Elizabeth Collins & Lyric Cook-Morrissey Missing: Hmm … Parents of Missing Iowa Girl Lyric Cook-Morrissey Consult With Attorney, Have Past History of Drug Arrests … called distraction by investigators

Things that make you go hmmm …

The parents of missing of missing Lyric Cook-Morrissey have now consulted with an attorney who has advised them to stop talking to investigators. Oh, this is going to help in finding the missing cousins, Elizabeth Collins & Lyric Cook-Morrissey, who have been missing since Friday, July 13. The family is upset that they are being treated as suspects. One would think their main concern would be finding their daughter?

The parents of one of two missing Iowa cousins have consulted an attorney who has told them to stop talking to authorities, relatives say, a development that investigators call a distraction from the search.

Black Hawk County Chief Deputy Rick Abben said Thursday that authorities expect 100 percent cooperation from Misty and Dan Morrissey, parents of 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey.

Lyric and her cousin, 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins, didn’t return from riding bicycles Friday in Evansdale in northeast Iowa.

Family members told the Des Moines Register that police suspect Dan Morrissey is behind the disappearance of both girls, a claim he denies. Tensions between Morrissey and investigators led him to storm out of an interview Tuesday, they added.

“They have accused [Dan Morrissey.] They said they have evidence,” Tammy Brousseau, Lyric’s aunt, told the newspaper.

Lyric’s mom discusses family history of criminal activity.

There is history in our family, but it is not one we are scared of. It is one we have dealt with in the past and we’ve come past it as a family,” Misty Morrissey said Wednesday.

Misty’s daughter Lyric Cook-Morrissey and niece Elizabeth Collins, 8, have been missing since July 13.

Misty said the family’s past has nothing to do “with the disappearance of our children.”

“Look into it all you want. Scrutinize it all you want and then let’s get back to what the real focus is which is our girls. Because ultimately no matter how far you look into us we are completely open. It’s not going to lead anywhere,” she said.

The day before Daniel Morrissey’s daughter disappeared, the court set a September date for him in connection with drug charges that allege police found items used to make meth in his home in December.

Morrissey also has a pending domestic assault charge stemming from an August incident where he allegedly assaulted Misty Morrissey.

One of his alleged accomplices in the drug case had a pretrial conference the day of the disappearance, and another co-defendant was scheduled to plea the following Monday.

Misty Cook pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute meth in 2003. She is charged under her maiden of Cook.