The mom of one of the two missing Iowa cousins says she went through a lengthy polygraph test that should prove that she had nothing to do with their disappearance.
Misty Cook-Morrissey said a state agent asked several questions during Monday's test about whether she had anything to do with the abduction of her daughter, 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey, and niece, 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins.
The girls disappeared July 13 while riding bikes near a lake in Evansdale. The FBI says investigators believe they were abducted but are alive.
Cook-Morrissey says she was told a polygraph test she took last week came back inconclusive but that she passed Monday's test. She says she made peace with investigators, who "can rule me out of their book."
FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault (broh) declined comment.
Experts in child abduction say it's hard to tell exactly what's going in the case of two missing Iowa girls because law enforcement likely isn't disclosing everything they know about the disappearance of 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins.
FBI officials said Saturday they are confident the girls are alive. FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault refused to say what led authorities to that conclusion, but told reporters investigators are expanding their search beyond Iowa. "We have some things that we can't discuss to lead us to believe that they are alive. We are thinking of the girls right now."
David Finkelhor is director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. He says investigators may be more dependent on tips from the public now that it's considered an abduction. Finkelhor says abductions by strangers are so rare that it's difficult to predict what might happen.
The girls vanished July 13th while riding their bikes near Meyers Lake in the northeast Iowa town of Evansdale. Their bikes were later found on a path near the lake.
Breault said investigators are interviewing "persons of interest" in the case, whom she declined to identify.
