FBI divers may join search for missing Iowa girls


July 18, 2012 at 1:45p.m.

FBI divers may join search for missing Iowa girls

EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) — An FBI dive team from Los Angeles may join other agents and Iowa officers investigating the disappearance of two young cousins.

Eight-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey were last seen Friday at their grandmother’s house in Evansdale, a suburb of Waterloo in northeast Iowa. Their bicycles and Elizabeth’s purse were found later that day at nearby Meyers Lake, and FBI dogs detected the girls’ scent in the area.

FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault said today that if the divers are deployed, they would search the deeper holes of water in the lake. Officials have been draining it since Monday.

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.