Iowa Girls Missing Three Months—Are They Still Alive?

Today missing Iowa girls Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins have been gone for three months, and the community of Evansdale aren't relenting in their hope that the two girls will come home someday. However, the FBI hasn't acknowledged their hope in the girls being alive in several weeks, making it hard to believe that they are completely sure of themselves in this search and investigation. Where are Lyric and Elizabeth and why haven't there been any arrests or investigative updates in so long?

On this three-month-mark of their disappearance, a vigil will be held for the two girls. However, weather may force this vigil to move indoors. Yesterday Elizabeth Smart offered her two cents on this case, like she's been known to do over many high profile cases, and as usual she offered the sentiment that the two girls are still alive and will come home someday. Hope, as you know, is an important concept to hold onto even when it makes no sense at all.

Meanwhile in the world of reality, the two missing Iowa cousins could very well be dead. While it's also a very slim possibility that they are alive and being held captive somewhere, the statistical likelihood of this is almost nonexistent. It's more likely that these two girls haven't been alive for quite some time now, especially with all of the drugs and documented sexual offenses there are in the area. These girls didn't live a very safe life as it was, but you add being kidnapped on top of their already sad lives and you've got a worst case scenario in the making.

Hopefully the FBI addresses the media again like they did in the beginning of this case. Until then, it just seems like agents filled everyone with false hope and then split.

Photo: HLN

Crime analyst & profiler Chelsea Hoffman can be found on Huffington Post or Chelsea Hoffman: Case to Case. You can follow her on Twitter @TheRealChelseaH or contact her via her personal blog. Fan the Facebook page for updates on missing persons cases, issues in civil rights and details on Chelsea's fiction works.

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