Missing Iowa Girls Lyric Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins: Dad Daniel Morrissey Has Long History With Burglary, Drugs, Battery, Possible Mental Illness
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
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whoops… forgot the link I meant to include with my previous post:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/17/us/iowa-missing-cousins/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
http://www.myspace.com/ u r moms a messed up bitchh
(I separated the letters)
Who writes this? What is wrong with him?
The Moz sounds like sounds like a jerk, to me.IMO
Has the girls getting in to a boat been entertained? A boat ride may be what lured them to their demise? Although I am unaware of their proximity to the water? Is there a fence between the water and the bikes?
Blink, in the title of your article you identify Lyric as Lyric Morrissey, but in the news articles I’m reading (CNN, WCFCourrier) Lyric is refferred to as Lyric Cook. Lyric’s mother Misty is identified as Misty Cook-Morrissey.
Based on the names, I have to ask: does Lyric have a different biological father, making Daniel Morrissey her step-father? If so, this adds one more person to the mix, to be considered and ruled-out. It also has the potetial to be a source of conflict (custody, etc.)
Good question BP- Dan Morrissey is Lyric’s Dad. It is a family issue as to how she is referred to, but she is definitely the former couples child.
B
Who had custody of Lyric? I see under Iowa Courts Online (www.iowacourts.gov) that mom Misty has wages garnished through Child Support Recovery unit as recently as April. It also has the guardianship order awarding Heather (Elizabeth’s mother and Misty’s sister(?)) in 2003 and closed 2007. Are the mothers close? I noted on JVM last night I saw Lyric’s parents talking to JVM together by not Elizabeth’s parents with them. Kinda thought that was odd. Praying for these little girls to be found
Police are cordoning off a section of public access at the lake. An ambulance has arrived there as well. https://twitter.com/eSchettler
Word Girl says:
July 16, 2012 at 1:56 pm
You can click on the symbol on the map which brings up the profile of the offender. Then click on the mug shots to the right.
Our River Forest Rd. offender like the Holiday season. His mug shots are from November, 2009, November, 2010, and December, 2011.
~~~~~~~
His birthday is in Nov, close to Thanksgiving. Interesting.
Did these young girls have access to a computer at home. Kids of very young ages are now on facebook and other sites where they can communicate with strangers. Could they have been excited to go meet a new “online friend” and kept it a secret from Grandma?
Yes.
B
Collins is 4’1” tall, weighs about 80 pounds, has sandy hair, blue eyes and her birthdate is 7/31/2003. Collins was last seen wearing a white shirt, shorts and black tennis shoes or high tops.
Cook is 4’11” tall, weighs 145 pounds, has brown chin-length hair, tanned skin, blue eyes and a mole on the back of her neck the size of a dime. Cook’s birthdate is 10/2/2001. She was last seen wearing a light green shirt, shorts and black flip flops that, when together, form a Sesame Street character.
BLINK: I had seen this with the 1st Missing Poster on Facebook and believe it’s been out since Saturday. I saw above post saying you didn’t have description of what they were last seen wearing…
Still here everyday, just very sad… much hope to your mama, Jersey girls grow strong!
Ty Kindly Jane
B
It has to have been someone had the opportunity to see the girls and to learn their patterns. Neighbor said he saw the girls ride bikes past his house and that it was such a common occurrence he didn’t think twice about it. His wife mentioned that “especially Elizabeth” would ride her bike by every night and would stop to talk to people.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/comments/article/20120717/NEWS/120717002/Witness-said-he-may-seen-missing-Iowa-girls-after-their-disappearance
Listening to the police scanner for Blackhawk county. There is some mention of the search. But not much.
Honest to God I would be happy to be wrong, and will be glad to say so-
I feel strongly that the search/investigation needs more experienced assets and a solid victimology and possible suspect profile.
These little girls- sweetiebabies, did not vanish.
B
Off subject, but I missed this article back in December regarding the two little girls in Oklahoma that were murdered along a rural dirt road.
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-09/justice/justice_oklahoma-slain-girls_1_taylor-paschal-placker-weleetka-first-degree-murder?_s=PM:JUSTICE
Cindy- not at all off subject, thank you for posting. It is a real possibility that this is a stranger abduction. It is atypical, and frankly, I do not believe all is known about the girls murder.
B
Clothing, I thought I had reported earlier was described on the Missing poster.
Lyric Cook-Morrissey was wearing black Sesame Street flipflops–distinctive in that they form a character when side by side. She had on black shorts and a light-green shirt. Lyric is 4’11 and weighs approximately 145 pounds. She has chin-length, brown hair, blue eyes, and has a dime-size birthmark, mole on the back of her neck.
Elizabeth Collins was last seen wearing a white shirt, shorts, and either high-tops or black tennis shoes. She is 4’1” tall and weighs approximately 80 pounds. Her hair is sandy-blonde and her eyes are blue.
FBI have been on the scene for at least 48 hours and their dogs hit on the girls scent at the lake.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Lake-drained-in-search-for-Iowa-cousins-8-and-10-3709597.php
It seems that the children-snatchers can sense children who are unsupervised and may have been exposed to some adult-like behavior, including criminal behavior.
It’s almost as if they say, “this kid’s not be cared for well enough and she is vulnerable.” I dunno. I’m trying to place where my attitude and thoughts come from here.
Fox news said that the lake was drained after the FBI dogs had detected the girls’ scent.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/17/fbi-dogs-join-search-for-missing-iowa-girls/
Uh, this blown up photo of Lyric looks as if her left eyebrow is pierced? Correct me if I’m wrong.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/17/fbi-dogs-join-search-for-missing-iowa-girls/
Dan Morrissey, Lyric’s father, describes the area where their bikes were found as a “trap.”
At first, I thought he meant like a ‘filter’ sort of trap.
No, he meant a deadend sort of ‘trap’ for someone trying to flee from harm (or from the Law, I assume).
Morrissey is talking about the area inside the fence. The bikes were found on the other side.
Sry, that statement was reported in the same Fox news article above.
He also said, “”We’ve never gone through anything like this. It’s hard enough just to get up and deal with the reality that your daughter is gone.”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/17/fbi-dogs-join-search-for-missing-iowa-girls/#ixzz20v0deZsO
Have you seen that every family member interviewed is now pointing to an abduction?
In the face of the FBI saying we have a scent at the lake. As an aside, that is not unexpected of a bloodhound ( scent specific) canine if the girls bikes are there.
I think Mr. Morrissey is referring to current scrutiny. Respectfully, I find the comment odd considering he has put this family and his own through worse. It may be wholly unrelated, but with his record, it is not something I expect to hear in a missing child case.
It’s a trap how?
B
In no way am I suggesting familial involvement. As I have written extensively, a parallel investigation is standard.
Those weights don’t seem to match up with the heights and pictures, but I guess face shots can be misleading.
I don’t think the father has put his family through worse than the disappearance of their daughter before. The dad isn’t really raising my hackles much.
Lyric and another cousin had been “missing” just a week before. They were supposed to be at the park and were gone for an extended amount of time. The mother called the police and the girls showed up just after she did. (This was gleaned from the mother & father’s interview with Jane Valez Mitchell just now.)
So was this a habit of Lyric (and whoever she was with) going off? If so, is it possible she was off with this cousin on an adventure and was followed by someone that may have been privy to that information?
Just a thought…
Word girl… Spot on. Really, the only involvement i think the kids parents have here in this case is letting them run wild. To much freedom. Not enough supervison.
O
Thats the o i left off too
I wish this man could have narrowed the time down more. Mr. Carpenter saw them ride their bikes past his home, which is common, between noon and 3 pm Friday. Video interview with he and his wife at the link.
This time stuff just isn’t making any sense. And this article confuses it even more.
12:15pm seen by grandma
12:20pm seen by male bicyclist at lake
12-3pm seen by Mr. Carpenter
The only thing I can come up with, concerning Grandma’s stated time of seeing them at 12:15, is that she is estimating. She may have simply been paying no attention to the time and gave the best estimate she could come up with.
If they were seen at the lake at 12:20 by the one witness-they would have had to leave Grandma’s house way earlier than 12:15-obviously.
But by that timeline, Mr Carpenter couldn’t have seen them anywhere in the later part of his timeline as they would have already been at the lake.
Unless they went to the lake, then rode by his house again, then went back to the lake? Effing confusing….
It states in the video interview that the Carpenter home is about two blocks from the lake.
___________________________________________________
“Officials have said the the girls were last seen by their grandmother at about 12:15 p.m. Friday near Elizabeth’s house in the 100 block of Brovan Blvd. Carpenter lives about 1.5 miles away in the 1000 block of Lake Avenue.”
Add http in front of link!
://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120717/NEWS/120717002/Witness-said-he-may-have-seen-missing-Iowa-girls-after-their-disappearance?Frontpage&nclick_check=1
A “for my own curiosity” question… When they drain a whole lake, where exactly does all the water go? I know that might sound like a dumb question, but I’m wondering.
The bikes were found 10 blocks from home, right? And I’ve read articles where the mothers’ claim the girls never went “that far away from home.” But how would they know this for sure??? It’s possible the girls lied or just kept it hidden. Maybe they had been going there many times before without family or friends knowing… but maybe somebody else knew they would be there… that’s what has me scratching my head.
If you listen to the question part of the press conference given on Monday during the question and answer part the Sheriff states he cant get anyone to come forward and tell him what the girls were even wearing.
It can be found at this link under the Monday briefing
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120717/NEWS/120717002/Witness-said-he-may-have-seen-missing-Iowa-girls-after-their-disappearance?Frontpage&nclick_check=1
Watching this interview on CNN, I am astounded by how laid back and smiley the mom is. When they ask her about her daughter, or the girls, she describes them in the same demeanor as one might recall a great vacation to Mexico. She also refers to the girls in the past tense. Chances are, they are past tense – but it strikes me as odd that she is already doing so so quickly, with no tears, an eagerness to speak, and enjoying the wind blowing through her hair. http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/17/us/iowa-missing-cousins/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Re#21 If Lyric had gone “missing” with another cousin the prior week, it makes me curious as to what exactly held her attention for so long. Maybe then someone was luring her and she was beginning to show interest. I suppose the other cousin or even a close friend might know something.
Oops, I also wanted to know if it was normal for one to be carrying a purse while out bikeriding. When I’m biking, I put what I need in my pocket(s). Also, I thought Collins’ clothing description of “black tennis shoes or high tops” odd. I would certainly know if my kid walked out in high tops and shorts. Also, if I’d passed a child in hight tops and shorts, that would have caught my eye – just seemed odd to me?
Irish, the water is being drained via a channel to the Cedar River. There is a major drought in Iowa right now so the rivers are low enough to easily accommodate the water.
Also if you listen to the link I actually provided with the witness that said he saw the girls ride past his house he said he only lives 2 blocks from the lake. SOOOOOO maybe they were in fact headed to the lake.
Irish
The lake is being drained into the Cedar River which is just beyond the highway from the lake.(South)
Girls typically do not ride bikes fast as do boys unless there is a specific reason. Ten miles an hour would cover two miles in just about 14 minutes. A single speed bike can be ridden at 35 mph by an experienced rider.
Ten blocks is about eighteen hundred feet when the width of streets are included. Normal spacing of blocks in a community is 16 blocks to the mile.
Until proven different, I believe the girls met someone at the lake and they were abducted. The search should include all properties within a mile of the lake.
This family has a history of strange behavior. A child that is 4’11″ and weighs 145 lbs is going to be very chubby. Normal weight would be near 100 lbs.
tanya says:
July 18, 2012 at 3:04 am
———————————
Yes, Lyric’s mom is very oddly cheerful. Her only concern seemed to be about the claustrophobic atmosphere for her polygraph.
Your map is totally wrong BTW, as to where the bikes were found. SE corner of Meyers lake, which is off the direct line they might have normally taken riding their bikes, but close enough to a path that a couple of kids would use just for the fun of it.
https://www.facebook.com/lyric.morrissey#!/dan.morrissey.752
Did the Blinksters see the link on his FB page?
He is so disrespectful to women in my opinion.
I feel strongly that the search/investigation needs more experienced assets and a solid victimology and possible suspect profile.
These little girls- sweetiebabies, did not vanish.
B
I completely agree. The fact that both girls are gone, not just one, tells me that the family is not likely involved, aside from the negligent supervision I mentioned earlier. I think this is someone who watched these girls, maybe even groomed them a bit with treats or friendly hellos, and saw the perfect opportunity to take them. I think of the Lisk sisters and it makes my skin crawl. But these kids, especially the older one, seem(ed) very vulnerable to a predator. The older girl (Lyric), seemed desperate for attention and companionship and seems to have had very little supervision. I am doubting they are in the lake, but they were probably picked up around there. What baffles me is that the predator, in broad daylight, picked up two girls and then disposed of the bikes? I am wondering if they had a plan to meet him at the lake. Also, as for the perp, I envision someone who has either done this before in a different area of the US, or someone who stopped for a while and then had a particularly stressful period that triggered his dark side.
I am at the point where I believe this is a stranger to stranger sexually motivated offense, or it is an entirely familial situation or circumstance.
B
Id be looking at the most recent bankruptcy filings and whether any habitual criminals are on the docket for same. I’d also be looking at someone who recently moved to the area, likely for work that didn’t work out.
zeus the grandma and lake times always seem to be prefaced with the word “about”.
A couple of observations: I saw the CNN clip, and thought the same thing about Lyric’s Mother. She seemed to think it was funny to be on TV. At first I thought I was being cynical, but my 12 year old said it, also. Maybe nerves—maybe something else?
Lyric went off last week with a friend/cousin and police had to find her. This tells me that Lyric is “pushing the limits” of her summer boredom. What “forbidden fruit” was she chasing? I’d bet that after the last week incident where she went missing she didn’t tell the whole truth. Looking at her brother, Dillon and Lyric’s father, it seems that “pushing the limits” is a learned behavior.
I want to add two comments and I hope they do not cause offense.
First off, Lyric appears much older than 10 in a number of photographs that have been shown. She emulates the facial expressions of teenage girls on Facebook and her double ear-piercing with large earrings seem to say “look at me”. Her description makes her sound as if she is of a larger frame and could easily pass herself off as 12 or 13. I have two 13 year old girls who appear younger than Lyric is some of her pictures.
Secondly, where is mom’s emotion? I’ve seen her on television twice and she sounds as if she is talking about lost luggage. Maybe she’s medicated, I don’t know, but I’ve been more upset when I haven’t known my child’s whereabouts for as little as five minutes. I’m not accusing mom of anything with regard to her child’s disappearance but it would imply she is somewhat detached from her child. Could that confirm that Lyric does present herself as one searching for love, affection, attention she doesn’t get at home? Has she been associating with older teen boys or even men locally or on the internet? Police have to be checking that out. While I’m on mom, I do have to ask “what she has to smile about?”. I’ve seen her smile a couple of times on tv now and it really bothers me.
The statement by the grandma that the girls would have even known the way to the lake seems unbelievable. Something seems off in this case.
W A Y.
One of the problems for investigative journalists in this case is that all incident reports are only releasable subject to a subpoena. That should NEVER be the case in any jurisdiction.
I want to know how many times LE was called to who’s home, when and where. We all know that information tells stories.
B
This is great news, I’m so glad to hear this.
SNIP>
Breault also says the FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team of five or six is on the scene in Iowa. She would not comment on the focus of their investigation
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120718/us-missing-cousins-iowa/
He changed his facebook page.
He is really a dirtball, IMO.
I am sorry, I did not keep his FB link.
He was on JVM.
He was not on NG.
What is he scared of? What could NG
do to him?
lizzy says:
July 18, 2012 at 9:33 am
tanya says:
July 18, 2012 at 3:04 am
———————————
Yes, Lyric’s mom is very oddly cheerful. Her only concern seemed to be about the claustrophobic atmosphere for her polygraph.
__________________________________________________________
Would not surprise me if she was on something like xanax for anxiety, which is understandable under the circumstances.
I can’t even bring myself to provide the full criminal background of these people.
Or the civil.
These disappearances are related to the lifestyles of at LEAST Dan and Misty Morrissey.
There, I said it.
God bless Lyric and Elizabeth.
B
Not blaming the victim at all here, but when I look at this picture of Lyric I see a wild child, a free spirit, a girl who is bold, and who is close to starting to push the boundaries of childhood. Her eyes seem to suggest that she is more mature than a typical 11 year old (and I say “mature” with a grain of salt bc she is certainly not mature, though she may think she is, at that age). My best friend in late-elementary and early-middle school was like this– it was just her personality and nature, but I (shy by nature and coming from an overprotective family) was eventually left behind later in middle-school. Knowing that Lyric’s parents were in and out of the picture, had drug charges, etc. only reinforces this idea bc it seems like she may have lacked supervision. At 11, Lyric was most likely either experiencing or about to hit puberty. She may have starting to have innocent crushes on boys– boys her own age.
In addition to all of that, the report that Lyric and another cousin “disappeared” last week raises red flags for me.
I really fear that a sex offender may have come into contact with Lyric at this vulnerable, unsupervised period in her life. She could have encountered a bad person at an earlier point in time (meeting at a store, playground, online, whatever) and she may not have been able to discern at her age that he was a serious threat. He may have preyed on the vulnerability of girls at this age, perhaps cultivating a “friendship” with her. If this is the case, I would think that he would have to be young– but could still be much older than Lyric. I remember my cousins and I, in middle school, having huge crushes on the lifeguards at the beach (who were highschool-age, college-age, or older) and always trying to get their attention and giggling about it. Thus, I can understand how an almost-teenage girl might like attention shown to her by an older boy or man (if any was)– whether she was moved to giggle about it, or whether she just liked getting attention from anyone given that her parents seem like they were occupied with other stuff much of the time. It concerns me that Black Hawk County Chief Deputy Rick Abben said that the sex offender interviews led to no new information, that “Everyone has been cleared,” and that “We have no concerns with that.” Excuse me!?! I don’t mean to disrespect Mr. Abben or the local LE, but how can they possibly be done looking at all of the local sex offenders?
Somewhat related… I really want to know what went on when Lyric and another cousin “disappeared” last week (as stated in another post). Where did they go? Who did they talk to, see, pass by, encounter? Was this simply a case of Lyric and the other cousin pushing the boundaries of where they were allowed to go, for how long, and how often they needed to check back in with their parents, or was this event a stepping stone (or cultivation) that led to the disappearance of Lyric and Elizabeth.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/17/fbi-dogs-join-search-for-missing-iowa-girls/
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Lake-drained-in-search-for-Iowa-cousins-8-and-10-3709597.php
Thoughts:
1. I thought mom was oddly cheerful during her interview too. This struck me several times while watching.
2. The girls (especially Elizabeth) are seen riding her/their bikes two blocks from the lake “every NIGHT” and often stop to talk to people. HUH? Elizabeth is only 8 years old. Lyric, only 10 years old, went missing long enough for the police to be called a week ago with another cousin. Where in the heck did the cousins say they were during this time? It sounds possible to me that these girls met someone while out riding, that caught their interest. Someone who showed interest in them, that was fun enough to want to go visit again and again. The parents/grandma couldn’t possibly know where these girls go, or how far they go, as they are not keeping tabs on them.. they are so young to be out unsupervised…
3. If the girls met “someone fun and exciting” that they were sneeking off to see, they probably shared this with other girlfriends.
4. I hope that the bike and purse have been tested for fingerprints.
5. I hope that the home’s of any pedifiles in the area have been thoroughly searched.
6. Haven’t heard much of any search going on the island in the lake.
7. Godspeed, sweet little angels
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/comments/article/20120717/NEWS/120717002/Witness-said-he-may-seen-missing-Iowa-girls-after-their-disappearance
Quickly, a comment @Jane regarding the clothing of children. We adults wear structure clothing with buttons, zippers, and pockets, which cost more money than an elastic-waist, pull-on type of clothing the girls were likely wearing.
Also, children of that age know they can lose things easily out of pockets. Much better to carry some money and phone in a cross-body bag–although I admit it would be more common to see a girl older than 10 years old doing that during a bike ride.
structured* plus other typos…grr.