An investigation is going on in western Iowa after a woman claimed to have helped her serial killer father dispose of several bodies when she was a child.
Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope told the local CNN affiliate, “We are actively investigating this, and who wouldn’t?”
“We have a scene, but we don’t know whether it’s a crime scene,” the sheriff added. “We don’t have victims, bodies. Nothing.”
Lucy Studey claims that her father, Donald, killed as many as 70 women and threw their bodies down a well on their property.
“He would just tell us we had to go to the well, and I knew what that meant,” Studey told Newsweek. “Every time I went to the well or into the hills, I didn’t think I was coming down. I thought he would kill me because I wouldn’t keep my mouth shut.”
The accuser’s sister, Susan, had a rebuttal, saying the idea that her dad was a serial killer is preposterous and unfounded. “My father was not the man she makes him out to be. He was strict, but he was a protective parent who loved his children … Strict fathers don’t just turn into serial killers … I’m two years older than Lucy. I think I would know if my father murdered.”
Aistrope did confirm that he took cadaver dogs to the area Lucy indicated and that the dogs did have a reaction, but he is not giving any further details about precisely where they responded. “We’re going to do everything we can to prove or disprove there may be a crime scene,” he said.
The FBI has gotten involved and they say it could be months before they can confirm or deny the allegations. The alleged suspect died in 2013.
In order to continue with the case, authorities will have to first question the validity of Studey’s accusations. From there, they can either start digging or dispel the claims.
Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) says cadaver dogs aren’t the only thing on which they base their investigation. Other factors will have to be met before the search team can, or will, break ground.
*Header photo from the Netflix movie 1922.