Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Max’s latest documentary, Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric & Elizabeth?, reinvestigates the notorious Evansdale double murders. It is the directorial debut of local news photographer Dylan Sires. He has worked on the unsolved case for more than a decade now.
In July 2012, cousins Lyric Cook, 10, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, disappeared while riding their bikes in their neighborhood. Months later, in December that year, hunters found their remains in a remote wildlife area. Despite a years-long investigation, detectives have never solved the murders of Lyric and Elizabeth.
Investigators initially attempted to link a convicted sex offender, Michael Klunder, to the killings. Reportedly, Klunder was responsible for a similar 2013 abduction of two girls, Kathlynn Shepard and Dezi Hughes, in nearby Dayton, Iowa. Dezi managed to escape, but the culprit murdered Kathlynn, dumped her body in a river, and then died by suicide that same day. Authorities later ruled out Klunder as a suspect in Lyric and Elizabeth’s murders. Taken Together further elaborates on other comparisons that detectives and theorists have made.
Taken Together: Who were the suspects in Lyric & Elizabeth’s Evansdale murders?
The Daily Beast reported that to date, investigators only believed Michael Klunder as a possible suspect in Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins’ murders. After failing to link him to the case, they ruled out Klunder as a suspect in 2014. By then, the convicted, violent sex offender had already committed suicide. He hung himself because one of the girls he had kidnapped, Dezi Hughes, had managed to escape. He feared that authorities would soon catch him, and he died by suicide after disposing of Kathlynn Shepard’s body in a river.
According to KCRG, Lyric and Elizabeth disappeared from Evansdate, Iowa, on the afternoon of July 13, 2012. The girls were riding their bicycles in the neighborhood and never returned home, prompting a widespread investigation. Later that year, on December 5, hunters found their bodies in the Seven Bridges Wildlife Area.
The outlet stated that authorities revealed an autopsy confirmed the remains belonged to Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins. But, they never disclosed the full details from the autopsy and Lyric and Elizabeth’s cause of death. They believed releasing key details could wreck the continuity of evidence in the case. Investigators also believe that the location of their bodies can prove crucial in finding the potential killer.
Bremer County Detective Jason Ellison said, “We do believe that it is somebody that is familiar with the Meyers Lake area and Seven Bridges area.” Additionally, investigators with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) have been working on Lyric and Elizabeth’s murder from the start. Lead DCI investigator Scott Reger also thinks, “You’d have to know it was there, you’d have to be familiar with it, you’re not just gonna be driving down Highway 20 and stumble on to Seven Bridges. You have to know that it’s there.”
Now, Dylan Sires documentary Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric & Elizabeth? looks into other potential connections. Besides Michael Klunder, the three-part series takes into consideration other similar cases and possible suspects, including pedophilic sexual abuser Jeff Altmayer. It also tries to draw connections to the Delphi, Indiana, murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty Germane (Abyy and Libby). Despite having multiple similarities, these links are only circumstantial.
Taken Together comprises home movie clips, archival photographs, and interviews with Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins’ close ones. The victims’ parents are among the few people who were interviewed in the documentary, which gives an emotional account of Lyric and Elizabeth’s Evansdale murders that have never been solved. It premiered on August 8 and is now streaming on Max.
