SAC COUNTY, Iowa — An Iowa truck driver whose body was found in April after he went missing died from acute methamphetamine intoxication and hypotherma, according to his death certificate.
David Schultz’s wife, Sarah Schultz, made the sobering announcement on April 24 via Facebook that he husband’s body had been found.
Dr. Kelly Kruse, a state medical examiner, listed Schultz’s manner of death as an accident, according to the death certificate, a copy of which was obtained by the Sioux City Journal.
Officials with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations found Schultz’s body in a farm field at around 2 p.m. on April 24 near the intersection where his semi was located the day it disappeared; he was identified by his boots, according to the Sac County Sheriff’s Office.
The remains were transported to the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner for an autopsy.
Sarah Schultz held a news conference on April 25 in Sac City, saying: “I had a feeling he would be found … when the farmers were getting their fields ready. But I just didn’t know when. And it was yesterday.”
Schultz’s semi-truck was found on Nov. 21, 2023, on a rural highway in northwest Iowa, its trailer still filled with baby pigs he was transporting. Schultz’s wallet and phone were inside, and his jacket was on the side of the road.
Hundreds of people volunteered to search for Schultz, but after scouring 100,000 acres near the highway, the effort was paused as searchers considered their next steps.
Schultz, of Wall Lake, didn’t arrive as expected with the load of pigs on Nov. 21 in Sac City, Iowa, a small farming town about 90 miles northwest of Des Moines. No one could get him on the phone.
The truck was found later that afternoon, less than 10 miles northeast of his destination, a livestock dealer in Sac City, according to Jake Rowley, the regional team leader of United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit search-and-rescue organization which typically responds to natural disasters.
Schultz’s truck wasn’t running when it was found in the middle of the two-lane highway. It was facing northbound, Rowley said, even though it should have been headed southbound to get to Sac City.
The disappearance mystified surrounding communities in Iowa, prompting more than 250 individual volunteers to join in the search.
Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and raised in East Texas, John Worthen returned to his home state to attend college in 1998 and decided to make his life in The Natural State. Worthen is a 20-year veteran of the journalism industry and has covered just about every topic there is. He has a passion for writing and telling stories. He has worked as a beat reporter and bureau chief for a statewide newspaper and as managing editor of a regional newspaper in Arkansas. Additionally, Worthen has been a prolific freelance journalist for two decades, and has been published in several travel magazines and on travel websites.
