The Evansdale Murders /// Part 2 /// 394 | Forensic Files

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enough of the be his knees all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
long time listeners of this fine program will know that one of the tactics I would certainly use in any of these
investigations is what I like to call the old pervert Roundup and that is exactly what law enforcement did
investigators Tracked Down approximately 10 registered sex offenders living in Evansdale and all were cleared by police
but according to CNN there were two 200 registered sex offenders in a 10 mile radius
this is scary stuff the town of Waterloo has wait did you make sure that there wasn't a prison I I did the town of
Waterloo has one registered sex offender for every 236 residents for comparison purposes Evansdale has a registered sex
offender for every 484 residents overall the DCI says it looked into over 300 sex offenders to date
throughout the investigation investigators had a hard time figuring out exactly how the girls were abducted
where the bikes were left was quite far from their house and was not in an area cars could travel on further the girls
sense had seemed to lead into the woods how had a predator or Predators managed to get control of two girls
silently and sight unseen in broad daylight yeah but we've talked about this many times normally
I'm going to guess that it's by threat of violence I show you a gun I show you a knife you're a little kid it's not
going to be that hard for me to you know most little kids are not going to think
hey I could take off running right now or maybe I can scream or I could do something you're gonna see that gun and
once that threat is made now that perpetrators in control yeah and what you have to wonder about too is do you
take that a step further and say were they lured to a vehicle perhaps by someone they knew and trusted and there
was no reason for them to scream or run away right I think that's your second option the other thought too had they
been grabbed from another location perhaps along a road alongside a road which would make sense and then the
bikes left by their abductor on the trail and the dogs are just mistaken or confused well we've talked about this a
little off the Record was the idea that what if the perpetrator had a truck or had a truck with maybe a cap on it where
he got the girls got control of the girls they're now in his vehicle he has the their bikes but now he's afraid that
once he takes off that maybe somebody sees the bikes in the back of his truck here's the other thing to consider as
well staying along the idea that it was a stranger abduction could we have a situation where they
were somewhat targeted meaning had someone been watching the two girls as we said this bike ride was pretty
routine they were out riding together often and I would imagine it would be roughly
about the same time of day so did somebody put together a you know a carefully planned attack a snatch and
grab of these two girls especially if they were following him and then followed them all the way to the lake
that might have presented the opportunity the perpetrator was looking for there were a rash of child abduction
attempts throughout Iowa in 2012. the following reports appeared in various media Publications and I'll kind of go
through these one at a time captain and you just kind of jump in where you see fit May 19 2012 authorities say they
were looking for a man suspected in the attempted abduction of three girls on the west side of Perry Iowa Perry police
say the man stopped his car about 8 PM Friday and asked the girls ages 8 and 9 for directions to a convenience store he
then tried to get the girls into the car asking for them to show him the way show
him the directions police say the girls ran to a neighbor's house thankfully on June 6th of that same year Metro Police
are teaming up with following a string of attempted child abductions in the Des Moines Iowa area note this is like 125
miles away from Evansdale but I I want to go through some of these as we as we can here the most recent of
these attempts happened in Pleasant Hill on May 23rd of that year police say a man in a SUV tried to lure a young girl
into his vehicle in the same article they're talking about Waukee police we're investigating an incident that
happened around the same date there were two girls they say they were followed by
an SUV in June parents in Forest City Iowa were notified of two abduction attempts and one of them the driver of a
tan panel work style van stopped three children on bicycles on North 8th Street and told them he was going to get them
the children ran away and the driver drove off it seems like we need another stranger danger
campaigned through this country I mean with all these creeps and all these pieces of [ __ ] to teach these kids one
stay away run away run to the nearest house yell for help well what I always find interesting in these situations is
when you do have some a child or children who actually go missing and then the thought is abduction you'll see
these little stories in the newspapers in the local newspaper papers and they are just that they are little tiny
stories because they don't know much about the offender they don't really fully know
what the offender was attempting to do the actual crimes they were attempting to carry out but it's scary stuff and
they're really just delivering a little short warning to the community and to the parents in the area what happens
once you have a child who actually goes missing these stories all start to cycle back
through the news because now you have people making connections and you're going all right there's a shark in the
water and he's over here swimming around in this area and look you try to get somebody here and try to get somebody
there in the same article Captain they are going all the way back to March of that year where they say the police
department investigated a possible attempt to abduct a 10 year old boy the boy who was in front of his home said he
was approached by an Asian male approximately 50 years old with a thin face the suspect was driving an older
gray van possibly with Iowa license plates the man reportedly tried to lure the boy into his van after asking for
directions to a church whether these attempts could have been the same person who took Elizabeth and lyric is
almost certainly something that police in Evansdale would have been considering at the time
on the four-month anniversary of The Disappearance a letter appeared in the newspaper and
it read to whom it may concern we would use your name but we don't know who you are or maybe we do
maybe you are someone who knows the girls maybe you're someone who just acted upon
impulse maybe you had planned to take them we don't know because we don't know who you
are but we can sort of imagine that you must not have had the things you needed to grow up feeling safe and loved
because only someone who hurts inside would hurt another person in their family we've all heard the saying hurt people
hurt people we believe this to be true we are so sorry for what happened to you when you were
growing up certainly all children do not receive all the love and care they deserve
some are even abused by those who are supposed to have taken care of them when that happens it is very wrong
taking the girls from us has caused much pain pain for them pain for us and our families
since the time you took them maybe you've wondered more than a few times how you could ever make it right
how to be a hero not a monster things probably look pretty hopeless for a good outcome
we want you to know that we are praying for you to do the right thing by releasing the girls everyone wins
even you the person who took them imagine how it will feel to have everyone remember that you were the one
person and all the missing children cases the one person who cared enough to let the girls go
you will not be remembered as the one who took the girls but as the one who let them come home
our lives have not been the same since July 13th please let our girls come home to us do the right thing be a hero
sincerely and it's signed by both of the families well and then we're going to learn that that's not an option anymore
to return the girls because the girls would be found yeah this takes place on December 5th of
that same year 2012. the family they get the phone call that they were really hoping not to get
the family was told that two bodies had been found and at that time they believed them to be the girls three
Hunters found two small corpses in Seven Bridges Wildlife Park in Bremer County north of Evansdale this was a totally
Off the Grid 166 acre Wildlife Area about 22 miles from Myers Lake 22 miles from where the
bikes were found the area was not one that someone would just stumble upon it was frequented
mostly by hunters ATV riders fishermen you know outdoor people yeah this wasn't uh the type of Park that you would just
take your kids for a hike this was like you said more for hunters and fishermen ATV riders and to kind of clue everybody
in that's not from that area when I see these types of statements it really it really puts it into perspective for me
what kind of place what kind of area we're talking about this is also an area where people would drive
and dump appliances you know how you see things that that are just dumped that are on one wanted that they have no
other idea of how to get rid of them right they just dump these appliances out in the middle of nowhere so and this
is also a place that pretty much only in the locals know about you want to know about it if you weren't from that area I
mean you could find it on a map but as said it's it's very much like you just described it's only going to be
frequented by people that are specifically intending to go to that area for the purpose of hunting or
fishing now some locals used to use the area as a party spot so if you were local you
were aware particularly high school kids you know kids out looking for a place to
drink some beers the bodies were found by hunters making their way through the brush near a river the hunters nearly
stepped on one of the corpses the two corpses were lying about 20 yards apart from one another Blackhawk County
Sheriff Tony Thompson said even the hunters you know in describing this area he says even these Hunters if they had
just gone five feet in either direction they would have never found those bodies
the area where the bodies lay was accessible only by one road this is 270th Street this road had a dirt road
off of it that went a short distance to a dirt parking area and a turnout near the riverbank
the bodies were found about 150 feet from this turnout in the woods the whole place is incredibly desolate
the kind of place where you could go and know that you're not going to see any other human beings the Iowa State
medical examiner's office confirmed after autopsies that the remains were in fact that of Lyric and Elizabeth the
medical examiner was able to determine a cause of death but this has never been released by law enforcement law
enforcement made statements to the effect that details surrounding the cause of death would be known only to
the Killer and Evansdale police chief Kent smock said investigators had an idea of how
much time passed between the girl's disappearance and when they were killed however he would not release that detail
to the public investigators have also never addressed whether they have suspect DNA in this
case although given that the bodies were exposed to the elements for what could be close to five months DNA recovery
could be difficult Drew Collins has stated that he was never informed whether DNA of anyone
other than the girls was found in the family chose not to learn how the girls were killed I think the important
information that they're putting out there is we know roughly when they were abducted and we roughly know when they
were killed yes yes very much so and then one of the more famous leads in this case Captain this comes about on
July 24 2013 and there's some different parts to this lead um I actually think they had a good
amount of this information in advance but this is when we become aware of it this is almost a year
to the date of when the two girls were abducted the authorities announced that they received information from three
Witnesses who saw a vehicle that could be important to the case all three Witnesses reported seeing a large and
clunky white SUV an older model likely a Chevy Suburban or Ford Bronco parked on
arbitus Avenue on Friday July 13th arbitus Avenue is crossed by the Evansdale nature trail and is the road
that is closest to the part of the trail where the girl's bikes were found two of these Witnesses said that they
saw the white SUV parked between two bike trail signs and the other witness told police they saw the vehicle park
near the woods on the east side of the lake a few hundred feet from where the girls bikes were found right but that
that would be where the scent dogs took investigators yeah roughly the same area
what made these witness statements so intriguing was that all three Witnesses said they seen the SUV sometime between
11 30 a.m and 12 30 P.M on the day the girls went missing and if you recall the cyclist my boy Ted G told
police he had seen the bikes on the trail sometime between sometime around 12 20. so this whole time period is all
really fitting together two of the witnesses made their statements as part of the original
police canvassing the third came forward months later having assumed that someone
had already reported it this third report caused police to go back and re-examine the other two statements
about the SUV and decide that it was likely very important to the case but it's unknown whether the public
release of this information regarding the white SUV dredged up any further helpful tips
in 2013 the year after Lyric and Elizabeth were murdered Iowa investigators were alerted to
another double Abduction of two girls on May 20th twelve-year-old Desiree Hughes
and her 15 year old friend Kathleen Shepard were abducted while walking home from school this is around 4 pm in the
afternoon in Dayton Iowa they got into a vehicle with a man who offered to pay them to mow Lawns but he
just keeps driving with them and eventually taking control of the two girls by waving a gun
while they're in the vehicle this item was actually described as a gun to be a gun but later we would learn that this
instrument was actually used to euthanize livestock their abductor Michael klunder drove
around for about 90 minutes and then took the two to a hog processing facility where he worked at
the time he zip tied their hands he then left one of the girls in his truck and he dragged the other girl off into
place is unknown right the girl in the truck she bravely escaped the vehicle and hid
out in the woods before approaching a nearby home and then asking them to call for help around 8 pm
police located klunder's truck at a nearby property where they found that klunder had hung
himself yeah I believe that he wasn't that far from his truck and I think at some point he came back to check on the
other girl and she was gone and that's when he knew oh game's up you know I got to do whatever I'm gonna
do plus I gotta take my own life yeah Desiree was the girl who bravely escaped and unfortunately when police
when they find klunder who had hung himself Kathleen Shepard is nowhere to be seen
no there was a significant amount of blood which they believed to be hers that was found on his truck
her body was found uh sometime later by fishermen about 15 to 20 miles down the Des Moines River
she had been stabbed and beaten to death by a sharp instrument Michael klonder who was a six foot six
inch tall 42 year old farm hand he had already served time in prison from 1992 to 2011. this was half of the
sentence that he received for the 1991 kidnapping and assault of a young woman he grabbed her hit her and pulled her
into his car in an unrelated case klunder abducted two three-year-old twin girls this is
like the strange one of the strangest stories I've ever heard who were later found in a trash receptacle
these were the daughters they were alive thank God these were the daughters of a
female acquaintance clander said he was angry with one of the little girls so he
kidnapped them drove 50 miles with them in his trunk and then left them in the garbage
one of the girls did show signs of possibly having been choked klunder completed a sex offender
treatment program in prison and registered as a sex offender upon his release yeah but he said he's serving
half your sentence you should always be a little more than that or let's make the sentences a little bit longer if
you're only going to have to serve half of them yeah there should be like no good behavior for this man yeah I mean
the show nothing but bad behavior this guy gets out a year before this and he starts committing crimes like this this
is a monster this is a very dangerous individual and police in Evansdale and Dayton
Iowa thought that the clunder case could be connected because of obviously the similarities between the
two abductions two girls taken in daylight from a public place klunder spent some time in Bremer County
where Seven Bridges was located in the 90s so he may have been familiar with that Seven Bridges location well look we
have evidence that this individual likes to drive commit crimes and drive so you
know when he takes capture of these two girls 90 minute drive you say and then the other one we have uh 50 miles right
so this is an individuals not afraid to commit a crime and then drive to different locations look I said it when
we covered Ted Bundy you know a long time ago I I reiterated that when we covered Ed Kemper these serial killer
types and we don't know if numbers actually would put klunder into the serial killer category but it seems like
he was going that direction he he kidnapped two girls that day we know he's guilty of that he killed one of
them but these serial killer types their vehicle is one of their weapons and maybe one of their most important
weapons a lot of these guys do a lot of driving a lot of trolling a lot of hunting I I just think this guy is a
very good suspect I do too um now they claim that he's not a good suspect anymore
yeah and here's the thing when you see a suspect that that feels this good feels
like a possible connection I want a little bit more of a reason why he's not well and and I know they don't owe me
that but I'm I'm selfish Well here here's my problem with their findings is is and again we don't we only know so
much we don't even know if there's DNA that they matched or didn't match and that's how they ruled them in or out
what what the statements they have given to the public or what I've heard is if you look at these crimes yes there's a
lot of similarities but there's a lot of difference and that's why we ruled him out and my argument for that would be he
takes one girl away to isolate her he comes back this is again what I believe he comes back and finds that the other
victim is gone okay now everything has to be sped up now did he kill the other girl before this happened or after I'm
not for sure but again these things were sped up and then he kills himself so I I don't think you can look at the
actual murder or the manner in which it was done and compare the two and say it was it was
similar or different so what your referencing Captain is on May 14 2014 where DCI said they were and
this is this is their words here they were pretty confident Michael klunder was no longer a person of interest in
the Evansdale case right so here's what they're citing in this they said that he did have an alibi for
the day that the girls went missing that he was at home in Stratford and I don't
know how many people are there at this home or what puts him there that they're that they sound this confident in this
alibi now one thing we should note though Stratford is about a hundred miles away
from Evansdale yeah that's not that far though no hour and a half not with how much this guy
seems to like to drive and then as you pointed out they stated there were forensic differences between the two
cases that's an interesting choice of words because with all the information that they're holding back in the
Evansdale case they can't clearly come out and tell us exactly what those forensic differences are because that
could be showing their hand in the Evansdale case so where we don't know if we have DNA
suspect DNA in the Evansdale case if they do and they compared it to clunders DNA and they don't get a match
well that technically would be a forensic difference but you don't want to say that out to
the public and let them know that you have DNA remember they're holding back just as much in this Evansdale case as
they are in the Delphi case and other cases that are similar to this if you're looking for more True Crime
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oh time all right we're back this case I mean this you know I've heard of it before
but to spend the time and dive into it it's it's very complex and and it's very confusing well and it's
one of those cases where we have enough information to lead us to more questions
and we're sitting here now spinning our tires trying to answer some of those questions but it's an intriguing case
it's one that I'm very confident that they're still very active with and we'll get into to some of that as we go and
before we leave you today we will give you the tip number if anybody should have any information or thoughts that
they want to pass along to the proper authorities on August 21st 2014 more than two years
after Lyric and Elizabeth were killed Evansdale police held a press conference announcing a new website dedicated to
the girls case and I used some of that for my note-taking when doing research for this case
part of this website Captain discusses the likely characteristics of the Killer because law enforcement developed a
profile of sorts with the help of the FBI's behavioral analysis unit who believed that the killer was a single
individual stating he was familiar with both Myers Lake and Evansdale and Seven Bridges Wildlife Area in Bremer County
he likely selected Seven Bridges as a Dumping Ground because he was familiar with the area and knew it was secluded
according to the profile the offender Blends in with the community at large and may be a resident of black hawk or
Bremer counties he likely used quiet coercion to subdue the girls and coerce them into leaving
with him using a ruse or threats of violence like you pointed out the cousins were possibly the victims of
opportunity seized by someone who had expressed interest in underage girls and possibly had attempted abductions in the
past finally the suspect likely altered his appearance and or cleaned painted or
disposed of his vehicle after the abduction right but this this profile matches plunder
right they just described Michael klunder yeah so I I just really am interested to know
what they had that that that points away from him I agree with you Captain I cannot shake this suspect I can't I
can't get him off of my list because he just seems too good he seems to fit too well with what we believe
we're looking for very violent yeah History of Violence also the same victimology
that we would see in both cases he doesn't look a lot of offenders are looking for that
opportunity to find a vulnerable a person that's in a vulnerable position and alone a lot of offenders will be
turned off when they cannot find a potential victim by themselves he seems to have to to be able to
overstep that obstacle we know that for a fact because he took two girls who are
walking home from school it might be a part of his Mo and he used quiet coercion right just like they described
in the profile and that's really what these offenders and these perpetrators want to do when
they're trying to get somebody in their vehicle be it an adult or a child you don't want screaming you don't want a
violent altercation to have to go down because what does that create it creates ear Witnesses and eyewitnesses and
that's bad for your business his business is getting the victim into his vehicle
sight unseen and that can be done by offering to pay them for mowing lawns or as you said waving a gun in the face
with threatening you know with threatening violence toward them we do have some you know just when this
case can't get any more strange we did get two confessions over the years people who allege that they were
responsible for killing the girls but here's what we should start doing from now on if you confess to a crime that
you didn't commit we just put you in jail you get 30 days just for fun no no no you you get whatever that crime would
entail so if if it's murder and you confess to it and we know you're lying you still get 30 years just lock you up
because because it makes zero sense I don't understand well but the problem with that is it often it's somebody with
some pretty severe mental issues okay right right to come forward you could put them in a hospital
usually these people need some kind of treatment that they're in a bad place and they're confessing to something that
they they weren't even capable of doing and I mean that from on many different levels well and that's them these are
not bad people they're not evil people they're just they're confused because of of their illness right but the the
that's where law enforcement holding things close to the vest is important because when these
individuals come forward then they they can match certain things up and if your story doesn't line up or or the evidence
doesn't match your story we know that you're you're lying right and unfortunately hundreds of years ago we
would have just hung the person or a lesser Police Department would have went ahead and put this person in jail or
taking them to trial well but some sometimes with these crimes just look at like JonBenet Ramsey we've had so many
people come forward and confess well there's so much information out there it's really hard to okay they got this
wrong or they got this wrong well what if they only got a couple things wrong you go well did they just misremember
that or or are they really not the Killer be common especially when you have a case that's like famous on the state
level I mean Amy mihalovic that we've covered several times there were multiple people
that confessed to to her murder and we have every reason to believe that none of them actually killed her one of the
guys confessed in the middle of church he got up on a Sunday morning and started marching up and down the the
aisles confessing to the whole congregation that he had killed Amy Mahal now that's a weird
that's a weird Church experience right there beyond weird right put a few extra bucks in the collection plate for the
theatrics for that day now let's get into another good suspect now that we're past the two confessions that that don't
go anywhere there's no validity to those guys and when you go over the suspect it's almost like you're making this up
Jeff Altmeyer yeah yeah so in late 2016 Iowa authorities received a report of an
attempted abduction a man pretending to be an undercover police officer try to lure a young girl into his car
this is one of the more bright spots in this whole story and let me go through this in in good detail here so the girl
tells her parents and police uh that okay so she's she's going through the this bag right what's that this [ __ ] bag
yes yes so so she tells her parents about this attempted abduction right her neighbor
and some brothers run out and they can still see the guy's vehicle she gave a description of the vehicle to to her
parents into these these guys yeah he was still in the neighborhood he was just leaving the neighborhood so they
get in a vehicle and they start chasing after him and there's a really good article about this in the Des Moines
Register that that I recommend but what what it ends up being here Captain is this pervert was 58 year old married
father of two Jeff Altmeyer he was arrested and charged with enticing a minor and impersonating a public
official yeah but what's interesting is he has a little tiny Ford Focus so they easily catch up with him right and then
they're yelling at him and then this guy is threatening them saying he's law enforcement
and you better you know leave me alone the the coolest thing of this is and I don't have the guy's name in front of me
but the kind of the leader of the of the group of guys chasing after this man after the Pervert man in the silver
little Ford Focus I go [ __ ] this is a younger dude like he looks to me like he's like 18 or 19 years old and he's
not put off by any of the things that this Jeff Altmeyer is saying to him because they pull up window to window
yeah and he's not like you know pardon me do you have any gray Poupon he's like did you try to kidnap a girl
yeah and sick [ __ ] and the guy's like he's like no I didn't and I'm an undercover cop and thinking that that's
just going to end this situation yeah to which he then Altmeyer says to to this guy that's chasing him
if you don't leave me alone I'm gonna beat you up so he then says okay get out of your car
yeah and Altmeyer is like nope I don't I don't want to get out of my car to which
he then says again I'm undercover police trying to scare these guys off the guys just think if you could get
your hands on somebody like that he'd beat his ass the guy says to Altmeyer he says um that's fine one of my relatives
is in law enforcement and they're on their way and we've called the cops and we're going to we're all going to sit
here and in a few minutes we're all going to find out the truth yeah so what this leads to is Jeff Altmeyer
obviously being arrested and charged with enticing a minor impersonating a public official
once police had Altmeyer in custody they started to connect other abductions and
attempted abductions to him it turned out that Altmeyer had been trying to lure kids into his vehicle for months if
not possibly longer his modus operandi was to entice children by offering them 100 dollars
to get in his van or his vehicle I'm sorry once they did he would molest them or attempt to he
eventually succeeded in sexually abusing at least two girls yeah but what was his
job didn't he have a a job where he traveled around that's the scary thing he was a traveling he worked as a
traveling automobile damage field inspector which means he spent a lot of time in his vehicle or what might be his
work vehicle which could have been a vein right so driving around this is I it sounds to me the captain like he
drove around in multiple States now I wonder if he's always used in his own vehicle or if there's a company
vehicle but what you're saying is that two cars get in an accident the insurance companies called at some
point his job is to go out there and look at the damage go out and assess the situation so he make a ruling right but
insurance are normally just uh the laws only apply to that state like if you even if you live on the border you know
like that's true so he probably only works in Iowa but he probably works all over Iowa well but the the information I
have says driving around areas of the Midwest which makes me yeah so maybe believe it might be multiple States
but all in all regardless of where he's driving police were able to link Altmeyer to 19. that's one nine one
short of 20. such incidents in nine different counties as stated in the Des Moines Register
between May 31st 2016 and November 16 2016 Altmeyer is suspected of trying to entice at least 19 children he sexually
abused two of them his victims were all girls with the average age we talked about victimology here with the average
age of 10. but he went after kids as young as six and as old as 13. and but these are the ones we know of
I mean there could be way more that that we don't know of well there's one possible
case that that was unsuccessful for Altmeyer thank God where he's he's trying to get somebody into the vehicle
uh child enticement case from Cedar Falls which was only about 12 miles from Evansdale so if you want to try to link
him as close as you can to our case that's about as close as we can we can place him or suspect him to be
a man reportedly approached three young girls in that situation at a park in Cedar Falls and offered them money to
get into his car he's not been charged in that actual enticement case because he can't prove that it was actually him
but they suspect that it is to investigate this guy right and what I'm saying is there could be a another
hundred cases of this creep yeah one of the things after his arrest that they showed in some of the newspaper coverage
of his arrest was these 100 bills you know he's he's that is his Mo offering children 100 cash
he they they showed a picture of like I don't know 15 20 100 bills he must have been keeping them on him on him at all
times so that when he saw an opportunity he had the cash on him to to try to that
ruse on these these poor kids and I'm assuming he's working five days a week but he's so he's traveling five days a
week and and way different parts of the state that we we're not aware of he'd have to go back through his the cases
that he was assigned to but also just the surrounding areas because how how easy would it be for him to say well I
got a flat tire or uh I actually took the wrong route or I was at the scene longer than I thought it would be
well he was actually just driving around as a sick predator and I think that people would be quick to point out like
look he's he's got all these other cases and it seems like he's let the kids go all the time we don't know could
something else have gone down something unexpected and knee-jerk reaction he killed one of the
two girls and then had to kill the second one you know it doesn't it doesn't always have to fit you know
there are these one-off cases there are murders that take place when people are really just trying to cover up other bad
behavior and one thing that made him very interesting to law enforcement and to to
me into US garage guys here as well we touched upon in the first episode how how rare it is to try to abduct multiple
children at a time well we know of several cases where that is in fact what Altmeyer was trying to
do so again he's already stepped over that obstacle that potential obstacle in February of 2018 Jeff Altmeyer was
sentenced to first degree sentence four first degree kidnapping second-degree sexual abuse
and two counts of enticing a minor in Jasper County he got life in prison and his wife of several decades has divorced
him since he's gone away to prison well that's what I meant by this guy to me when I was reading about this case I go
this guy seems BTK like guy that was married oh yes seems like a normal guy and always thinking and planning these
things out in advance yeah or well actually putting yourself in that position I mean it could have been the
reason why he took the job without getting too much into it because there's a lot a lot of little details there but
I want to Circle back to the family we were talking about Dan Morrissey and his legal troubles and remember he was still
facing a trial at the time that his daughter went missing eventually he ends up getting 90 years in prison for his
charges so he's that's where he is to this day and Misty his wife she continued for a
little bit of time to be in and out of trouble look the the drug angle of the Lyric and
Elizabeth investigation does not appear to have led anywhere apparently it's a still a working theory
in the case personally I feel Captain like I have a little bit of an issue with this Theory
and part of that being I see the efforts put forward and how many different agencies were working together on this
case I kind of feel like if that were what was going on here I kind of feel like it would have been
solved by now that that would have been an easy that would have been an easy thing to
investigate for them because it's it the circle and the possibilities of suspects
is much smaller than what we are probably facing in my opinion what what appears to me to be more of a stranger
abduction right but that's because it's easier to investigate doesn't mean it's easier to prove and that to bring
charges against somebody that you have to be able to prove that they could that they did this now many people are
probably recognizing that this case has a lot of similarities to another case that we've covered on True Crime
garage with numerous episodes and that being the Delphi double murder case that took
place in February of 2017. it's very difficult to do internet searches and be looking around snooping
around on either one of these cases without bumping into to the other now some of the the possible
similarities or things that I believe seem similar and some of these just seem a little too much to be
coincidental but so we have two cases that involve the abduction and murder of two young girls in Midwest Towns now the
towns are 400 miles apart both cases occurred on or near recreational Trails but also in areas
where the girls were not supposed to be or not known to frequent both cases occurred in the middle of the
day in broad daylight both cases occurred on the 13th of the month Delphi was on a Monday and Evansdale was
on a Friday the dates are palindromes too which I never would have picked up on that but
my friend just pointed that out to me them being the same backwards and forwards
to 13 17 and 7 13 12 21317-71312 in both cases the bodies were found in remote areas that
investigators believe required someone to be familiar with that part of the area
with those specific areas both sets of investigators stopped short of declaring the offender to definitely
be a local in both cases a close family member had ties to the drug world and rumors flew
that drug connections were responsible well in both cases very very small towns very low populations
yeah neither case is the cause has the cause and manner of death of the victims been known to the
public nor is it known whether there was sexual assault so we can't really compare some of the
more important aspects of the Killer's Mo in these two cases and of course there are significant differences
between the cases as well we do have authorities on the record stating that they do not believe that the two are
related yeah I think they're too far apart for one um we also in this case in the Evansdale case the victims were
moved or Taken maybe brought to a different location and and then 22 miles away from where
the body from the distance between the bodies and the bikes we don't know if somebody
took them somewhere else before that uh Delphi it's really tough because the new research that I've come across and
we've talked about this is there's now a debate if they were murdered in that spot and left in that spot or if those
bodies were moved but they weren't moved 22 miles I've heard plenty of law enforcement statements in in regards to
Delphi that the two girls were killed where they were found and then when we go and we take a look
at the Evansdale case we really have no clue how many different locations they could
have been before they were found at Seven Bridges and as you pointed out how long they may have been kept by whoever
took them we do have some thoughts by the family members now keep in mind the family has
chosen not to know how the girls were killed but we have at least one family member who is on record saying
it's of their belief that the girls were alive when they were when they were brought to Seven Bridges and then killed
in that location I don't think that there's a lot that they're basing this off of other than them knowing the area
having been to the area and really just their suspicions my guess would be that it's it's an area that's not easily
traveled on foot from where you would have to leave a vehicle thus just making it difficult to
transport one body let alone two bodies in 2017 authorities had interviewed over
1 000 people in lyric in Elizabeth's case nonetheless the murders remain unsolved the deaths of the girls wreaked
havoc on their families and people in Evansdale say the town has never been the same Drew Collins said in an
interview that the deaths of the girls devastated the town Drew continues to assist in cases of missing children even
having reached out to Mike and Becky Patty in the Delphi case to let them know he was there if they needed
anything also similar to Delphi Evansdale has turned a small island at Myers Lake into a dedicated memorial
called Angels Park Memorial Island it features memorials to the girls and other female victims of violence in Iowa
as well as gazebos Memorial brick walkways murals and decorative Landscaping this was an expansion of the
2013 announcement that the trail and park at Myers Lake would be renamed to honor the memory of Lyric and Elizabeth
the trail that runs around the lake is now known locally as the trail of angels there is a substantial reward for
information leading to a conviction in this case and tips can be submitted by calling
855 300 tips that's one eight five five three hundred eight four seven seven on the seventh anniversary of the girls
abduction authorities reminded us that there are still several agencies that are actively working this case the
Evansdale Police Department the Blackhawk County and Bremer County Sheriff's offices and the FBI saying
they get together regularly to review information and evidence and evaluate new information Drew Collins tells
interviewers that he remains confident that the investigators are working hard on his daughter's case and that
eventually they will catch the guy who did it let's hope he is right foreign hey I want to thank everybody for
joining us in the garage but I want to thank everybody that's been sharing our show with their friends on social media
especially on Instagram stories thank you guys so much thank you Captain we also want to say check out the new book
murder in Macomb this case started when the body of 12 year old Tina Marie Andrews was found underneath a discarded
sofa in the woods outside of Macomb Mississippi she was last seen accepting a ride at a local teenage Hangout to
this day the case is unsolved Trent Brown's book murder and Macomb is the only comprehensive examination of this
case you don't have to write that title down just go to truecrime garage.com and
click on the recommended page and until next week be good be kind and don't litter
thank you

The Evansdale Murders /// Part 2 /// 394 Part 2 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

What could be more innocent, more everyday America, two little girls setting off on a bike ride to explore the neighborhood? Something they had done countless times before. Except this time, they did not come home. This week we discuss the unsolved double murder case of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Colins. Beer of the Week - Easy Eddy from Big Grove Brewery Garage Grade - 4 and a Quarter Bottle Caps out of 5 Cheers and thanks to this week’s sponsors!!!

www.Gabi.com/Garage - Take two minutes right now to see how much you can save on your car and homeowners insurance! The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the abduction and murder of Lyric and Elizabeth in Evansdale, Iowa, and the ongoing investigation into their case.

Key points

Gabby Insurance Savings. Gabby offers a quick way to compare insurance rates and potentially save hundreds.
True Crime Garage Introduction. Hosts Nick and Captain introduce the episode and share their beer choice.
The Old Pervert Roundup. Investigators track down registered sex offenders in the area during the investigation.
Letter to the Abductor. Families express their pain and plea for the return of the girls in a heartfelt letter.
Discovery of the Bodies. The tragic discovery of the girls' bodies brings devastating news to their families.
Michael Klunder's Dark Past. Klunder, a convicted kidnapper, was released early and committed further crimes.

Episode highlights

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0:59WatchNov 14, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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