Secrets in the cornfield: Iowa's Unsolved · True crime podcast

The Evansdale Murders

·31 min·2 clips

Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins vanished after a short bike ride in Evansdale, Iowa.

Megan opens by comparing the case to the Delphi murders. From there, that familiar unresolved story becomes the bridge into Evansdale, where two young girls went out for a bike ride in July 2012 and never came back. The timeline starts quickly. Lyric Cook Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins disappear in the middle of the day, items linked to them show up later that afternoon, and the case turns into a search that lasts five long months before the girls are found and the case is still unsolved. The episode never really settles into certainty. It moves into the family side of the story, including Dan and Misty Morrissey, the suspicion around their circle, and the way drug rumors kept shaping how people viewed the case. They say they cooperated. Misty describes two polygraphs, including one she says came back inconclusive and another she says she passed on July 24, 2012, while Dan says police still pointed fingers at him behind closed doors. The FBI adds another layer. According to spokeswoman Sandy Brealt, the bureau said evidence suggested the girls were alive and that the search warrant would be expanded, but the show notes that no one has ever explained what led to that claim. The search widens. That announcement comes just one day after police publicly said the girls had been abducted, and the investigation also moves beyond Iowa. Then comes the video. On July 25, surveillance footage is released showing Lyric and Elizabeth riding bikes at about 12:15 p.m. on July 13, captured from the backside camera of Letterman's Big and Tall Clothing Shop after the owner checked the footage and notified police. The image is blurry. Even so, it matters because it gives the episode one of the few hard time anchors in a case otherwise full of gaps, speculation, and slow official updates. A reward is still on the table. The episode closes by pointing listeners to the $100,000 reward and the Evansdale tip line, while keeping the focus on the fact that the murders remain unsolved. That unresolved ending lingers. Secrets in the Cornfield leaves the case where it started, with plenty of records and not enough answers.

As heard by us

A chronological Evansdale recap that keeps uncertainty front and center.

The episode frames the Evansdale murders as an unsolved case that still resists tidy closure. It starts with the July 2012 bike ride, then moves through the search, the items found later that day, and the months before the girls were found.

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Follow the July 2012 bike ride that turned into an Evansdale mystery.

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