Iowa trucker David Schultz was reported missing on Nov. 21, 2023, after his tractor-trailer rig filled with a load of pigs was discovered abandoned. His body was found in the middle of the road 155 days later.
Investigators from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation have released a conclusion from Schultz’s autopsy: His death was not a homicide.
The Sioux City Journal reported that the state’s medical examiner, Dr. Kelly Kruse, released further information about Schultz’s death Thursday. The immediate cause of death was listed as “hypothermia in a setting of acute drug (methamphetamine) intoxication.”
The medical examiner listed in the injury line: “ingested drug and exposed to environmental cold,” the Sioux City Journal reported.
According to AccuWeather, the temperature dropped 25 degrees on the evening that Schultz was reported missing, well below freezing.
No other information will be released about Schultz’s death, said Darrell Simmons, special agent in charge at Iowa’s DCI. ”We consider the case to be closed, and there’s nothing else for us to do,” he said.
After the autopsy had originally ruled out foul play, no other details were released. His wife, Sarah, said the family would be pursuing a second opinion and autopsy to help her family understand what happened to the father and husband.
Throughout the search for the trucker, theories of foul play circled on social media. Sarah Schultz said he would never have left his sons.
But, the circumstances of Schultz’s disappearance were all too strange. His truck was initially discovered abandoned on a rural highway near Sac City. His phone and wallet were left in the truck, his jacket was on the side of the road, and the truck was still full of piglets.
Hundreds of volunteers deployed on the search, and many on Facebook shared concerns about foul play. Others shared about suspicious incidents that occurred with other truckers being harassed by drivers who were forced to call 9-1-1.
