Mother of murdered Evansdale cousin busted on drug charges

OELWEIN, Iowa (KCRG) - Misty Cook, the mother of Lyric Cook-Morrissey, was arrested on multiple drug charges Tuesday evening in Oelwein.

The Oelwein Police Department says officers, along with Iowa State Patrol, conducted a search warrant in the 300-block of 6th Avenue SE in Oelwein at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. During the search, illegal controlled substances were found and seized by authorities.

Cook, 47, is charged with Conspiracy with Intent to Manufacture or Deliver Meth and Conspiracy with Intent to Manufacture or Deliver Marijuana. Both are felony charges. Cook is also charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, a simple misdemeanor.

Oelwein Police say Zackery Frazer, 31, and Regina Larsen, 52, are also facing the same charges as Cook. Arrest warrants have been requested.

The case is still under investigation.

Cook is the mother of Lyric Cook-Morrissey. Lyric and her cousin, Elizabeth Collins, were abducted from Evansdale in July 2012. The girls’ bodies were found in a rural area of Bremer County in December 2012. Cook has faced legal troubles in the time since her daughter’s murder. In June 2023, she was arrested on meth charges in West Union. Cook took a plea deal in that case and was given a suspended prison sentence. She was also arrested on meth charges in 2013. She was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2014. She served only a portion of her sentence before being released.

In a 2022 interview with KCRG-TV9’s Beth Malicki to discuss the tenth anniversary of her daughter and niece, Cook discussed her previous legal issues involving drugs saying she felt vilified following the murders.

“It was just really more than the mind or the emotions can handle,” Cook said in 2022. “I just wanted to numb my thoughts and my feelings and I know from my past a very good way to do that. And so I just went right back to it. And it worked. It did what I wanted it to do for quite a while. Until I went to prison.”