EVANSDALE, Iowa (KCCI) – The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is using new DNA technology to uncover details in an abduction case involving two cousins who disappeared from Evansdale, KCCI reports.
In 2012, 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins went on a bike ride and never returned home.
Investigators found the girls’ bikes on a remote part of a trail, but saw no sign of the two children.
Hunters found the girls’ bodies five months later, about 25 miles from where they were last seen alive.
13 years later, investigators have still not released a cause of death, nor have any arrests been made in the case.
DCI Special Agent Scott Reger has been investigating the case since the start, and became the lead investigator in 2017.
Reger said law enforcement has followed up on over 2,000 leads. Five investigators are still working on the case.
In April, the DCI Crime Lab gained access to a new software program called Starmix, which analyzes and separates a mixture containing multiple DNA profiles.
“In the past we couldn’t see much about that minor component because it was too weak. It was kind of outnumbered by the major. The beautiful thing about Starmix is it can really separate out components of the two or three person mixtures, and help us compare that to the known samples,” said Mike Halverson, Criminalist Supervisor at the Iowa DCI Crime Lab. “So now we are able to say much more about a minor component of DNA in a mixture, which quite often really is the probative evidence or the really important part of the mixture that we need.”
Halverson said he could not reveal details, but reported the DCI Crime Lab has written 30 reports on the case. 20 of the reports are based on the results of the new DNA testing program.
“A typical case, a general run of the mill case would just have one report,” said Halverson. “It goes to show how hard our state, our state investigators, our law enforcement partners, our crime lab has worked on that case.”
If you have information relevant to the case, email [email protected].
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