EVANSDALE, IOWA: Northeast Iowa residents who have been holding out hope that two young cousins missing for five months might be home for Christmas were grappling Thursday with the news that hunters likely found the girls’ bodies.
Autopsies by the state medical examiner’s office were still under way, but the remains are believed to be those of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins, who were 10 and 8 when they did not come back from riding their bikes July 13, Black Hawk County sheriff’s Capt. Rick Abben said.
The girls’ families were stunned by the news that two bodies were found, family friend Sara Curl, who has organized community events to support the families, said Thursday night.
“To be honest we have been trying to keep the positivity going so much this 100 percent blindsided us and it absolutely did them as well,” she said. “I don’t think that when they were called down there yesterday that they expected to hear the news that they did. So it’s really going to take some time to process.”
Curl helped organize a vigil for the families Thursday night around a Christmas tree decorated to honor the girls, hoping they would be home for the holiday.
Tammy Marvets, whose husband, Randy, came up with the idea, said her 7-year-old son went to school with Elizabeth and rode the same bus.
“He’s pretty upset. He says, ‘Mom, I just want to cry.’ I said, ‘It’s OK to cry, honey,’ ” Marvets said.
Hunters found the bodies Wednesday in a rural wildlife area in northeastern Iowa, about 25 miles from Evansdale, the city of 4,700 where the girls were last seen. Authorities found their bikes and a purse near a recreational lake in the city, and their disappearance sparked a massive search and kidnapping investigation involving the FBI, state and local police.
Abben said at a news conference Thursday that investigators were “confident” the bodies were Lyric and Elizabeth based on evidence found at the scene and a preliminary investigation.
The two were being watched by their grandmother at Collins’ home in Evansdale when they went for a bike ride on a Friday summer afternoon. Surveillance footage and witnesses have confirmed that they were riding nearby. After they didn’t return, relatives reported the girls missing hours later. A firefighter soon found their bikes near Meyers Lake, and a search that involved hundreds of volunteers and several police agencies ensued.
An FBI dive team brought in special equipment to search the lake days later, and the case was reclassified as an abduction after no sign of the girls emerged.
