Evansdale, Iowa-  Lyric Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins have been missing from what their Grandmother Wylma Cook described as “within her view from the home” for over one week.  Myers Lake, approximately a 27 acre body of water surrounded by a Nature bike trail which yielded the tweens bikes and purse, has been cleared after consultation with the Elite FBI CSI dive team.

Courtesy WH8T

On July 12th, the day before the girls disappeared,  Daniel Morrissey was due to enter a guilty plea in a pending Federal drug arrest.  Instead, he requested the matter be scheduled/reset for trial.  In response,  prosecutors swiftly requested the court place Morrissey under appropriate pre-trial supervision for his alleged crimes.

On Thursday, prosecutors with the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office asked a judge to review Morrissey’s release, pointing out that Iowa Code state people charged with conspiracy to manufacture meth being a second offender — one of the charges Morrissey is facing — shall be under supervision as a condition of their release.

Occurring almost simultaneously to Morrissey’s plea filing which he did not attend personally, a Black Hawk county prisoner broke out of jail, robbed a pharmacy and was on the lam for over 18 hours.

Jeremy Alan Mask, fond of controlled substances which led to his arrests is now in custody and additional charges related to the escape were filed against Mask the following day.  Mask was sentenced to a residential treatment center following a burglary of a Walgreens last April.

Are the incidents connected?  Investigators are not talking.  Except to say they now have video footage of the girls at about the time they were both seen.  No mention as to whether or not the girls were on their bikes.

Investigators may be tight lipped- But they ARE acting.

Yesterday  Black Hawk County detectives revised a no contact order barring Dan Morrissey from being near his wife Misty- although they have appeared together and have been living together for weeks- following a domestic violence assault which landed both Dan and Misty back in prison last August.

As reported exclusively last week on www.blinkoncrime.com, Dan Morrissey for the assault and Misty Cook-Morrissey for extensive probation/parole violations.

The pair are now permitted to be in each other’s company, provided LE agents are as well.

Misty Cook Morrissey’s sister Tammy Brossueau has confirmed that detectives have directly confronted Dan Morrissey with information they developed pointing to him as a suspect and as a result the estranged couple have refused to cooperate further in the investigation to locate their daughter and her cousin Elizabeth.

Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office Captain Rick Abben officially declared the case an abduction at a 4 PM press conference yesterday afternoon.

Abben also announced a $50,000 reward is being offered leading to the person or persons responsible for the disappearance of the girls.  He confirmed  said evidence has been seized in the investigation and sent to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation crime lab in Des Moines.    While he would not comment on the evidence specifically, sources inside the investigation speaking on the condition of anonymity to www.blinkoncrime.com have confirmed that items from the home including a computer and other electronic devices are among the listed property inventory.

Missing since Friday July 13th from right outside the Lederal Safety Shoe shop since about 12:15 PM,  Lyric Morrissey, 11, and her cousin Elizabeth Collins, 8 are the subject of an exhaustive air and foot search for the third day.

Both girls bikes were found 2 miles away from where they were last seen at Meyers Lake next to route 27.  About 20 yards away,  the bag and cell phone of one of the girls was also located.

Misty Morrissey,  mother of Lyric, believes the girls have been abducted.

Investigators are stumped and frustrated they have not found any sign of Lyric and Elizabeth whatsoever and compared the disappearance to” vanishing into thin air”.

Heather Collins,  Elizabeth’s mother, is Misty Morrissey’s sister.   Lyric Morrissey also has a brother,  Dillin.

As with any alleged abduction, family becomes the initial focus of investigators in an effort to rule them out.

Daniel Eugene Morrissey,  Lyric’s father and Elizabeth’s former Uncle by marriage,  has had a very long and varied criminal past.

While it is of course not known if Mr. Morrissey has had any recent contact with his daughter, court records show that he was investigated for a dismissed domestic abuse battery with a weapon /mental illness charge less than one year ago.

He has been in and out of the corrections system since as early as 1997.

Mr. Morrisey has a myspace  set to private entitled urmomsamessedupbitchhh.

At the time of this publication,  calls to Black Hawk PD for comment on this story had not been returned.

No clothing description or bike specs have been released.

map by Klaasend

The search for two Iowa cousins, Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins intesifies following the 30 hour mark.   The girls were last seen together in downtown Evansdale riding their bikes at around noon Friday.

The girls bikes were found near a bike trail next to Myer’s Lake  and Lyric’s mother Mistyl Cook Morrisey believes the tweens were abducted.   By Sunday morning,  investigators believe at least 40% of the lake had been searched with no sign of the girls.  A bag and cell phone belonging to Lyric was found nearby.

Rick Abben, chief deputy sheriff for Black Hawk County, said the girls were last seen by their grandmother when the two left her Evansdale home at about 12:15 p.m. Friday to ride their bicycles.

The girls’ grandmother notified police two hours later when they hadn’t returned. A firefighter located their bikes on a trail close to nearby Meyers Lake at about 4 p.m. Friday.

Aerial search equipment formatted with thermal infared technology has not produced any possible leads on the ground.

Please check back to www.blinkoncrime.com for this developing story

Update From Blink:  Having had an opportunity to review the map of the last known location, their are two areas of great immediate concern I am focused on.

1. The area where they were last seen on their bikes is next to a safety shoe ( think workboot) store, and adjacent to the rear or parking area of a bar at lunchtime on a Friday and likely a payday.  Lefty’s Lounge is also a truck stop.  This location is just a few blocks from the Grandmother’s residence and some areas of it can be seen from the home if one was standing outside.   The residence also appears to be the office of Planetary Tree Services, unclear if employees report directly for the day’s jobs but the map reflects what could be utility trucks used for tree cutting.   It is not uncommon for some day laborors

2. The girls bikes and bag/cell phone are located together, in an area approximately 2 miles from the area where they were last seen.   Their are no bike trails on the roadway and only heavy traffic “highway” leading straight to the lake,  alternative routes through the neighborhood are possible,  but then they likely would have been seen.

The girls apparently rode bike s close to home frequently with no report of wandering off and the mother’s first reaction upon hearing the bike’s locations were that the girls were abducted.   That tells me that she is reasonably certain that the children would not chosen the lake as a bike riding destination as it is a natural tendency for a parent to want to NOT believe a child has been abducted as a first “option”.  She also has knowledge about what time the grandmother began calling the girls with no answer,  and the call to police came at 2.    Were they sent for anything from a store?

I would recommend that the neighborhood closest to the home be canvassed and each shop at the strip mall be visited for customers and employee timecards be reviewed with specific emphasis on any surveillance footage, traffic cams and of course, Lefty’s Lounge logs, immediately.  Close attention should be paid to anyone leaving any of the merchants between 12:15 PM and 1:15PM abruptly,  anyone leaving a shift early, or anyone taking their break out of turn, etc.

This is an incredibly tight window of time for an abduction of two , if it is one,   the bikes are found near an unfenced section directly on the other side of Route 20 with no evidence of foul play.  The trail itself is paved and very visible from the road.

Blink is on location and will be filing this report later today.  I am opening the thread to keep discussion on the Freeh Report here in advance of the piece.    Set your RSS.

On Wednesday June 27th, the latest allegation against convicted child molester Gerald “Jerry” Sandusky hit the Northern Virginia Civil Courts.  A Pro Se Federal personal injury suit was filed by a man certifying himself as Jonathan Amendola. He requests a  restraining order based on fear of imminent bodily injury, and that Uncle Joe- does not care and never has.

Jonathan Amendola,  an alleged nephew of Jerry Sandusky’s defense attorney Joseph Amendola claims Jerry Sandusky touched his crotch,  kissed his earlobe while he was urinating and subsequently threatened him in 1991 while traveling with the football team as a “PSU” fan.

Courtesy of The Republic

The request for a restraining order reads, in pertinent part:

THE PLAINTIFF FACES IMMINENT DANGER AND BODILY HARM FROM THE DEFENDANT  AND MOVES THIS HONORABLE COURT TO ISSUE AN ORDER FOR DEFENDANT JERRY SANDUSKY TO RESPOND. I’M THE NEPHEW OF ATTORNEY JOE AMENDOLA  AND I’M IN DANGER BECAUSE JERRY SANDUSKY  MOLESTED  ME AND JOE AMENDOLA KNEW THIS BUT CONTINUED TO DE­ FEND JERRY ANYWAY FOR MONEY AND DISREGARDING MY PREVIOUS SEXUAL ABUSE FROMSANDUSKY.  

IN 1991, I WAS A PENN ST. FAN ANDI TRAVELED  WITH THE FOOTBALL TEAM TO WEST VIRGINIA TO PLAY THE MOUNTAINEERS, AND AT MOUNTAINEER STADIUM IN THE PUBLIC REST ROOM DEFENDANT TOUCHED ME ON MY CROTCH WHILE I WAS URINATING AND KISSED MY RIGHT EAR LOBE AND TOLD ME IF I TELL ANYONE HE IS GOING TO KILL ME. I HAVE BEEN SUFFERING EMOTIONAL DISTRESS SINCE AND I’M ESTRANGED FROM JOE AMENDOLA BECAUSE HE DOES NOT CARE FOR HIS FAMILY AND I’M SCARED SANDUSKY  IS GOING TO ASSAULT ME,

I SEEK A RESTRAINING  ORDER AGAINST HIM.

And Then…

As mysteriously as it appeared,  Mr. Amendola faxed a request to withdraw the suit, and the motion was granted.

On June 28th, via fax, Jonathan Amendola filed to withdraw the suit, and it’s dismissal, which was granted by her Honor Judge Keeley.

JONATHAN AMENDOLA,

Plaintiff,

v.                                CRIMINAL NO. 1:12CV107 (Judge Keeley)

GERALD ARTHUR SANDUSKY, Defendant.

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO WITHDRAW SUIT [DKT. NO. 4]

On June 28, 2012, the pro se plaintiff, Jonathan Amendola (“Amendola”), moved to withdraw this lawsuit (dkt. no. 4). Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i), a plaintiff may dismiss an action without a court order by filing a notice of dismissal before the opposing party files an answer or a motion for summary judgment. Insofar as the defendant in this case has not yet appeared, the Court GRANTS Amendola’s motion (dkt. no. 4) and ORDERS that this case be DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE and STRICKEN from the docket of this Court.

It is so ORDERED.

The Court directs the Clerk of Court to mail a copy of this Order to the pro se plaintiff via certified mail, return receipt requested.

DATED: June 29, 2012

/s/ Irene M. Keeley                IRENE M. KEELEY

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Now you see it, now you don’t.   Uh, I  mean, you still can.  Without prejudice and stricken from the docket do make it invisible.

Early fireworks for the Independence Day Celebrations of the Amendola clan?

Or is this suit one of many pranks that appears to be filed by the same idiot who is not aware that receipt numbers for faxes and certified mail are tracked by the USPS and the FBI respectively?

If so, we will be sure to make his acquaintance in the near future facing Federal criminal charges.

research credit BOC contributing poster beejay