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The Evansdale Murders - Ten Years Later /// Part 2 /// 596

October 21, 2022 / 01:01:47

This episode covers the unsolved case of two missing girls, Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins, who disappeared in Evansdale, Iowa, in 2012. The hosts discuss witness accounts, surveillance footage, and the investigation's challenges. They also explore the potential connection to other cases, including the Delphi murders.

The hosts, Nick and the Captain, reflect on the timeline of events surrounding the girls' disappearance, including witness sightings and the discovery of their bicycles. They emphasize the importance of eyewitness accounts and the difficulties in establishing an accurate timeline.

As the investigation progresses, they discuss the discovery of the girls' bodies months later and the challenges law enforcement faces in identifying a suspect. The hosts highlight the potential for a stranger abduction and the need to investigate the victims' inner circles.

The episode also touches on the profile of the potential offender, discussing similarities with other unsolved cases, including the Delphi murders. The hosts express frustration over the lack of progress in the investigation and the need for public assistance in solving the case.

Listeners are encouraged to provide any information that could help law enforcement, and the episode concludes with a recommendation for further reading related to true crime.

TLDR

The episode discusses the unsolved abduction and murder of two girls in Iowa, highlighting witness accounts and investigation challenges.

Episode

1:01:47
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thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
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premium and Colonel that's enough of the BL smash all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
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talk some true crime [Music] [Applause] [Music] sadly today is 10 years since two little
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girls were taken and now we sit here and we still are looking for answers when we
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left off yesterday both girls were already missing and it was not looking to be a very good situation it was very
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Bleak they found the girls bicycles they had found one of the girls purses in a location that was odd in a location that
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they were said to not have been allowed to ride their bikes too and this was a weird location too
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because it also presented difficulties for an abduction Theory but based off of the result and what we know will be
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abduction is the only theory that makes any sense here very quickly we end up having some witnesses come forward that
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will help to flesh out our timeline just a little bit more regarding the day that
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the girls went missing so Witnesses started to come forward one witness was a man named Robert Carpenter he's an
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Evansdale resident who lived only about two blocks away from Myers Lake remember Myers Lake is where the bikes
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were found he came forward and told police that he saw the girls on Friday the 13th while he was out watering his
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yard he said that they biked by him they were on their bikes and biked by him sometime
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between noon and 1pm this time does make sense in our general timeline that we have
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Carpenter lives on Lake Avenue and if this was the girls if this really was the girls riding by they were close to
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the area where the bikes were eventually found we should point out though even though we have this Witness
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there's a chance that maybe he saw two other girls seems unlikely but there's a chance that
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they were there were other girls that he saw that day and he's just trying to be
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helpful definitely a possibility because it's a Friday and it's in the summer school's out so very possible that a kid
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could be playing in the neighborhood he's out watering his lawn maybe he sees several kids out there throughout the
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course of his day and again he's just trying to be helpful but again this does fit in with our general timeline that
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we're working with here another witness came forward and this was a cyclist who lived in nearby Waterloo who often rode
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the Evansdale nature trail this cyclist approached police who were in the process of searching the woods
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and thick Tall Grass areas along the nature trail this is on Monday the 16th so remember the girls went missing on
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Friday to the 13th this gentleman sees the officers on Monday the 16th by now with him living in Waterloo he already
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has probably some awareness that this situation is ongoing and he approaches the officers and he
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told them that when he was there previously on Friday the 13th he had seen two kids bikes on the nature
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trail but he never saw any sign of the girls themselves he says and this is according to his statement I
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saw the bikes lying on the path and I remember it because I had to Swerve to miss them remember we described how
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those bikes were found on that trail on that bike path and that makes sense that
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this guy out riding would have to Swerve or have to avoid hitting them with his bike as he's biking passed he said that
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he believed that this would have been before 12 27 pm and the way that he comes up with this
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time is he's basing this off of a phone call that he made to his daughter soon thereafter and he's got the time stamp
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on his phone of that phone call as 12 27 p.m so he says he believes that this was
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before that time well this next eyewitness is actually going to be better than a traditional eyewitness
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because this is going to be technology eyewitness unless your eyewitness has a photographic memory like the captain
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does this is better it's a curse I tell you that's right this is when we have investigators who are able to obtain
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surveillance footage from an old auction house and remember we referenced a brovan Boulevard in our first episode
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yesterday and this Boulevard is not far from the home where the girls were before they left on their bikes the
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footage that the investigators obtained in the part of the the footage that is important to them in our case was rather
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short but it catches a brief glimpse of the girls showing the two of them biking
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and passing the auction house at 12 23 PM which is not long after the 12 15 time reported by Grandma who said that
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she saw them biking around at 12 15. now there's a couple of weird things with this surveillance footage
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and we reported on some of this in our original coverage in episodes 393 and 394. one thing is that the the owner of
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this auction house did inform the police that hey the time is off on the surveillance
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footage it's only off by eight minutes so not a big you know discrepancy there one thing I
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could not determine based off of the statements that have been released to the media
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and that were available to us is in which which direction is that eight minutes now it seems more likely to me that the
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1223 might be earlier and maybe it was actually 12 31. and I only say that because we have
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Grandma saying that at approximately 12 15 is when I believe that I had seen them and the captain and I will always
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warn everybody and throw the caveat out there to all of these times when people were
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trying to remember these things they're never exact so Grandma could be off on her time as well and maybe the auction
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house footage is from 12 15. the eyewitness is saying that they saw something at 12 30. okay well I'm gonna
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put that in a window of 12 15 to 12 45. the other information that we have too is that the direction according to the
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surveillance footage the direction that the girls were traveling at this time whether it be
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12 15 to 12 31 would be they are heading in the opposite direction away from the
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lake on the surveillance footage now they very quickly could have turned around I mean I remember when I'm out
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riding with my buddies when we were kids very often we don't know exactly where we want to go or it's some kind of
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debate on where we're actually going because we have have nothing to do nothing to no place to to be and so
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we're just kind of out on a random Adventure and so there is the possibility that
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they could have quickly turned around what I'm trying to point out here though is while all of this information is
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helpful it's also really difficult to kind of sort it out because the eyewitnesses that have come
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forward the surveillance footage is great because you know that that happened you have it you can view it
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with your own eyes law enforcement can see it and go yep that's the girls those are the girls we're looking for and we
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know that it happened on this day in this approximate time which we get get a window of roughly 16 to 17 minutes right
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the troubling thing though is the eyewitnesses that are coming forward they're trying to remember after the
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fact about what time it is that they witness something whether they saw the girls writing or
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whether the cyclists found the bikes or spotted the bikes on the trail and had to Swerve to avoid them
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he comes up with 1227 as the marker on his timeline saying it had to happen before 12 27 because I
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remember talking to my daughter and I believe that that phone call occurred afterwards right I'm just trying to
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present a scenario here that all of these times cannot be accurate that is correct sir that
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somebody has to be off on their timeline yes and it could be just an honest mistake
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definitely but it seems very difficult to me if the girls are riding in the opposite direction between 12 15 and 12
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31 and this man says that I saw those bikes had to Swerve to avoid them and it happened before 12 27. so that the
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timeline is a little skewed and I think we have to take some of these these minute markers with a grain of salt and
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like the captain said I think you put them more into a window of time rather than give them an exact bullet point or
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marker well let's also think about the age of the victims they're pretty young and they're connected how they're
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related so some of these crimes you you have to look inwards first could they have been abducted by a
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stranger yes this is a crime of opportunity possibly but we have to look in the Inner Circle first and then move
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out outward well that's exactly right Captain what we will end up having unfortunately is that on Wednesday
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December 5th 2012 hunters came across two deceased bodies in the Seven Bridges Wildlife Park
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this is near Redland and Bremer County this is a wildlife area that is about 25 miles away from where the girls were
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last seen these two Hunters contacted law enforcement officials at 12 45 pm on December 5th so let's think about that
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for a minute here so this is just under what five months so five months approximately goes by
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from the time that they go missing until the time that their bodies are found now
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it will take several days for law enforcement to come out and say that this in fact and confirm for
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everybody that this in fact is the two missing girls that we do we have recovered their bodies from this
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location but very quickly law enforcement is quick to point out look we don't have any other
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scenarios of two missing victims that are young people in this area so while we cannot confirm it until
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until we do all of our proper testing and confirm everything properly we believe this to be the girls so it
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actually took about a week for them to confirm and and make that statement to the media and to the Press but they
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didn't leave the parents hanging to sit there and you know be tortured that's what it would be it would be torture to
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hear that we we found some victims okay saliva mouth we don't know if it's your your kid or not you know law enforcement
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was pretty Frank with them saying it would be highly unlikely it'd be highly unproppable for it to be somebody else
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we of course know the statistics on this according to the National Center for missing and
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exploited children stranger abductions if this was in fact a stranger abduction are the rarest type
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of case and make up only one percent approximately one percent of the missing children cases reported to
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the ncmec the national Center for missing exploited children even rarer is the Abduction of two children in broad
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daylight in fact the FBI doing their research trying to find similar crimes could only find 15
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similar incidents right occurring between the years of 1976 and 2012. now keep in
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mind the 2012 incident is the lyric in Elizabeth incident so really you only have 14 other
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situations where two kids were abducted believed to be a stranger abduction and in broad daylight
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so with the perpetrator having no actual ties to either victim very very frustrating this is going to be if in
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fact this was a stranger abduction this is going to be an incredibly difficult crime an incredibly
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difficult situation to investigate and when I say investigate I mean investigate to the point where it leads
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you to an actual suspect because unless you have witnesses that can provide you with the suspect some kind of breadcrumb
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trail that will lead you to a suspect the only information that you have that could potentially lead you to a suspect
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would be items that you would find at either crime scene that would be the location where the bikes were found and
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the purse was found and the location where the bodies were found approximately 25 miles
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away just under five months later if you don't find anything at those scenes that lead you directly to someone
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or someone's you don't have a lot to go on you might have evidence but you need somebody to tie that to you don't have
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anybody to compare it to because you don't have much of a suspect pool now the captain's right what you do here in
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any of these situations and they did this well before the bodies were later found you start with the people that
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know the victims the best their family their their intimate small circle their Social Circles and you fan out from
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there and immediately still when the girls were missing we have a problem with one set of parents yeah there's a
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problem because lyrics father Dan has a criminal history he does Dan Morrissey has uh several charges against him for
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possessing dealing and making methamphetamine the other problem that we have is at some point early on in the
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investigation when the girls are still missing Dan becomes he's not cooperating with police anymore
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in the beginning in the initial stages all family members both sets of families both of the girls parents
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were cooperating with police and at some point Dan stops cooperating this seems to take place when the police
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start accusing him now we should be clear here though we have the information that's been released to
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the media or per the media I shouldn't say release to because that makes it sound like it came from law enforcement
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I don't know where the media obtained this information but several news sources state that the parents all
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passed polygraphs and some of them multiple polygraphs yeah I'm wondering if they gave Dan multiple polygraph
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tests here's the thing though he could have just lost his head when they started accusing him some people
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can't handle that some people can't handle that and I don't think in my opinion that this points to guilt now I
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wish that he would have handled this differently I wish that he would have continued to cooperate because that is
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the only way that they are going to find out who did this to your child is with your help you not cooperating
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really complicates the investigation because now they're even more concerned about you yes you have a checkered past
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yes you are in trouble with the police but if you look at the Timeline there's not really any time in this timeline for
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Dan to have been active or directly involved in whatever happened to these girls
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it just it just doesn't work out so the other thing that the police have to wonder about though is because of Dan's
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previous Affairs and because of his activities that puts him around a shady group of
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people a bunch of probably a bunch of shitty people yeah Shady shitty shady and shitty yeah and so could one of them
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have been involved or several of them have been involved now I I kind of look at this in the only way I see this as
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being a possibility or the most likely of possibilities that would lead back to Dan
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is that he likely has no knowledge of this or if he did have knowledge of it maybe it's some kind of abduction for
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ransom that went bad that went just completely wrong and off the rails for some reason
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I look at this Captain and the thing that just makes me sick to my stomach is I look at this and I I see
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what I think is probably a stranger abduction or an Abduction of some type of predator
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rather than somebody involved with Dan or involved with the drug trade and we do know that these things do
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happen you know when there's drugs involved when there's money involved a lot of bad things can happen so I don't
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want to push it out side of the box and say it's outside of the realm of possibilities
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now we won't go through all of the problems with Dan Morrissey uh in this episode because we covered it quite
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extensively in our previously in our previous episodes if that's something that concerns you or something you want
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to look into there's plenty of information there for you in those episodes well the other problem here is
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yes stranger on Stranger abductions especially with two you go well it's it's one percent
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yeah but these girls have been there's been a schedule these girls go over they play together
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they ride their bikes they're now just think about that this this person could could have known their schedule or known
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um could have been monitoring them for a while well and if you have a situation where let's pretend
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for a second that maybe it was a local individual that is responsible for this and because of the way that the bikes
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are found I think that that suggests to me that whoever did this has some kind of knowledge
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some general knowledge if you will of that area if it were a local there's we said less than 5 000 people there's less
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than 4 700 people there might even be less than 4 600 people in Evansdale at that time if it was a local with it
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being so few people that lived there now you create a higher probability that that local knew one of the girls if not
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both right and if that local is some type of Predator and did this horrific deed
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even if he just knew one of them he may have chose this result to avoid being identified for their
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abduction and whatever assaults took place because if it were a complete stranger you still
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have the the possibility that this individual could let them go drop them off somewhere
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and not be identified if they don't know his name you know we we of course would get
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a description because these are not very very small children they're 10 and they're eight we would get some kind of
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description of his vehicle his activities what he looked like uh we would get that information maybe he
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didn't want that out there but it's uh it's one of those scenarios where I I feel like
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this drug business and and dance problems I feel like it's a big major speed bump in this case now if they
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don't have a lot to work with at either crime scene well then there is no speed bump you have to
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investigate something and this would certainly be an Avenue worth pursuing well once law enforcement finds the
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girls they're not going to give us much information it's going to be very tight-lipped very similar to the Delphi
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investigation yes they confirm that sadly it was in fact Lear cook in Elizabeth Collins that were located
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in that Seven Bridges area we do not get told how they were killed we do not get told about sexual assault
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we do not get told how long they believe that they were in that location for the only statement that we get after the
00:24:38
fact here is we get this kind of vague statement of police saying well after we found the bodies and after we've run our
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our forensic investigation we do have a good idea of when the abduction took place and we do have a good idea of when
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they were placed in that location where they were found we don't get any kind of information on
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how long that they were held or how long that they were alive after the abduction took place
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unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you want to look at it these things usually don't take a long
00:25:20
time before the perpetrator or perpetrators are moving on to the process of disposing of
00:25:30
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[Music] [Applause] [Music] all right we are back cheers mates hotel motel Holiday Inn cheers
00:27:40
we stayed at a Holiday Inn in Nashville for that I feel much smarter and that what you're supposed to feel after
00:27:46
staying oh they gave my gave me my room for free for just singing that lyric there you go
00:27:53
probably the best tip that comes forward here in the best breadcrumb trail that we will get in this case is in the form
00:28:01
of the following uh Witnesses these are three separate witnesses that came forward claiming to have seen an older
00:28:07
model white SUV type of vehicle which would be similar to a Chevy Suburban or a Ford Bronco based off of the
00:28:17
eyewitness's accounts three separate Witnesses said that they saw an older model white SUV type vehicle parked on
00:28:24
Arbutus Avenue which is a street very near Myers Lake on the day that the girls disappeared
00:28:32
this story is a little weird though to me as well with two of the witnesses reported seeing the SUV parked between
00:28:40
two bike trail signs the other witness told police that they had seen the vehicle parked near the woods on the
00:28:47
east side of the lake only a few hundred feet away from where the girls bikes were later found all three Witnesses
00:28:53
reported seeing the vehicle between 11 30 a.m and 12 30 p.m on July 13 2012. maybe that helps out the cyclist
00:29:04
information that he provided saying that he spotted the bikes before 1227. what's
00:29:10
weird about this information to me is that two of the witnesses came forward in the first few days of the search
00:29:17
while the girls were still missing the third witness came forward several months later
00:29:24
and says that they waited and didn't come forward earlier because they just assumed that somebody else had already
00:29:30
come forward about it that's a weird statement to me is that weird to you Captain like I I you know I
00:29:38
waited a few months I know these girls were missing their little kids and I know that I saw something
00:29:44
but why didn't I come forward earlier I just assumed somebody else came forward and told you the same information
00:29:51
police never released any of this information until the third witness came forward
00:29:57
I find this to be all very strange why would this and of course we're not going to get any information from law
00:30:02
enforcement but why would this witness think that somebody else would come forward did they see somebody else
00:30:09
there that day did they know one of the other Witnesses and we're told yeah I already reported that to the police but
00:30:16
where was this eyewitness located at was he in the neighborhood because that would make more sense to me oh well I
00:30:22
saw him in the neighborhood I figured other people saw him in the neighborhood no these are these are all all these
00:30:27
three Witnesses are reporting seeing a strange vehicle on either parked on Arbutus Drive sorry
00:30:36
either parked on Arbutus Avenue or parked near the woods on the east side of the lake
00:30:44
so they're not reporting seeing the girls or the bikes they're reporting seeing a vehicle that was in the
00:30:50
location of where the bikes are later found and in that location around the time that the girls may have gone
00:30:56
missing even though their time is a little on the early side for our timeline for that
00:31:02
day they're reporting that approximately between 11 30 and 12 30 on that day here's the thing to me Captain I'm
00:31:11
always extremely suspicious and I think we all should be of information that people come forward
00:31:17
with placing themselves in the crime scene area and their stories don't make sense right
00:31:24
that's why I question the cyclist with his time could he just be wrong on his time that's prob that's probably the
00:31:30
situation he's just wrong on his time and he doesn't mean any ill will he's trying to help out the investigation
00:31:39
but we have another witness that comes forward months later saying I I didn't come forward because I just assumed
00:31:45
somebody else would would give you that information that's when you want to know
00:31:48
what the police know why would they why would they look at this person as a witness and not as a suspect there must
00:31:55
be something in that person's story that makes them a witness and doesn't put them under suspicion
00:32:01
from law enforcement and it could be as simple as remember Witness A and B well I was with witness
00:32:08
B and witness B told me that they told you this information two days after they went missing so I didn't bother coming
00:32:16
forward I had nothing in addition to what they told you that's the things that I want to know
00:32:21
because in my mind I'm suspicious of that individual that comes forward months later
00:32:26
why are you now putting yourself at the crime scene nobody else puts you there and you have this information that would
00:32:34
have been really important to us back then so that's as concerning to me almost as much as the shadiness and
00:32:42
shittiness around the father Dan Morrissey and his Shady weird friends and Associates
00:32:49
but also the thing you know I I gave kudos to law enforcement in this area earlier for all the activity that they
00:32:56
immediately put into place and I I applaud them and will continue to do so on all those activities they jumped into
00:33:03
action rather quickly the one thing that I think is missing from what I think should have happened that day
00:33:09
is Roadblocks I didn't see couldn't find any information that suggested that they
00:33:15
set up any roadblocks at any time and I'll tell you what nobody's put me in charge of any missing person's
00:33:21
investigation but if they did and if we're on the scene within an hour 90 minutes after the person was last
00:33:29
seen especially a child and we got bicycles lying on the ground I want roadblocks set up we talked about all
00:33:37
those different agencies that got involved the state police the highway patrol the Sheriff's Office the nearby larger
00:33:44
Police Department of Waterloo they're already out in these areas let's set up some roadblocks and just let
00:33:50
everybody know hey we're looking for two kids one have you seen anything two do you mind if we look in your car or truck
00:33:57
real quick just to make sure that those two kids are not in there gives you a list of vehicles it gives you a list of
00:34:04
license plates it gives you a list of people on how they interacted with you and that would be very important because
00:34:11
like we said this this is a very small town but even the surrounding areas if you take all the surrounding areas
00:34:17
you're looking at less than a hundred thousand people that's pretty easy to start sifting
00:34:24
through the crowd you go okay well I Witnesses saw a man okay now here now you're at 50 000 people
00:34:30
well between the ages of this and this okay now you're at you at 10 000 people you see what I'm saying like it's well
00:34:36
not only that within within a couple days we have these Witnesses at least two of them that came forward saying I
00:34:42
saw an older model white SUV type vehicle maybe a Bronco or Suburban and like you said if you have that list
00:34:50
of vehicles that you created because of your roadblocks you you could compare that you could
00:34:55
cross-reference that with this new evidence or new witness statements that come forward just days later
00:35:02
and you go oh we were we stopped six or seven vehicles that matched that General
00:35:07
description here's the driver's name or or here's the the plate it was an Iowa plate or was an out of state plate
00:35:15
whoever did this known to the victims or unknown to the victims I believe drove them out of the
00:35:22
area rather quickly and I don't think it's just because of where their bodies were later found that I I've come to
00:35:29
that conclusion I think that whoever did this wanted to get out of there with them I agree it's a small area
00:35:36
less than 4 700 people they did not want to be seen with these girls in their possession well there's
00:35:44
obviously things that as an investigator you want to know how long were these girls alive for how long were they taken
00:35:52
captured for um or held hostage for it's um that would give you I think an idea of a profile of an individual or
00:36:03
what kind of individual we're looking at yeah and it sounds like based off of the
00:36:08
few statements regarding evidence that they have that law enforcement has it sounds like they have a general timeline
00:36:15
themselves that they're working from that would include probably not exact dates
00:36:22
but more roundabout times and dates to those different items of of when they were disposed of in that area
00:36:31
how long they had been there what have you what the big turn in this case comes on February 3rd 2015. this is at
00:36:43
another press conference that was held in Evansdale and we have the chief of police Kent
00:36:49
Smock is his name he declared that the the focus of their investigation the focus of their efforts
00:36:56
from now on will be those familiar with Seven Bridges Wildlife Park and he States quote I think you will
00:37:05
agree with me that Seven Bridges is extremely remote we have no doubt that the person or persons responsible for
00:37:12
this crime are very familiar with Seven Bridges it's a very well-known area to the local community unless you just knew
00:37:22
that area you wouldn't just come across it obviously whoever took the girls to that area was comfortable with that
00:37:29
environment and knew of that environment yeah I totally agree it was also at this
00:37:35
press conference that Smock informed the public that they did not currently have a suspect or
00:37:43
Person of Interest it also sounds to me like they're kind of without stating this
00:37:50
it sounds to me like the current state of the investigation or at least the working theory is that they were likely
00:37:56
abducted by someone unknown to the victims potentially a stranger and we had several accounts of what were
00:38:09
deemed to be abduction attempts that took place in that general area within the Blackhawk County and this being the
00:38:17
month before and during the month of July and we know that a lot of times that these individuals will make several
00:38:25
attempts before they're actually able to pull off an actual abduction so could one of those abduction attempts be
00:38:33
connected to it that's possible 10 years in this case is not solved and it's very
00:38:39
similar to another case that hasn't been solved in five years and that's the Delphi murders both victims being young
00:38:47
female abducted in broad daylight later found dead from public places so many similarities
00:38:55
it's it's like Beyond bizarre to sit here and go you cannot you should not discuss the two together
00:39:02
well on family members with uh criminal history and and Drug history so by far the most popular theory in the Evansdale
00:39:13
case is that it could be the work of a serial killer and of course on the internet
00:39:19
everybody's saying if it is a serial killer well then maybe they've already struck again and they struck in Delphi
00:39:25
Indiana in 2017. now less than a month after the murders of Libby and Abby in Delphi
00:39:36
Indiana on March 9 2017 we do have Sergeant John perine from the Indiana State Police who would attempt to
00:39:47
officially dispel these rumors saying we've spoken with the Iowa authorities about the case just like we've spoken to
00:39:54
so many other agencies with their unsolved cases we are simply comparing notes at this point we do not have a
00:40:02
connection with that case in that case meaning the Evansdale case now what I would like to take a moment
00:40:10
and look at is you can take this one of two ways and I think it's an interesting
00:40:16
exercise for either way that you want to take this and that is to look at the offender
00:40:25
profile that was put together on the Evansdale Case by the FBI and kind of cross-reference that with
00:40:35
the post crime behaviors that has been presented to us in the Delphi case on things that we should be
00:40:44
looking for in that with that suspect and the reason why I think that this is a productive exercise to do
00:40:51
is for two reasons one you can look at and see and observe and think about the obvious similarities between the two
00:41:00
crimes and probably what will be similarities to have an argument that they are in fact connected
00:41:08
or if they are not connected then we can get further insight into who our offender is because I think that likely
00:41:17
our offender in both cases is somewhat similar to each other we're looking for a similar type of offender in both cases
00:41:25
even if they're not connected so the offender profile in the Evansdale case states that the offender is
00:41:33
familiar with both Myers Lake Angels Park which is so now they've they've titled Myers Lake they've created a
00:41:43
portion of Myers lake that is Angels park so that's dedicated to our young victims here that portion of Myers Lake
00:41:52
so the profile says the offender is familiar with both Myers Lake in Evansdale and Seven Bridges Wildlife
00:41:59
Area in Bremer County while this sounds very similar to Delphi doesn't it what are we told in Delphi we
00:42:06
believe that you are from Delphi or work in Delphi or have lived here previously
00:42:15
so somebody that would be familiar with the trails in the Monon High Bridge back to Evansdale
00:42:24
the suspect chose Seven Bridges because he or she was familiar with the area and
00:42:29
knew it was secluded sounds a lot like the Monon high bridge in the trails especially the bridge
00:42:35
because the bridge was not was not a part of the park that was accessible to everybody meaning that you
00:42:44
weren't really supposed to go on the bridge because there had had some problems it was dilapidated
00:42:50
and law enforcement has outright said that they don't believe that that's an area that somebody would just happen
00:42:55
upon and that would that you would walk into and feel comfortable with they believed the offender is
00:43:03
somewhat familiar with that that general area and has been in that Park on those
00:43:09
Trails on that bridge before and Evansdale says the offender Blends in with and may be part of the Evansdale
00:43:16
Brimmer and surrounding communities Delphi we believe you are hiding in plain sight
00:43:24
we believe that you are from the area or have lived here previously or work in Delphi
00:43:31
back to Evansdale the suspect likely used quiet coercion to gain the girl's compliance into leaving Myers Lake using
00:43:39
a ruse or threats of violence Delphi guys down the hill quiet coercion likely a threat of
00:43:49
violence in Delphi back to Evansdale the suspect may have been experiencing stress related to
00:43:55
legal troubles spousal problems employment difficulties Financial strain or mental health issues in July of 2012.
00:44:03
this is very common this is a very common item that you will expect to see in other offender profiles usually there
00:44:13
is some kind of trigger this sets these guys off a lot of times if this was in fact a sexual predator
00:44:20
if this was a sexually motivated abduction then this guy likely had fantasies fantasies that he may or may not would
00:44:30
act on at some point in his life but there could be something that triggered him something that pushed him
00:44:36
over the edge into going from fantasy into acting it out into carrying out these
00:44:46
horrific activities the suspect May avoid discussing the case or showing interest in the matter
00:44:52
but is likely following developments in the media I Believe I Can Fly more so in
00:44:58
the Delphi case than whoever is responsible for that I think they are they are hanging on the edge of their
00:45:04
seat and they are absorbing reading listening to this should be consuming every piece of
00:45:12
information that comes out in that case yeah I'm not the only one that suspects that
00:45:18
Doug Carter told us all we know this is about power to you and we know that you want to know what we know and one day
00:45:25
you will When comparing the two cases captain the Delphi case while both seem very
00:45:32
similar for some reason and I can't put my finger on it I can't wrap my head around it but for some reason the Delphi
00:45:39
case seems a little more sinister than the Evansdale case yeah there's going to be more coming out and I think
00:45:46
maybe it's because we know our offender was out on foot out walking the park the trails himself right where
00:45:55
Evansdale feels likely to me especially with these witness statements of this possible vehicle the suspicious vehicle
00:46:02
that was cited that it was probably more of a snatch and grab situation where somebody was out trolling looking
00:46:10
for a victim and found them right unfortunately found these two girls and likely if they were out trolling for a
00:46:20
victim may find someone even if they had not spotted Lyric and Elizabeth that leads me to the next item in the
00:46:29
profile the offender may have attempted to abduct children or adults in the past
00:46:34
this I think is an absolute I think that this is somebody that probably if it was
00:46:39
in fact a stranger on Stranger abduction I think that this was somebody that was
00:46:44
out trolling looking for a victim probably went out trolling before and for whatever reason did not was not
00:46:52
successful in obtaining a victim the other thing too that I think is interesting and I know that age is the
00:46:59
hardest factor to determine when putting together your profile right and we don't
00:47:05
even have any kind of physical description in the Evansdale case other than these possible Vehicles suspicious
00:47:11
vehicles at least in Delphi we know we're looking for a white male that's shitty but Shady let me run some things
00:47:18
by you here real quick these are just three off of the top of my head offenders that fit into this some the
00:47:27
same statement the offender may have attempted to abduct children or adults in the past now we talk so much about
00:47:33
the importance of victimology yes this offender could be out trolling looking for a child victim
00:47:42
but there are also offenders out there that were known to abduct both adults and children
00:47:50
and so let's go through through one in fact is Ted Bundy known to all of us whose victims ranged in age from 12 to
00:48:00
26. now while he seemed to strongly prefer College age victims when he was desperate to find a victim
00:48:09
he would go and seek out younger victims we know this because in May of 75 Bundy abducted Lynette Culver
00:48:18
age 12 he abducted her from her Junior High School in Idaho yeah he could have gone to that Junior
00:48:24
High School looking for any age of victim but he's not an idiot you would think that he had some idea I might be
00:48:33
finding a child victim if I'm going to a junior high school and then in February of 78 he did it
00:48:39
again Bundy abducted Kimberly Leach age 12 another 12 year old abducted from her
00:48:43
Junior High School in Lake City Florida now we know that the rest of his victims
00:48:48
were ages 17 or older and again most of his victims he seem to prefer College age victims but then we have somebody
00:48:56
that's that's very similar Brian Duggan he was a serial rapist and the killer of
00:49:02
three victims two of them were young ten and seven years of age Brian Duggan actually committed a crime incredibly
00:49:09
similar to the Evansdale murders when on June 2nd 1985 Melissa Ackerman and her eight-year-old friend opal Horton were
00:49:18
riding their bikes in Illinois when they were confronted by Dugan he grabbed opal first and threw her into
00:49:25
his car but the girl managed to escape while Dugan was overpowering Melissa he later sexually assaulted and killed
00:49:34
Ackerman and her body was located about 15 miles away she was not found for several weeks now
00:49:43
what's interesting to me about that case here Captain is both these girls were on
00:49:49
their bikes what did he take and what did he attempt to take he took a girl and he attempted to take
00:49:57
the other girl he did not attempt to take either bike he was driving a car you know what I mean like if if we're
00:50:05
going to look at Evansdale and say well there's a chance that the offender or the offenders took the girls and wanted
00:50:11
to conceal the bikes and they placed them there I don't believe that the girl threw her
00:50:16
purse over the fence I think that was offender Behavior right should we be looking for a car for
00:50:23
for you know Dugan didn't have the ability to take the girls and and their bikes because he had limited amount of
00:50:30
space in in his vehicle that he was going to abduct them in then we have John Miller
00:50:40
who is responsible for April Tinsley's murder in 1988. he admitted after he was caught all
00:50:46
these years later that he drove around frequently and that he picked April at random
00:50:56
and he said that he had gone out on several occasions before in several occasions after he abducted and killed
00:51:03
April Tinsley and he had looked for other child victims during those times for whatever reason he didn't take them
00:51:10
often the simplest reason why he did not take them was because they were not alone
00:51:15
April unfortunately was alone when he spotted her now clearly our Evansdale person or
00:51:23
persons didn't have an issue with taking two victims which we is much more risky
00:51:30
Behavior now one thing that's interesting to me those are just three examples here
00:51:37
but let's also look at the age of these offenders Bundy was 27 and two months old when he started his
00:51:48
horrific Behavior Brian Dugan was 26 and a half and John Miller is 28 years old in nine months old they're all
00:52:01
in their late 20s so in this Evansdale case you may be looking for somebody in their mid to
00:52:06
late 20s at some point this Behavior goes from fantasy to Let's Take Action and make it
00:52:16
a reality well continue on with the offender profile following The Disappearance the suspect may have
00:52:22
altered his or her physical appearance such as changing hairstyle and facial hair the offender's vehicle may have
00:52:30
also been altered with a new paint job or reupholstery and then they go on to say that analysts
00:52:37
experience with prior abduction cases points to one person being involved but there are cases where more than one
00:52:46
person was involved I'm a little confused by some of their word choices here Captain right they finish up their
00:52:55
profile by stating our experience is that one person it all points to one person being
00:53:04
involved one person did this and I agree with that that's well beyond the anything that would suggest that more
00:53:13
than one person committed this and I I think that that's interesting because throughout their offender
00:53:20
profile they are only referencing one person during that offender profile they don't
00:53:27
say persons or person you know person or persons suspect or suspects they they constantly reference an
00:53:34
individual and then they finish up their profile by saying um we believe based off a prior
00:53:40
experience that one person committed this so it seems to be it seems to be a thought out choice of of stating just an
00:53:48
individual throughout the course of that profile what is weird though too is the
00:53:53
choice of including she he or she several times throughout the course of this profile
00:54:02
does that mean that they've not ruled out the possibility that that a single woman
00:54:08
committed this crime or my issue with this case and and you could connect it again just to the Delphi frustration I
00:54:15
mean any of these cases Amy mihalovic for example good example any case that goes uh a time period where law
00:54:24
enforcement is just not sharing any information it's like I know you have to hold so much back because you need to
00:54:32
I know you have to hold so much back because once you do have a suspect that you want to charge you have to bring him
00:54:37
to trial you have to bring them to trial you have to try to get a conviction but
00:54:44
you don't even get them to trial if you don't share some of this information at this point in your investigation
00:54:50
you're exactly right because what you have here is we do know that in the Evansdale case at least two people came
00:54:57
forward with false confessions and they were able to rule those out based off of
00:55:01
their hold back information but you're exactly right from where I sit here in the garage what I can see this case
00:55:08
unfortunately and I hope that none of the families are listening when I say this
00:55:13
this case doesn't seem to be going anywhere no it doesn't seem like there's any recent
00:55:19
movement on this case well in this case it's been unsolved for longer than one of the victims was even alive good point
00:55:28
and I don't fault the local law enforcement I don't fault the person's in charge up to a certain point because
00:55:35
they did a lot of Hardcore work on this case and on this investigation they involved other agencies something that
00:55:42
we like to see here in the garage they went as far as to meeting with the FBI and going in front of experts and saying
00:55:48
please experts tell us from your expert opinion and your expertise what we should be looking for how to direct this
00:55:56
investigation I I love when people are humble like that and they say help me help me solve
00:56:03
this yeah there's nothing more annoying in these cases when you see these ignorant
00:56:09
sheriffs or an ignorant individual that's in charge of an investigation and refuses help or to let any outside
00:56:15
sources or resources get involved to help them solve the case that they throw it all on their own
00:56:20
shoulders and then guess what nobody gets any justice but you're right Captain ten years later
00:56:27
there's a lot of information that it seems like could be released to the public that we could crowdsource some of
00:56:34
this there's a chance that they've interviewed the person or persons responsible
00:56:42
in this case there's a very high probability that that name will appear somewhere in their case File
00:56:50
they just need some help push this thing to the next step to creating a suspect pool because it
00:56:58
sounds based off of the information that they've released they don't have a suspect pool we spent a good deal of
00:57:05
time in our previous episodes covering a suspect that the captain and I both agreed we could not get past
00:57:11
we didn't say he did it but he committed similar crimes and he's a horrible individual he took his own life
00:57:19
and later law enforcement says they are confident that he's no longer a person of interest
00:57:26
in this case that's the only person of interest we've ever seen publicly announced in this case right he's dead
00:57:33
they're confident he's no longer a person of interest in this case they wouldn't go into reasons why
00:57:39
other than to state that there were forensic things forensic items that were found that they believe
00:57:46
did not connect him to this case he's forensically he's not connected to this case
00:57:54
I'm hoping that that means that they have some kind of forensics to eliminate or include certain people in
00:58:02
that potential suspect pool but if you don't have a suspect pool at the moment Now's the Time the 10-year anniversary
00:58:09
shout out from the mountaintops get all of your local media piece people together and say we need your help to
00:58:16
spread the word on this we are going to take one last shot let's toss up a Hail Mary Hallelujah and see if we can solve
00:58:25
this thing right and that's what we're going to ask of all of you out there listening today
00:58:31
law enforcement these families this community they need your help and if you can help there is a reward a
00:58:40
very substantial reward in this case let's prosecute the person or persons responsible for
00:58:50
this double homicide of two little children let's get Justice some form of Justice
00:58:57
for these girls do the right thing if you have any information at all anything at all don't question it give
00:59:08
it to law enforcement let them vet it do the right thing call 855 300 tips that's 855-300 tips
00:59:21
or 319-232 6822 you could also email any information if you feel more comfortable doing that
00:59:33
send that information to our missing Iowa girls at dps.state dot i a DOT u s [Music]
00:59:49
[Applause] [Music] thank you so much for joining us here in the garage make sure you subscribe to
01:00:14
the podcast and make sure you tell a friend Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful
01:00:18
listeners this week we are recommending trailed one woman's quest to solve the Shenandoah murders by the great
01:00:26
Catherine miles I gotta tell you we're sitting here and it's getting to be mid to late July this
01:00:34
just may be the best True Crime book to come out in 2022 you're going to want to
01:00:40
check this one out again it's called trailed one woman's quest to solve the Shenandoah murders by Catherine miles
01:00:47
this is a riveting Deep dive into the unsolved murders of two free-spirited young women in the wilderness and a
01:00:54
journalist's Obsession and a new Theory of who might have done it so check out that great title and many other
01:01:02
wonderful recommendations on our recommended page at truecrime garage.com and until next week be good be kind and
01:01:10
don't live foreign [Music]

Badges

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  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 70
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  • 60
    Most emotional
  • 60
    Most intense

Episode Highlights

  • 10 Years Later
    Reflecting on the tragic anniversary of two missing girls.
    “Sadly today is 10 years since two little girls were taken.”
    @ 03m 00s
    October 21, 2022
  • Witness Accounts
    Eyewitnesses provide crucial details about the timeline of events surrounding the girls' disappearance.
    “Witnesses started to come forward to help flesh out our timeline.”
    @ 03m 52s
    October 21, 2022
  • Surveillance Footage
    Investigators obtain critical surveillance footage that captures the girls biking shortly before they went missing.
    “The footage catches a brief glimpse of the girls biking at 12:23 PM.”
    @ 07m 51s
    October 21, 2022
  • Witness Accounts of a Suspicious Vehicle
    Three witnesses reported seeing an older model white SUV near the lake on the day the girls disappeared.
    “This story is a little weird though to me.”
    @ 28m 32s
    October 21, 2022
  • Police Focus on Familiarity with the Area
    Police Chief Kent Smock emphasized that the perpetrator is likely familiar with Seven Bridges Wildlife Park.
    “Whoever took the girls to that area was comfortable with that environment.”
    @ 37m 10s
    October 21, 2022
  • Comparison to the Delphi Murders
    The Evansdale case shares eerie similarities with the unsolved Delphi murders, raising concerns of a potential serial killer.
    “Both victims being young female abducted in broad daylight.”
    @ 38m 47s
    October 21, 2022
  • The Importance of Victimology
    Understanding the profile of offenders is crucial in abduction cases. "This offender could be out trolling looking for a child victim."
    “This offender could be out trolling looking for a child victim.”
    @ 47m 36s
    October 21, 2022
  • Ted Bundy's Victims
    Ted Bundy, known for his horrific crimes, targeted victims as young as 12. "He could have gone to that Junior High School looking for any age of victim."
    “He could have gone to that Junior High School looking for any age of victim.”
    @ 48m 24s
    October 21, 2022
  • Call for Community Help
    Law enforcement urges the community to help solve the unsolved case. "They need your help, and if you can help, there is a reward."
    “They need your help, and if you can help, there is a reward.”
    @ 58m 36s
    October 21, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • Sadly today is 10 years since two little girls were taken.
    The Evansdale Murders - Ten Years Later /// Part 2 /// 596
  • This is going to be an incredibly difficult crime to investigate.
    The Evansdale Murders - Ten Years Later /// Part 2 /// 596
  • These things usually don't take a long time.
    The Evansdale Murders - Ten Years Later /// Part 2 /// 596
  • I think you will agree with me that Seven Bridges is extremely remote.
    The Evansdale Murders - Ten Years Later /// Part 2 /// 596
  • One day you will know what we know.
    The Evansdale Murders - Ten Years Later /// Part 2 /// 596
  • This case doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
    The Evansdale Murders - Ten Years Later /// Part 2 /// 596

Key Moments

  • Thank You00:11
  • Music00:12
  • Surveillance Footage07:51
  • Suspicious Vehicle Sightings28:32
  • Remote Location37:05
  • Delphi Connection38:47
  • Offender Profile47:36
  • Community Call to Action58:36

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown