IOWA CITY - The grandmother who was babysitting two Iowa cousins when they disappeared nearly two weeks ago after going for a bike ride said Tuesday that she has no idea how they ended up across town by a lake.
Wylma Cook, 72, said that Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins occasionally went biking while she babysat them several days a week at Collins' parents' home in Evansdale. But she said they almost always stayed within blocks and had never gone to Meyers Lake, a mile away.
"It shocks me, OK. The girls never rode that far, never. It was in a two-block area, that's it. They always returned like I told them," Cook said.
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Drew and Heather Collins, of Evansdale, are seen at the RiverLoop Amphitheatre in Waterloo, following the 5K Run/Walk/Ride/Stroll/Roll for two missing Iowa cousins, Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, in Waterloo, on Saturday.
Authorities found the girls' bikes and a purse on a path near the lake July 13, hours after they were reported missing in Evansdale, a northeast Iowa town of 4,700. FBI bloodhounds picked up on the girls' apparent scent near the lake last week and investigators have ruled out the possibility of drowning.
An extensive search involving local, state and federal investigators has failed to find them. FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault said there was "nothing new" about the case Tuesday.
Breault stood by her assertion, first made Saturday, that investigators believe the girls are alive.
"They are not going to reveal the reasons why. You wouldn't want them to do that. It would jeopardize the investigation and the children," she said.
David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, said that claim means investigators could "have something quite important" for evidence. He said cases of two children being abducted by a stranger were rare since it would be hard for one person to control both, which makes the common motive of sexual gratification less likely in this case.
He said it makes sense to look into whether the abduction is linked to pending drug charges against Daniel Morrissey, Lyric's father, a habitual felon facing decades in prison on charges of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamines. In other cases, children have been kidnapped by rivals out of retaliation or held hostage to prevent incriminating testimony, he said.