Investigators say the person responsible for the deaths of Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook was probably also familiar with the remote Seven Bridges Wildlife area.
The two cousins were reported missing July 13, 2012, after bicycles belonging to 8-year-old Elizabeth and 10-year-old Lyric were found in Evansdale near Meyers Lake. Volunteers, investigators, and family members spent months searching for the girls. On December 5 that year, the girls’ bodies were found by hunters in Bremer County, north of where they were last seen.
Investigators traveled to Alexandria, Virginia where they met with experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI, NCIS and U.S. Marshals Service in early 2015, as the search for the girls’ killer continued. All of the experts agreed that familiarity with the Seven Bridges Wildlife area was a key factor in identifying a possible suspect in the case.
“I think you will all agree with me that Seven Bridges is extremely remote and you must know it is there to get there,” said Evansdale Police Chief Kent Smock. “We have no doubt that the person or persons responsible for this crime are very familiar with Seven Bridges.”
Now, they’re asking citizens to think about anyone they know who is familiar with that remote location.
“We are asking that everyone think about anyone they know who is familiar with Seven Bridges,” Smock said. “At some point in their life, they may have hunted there. They may have fished there. At some point in their life, they may have camped there. They may have gone there to ‘party’ when they were younger. They may have gone mushroom hunting there. We want to know about anyone who is familiar with Seven Bridges.”
A $150,000 reward , raised privately and from the FBI, was offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case. Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers had more than $20,000 in another reward fund for information that leads to an arrest, according to Brice Lippert with the Waterloo Police Department.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Evansdale Police tip line at 319-232-6682 or the Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers at 855-300-8477.
