Police in eastern Iowa have ruled out a suspect in the case of two girls killed in 2012.
Evansdale cousins Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins went missing in July of that year. Their bodies were found by a hunter that December 20 miles from where they were last seen.
In May of 2013, Michael Klunder abducted two girls near Dayton. One of the girls was able to escape, but he killed the other before taking his own life.
Despite not being an initial suspect, police say the similarities between the two cases led them to follow-up on Klunder’s whereabouts. But police confirmed Wednesday that Klunder isn’t their man.
“After we put everything together, and reviewed and re-reviewed and did more follow-ups, it just doesn’t appear that he had been in this area on that particular day,” Evansdale Police Chief Kent Smock told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
“We believe he was over near his home on the 13th of July, either at home or at work or traveling in between,” Smock added.
Klunder served half of a 41 year sentence in prison on previous kidnapping charges.
Anyone with information in the Evansdale case is asked to call Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers at (855) 300-8477.