Dive team arrives at scene of Evansdale search

UPDATE: Local law enforcement teams and the FBI are beginning an aggressive day of searching for two missing Black Hawk County girls.

A boat has been deployed in Meyers Lake near Evansdale to help an FBI dive team prepare for a sonar search for the missing cousins.

Black Hawk County Chief Deputy Sheriff Rick Abben said Friday the three people in the boat are checking the before the dive team enters the water and begins using its specialized equipment.

The team is searching for 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins. They've been missing since they went for a bike ride on July 13. Their bikes were found near the lake.

Agents in FBI shirts spent several minutes hooking up equipment before the boat pushed off into the lake.

Abben says the dive team has arrived in the area and is planning the logistics of their dive.

Authorities Thursday stopped draining Meyers Lake in preparation for the dive team. Abben said the divers needed the lake “to settle down” before they could go in the water. Local crews helped prepare the area for the dive team's equipment by adding rock to the already-drained portion of the lake bed near the dock.

Abben said the next steps that might be taken at the lake will not be determined until the divers are done Friday.

“If we need to continue draining it further - if that's what they think needs to be done - then we will do that,” Abben said. “I'm being told that this lake has some really deep pockets in it, somewhere between 15 and 20 feet deep.”

Another round of vehicle stops will also begin Friday morning. Officers will be at various locations starting at around 10 a.m., stopping drivers and asking them questions.

KCRG-TV9 reporter Jill Kasparie and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier contributed to this story.