The body of a man who disappeared after picking up a load of pigs in Eagle Grove five months ago has been found. David Schultz, a 53 year old husband and father, was hauling a load of hogs northbound on Hwy 71 when he disappeared, leaving his abandoned semi truck behind with his wallet, his phone, and a full load; with only Schultz himself missing.
“Day 155 and my husband has been found,” Schultz bereaved wife Sarah wrote in a post to Facebook. “We can now have some sort of closure.”
According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS) Shultz was found in a farm field in the 1900 block of Union Avenue in Sac County, after the Sac County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a person reporting having “discovered a body in his field”, shortly after 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24th.
Dental records confirmed the body was that of the missing man whose baffling disappearance has made headlines around the country. “Preliminary autopsy results show no signs of trauma or serious injury,” the DPS reported, noting that “further autopsy test results are pending.”
And while the DPS says authorities do not suspect foul play in Schultz’ death, his wife and a prominent volunteer involved in the search don’t seem so sure. “There’s a very good chance that the body wasn’t there even when they searched, and that the body was placed there after,” said Jake Rowley of the United Cajun Navy in an interview with the Mason City Globe Gazette. According to the Sac County Sheriff’s Office, the volunteer search and rescue group searched more than 100,000 acres looking for Schultz in the first three weeks after his disappearance.
In an interview with KCAU television news, Rowley said that the UCN had not searched the area where Schultz’ body was discovered “because we were told that these fields had already been searched.” So Rowley’s group searched outside of those fields, “so that’s kind of where our search area came in. But it really does surprise me that it was that close.”
Sarah Schultz had adamantly insisted that her husband’s disappearance took place under “suspicious” circumstances, as she said in a Nov. 27th, 2023 Facebook post. She had reported her husband missing when she found out that he hadn’t dropped off his load of pigs in Sac City as planned, the Sac County Sheriff’s Office told the Kansas City Star. Schultz had left home at 7:00 p.m. on the 20th of November on his way to Eagle Grove to pick up a load of pigs to be delivered to Sac City. Schultz was late in picking up his load, but did so, and was last seen in surveillance video captured a little before midnight the same evening.
“I found out he missed a load, and I just got sick to my stomach,” Mrs. Schultz told WOI last December. “He would never miss a load, he’s their guy. From then on, I knew something was bad wrong.”
A Gofundme campaign to benefit Schultz family has been set up (https://www.gofundme.com/f/family-of-david-schultz). As of press time, the fundraiser was still falling well short of its goal, despite the nationwide attention the case garnered.
