Missing Iowa Girls Are Alive: Authorities

Authorities who searched a lake looking for two missing Iowa girls said both of them are almost certainly alive, the AP reports. FBI spokeswoman Sandy Breault said officials "feel strongly" that cousins Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, have not been murdered. But she refused to divulge details, and asked anyone with information about the vanishings to tell law enforcement.

On Friday, authorities ended a search at Meyers Lake in northeast Iowa near where the girls' bikes turned up. "We have to cover everything," Breault said. "If there's even a chance (the girls were in the lake), we have to make sure." There are several "persons of interest" in the case, she added. Lyric's dad, a convicted criminal who no longer cooperates with police, will likely be supervised by parole officers to make sure he shows up for two pending drug trials. (More missing girls stories.)