FBI tracking dogs have detected the scent of missing Iowa cousins Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook by a lake near where their bicycles were found, prompting officials to begin draining the lake.
The dogs' reaction suggests a "strong possibility" the girls had been in the area, FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault told the Associated Press.
Prompted by the dogs' response, police in Evansdale today began draining the lake. Police said they needed to rule out that the girls were in the water, and once that was determined they would expand their search.
Hundreds of volunteer searchers have spent two days dragging the lake, but came up with nothing.
Lyric Cook's family did not believe the girls were in the water.
"I don't think that they're in the lake not at all but it is just like a dead end as far as we know so far," Dan Morrissey, Lyric's father, told the AP.
Collins, 8, and Cook, 10, were last seen around midday Friday, riding their bicycles in downtown Evansdale. Police found their bicycles on Friday and a bag they were carrying on a trail near Meyers Lake. Crews used boats to search the lake, and volunteers looked in the woods. About 1,000 volunteers combed a 12-square mile area in the town of about 5,000 people.
The family of the two girls is determined to find them.
"We just ask that they continue to keep looking, not to give up," Collins' mother Heather Collins told ABC News Monday. "We will find these girls. These girls will be found."
Heather Collins said the family has strict rules with Elizabeth about how far she is allowed to go and how often she has to check in.
"If she goes more than one block, she tells us and she calls us when she gets there and she calls us when she comes home," Collins said. "This is not like her normal thing."
Heather Collins reported the girls missing about three hours after they left to ride their bikes.
"I just had a gut feeling my daughter would not leave that long," Heather Collins said. "She knows she'd be in trouble. ... That's not like her."
Heather Collins had a message for whoever took her daughter and niece.
"I want to say to them that my husband and I have forgiven them," she said. "God has forgiven them already. So we have forgiven them and we just want our children back safe and sound. That's all we want. We don't even want to know who the person is."
When asked how they keep their minds from imagining the worst, Drew Collins replied, "You don't. It's impossible. I've run over everything in my mind a thousand times and it's impossible. You just try to hold onto whatever kind of hope you have."
The girls' grandmother, Wylma Cook, says she fears they were abducted.
"Whoever has them, just turn them in, let them loose anywhere so they can call me," Cook said. "Lyric knows my cell phone, she knows my house phone."
Tammy Brousseau, Cook's aunt, says she knew what to do if a stranger approached her.
"I taught her myself if they got a hold of your arm, drop to the ground, kick, bite, scream, do everything you can," said Brousseau.
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