Families of missing Iowa girls await IDs of bodies

Five months after two cousins vanished while riding their bikes, residents of the Iowa community where they were last seen are waiting to hear whether two bodies found by hunters are those of the girls.

 

Investigators say the families of 9-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 11-year-old Lyric Cook asked for privacy after being told that the bodies were discovered Wednesday in a wooded area.

 

Black Hawk County sheriff's Capt. Rick Abben wouldn't say where the bodies were found. He says more information could be released Thursday.

 

He says the bodies will be identified by the state medical examiner's office.

 

The cousins disappeared July 13 near a popular recreational lake in Evansdale in northeast Iowa. Investigators found their bicycles and a pink purse near the lake, but no sign of the girls.