Police have been left scratching their heads after a search for 70 corpses in Iowa came up dry. Authorities began searching for the bodies after Lucey Studey McKiddy claimed her father, Donald Studey, was a serial killer who murdered dozens of women, according to WHO-13. However, after excavating the land where McKinney claimed she helped her father dump his victims, there was no evidence found that any of it ever happened.
- McKiddy made some pretty serious claims. she approached the FBI with the claim that her father Donald Studey was a killer who would force McKiddy and her siblings to throw the bodies of his victims into the well in Thurman, Fremont County. “I know where the bodies are buried. He would just tell us we had to go to the well, and I knew what that meant,” she told Newsweek.
- McKiddy first made her claims in 2007. However, it wasn’t until November 2022 that things came to a head. The FBI, Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa Divison of Criminal investigation came together to search the well where McKiddy claimed the bodies had been dumped. They expected to come across a horrific sight, but that’s not what happened.
- There was no evidence of any crime whatsoever. Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt says no bodies were found during the excavation, and there was no suggestion that there had ever been any there at all.
- Police released a statement after the search ended. “Over the past three days, state, local, and federal law enforcement assisted with an investigation in Fremont County,” it reads. “Authorities brought in an array of experts representing several disciplines and significant assets to excavate, collect and examine soil samples from a site identified by a reporting party. After exhaustive efforts, no evidence or other items of concern were recovered.”
- Not everyone thinks McKiddy was wrong, however. Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope said he believed McKiddy’s story about the bodies. “I really think there’s bones there. It’s hard for me to believe that two dogs would hit in the exact same places and be false. We don’t know what it is,” Aistrope said. “The settlers were up there. There was Indian Country up there as well, but I tend to believe Lucy. Right now, we don’t even have a bone. According to the dogs, this is a very large burial site.”
- Was Donald Studey the cold-blooded killer his daughter claims he was? That remains to be seen. However, given that he died in 2013, even if her story does prove true, justice can never be served.
