Where are Lyric Cook-Morrissey's parents now? Whereabouts of Misty Cook and Dan Morrissey explored

Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins were two young girls, who were abducted, while they were riding their bikes in Evansdale, Iowa on July 13, 2012. When Investigators went on a search, they found their bikes near a park with a pink purse near the lake. But even after weeks of searching, the two young girls couldn't be found anywhere.

Five months after they went missing, some hunters discovered the decomposing bodies of the young girls, twenty-five miles away from where their bikes were found, in an isolated wildlife area in Bremer County. The murder of these two innocent young girls left a deep shock not just in Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Collins's family.

The entire case behind the disappearance of Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins is documented in the new HBO Max crime documentary series, Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth? The three-episode series was released on August 8, 2024.

The most crucial part of the case was that Lyric Cook-Morrissey's parents Misty Cook and Dan Morrissey had served their time in prison due to substance abuse, which shifted the authorities' suspicion.

But upon investigation, both of them were found completely innocent. After the murder of Lyric Cook-Morrissey and her cousin Elizabeth, the families soon separated. Misty and Dan after spending their time in prison for different charges, decided to live separate lives.

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Lyric Cook-Morrissey's parents have long been struggling with substance abuse

Misty Cook and Dan Morrissey were high school sweethearts, who welcomed their child Lyric Cook-Morrissey on October 2, 2001. But throughout Lyric's childhood, her parents were absent. From the early 2000s, Misty and Dan have been in legal trouble, due to their drug addiction.

Misty, when she was eight months pregnant with Lyric, was convicted of keeping drugs with the intention of selling. She served her time in a West Virginia facility when Lyric was just eighteen months old. The infant was raised by one of her aunts until she turned four. Lyric was just ten years old when she went missing.

The bikes were found near the lake (Image via Pexels)

In an interview with KCRG, published on July 13, 2022, Misty Cook said the day her daughter Lyric Cook-Morrissey went missing, she was at her new job at a convenience store in Elk Run Heights.

She left Lyric, in the care of her mother Wilma, at Elizabeth's home in Evansdale. It was around one in the afternoon when she received a call from her mother Wilma, who said the girls hadn't come back home yet.

So she drove all the way, to realize her sister, Elizabeth's mom Heather had already reported it to the police. Later that day, both of their bikes were found near the lake of the park. Dan, who was too under jurisdiction for drug consumption and distribution, had just come out of prison in May 2012, after being arrested 6 months ago.

Just a day before the girls had disappeared, Dan was supposed to be taken back into custody due to a plea deal, so he rushed to see his daughter. He expresses Lyric ran up to him, and he hugged her, not knowing, this would be the last time.

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What happened to Misty and Dan after Lyric's death?

In December 2012, almost five months after the girls' disappearance, two local hunters in the Seven Bridges Wildlife Area found the decomposing bodies of Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook-Morrissey. Both the Collins and Morrisey families were devastated, by the news, learning their faintest hope of finding their daughters was completely gone.

Misty in the interview with KCRG, published on July 13, 2022, said that this left a very deep crack between her and her sister Heather Collins. Suspicion soon rose surrounding her, as she had a criminal record in the past. Misty said, that she tried contacting all the people she had done business in drugs in the past, and the public believed this was a revenge of some drug business feud.

As per Dan, he was questioned by the authorities, to know if the murders have some roots back in the Mexican drug war. But he denied the accusation, saying that he mostly took meth for himself, and distributed it just among close circles to get money enough for his sustenance.

The murder of Lyric was already too much for the parents and the public suspicion and blaming added up to it. They soon decided to separate ways. Misty confessed that she soon went back to taking drugs, to numb the feelings and cope with the loss. In 2014, she was sentenced to ten years in prison for drug abuse but was released on a lesser charge.

With the culprit still not being found, Misty decided to let go of the cold case and start back a new life. She slowly met Zack Frazer, her new boyfriend and they soon had a little daughter named Abigail. They are based in St. Lucas a sparsely populated city, in Fayette County, Iowa.

Dan Cook, the father of Lyric Cook-Morrissey has finished his time in prison at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He now lives a quiet life in Cedar Falls, Iowa, working for a tree-cutting service.

But as per reports on KCRG, on June 9, 2023, Misty Cook was arrested back again for possessing drugs and Marijuana with Nathan Slaughter, in West Union, Iowa.

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Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth? is available for streaming on Max.