Missing Iowa Cousins: FBI Divers Search For Girls As Authorities Keep Close Eye On Lyric's Father

The search for two missing Iowa cousins is getting a boost from an FBI dive team as law-enforcement officials said they were keeping a close eye on the father of one of the girls as he awaits trial on unrelated drug charges.

Iowa cousins Lyric Cook-Morrisey, 10, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, have been missing since last seen July 13 by their grandmother after going for a bike ride, CNN reported.

A Los Angeles-based dive team of 10 divers from the FBI was dispatched to Meyers Lake in Evansdale, Iowa, after the girls' bikes were found by a trail near the lake, according to the Des Moines Register. Foul play is not suspected in the girls' deaths, the newspaper reported, and the search for the missing Iowa cousins has hit a dead end after their bikes were found.

Meanwhile, authorities requested and were granted pretrial supervision for Dan Morrisey, Lyric's father. who is facing trial on drug charges in September, the Associated Press reported.

Morrisey stopped cooperating with authorities in the missing persons' case and has a lengthy criminal history, in the words of the AP. Lyric's mother also stopped cooperating with law enforcement, although both she and Morrisey are not considered suspects by Black Hawk County investigators.

The couple were told by their attorney to stop cooperating in the case, according to the Des Moines Register. The lawyer advised them to not take any more polygraph tests.

The pretrial supervision for Morrisey means parole officers will be ensuring Morrisey does not violate the terms of his parole, the AP reported.

The case of the two missing Iowa cousins is being investigating by local authorities, the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, and the FBI.

Along with the FBI divers, cars were being searched in and around Evansdale for any clues to the missing Iowa girls' whereabouts.

A fundraiser was scheduled for Saturday to benefit the families of the missing Iowa girls, including a 5K run.

People want to help, but they're feeling restless and wondering what they can do, said Angie Webb, a teacher at Poyner Elementary School in Carbondale, where Elizabeth is set to start fourth grade in the fall. Community gatherings are always nice and this keeps awareness of what is happening fresh in peoples' minds.

Law enforcement was subject to intense scrutiny in the case of the missing Iowa girls for not issuing an Amber Alert once the cousins went missing.

But experts who spoke to the Des Moines Register said authorities got it right and that an Amber Alert would not have aided the investigation. The vast media coverage served the same purpose as an Amber Alert, they said.

When you're dealing with a missing child, you want to do everything possible to find that child, and an Amber Alert is included in everything possible, said Bill Moulder, a retired Des Moines police chief and law enforcement consultant, told the paper. But this case just did not fit the protocol. In effect, though, there's nothing that an Amber Alert would accomplish that putting the information out through the news media hasn't done. Their pictures are everywhere.