Search for girls likely to expand

Law enforcement officials will likely expand their search for two missing Iowa cousins now that the girls’ disappearance is considered an abduction case, experts said.

But experts said it’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on because officials probably aren’t disclosing everything they know, including why they are confident that 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins are alive.

FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault said Sunday that investigators want to talk to anyone who was at Meyers Lake in the northeast Iowa town of Evansdale before 3 p.m. July 13. That’s where the girls’ bicycles were found.

Lyric’s father, Daniel Morrissey, is being watched closely by authorities but has not been named a suspect. Morrissey, 36, has a lengthy criminal history and is no longer cooperating with police. He has been placed in a pretrial supervision program in two separate drug cases, so parole officers are monitoring his actions.

Lyric’s mother, Misty Cook-Morrissey, 34, also has a criminal record. She was convicted of federal drug charges and state theft and alcohol violations. She is on supervised release.

Investigators spent much of last week searching the Meyers Lake area, which is about 120 miles northeast of Des Moines. The lake was mostly drained, and the FBI used sonar technology and divers to search it.