of time at their grandmothers, playing cards or riding their bikes, which was what they were doing on the afternoon of the 13th July 2012. Sometime between 12.30pm and 1.00pm the girls were seen riding their bikes a mile and half away from Wylma’s house. More than an hour had passed now since the girls had left and Wylma was starting to get worried as they should have been back by now, it wasn’t until Lyric’s mother Misty arrived home that panic started to settle in. After making calls to family and friends and doing an initial search themselves the family failed to find the cousins, it was at this time they called the police to report them missing at around 2.48pm. Two and a half hours had now passed since the girls had set out for their bike ride.
The search started from Wylma's house and spread outwards, a find later that day at around 4.00pm raised hopes but also raised concern, on a trail located near the south east corner of Meyers Lake, Lyric and Elizabeth’s bikes were found. Also, at the scene was Elizabeth’s purse but the cousins were nowhere to be found, the bikes gave no indication of where the girls could be or even in what direction they had headed after leaving the bikes.
Security footage obtained from a local auction house a short distance from Wylma’s house caught Lyric and Elizabeth for a few seconds going past at 12.11pm, it showed them riding away from Meyers Lake. Police hoped that more security cameras had picked up the girls so they could map out their movements but sadly they didn’t manage to find much to help. The investigation focused on Meyers Lake as that is where the only trace of the girls had been found and if something had happened to the cousins, it had likely happened in that area. But police could find no evidence of the girls even when they drained the lake and had cadaver dogs sniff the area. The likelihood of this being an accident was starting to become less likely and that something more sinister had befallen the cousins was clear.
As is standard in these situations, police began to look at sex offenders in the area but once again this seemed to be a dead end. The families were also looked at but were cleared of any involvement. It began to become clear that whoever had taken Lyric and Elizabeth had been a total stranger, this is a terrible thing for investigators as it leaves less clues and motives.
As the case dragged on the press were quick to zero in on Lyric’s father, Dan. He had been involved in criminal activity and was let out of police custody after the disappearances to be with his family. Dan had been involved with assaulting Misty and drug offences that included, manufacturing, possessing and dealing, he was later sentenced to ninety years. Dan has always insisted on his innocence concerning that of Lyric and Elizabeth but states the suspicion that his daughter and niece were taken as some kind of drug debt, grudge or retribution as not making sense as he didn’t owe money or have a problem with anyone.
Over the next several months the investigation continued and the families continued to appear on the news to appeal for information, Misty took everything particularly hard and was rushed to hospital after becoming unresponsive at her home, she recovered but sadly her drug problems had resurfaced and in 2014 she was sentenced to ten years in prison for drug related offences but was released a year later. Misty has since managed to get back on track with her sobriety. Elizabeth’s parents struggled with the reason why this had happened to their daughter, Heather began campaigning for the Amber Alert system to be changed and believed the police waited too long before putting the girls on the system. Sadly, the strain of the case led to Drew and Heather divorcing.
It wasn't until the end of 2012 that there was a devastating discovery. Seven Bridges Wildlife Park is 20 miles north east of Evansdale and is best known as a hunting ground and is well known to be a problematic area where anti-social behaviour was rife, after a while the area became a dumping ground only locals knew about. On the 5th December 2012, a group of hunters found two sets of human remains. The remains had been in an isolated area of the park that was not easily stumbled upon and would have been missed by someone walking nearby. As the remains were small in size and appeared to be female police believed they had finally found the girls.
Theories online think that perhaps the cousins were threatened or bribed into a car and taken to the Wildlife Park as the failure to find any trace of the girls at the bikes seems odd and the mystery of how the girls got to the park if they didn’t have their bikes remains, as well as Elizabeth’s purse, many females aren’t likely to let go of their purses which points to something sudden.
On the 10th December 2012, the Iowa State Medical Examiners Office confirmed the remains were that of Lyric and Elizabeth. No cause of death or details of the crime has ever been released to the public. The funerals took place on the 13th December where the families were finally able to say goodbye to their beloved Lyric and Elizabeth. The cousins had a memorial erected at the location their bikes were found and the trail that goes around the lake was renamed to the Trail of Angels along with the park itself now renamed as Angel’s Park. In addition, the 13th July would be known as Lyric and Elizabeth Day to never forget the young girls who were cruelly taken away. Their deaths would also inspire a proposed change in Iowa law that child murderers would be given an automatic death sentence and changes to the Amber Alert system. The Cousins Act did not make it through to being law, but there were changes to have instantaneous alerts for missing children, something the Cook and Collins families believe may have made a difference in Lyric and Elizabeth’s case.
There is something particularly evil about the murder of children, the loss of a young life so full of potential is upsetting but the loss of two young girls is particularly devastating. Lyric and Elizabeth were two lovely young girls who would have had very bright futures cruelly snatched away. There have been multiple cases similar to that of Lyric and Elizabeth that people hope may provide answers to what happened to the young girls and that the person responsible may never hurt anymore innocent girls but sadly the answer to who did this despicable act for the moment remains unsolved but we can hope that one day justice will finally be served.
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