Missing Iowa Cousins Case Now Being Treated As An Abduction

The search for two missing Iowa cousins has officially shifted gears. After searching Meyers Lake for ten-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins, authorities have reclassified the case as an abduction.

The Washington Post reports that the two girls disappeared last week while riding bikes near the lake. The two bikes were found but the cousins are still missing.

A team of FBI agents went searching for the girls at the bottom of Meyers lake today but after hours of searching with sonar equipment they came to the conclusion that the girls were not in the lake.

Black Hawk County Chief Deputy Rick Abben said that authorities now believe that the two girls were abducted. Abben said that there was no evidence that the girls were in the lake. He also added that if the girls were simply lost they would have been found by now.

Authorities do not have any suspects at the moment but they are keeping a closer eye on Lyric’s father, Daniel Morrissey. CBS reports that Morrissey is currently standing trial for two separate drug cases. Morrissey has been placed in a pretrial supervision program, which means that he will be supervised by parole officers to make sure that he shows up in court.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Morrissey and his wife Misty Cook-Morrissey, who also has a criminal record, stopped cooperating with police earlier this week. Authorities said that Daniel and Misty are not suspects at the moment but they aren’t sure why they stopped cooperating.