For 155 days, authorities, family, and volunteers have searched fervently for Iowa livestock hauler, David Schultz, who went missing on November 21. On Wednesday afternoon, his body was found in a Sac County field, near where his semi-tractor trailer loaded with hogs was discovered over five months ago in the western part of the state.
Iowa’s Division of Criminal Justice stated that shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday, the Sac County Sheriff’s Office received a call from an unidentified individual who reported that he had discovered a body in his field.
The body was found near the intersection where Schultz’s tractor-trailer rig was located in November. The body is being transported to the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner for a forensic autopsy.
The statement said no further details are being released at this time.
In a Facebook post early Thursday, Schultz’s wife, Sarah, said, “Even though it is not the ending we wanted, i thank god we now know where David is because the 155 day of not knowing was pure hell. We still have a lot of unanswered questions but at least one big one was answered and we know he is with jesus. God bless!”
Schultz, 53 years old and the father of 10-year-old twin boys, went missing before Thanksgiving after leaving his home on Nov. 20 and picking up a load of pigs in the Eagle Grove area.
Schultz was seen at 11:15 p.m. at a truck stop east of Fort Dodge on Highway 20 and on a Department of Transportation camera on Highway 20 headed west before his truck was found turned off but not pulled off the side of the road with pigs on board. Mysteriously, the truck was also facing northbound when it should have been facing southbound.
The United Cajun Navy assisted in the search, launching volunteers on over 100,000 acres in and around Sac County.
Jake Rowley of the United Cajun Navy told the Sioux City Journal that Shultz’s body was found within an area that authorities said they’d already searched.
“The fire department, police department, and the sheriff’s department from that area told us that they had a 2-mile radius around where the truck was found,” Rowley told The Journal.
Rowley also questioned the state of decomposition of Schultz’s body, saying that it was not as decomposed as it should have been after being out in the elements for over five months.
“There’s a very good chance that the body wasn’t there even when they searched,” Rowley explained. “And that the body was placed there after.”
Throughout the 155 days of Schultz’s disappearance, Sarah Schultz posted updates to her Facebook page, calling his disappearance “suspicious” and in opposition to her husband’s character.
The trucking community has event stepped in to try to find Schultz, rallying behind the hashtag #bringdavidhome.
Many on Facebook have shared concerns about foul play. Others contributed $18,661 to a GoFundMe organized by Ramie Uren to benefit the family.