Iowa trucker still missing, 2 weeks after semi holding baby pigs was found on highway

If you have ever watched Forensic Files, the prime suspect usually has a motive for this man to disappear. His wife, lover would be checked first. Did he have a big insurance policy in someone's name. Business dealings, drug deals gone wrong, enemies. The right detective can find out what happened. Either way the guy has most likely been murdered/ambushed/kidnapped

 

I watched a televised interview couple weeks ago with the man’s wife……

 

His truck was found parked on the road .. not on the shoulder is if he intentionally stopped for some reason he was also off his route as @Bud A. stated

 

Just for anyone that thinks some hick town sherif & his bumbling deputy are ram rodding the investigation because it’s redneck rural Iowa your so wrong as I said before unless your a native to Iowa there’s things you just wouldn’t understand . Like the fact the DCI has been involved since the 4th or 5th day he went missing Also the fact that the Cajun Navy has lead the search for him for almost 3 weeks now and the amount of manpower they have donated and the large area they have searched. The amount of time the truck was parked on the road before anybody though it was strange.. the fact the was some other activity in the area concerning another vehicle which was thoroughly investigated there has been surveillance camera footage investigated from a fuel stop he was seen getting coffee at 17 mins before the truck was parked in the road.. the amount of information they recovered when they did ECM dump . There a endless list of leads that have been investigated. And the the press conference the Sac county sheriff gave today again there’s some things that were said that as a Iowan you would find strange

 

Food supply....watch it!

 

Today I talked to my brother about this case. He's been thinking about it a lot too. He drives through there fairly often, and there are three places he delivers to that are very close to where Dave Schultz's truck was found. He pointed out some things I hadn't considered, and he has what I think is a good theory.

The TLDR is he may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time and got taken out by drug runners. The long explanation follows for those who think it's improbable.

US 71 goes to Kansas City and would be a great route to run drugs and especially meth and fentanyl from there up into the hinterlands. US 20 is now four lanes all the way across Iowa and so is a great alternative to I-80 for drug runners heading to or from Chicago since there is much less law enforcement presence. This spot would be a logical place for exchanging packages along those two routes.

Further, Storm Lake and Fort Dodge are both major drug distribution centers for western Iowa and are only 25 miles and 40 miles from this intersection. There is a big problem with meth addiction in the little towns along those routes.

So the theory is that he was sick, either with vomiting or diarrhea. The drive from his home to the place he loaded should have taken less than two hours total, but he left home at 1900 and was loaded at 2250. The article noted that he was late. What was he doing for the extra hour and a half on the way there? Stopping somewhere because he was sick?

Then he stopped for 16 minutes at the truck stop by Fort Dodge. My brother says that place is quick, like a 4 minute stop, especially at night, so why was he there for 16 minutes? Using the bathroom makes sense.

Finally, the cops said his phone pinged at the intersection of 71 and 20 at 0018, and that his phone stopped moving at 0040. Maybe his illness created a situation so urgent that he didn't even want to take the chance that he could make it a couple more miles to the receiver.

But that is only four miles north of there, so why did it take 22 minutes to travel 4 miles? Maybe because some shady characters saw him out of his truck, decided he was an expendable witness (meth heads are known for paranoia), hit him over the head, drove his truck up the road a bit to buy some time, then dragged him 20 feet to a car trunk.

My brother pointed out that that particular exit is a good one since it is a wide spot with an exit ramp and no one around, so if you needed to relieve yourself, it's a logical spot along that route. (And a logical spot to make an exchange between two cars just after midnight on Tuesday.)

At the other intersections before that, the gravel roads just run right up to Highway 20 with no wide spot. The cops did point out that he didn't stop at the truck stop at the intersection of Highways 4 and 20, which is 15 miles east.

Of course, it could be that he was less innocent than the picture I've just painted, and was somehow involved in something shady and stopped to meet someone at that intersection. That's possible. But I don't like to think that of a man working his butt off hauling livestock to provide for his family, so I won't believe it unless there's some evidence.

There is the possibility that he had a mechanical problem with his truck, but that doesn't explain why he would travel away from all the better places to get some help with that.

Another thing worth noting is that it didn't get below about 39° that night and the wind didn't go over 6 mph that night. They found his jacket in the ditch. The wind didn't blow it there and it wasn't quite T-shirt weather so it's another interesting clue.

I apologize for going full "serial killer podcast" on this thread, but on the other hand, it's close to home. Hopefully it's not too much information or speculation.

 

On the contrary this are very valid points that the authorities should look into!

 

I would think they've considered this scenario. It's no secret that a lot of drugs pass through rural Iowa from the south and west on the way to Minneapolis and Chicago and Canada. They might not want to float such a theory in public for a number of reasons though.

 

Yeah if you've ever watched the movie "Hannibal" that's exactly what they did in the movie, their goal was once they caught him to feed him to the pigs. But in the movie Hannibal escapes and the pigs end up eating the mob guys instead.

 

The trailer was loaded with piglets coming out of a farrowing facility going to a finishing facility, baby pigs don't eat people .
Although drugs are easy to find in rural and urban areas of the midwest I don't buy the whole drug thing , also northwest Iowa is loaded with Dutch aka Hollanders and they are not known for being druggers but better known for being workaholics.