Original subtitles

[bike riding]

[Amber singing]Elizabeth and Lyric

I need you back in my hands

In my heart My little tiny heart

I miss you, I miss you

I love you, I love you

Oh forever

[tense music] [clock ticking]

[Heather]To whom it may concern.

We don't know who you are.

Or maybe we do.

[Drew] Maybe you are

someone who just acted upon an impulse.

[suspenseful music]

[Heather] Maybe you planned to take them.

♪

Taking the girls from us has caused much pain.

Pain for them, pain for us and our families.

[tense music]

[Heather]Maybe you've wondered

how you could ever make it right?

[Drew] How to be a hero not a monster.

♪

[Heather] We want you to know

that we are praying for you to do the right thing.

[tense music]

[Drew] Please let our girls...

[tense music fades]

come home to us. [cries]

[tense music]

♪

[beep sound]

[Man] Dylan's interview in B cameras.

Get ready, let's start at the beginning.

Tell me your... your name

and when did you first hear of this story?

[Dylan] My name is Dylan Sires,

and I first heard about this story

when I worked as a local news photographer in 2012.

And a call came out across the police scanner

about two missing girls, in Evansdale.

[dramatic music] [birds chirping]

They grew up in the area, my family grew up in the area

and it's my hometown.

When Lyric and Elizabeth were abducted,

it was absolutely shocking.

[Dylan] Elizabeth was eight, and Lyric was ten.

You know, when something like that

happens in your back yard, it pisses you off.

Rumors were rampant

and misinformation was everywhere.

This investigation was massive.

It was one of the largest investigations

in Iowa's history.

So, in 2015, I started to film and document

what was going on in Evansdale.

[Man] So, right, I'm rolling.

[Dylan] You know, I knew a lot of people

directly involved in the case.

I was able to get access, inside information

to kinda have my finger on the pulse.

I've shot over 300 hours of footage.

[Man] Right, I'm speeding.

[Dylan] Just tell me a little bit about yourself.

I've done over 100 interviews.

And, you know, countless conversations

with the families.

Interviewing them multiple times over years.

I noticed people changed.

[dramatic music]

[Dylan] I've interviewed I think a person

from every facet of this case.

Except for a suspect.

[thud]

[beep sound]

[Man] -Sound speed. [Man 2] -Speed.

[dramatic music]

[Dylan] You ready for this?

[Heather] Ah [sighs] sure.

[Dylan] Tim, are you rolling?

[clapperboard clapping]

Alright, can you just say your name, who you are,

basically what you can remember.

[Heather] My name is Heather Collins.

[Heather] I am Heather Collins.

I have four children.

♪

And I'm Elizabeth's mom.

♪

[Drew] My name's Drew Collins.

And Elizabeth Collins is my daughter.

[tense violin music]

[Dan] My name's Dan Morrissey and I don't know,

I'm just a simple guy.

Just trying to make it through this life

figuring out something

that's worthwhile or meaningful.

Lyric is my daughter and God chose me

to be her father.

I was married to her mom Misty,

who's my high school sweetheart.

[Dylan] Just talk about yourself.

[Misty] I don't know. [sighs]

OK.

My name is Misty.

And I'm Lyric's mom.

[dramatic music]

[Misty] Lyric and Elizabeth were cousins.

Lyric was ten, Elizabeth was eight.

And they were good buddies, liked hanging out together.

A lot of that took place at my mom's,

which would be their grandmother's.

Or at Heather's house.

[Heather] Misty's my sister. A little bit under a year.

Her and I are 100 percent different.

She has always been outgoing, outspoken.

I have always been quiet or reserved.

But Elizabeth and Lyric,

it was almost like they were sisters.

They did everything together.

Elizabeth loved life.

She was a very very social child.

[Elizabeth] Here's one more tip.

Act cool.

[Drew] Elizabeth was real bubbly, always smiled.

Super playful.

Full of joy.

[Heather] I do remember her

getting her hair cut like mine.

I had got my hair cut short,

and she wanted to look like mom.

[Haley] Elizabeth would call

like every single night before bed,

and just wanted to talk to us and tell us about her day.

Hear about our day,

tell us how much she loved us.

[dramatic music]

[Lyric] Here.

[Woman] What you got Lyric?

[Lyric] -That my brella? [Woman] -Yeah.

[Misty] Lyric was gentle. She was loving.

[Misty] -I love you. [Lyric] -I love you.

[children sing]

[Vicki] Lyric liked to sing. She was always off key,

but that didn't matter because it was the heart,

and not what comes out of the mouth.

[Misty] Lyric was a fighter.

[Kaley] Definitely more adventurous,

tough as nails for sure.

[Haley] Yeah, for sure. [laughs]

[Dan] Lyric was trusting and fearless.

You know, it was just a blessing to be around her.

[birds chirping]

[Heather]Evansdale is a small town.

Everybody knows everybody.

You let your kids out and play.

You don't lock your doors.

You trust everybody,

because they've never given you reason not to.

[Larry] I had never been to Evansdale

prior to this case.

My first impression was it's a very small town,

a very quaint town.

If I lived there,

I don't think I would have any problems

letting my kids go for a bike ride,

or go for a walk, and go to the park.

It seemed like a very safe community.

[suspenseful music]

[Heather] So that day,

Drew got up, went to work.

It was early in the morning.

Elizabeth came and crawled in my bed,

which she did often.

[suspenseful music]

It was just sweet, always to have her come in

and snuggle next to me.

After dad got out of bed.

[Misty]I was living at my mom's,

and Lyric lived with me.

Dan and I were at odds,

we weren't together at the time.

I had to go to work at 9:00 am.

So, Lyric went with my mom to Evansdale.

[Heather] My mom was coming over with Lyric,

Elizabeth was still in pajamas when I left.

[clock ticking]

[suspenseful music]

[Wylma] I was at Heather's.

I was gonna make lunch pretty soon.

Lyric and Elizabeth, they wanted to go

for this bike ride, and I said

"Well, don't go very far Lyric,

because your mom's gonna be coming."

They said they wouldn't.

[Heather] When I left, I told the kids I love 'em,

and kissed 'em, and...

that was the last time I saw her.

[Elizabeth] I love you by the way.

[Lyric] Hi mommy.

[Elizabeth]Hey daddy, miss you.

Bye, love you.

[Lyric] I love you.

[suspenseful music]

[Misty]I got off at one o'clock.

And I was going down to pick Lyric up

and we would be going to the pool.

My mom called me, she was like

"Misty, are you coming?

Because I can't find the girls."

And I was like, "What do you mean?"

She's like, "Oh, they went on a bike ride,

and they're probably just down the street."

And I needed to come down there

and help look.

I figured they'd be close by.

[Heather] I got back and my mom said

that the girls still weren't back yet.

I just knew something was wrong immediately.

[Drew] I came home, and Heather's like,

"The girls went on a bike ride,

and they're not home yet. I'm starting to get worried."

[Drew] And I said,

"Oh, they're probably just stopped at a friends."

[Heather] Got in my vehicle,

went and looked at several places.

[suspenseful music]

[Wylma]And we drove everywhere.

Every imaginable place we drove,

we drove like for an hour.

We couldn't find 'em.

[Heather] They're nowhere to be found.

Nowhere.

I just felt it. I felt sick.

[cries] And went to the police station.

[suspenseful music fades]

[Kent]Friday the 13th of all days.

At 2:42 Heather came to the front doors,

and told me that she couldn't find

Elizabeth and Lyric.

It was unbelievably hot that day.

Temperatures high 90s, my thought was,

the girls had stopped at a friend's house,

were inside, where it was cool with air conditioning.

And had lost track of time.

We had started checking their friends' houses.

We'd gone door to door

in some of the neighborhoods looking.

[Drew] People from the Fire Department,

people from the city, went out and did a search.

[Dylan]I remember it was a Friday.

And the call came across the scanner

of two missing girls.

And actually, my first initial thought was like,

"Oh [bleep].

I'm gonna have to work late tonight.

Probably won't get home till seven or eight

and they're gonna find these girls at 7:45."

Because kids go missing a lot.

[suspenseful music]

[Drew] I wanna say around five o'clock,

we got a call from the police

and then they came and picked me up,

they wanted me to identify some bikes at Meyers Lake.

[suspenseful music]

[Heather] Meyers Lake is a little over a mile away.

Elizabeth has been there.

But it was always with an adult.

I just knew that there was no way

that she could have remembered how to go there.

[Drew]We went down to the park

and they drove down to where the bikes were found.

[Drew] There was a few people out there and...

[suspenseful music]

saw the bikes.

[suspenseful music]

[Misty] I was sitting on the couch with Heather,

Drew called and said the cops and him were at Meyers Lake,

and they found the two bikes that Lyric and Elizabeth

had been riding around on.

I knew I needed to get down there right away.

[Drew] And we were kinda just looking around

to see what we could find and then we ended up

finding Elizabeth's purse with her phone in it.

♪

And it looked like it had been like

tossed over the fence.

[Heather] I got a picture, Drew sent me a picture.

♪

It was of Elizabeth's purse, her Hannah Montana purse.

♪

And I went "They're gone.

They're gone."

[Reporter] Thank you for joining us.

We're following a search.

It's for two missing girls in Evansdale.

Police are searching for Elizabeth Collins

and her cousin, Lyric Morrissey.

[dramatic music]

[Male Reporter] Family members gathered near the boat ramp

at Meyers Lake and could only watch helplessly

as rescue crews searched for the girls.

Authorities found the girls' bikes off a trail

on the southeast corner of the lake.

[Kent] The bicycles where we found

were right at the gated entrance

to the overflow, which was a little peninsula

that runs off of the south side of the lake.

At that point, my heart sank because the overflow

is a gated access and the gate was found open.

I felt that the girls had gotten hot,

decided they were gonna go walk in the water.

♪

I immediately thought "We've got a drowning,"

and so, I notified the fire department

to bring their boat down with the dragging equipment.

[Male Reporter] Crews dragged part of the lake,

and did at least

two searches by air using infrared sensors.

[Female Reporter]Police have been going

door to door asking if anyone's seen the girls

or anything suspicious in the area.

[tense music]

[Misty] It's very difficult but we're trusting in the Lord

and just trying to be patient.

And let everybody do their job.

And we're just doing a lot of praying.

[Dan] When I was down there at the lake,

I'm just thinking, "Man, she's in trouble.

She's in trouble."

And it wasn't until a certain point

where it was just like, "I'm in trouble.

[laughs] Where is she? It's getting dark."

[tense music]

I'll never forget that feeling.

[Misty] There was a cop standing there on the lakeside

and I said "Well, who's looking

in the island in the middle?" and he was like,

"Ma'am, we'll get to that when we get to it."

I said, "I'm going right now."

And we just got in the water and started looking ourselves.

[Dan] Divers in the water,

all of a sudden, they're coming out.

Why?

You know, like why are they stopping?

[Larry] The divers spent maybe an hour in the water

and came out and told me

"Those girls were not in that overflow."

That changed things.

I knew we had a missing person's case.

We were getting an uneasy feeling

that whatever had happened with the girls, wasn't good.

[Female Reporter]After more than nine hours

of searching, tonight, police at Evansdale

have had no luck in finding two missing girls.

[Drew] We looked till about like nine or ten that night.

And then...

[clears throat] they told us to go home.

[Misty]Well, it's getting dark,

and we're stop, and we need to go home and get some rest.

And I said, "What do you mean that's it?

There's two little girls that are missing.

They went missing today.

Why does anybody need

to go home and go to sleep tonight?

And I screamed.

There was no way

I could lay my head down to sleep

knowing that they could be going through

something horrible.

[Kaley] When it hit around like ten,

11 o'clock at night, that's when you knew

like something really heinous happened,

like they would have found us, they would have found a store

or a phone, or knocked on a door or something,

if they were lost.

So that's when it started to become

like really surreal that like,

someone really did get them.

[tense music]

[traffic noise]

[child speaking]

[Heather] It's just horrific. [sniffs]

Just praying that someone will just,

just drop them off, you know? [sniffs]

[tense music]

You know, I wake up the next morning

and she's still not there.

[tense music]

[clock ticking]

[Kent] I wanted us to be able to hit the ground running

as soon as daylight popped up on Saturday.

We had detectives in from Waterloo police,

Cedar Falls police, Blackhawk County,

FBI had come in.

The DCI offered their assistance

and we eagerly accepted that.

[radio communication]

[Larry] At the time of the abduction,

I was a special agent in charge

with the Iowa division of criminal investigation.

It's the largest law enforcement agency

in the state of Iowa.

And their mission is to assist smaller departments,

or any department that asks for assistance.

The best potential crime scene we had

at that point was that location.

[Dylan]I remember on the 14th,

it was really hot.

And I got called in

to work on the weekend, overtime.

I remember just showing up at Meyers Lake,

you see the FBI's there, you see, I mean,

there's so many cops.

The response was huge.

And I just couldn't believe how quickly

the case had escalated media wise,

and we had national news there.

[Nancy Grace] Breaking news tonight live.

Cedar Falls suburbs.

A massive search underway for two little girls.

[Reporter] The only evidence found so far,

the girls' bikes and purse have been processed for clues.

Rescue crews say time is their worst enemy.

[Misty] Bring our kids home.

Bring them home, bring them home now.

Lyric, if you're out there, I love you baby.

Stay strong, I just, I just pray,

I just pray that you're OK.

[tense music]

[Larry] A double abduction is extremely rare.

Throughout the United States,

I think there's been maybe 15 since the 1970s.

Extremely rare anywhere in the United States

to have two children abducted at the same time.

[tense music]

[Heather] So many people came

to the search of...

I don't even know how many miles.

[Male Reporter]Hundreds of volunteers

lining up to help.

[Misty] Spent the next two days walking fields.

Walking for hours and hours and hours in the heat.

And through the weeds and the grass

and searching for them.

[Dan] I got my four wheeler, and we just went

all the places where people can walk.

People that didn't have homes,

that were staying off in the woods,

trying to look and see any kind of evidence

of anybody over there.

The plane came, it was flying over

and it had the thermal imaging.

They said they would be able to pick up a squirrel.

And they didn't pick up anything bigger than like a...

a groundhog or a chipmunk.

[sighs] So that was rough.

[Dan Trelka]We got to that lake

early Saturday morning,

I believe as the sun was coming up.

And the lake was nasty.

Green and nasty.

There was algae in it.

I've got little girls.

I said "There's no way any of my daughters

would go swimming in that lake."

I was convinced the girls were abducted.

One part of the procedures is to start looking

at the sex offender registry and contacting them

and interviewing them.

Based on past cases

that's an obvious place to start.

[Dylan] So in Iowa,

we have a sex offender registry

that anyone in the public has access to.

If you look up sex offenders in the Evansdale area,

you know, ten-mile radius,

you'd be surprised at how many sex offenders

are in that area.

When you look at a map on the registry,

it designates someone who offended with a child

with the letter M.

The M stands for Minor.

[Larry] Particularly if they have

offended against children,

we're sending agents out to knock on doors

and say "Where were you?"

Try to get those people eliminated as suspects.

[Mike] The FBI was able to bring in somebody

who just worked on cell phones,

to gather that cell phone tower data

to try to help and determine where people were.

So, a lot to hammer out, a lot of alibis to try to get.

[Drew] The days afterwards were pretty...

pretty much just kinda run together.

Like, everybody in town was wearing the pink shirts.

[Heathe] We just want our babies back.

Drop 'em off anywhere.

[tense music]

You know, like what were we supposed

to tell our other children?

Their sister can't be found?

[Amber] [singing]Elizabeth and Lyric

I need you back in my hands

In my heart My little tiny heart

I miss you, I miss you

I love you, I love you

Oh forever

[Drew] When the girls were missing

we just... really, I expected they were gonna come home.

Every night, when we'd get off work,

we would just sit outside until maybe 11 or 12 at night.

That's when it would get really hard for me,

knowing the day was over and nothing had happened

and that it was another day gone.

[suspenseful music]

[Larry] One of the pieces of information

that was collected was a surveillance video

from an auction business

located near the home of Elizabeth Collins,

where the girls left.

So that's the back of the auction house there

with a surveillance camera caught the girls

driving by on their bikes. Shortly after noon.

That would be fair to say it would be

the last known time the girls were seen,

before they were reported missing.

It gives us a time stamp, it gives us a date.

Perhaps if anybody following them

a short distance behind 'em in a vehicle.

It gives us a confirmation

of what they're wearing at the time,

the clothing.

Those are the things we're looking for

when we try to collect video.

[Dylan] There were both surveillance cameras

and eyewitnesses the day the girls went

on their bike ride.

They saw 'em at multiple positions in Evansdale.

♪

Sorry about that, Bob.

I interviewed them.

Just kinda run me through the day here

when you saw the girls.

[Robert] Well, I was standing over here,

raking, raking the yard and stuff.

And the girls come down Lake Avenue here,

they turned, went up Gilbert Road here.

I was standing by the middle,

they come by on their bicycle, and they go "Hi Bob,"

and I turned around just quick enough

to say "Hi girls."

Probably have to be close to noon or so.

But that's just guessing.

It's the last time I've seen 'em.

[suspenseful music]

[Merville] I'm a truck driver.

I just love driving.

Somewhere right in here

about where I seen the girls that day.

They were going towards the tree area.

They were walking towards the trees,

pushing their bikes.

It was around 12:30 that day. 20 to one, right in there.

I knew it was Elizabeth, Drew's daughter.

'Cause I worked... for his mom.

Well, then I got back that day

and didn't think nothing of it.

That evening, I heard they had been

kidnapped or gone.

And that's when it really hit me,

that I wished I would have stopped that day

and talked to 'em or something.

Really, I was in tears.

It nearly broke my heart

when I heard they were gone missing.

[tense music]

[Marlene] So, I'm driving down Gilbert,

going towards Evans,

and there was a guy standing right here,

by the No Outlet sign

with a girl on his shoulder,

and another little girl with him.

And the girl on the shoulder,

I think was kind of fighting him,

but I thought, "Oh, it's a child

that doesn't wanna go home from playing yet,

so they're mad at the dad. No big deal."

There was a white van there that day. Across the street.

I've tried remembering what kind of van it was,

did it have windows?

I tried remembering all that, and I can't remember.

I mean, you don't think,

"Oh my God, two little girls are gonna go missing."

This is Evansdale for God's sake.

This is a small town.

This is a town that kids ride their bikes.

This is a town that kids go out

and have ice cream.

I think about that day every day.

To be so close,

if that would have been them,

that I could have maybe helped.

I just hope and pray that that wasn't them.

That's all I can say.

[tense music]

[Dan Trelka] The Saturday after the abduction,

I swear that day two or three tips

came in about a white van.

So every house that we went to,

where I saw a vehicle like that,

piqued my interest.

We discovered some stuff that just didn't pan out.

There are so many white vans out there.

[Mike] You'll find in almost any unsolved case like this

there always seems to be something in a report

about white vans.

I mean, white vans

just lead these types of cases unfortunately.

We have, and we continue to sometimes get

white van leads, and we'll follow 'em out.

I'll never say, until the case is solved,

and we know exactly what happened,

that a white van wasn't involved.

[Kent] I could walk into a store

and could feel the tension.

This was eating at our community.

The community changed.

You didn't see the kids out playing

without a parent right on top of 'em.

[dramatic music] [clock ticking]

[Male Reporter] And we just learned minutes ago

that investigators will drain a lake in an area

where the girls were last seen.

[Male Reporter 2]One of the newest efforts

in the Evansdale search for two missing girls

Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook.

[Larry] The FBI has bloodhounds,

trained to track a scent.

Bloodhounds were brought in,

taken down to the area where the bikes were found.

They apparently alerted on a scent, by the water.

[Misty] Since the dogs picked up their scent,

at the water's edge,

why they're draining the lake to rule that out.

[dramatic music]

[Kent] We were 90 percent sure

the girls were not in the lake.

We had the divers in the lake, we'd uncovered nothing.

And I wasn't gonna walk away and say

"Oh there's still a possibility."

If the girls had been in the water,

perhaps they'd been weighted down.

We didn't know.

So, I talked with the mayor, said, you know,

"Is there a way we can drain the lake?"

You know, they would have devoted

all their resources to say

you know, investigating the neighborhood

and knocking on doors

and it turns out the girls are in the lake?

That would be a pretty big...

♪

Mishap.

[Female Reporter] It could take several days

before the lake is drained completely.

[Heather] Elizabeth knew that she was never

to be in water without an adult.

Like in my heart, I just knew that they weren't gonna find

anything in that lake.

I just knew.

♪

[thud]

And they didn't.

[dramatic music]

[Drew] You wanna find where they're at.

And you don't know like at that point you're...

you're like, "Are they alive or are they dead?"

So, it's...

and it's the same thing when...

oh [sighs]

[chair creaking]

[cries]

Damn.

[paper dabbing]

[birds chirping] [tense music]

[Elizabeth] I got a tattoo.

I got a tattoo. Right mom?

[Heather] No. [laughs]

[suspenseful music]

[Larry] Anytime you have a violent crime,

you have to rule out the family as a possibility.

[suspenseful music]

I mean it's just kinda like... investigations 101.

[Heather] They questioned me and Drew,

and Misty and Dan.

[Larry] Unfortunately, sometimes parents do

bad things to their kids, or siblings do bad things

to their siblings.

So you have to try to rule those people out.

♪

[Drew] We did the interviews and the... the lie detectors.

[Misty] They got our fingerprints and our DNA

and so they also did that with the kids.

[children shout and laugh]

[Misty] Here you go kids. Hang on there, you'll fall.

[Drew] They wanted all the computers,

like the laptops and our phones.

They wanted to see

if somebody was talking to the girls

on some sort of a chatline or something like that.

Whatever they want, you just give it to 'em.

You just want your kid back.

[Kent] Heather and Drew

were very forthcoming to talk with us.

♪

Dan and Misty...

not quite as much.

[tense music]

[Reporter] FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault

says there are some roadblocks in this investigation.

[Sandy] Unfortunately in this case,

law enforcement has not received total cooperation

from all family and close friends.

[tense music]

[Dan] Drew and Heather,

they got treated a little different, you know?

They were more treated like victims.

We weren't treated like, what do you say?

Villains?

Villain of the story, you know?

"Ooh drugs. Shady."

[Reporter] Misty and Dan are currently separated.

They've both done prison time for felony drug convictions.

[Dylan] I know it's no secret you dealt with addiction.

[Dan] Allegedly.

[Misty] When I was eight months

pregnant with Lyric,

I got a federal indictment for my criminal activity

prior to my pregnancy.

I got three years in federal prison

for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamines.

[Tammy] My sister Misty ended up going to prison

in West Virginia.

And so, I would just take the video camera

wherever we would go,

and wanted to get as much footage as I could

for Misty while she was gone,

so she would be able

to look back and see the kids growing up.

[Kerry] -Hi Lyric. [Lyric] -Hi Kerry.

[Misty] I went in 2003, Lyric was 18 months old.

When I got out, she was four.

[dramatic music]

[Misty] That's me and Lyric.

[tense music]

♪

[Reporter] Investigators also had said

they're frustrated with Lyric's parents,

Misty and Dan Morrissey, who are now separated.

Both have been in drug trouble in the past,

Dan is awaiting trial

on charges he made and dealt meth.

[Dan] I was a meth cook

before the abduction of Lyric and Elizabeth.

I was facing charges for conspiracy to manufacture

and marijuana intent to deliver.

And I was in jail for six months.

And then I bonded out.

I've only been out for like not even a month,

I don't think.

[Dylan] The day before the girls went missing,

Dan Morrissey was negotiating a plea deal

that he ultimately didn't take.

[Dan]They offered me 30 years.

He said "Take it today or leave it,

and if you take it today,

I want you to be taken into custody.

Today." And I'm like, "No, my kids,

they don't know I'm gonna go to jail today.

And I just bonded out and spent all that money."

I was like, "There's no way. I'm not doing it."

[Kent] So rather than accepting the plea deal,

and go to immediate sentencing,

they were now gonna have to reset that for trial.

[Dan] And I walked from the courthouse

back to my house, and I was bummed out,

[sighs]

sitting there just completely depleted

and next thing I know, Lyric come flying in my room.

And hugged me, you know,

and just wanted to be an encouragement to me.

And she said, "I love you." [cries]

And that was the last time I seen Lyric.

[scary music]

[Kent] Dan withdrew his plea

the day before the girls went missing.

So, we wondered about that.

Was that playing into it? Was he looking for sympathy?

Was he somehow involved in hiding the girls?

And wanting to make a plea for, for compassion

from the courts, from the community that,

you know, how could we send

a father of a missing girl away to prison

while his daughter is still missing?

[Dan Trelka] Dan and Misty, considering their past,

and their drug usage, you do have to focus on them.

[dramatic rhythmic music]

[Tammy] The Feds were on top of Misty and Dan hard

because of their drug usage.

They wanted polygraph tests.

♪

[Misty] I was not using drugs, I'd been clean

for quite a long time at that point.

Well, first we went and did the polygraphs.

Dan was still getting high, he told them that.

[Dan]The polygraph, the, the first one I told 'em

I'd just smoked a blunt before I come down here

to calm down.

And I had been using meth, 'cause I just stayed up

like three days or something.

I did not stop looking.

And they said, "Oh it shouldn't matter."

Hooked me all up and asked me all these questions.

He said "Just wait right here,

and then we'll be back in a minute, you know?"

Two other officers come back,

and they start trying to turn on me,

and tell me that I'm lying.

[Kent] Both Dan and Misty took a polygraph

and the results came back inconclusive.

[Misty] Things began shifting really fast into

"You must be involved somehow"

and I knew that shift. I felt it, I saw it,

you know what I mean?

I'd been under interrogation before by police.

It just began to be very just overwhelming

and, and so you know, walls did go up at that point.

♪

[Kent] That's when they terminated talking with us.

That brought up red flags, why would,

why would you wanna not talk with the police

who are trying to help find your kids?

♪

[Larry] It's like, "OK,

if you're gonna make yourself uncooperative,

you're gonna make yourself a person of interest,

then we're interested."

[cars run]

[Misty] We were sleeping,

it was the middle of the night.

And there's a pounding on the door.

We opened the door.

[tense music]

And then they're yelling at me, like,

"We know you thought you were being a good mom.

You just wanted to do

what was right for your daughter.

And things got out of control. They got out of hand."

Then they start screaming "You killed your kid.

You [bleep] killed your kid.

You better [bleep] tell us what happened."

They're screaming at me.

[Dan] Imagine that, huh?

If your kid was missing and they're investigating you?

Investigating you.

[suspenseful music]

[Nancy Grace] Bombshell tonight.

Daddy storms out on police

after they accuse him of murder.

[Reporter] All the while troubling details coming out

about the family's past drug use, prison time.

[Dan Trelka] Dan and Misty's lifestyle,

that exposed those kids to a lot of bad people.

So it could easily be one of those bad people

that was involved in this.

[thud]

[Heather] Did they owe somebody money?

Did they sell something bad to somebody

and they're just there to get 'em back?

[Misty] So for whatever reasons and dynamics

beyond my control, some type of chasm

was opened up between our families

and there was definitely a different experience

that Heather and her family had.

[Dylan] So I have to ask you,

do you think Misty was involved in this?

[Heather] [sniffs]

I can't answer that question 'cause I don't know.

[suspenseful dramatic music]

I pray she wasn't.

[tense music]

[Heather] I love my sister Misty.

And to think that she could harm my niece,

and her daughter,

just like broke my heart to even think about it.

But like, just, you just don't know.

And you know, Dan...

I've never liked him, so, you know,

for me to think about that wasn't really,

just being honest, just wasn't that hard for me

[laughs] to think about.

[Drew] The time when Misty had went to prison

in the early 2000s, she had worked with the police

and... I think some real big people went down

and when that happened, I was really concerned

that someone would retaliate.

♪

[Woman] Dan has a history,

a long-term history of meth use.

Would Dan ever harm his children?

Absolutely not.

[Dan] The media, they just treated us like,

[sighs] like we were the next story.

We were the next,

we were the next thing to talk about.

"Oh we found out he's out on bond.

He's out on bond, he's facing drug charges.

Oh, we got a story here.

Alright, let's get, let's start asking questions."

Then they turned on me.

[Jane] If you're involved with methamphetamine,

the chance of having dangerous people in your life,

increases dramatically.

[Woman] Yeah, I mean, that is not a newsflash Jane.

It's not uncommon if you owe drug dealers money

or you owe somebody a lot of money for your meths

that you're trying to use to feed your addiction...

maybe your kid gets taken as punishment

'cause you didn't pay?

[tense music]

[Haley] Social media and the news and stuff,

like, it got to us too.

[Kaley] There's like comments and stuff on Facebook

and all over the place saying that like,

"Oh that aunt,

that aunt's the one that killed them."

[Haley] And these were just random people

who just like, "Oh you're Lyric and Elizabeth's cousin?

Oh that, you obviously like,

you know that your aunt and uncle did it."

[Kent] Because of Dan's withdrawal of his plea,

were people that Dan associated with

now becoming nervous thinking that Dan

was gonna turn state's evidence against them?

And so were they thinking that "We've gotta do something

to make sure this guy doesn't say anything?"

[Dylan] What about the notion that someone

was holding the girls

so you wouldn't turn the states evidence again

and it's part of a plea deal?

[Dan] [laughs] It's the most stupidest thing

I've ever heard in my life.

That theory, saying something about you

and being a meth cook

and everybody knows you're telling

and the Mexican mafia,

and there's, and if you don't tell on them

then they'll release Lyric and stuff.

Like [laughs] has no truth at all, period,

connecting me in any way,

in any aspect of any of that stuff.

Never dealt with the Mexican mafia,

never owed money,

never had any evidence against anybody.

I cook my own drugs,

got high myself, I did it to get high,

I didn't do it to make money. I didn't have money.

I live with my mom.

[Vicki] They were saying that it was the drug mafia.

No, it wasn't the drug mafia.

You know, he was [laughs], he was a meth make,

he made the stuff himself and sold what he needed

for his own use.

And a little money to get by. Where's the mafia in that?

[Dan] As a parent who knows I got nothing to do with it,

how do I convince you

that I have nothing to do with it,

so you can get after what's really going on?

[Kent] Within the next couple of days,

they agreed to come back in, take polygraphs again,

and talk with us in a little more detail.

[Dan] I said, "I'll take that same test,

do another polygraph and I'll get clean,

and I guarantee you

it has something to do with that,

because I told you I was under the influence

and you guys said it doesn't matter."

That's the only thing I could think of.

Your test is wrong, and that's lying.

Said OK, three days later I came back,

answered the same test, everything passed it.

And then they wanted to ask me other questions.

I passed that. And at that moment,

then they let me in on everything.

On everything.

At that moment they knew that I was telling the truth,

and everything was good. But it wasted time.

[Larry] Instead of looking over here,

and potentially finding the right guy,

I'm wasting all kinds of time, all kinds of resources,

all kinds of manpower, trying to deal with you,

because you don't like the police.

Or you've got a history

of bad relations with the police.

And now I've gotta send resources

to rule you out

when I could have ruled you out easily

if you'd just cooperated

because you're being a knucklehead.

[Dan] Well, we're all villains.

And we're all heroes and you know,

we're all different characters in a movie

at some point in time in our lives.

You know?

Doesn't mean that I'm the villain.

I'm, I'm the victim.

[Dylan] Who's the hero in this story?

[Dan] [laughs] Lyric, and Elizabeth.

[tense music] [clock ticking]

[Reporter] New hope tonight in the search

for two missing girls from Iowa.

[Sandy] We believe these girls are alive.

And we are not discouraged by the passage of time

since their disappearance.

[Larry] I can't tell you all of the factors

that went into that decision to make that statement,

maybe it's... in part for the families,

say "Hey, we're still hopeful they're alive.

We think they're alive."

Maybe it's for the bad person, you know, the suspect,

the perpetrator.

"We believe they're still alive,

if they are still alive,

maybe keep it that way."

[dramatic music]

[Heather]It gave us a lot of hope.

With them saying that they thought

that they were still alive.

[Drew] At four, during the week,

Monday through Friday

we would meet at Evansdale police station

for we'd call like a debriefing.

[Larry] We would be limited what we could tell them.

We may say "Well, we have a pretty good suspect

we're looking at today or this week,"

and without telling them who they are,

or telling them why they're a good suspect.

You know, trying to not necessarily

get their hopes up.

[Drew] You don't know what's going on in the investigation,

you don't know what they know.

There's a few times "Hey, we got something

that looks good."

Then they would come back and say

"Oh, it wasn't nothing." It's like a roller coaster.

[dramatic music]

[Larry] Certainly in the back of our minds

we were thinking of cases where girls, young women,

have been abducted and maybe held for long periods of time

and you know, occasionally rarely they escape

or they're found, months later, or years later.

And they're still alive.

If you're a person who prays or praying for the fact

that the hope that they're found

and they're still alive.

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

♪

[Dan Trelka] Drew would have some dark dark moments

throughout this whole period

and many times he would just call me,

and I told him, I said "You can call me 24/7

and I'll come pick you up and we'll go for a ride."

And we would just drive around

and talk through it.

[dramatic music]

The saddest thing is the parents' imagining

their children are alive

and what they're going through.

I mean, that's tough.

So, the things that were going through his mind,

as to what his daughter was enduring,

was very painful for him.

[sad music]

♪

So, we'd drive around [cries] and talk it out.

♪

[sad music]

I got quite close to him through this ordeal.

♪

[sad music] [clock ticking]

♪

[Lyric] Hi mom.

[Misty] It was raining outside,

and I sat out in the rain because I didn't know

if they were inside or not. You know?

And if they were out in the rain,

I didn't wanna be in comfort

and that's how every single day was.

[cries] 'Cause you didn't know.

♪

[Drew] The police department,

I wanna say sometime in October,

they were like "We don't need to see you everyday."

That was really hard.

'Cause we'd liked going there and getting updates.

It just kinda slows down, other things happen,

and they have to work other crimes.

[clock ticking] [soft music]

[Heather] We wrote a letter as a family

to whoever kidnapped Elizabeth and Lyric.

To whom it may concern.

We would use your name,

but we don't know who you are, or maybe we do.

[Drew] Maybe you are someone who knows the girls,

maybe you are someone

who just acted upon an impulse.

[Heather] Maybe you planned to take them. We don't know,

because we don't know who you are.

Maybe we can sort of imagine that you must not have had

the things you needed to grow up

feeling safe and loved because only someone

who hurts inside would hurt another person

and their family.

[sad music]

[Heather]Taking the girls from us

has caused much pain, pain for them,

pain for us and our families.

Since the time you took them, maybe you've wondered

more than a few times

how you could ever make it right?

How to be the hero not the monster?

♪

We want you to know that we are praying for you

to do the right thing.

By releasing the girls, everyone wins. Even you.

Imagine how it would feel to have everyone remember

that you were the one person in all the missing cases

who cared enough to let the girls go?

Our lives have not been the same since July 13th.

[Drew] Please let our girls...

[tense music]

♪

come home to us.

Please do the right thing.

Be a hero.

Sincerely, Drew and Heather, Dan and Misty.

[dramatic music]

[suspenseful music] [clock ticking]

[suspenseful music]

♪

[suspenseful music]

[water gently flowing]

[suspenseful music]

♪

[footsteps on leaves]

[birds chirping]

[Amanda] It was the last day of the hunting season

and the weather was on the warmer side.

Not your typical winter.

[Kevin] Came out and pushed from far end

all the way back this way and I looked up

and I saw a fawn off to the side.

And kinda signaled to mom and dad

to post up, so I could kinda flush 'em out.

[bird chirping]

Something just kept telling me

like "No, further back, further back."

We were guided back here by some other power,

bigger than ourselves.

[mysterious music]

[Kevin] That's when I seen the pink cloth,

is kinda what stuck out to me at first.

And then when I pulled that cloth back,

and saw a very human skull looking back at me,

kind of stumbled back and just in disbelief.

That's when I saw the other skull

and shoe right there.

The longer we stood here, we'd just see more and more

remains strewn across the whole area.

[Amanda] We called 911 and basically just repeating

that "There's remains here, there's clothes, shoes.

That we're pretty sure it's human."

[mysterious music]

[Kevin] Then the first officer came walking through.

"Yep, can confirm

we have remains of two individuals here.

Looks like children."

[suspenseful music]

[Drew] I mean, when you look at those girls,

they're beautiful.

Sweet.

Innocent girls

and this is a [bleep] monster who did this.

[suspenseful music]

How do you snuff out two little girls

and leave 'em

like they're trash?

You're not doing that to my kid.

It's never gonna end till we find out who did this.

And there's no forgetting that for me.

[tense music]

[thud]

[phone call ringing]

[911 operator]911 Boone County,

what's the location of your emergency?

[Dezi]Can you please help me?

There's...

[911 operator]What's going on?

[Dezi] This dude picked me and my friend...

I am [bleep] worried and I need help.

[Reporter] 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepardand

and 12-year-old girl

whose name has not yet been released,

were abducted from a bus station

right near an elementary school.

And the 12-year-old girl managed to escape.

She provided key information to investigators.

[suspenseful music]