The search for a missing Iowa trucker came to a tragic end Wednesday, with loved ones revealing David Schultz’ body was found lying in a field, his cowboy boots still on and his keys in his pocket—details police used to identify him.
Schultz, 53, disappeared without a trace on Nov. 21 in Sac City, Iowa, where his truck was left abandoned, loaded with hogs he was set to deliver to a farm 10 miles down the road. His keys and phone were left in his rig, and his jacket was found in a nearby ditch, police said.
A months-long search ensued, with his wife, Sarah Schultz, pleading for authorities to pursue answers about her husband’s whereabouts. She told the Sioux City Journal she now feels equal relief and sorrow—glad her family has some answers, but grief-stricken by the outcome.
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“I’m glad we know where he is,” she told the Journal. “There’s still a lot of questions. You know, things just don’t make sense.”
David Schultz and his twin sons in an undated photo.
GoFundMeIowa authorities said they do not expect foul play in Schultz’ death.
Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation said Thursday it had definitively identified Schultz using dental records. It’s still unclear how he ended up in the rural field near Sac City, which was more than a mile away from where his truck was abandoned on a highway flanked by corn fields.
Schultz was the father of 10-year-old twin boys, his family revealed in a GoFundMe fundraiser, which had raised $19,000 as of Thursday evening. He was last heard from the morning of his disappearance, the Lake View Police Department said.
While foul play isn’t expected, Sarah Schultz said she’s not convinced that’s the case. She questioned why her husband would trek a mile-and-a-half in the Midwestern cold during the week of Thanksgiving to where he was found dead Wednesday.
“I can’t think of any reason why he would have walked a mile and a half out into the middle of a field and laid down, and taken his coat off, and shut his truck down for the day,” she told the Journal. “Things don’t add up, don’t line up. I suspect foul play.”
Sarah Schultz said her husband was found lying on his back with boots on and jeans down.
Jake Rowley of the United Cajun Navy told the Journal that it scoured more than 100,000 acres in search of Schultz. They did not search the area he was ultimately found, however, because police had told them they’d already thoroughly searched a two-miles radius near the abandoned truck.
Sarah Schultz posted updates—and pleas for answers—to her Facebook regularly for months. In December, she suggested Schultz was not suicidal.
“This is not something David would do,” she posted. “He would never leave. His family is his life.”
