A third cadaver dog has sniffed out the scent of human remains at locations investigators are probing as a possible mass grave site where a woman claims her father dumped the bodies of dozens of women in the Green Hollow area around Thurman, Iowa, Newsweek has learned.
The dog, a German shepherd, hit along the morel mushroom trails Lucy Studey remembers venturing along with her father and family as a child. "I'm not surprised they hit there because my dad said the bodies were the reason the mushrooms grow so big," Lucy Studey, 53, told Newsweek. "We put lye on spots on the mushroom trail."
Meanwhile, Fremont County Sheriff's investigators met with state and federal authorities this week to map out next steps in the search for bodies on vast farmland and the hollows where Studey claims her father, Donald Dean Studey, buried mostly women - and at least two men - over the decades, occasionally using his children to spread lye and dirt to cover up the bodies. At least three SUVs from the agencies visited the site after meeting at the sheriff's office Monday. A source said boring of a well where bodies might be dumped could begin next month.
Studey died in 2013 at age 75.
On October 20, the first two dogs, both heelers, separately signaled to their handler possible remains near a deep well where Donald Studey allegedly buried some victims. Those dogs, going one by one, also hit on the trails. Newsweek was present at the time.
Last Tuesday, the same handler returned with a German shepherd at the request of the Fremont Sheriff's Office, Newsweek has learned. Asked about the dogs' behavior or other aspects of the investigation, Sheriff Kevin Aistrope refused comment, directing all questions to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the agency in charge of media inquiries. DCI spokesman Mitch Mortvedt also refused to comment beyond a brief statement that the investigation into Lucy Studey's claims continues.
But sources said that after an hours-long meeting in Iowa on Monday with the three agencies – Fremont, the DCI and the FBI – investigators visited the site again. The FBI field office in Omaha, which covers Fremont County, has offered assistance to locals and the DCI, according to the FBI's national office. Exactly which agency is the lead on the investigation is unclear, with officials only saying they are working cooperatively.
"They are moving with momentum and want to see this resolved as quickly as possible," said one official familiar with the probe. "Any hint that they're struggling on the investigative side is not true. This is not two guys with a shovel digging in a well. It's a big undertaking."
Next steps could also include more cadaver dogs, using sonar to check for remains, and searching shallow graves around the trails, as well as utilizing forensic anthropologists and geneologists. Sources have said the price tag could run about $500,000.
The Studey property is only about five acres, but bodies could be buried on two adjacent properties. Investigative sources have told Newsweek that no warrants will be needed to search those properties, stretching over 425 acres, after landowners agreed to allow their land to be searched.
This week's meeting came about 18 months after police started taking Lucy Studey's claims seriously – and some 45 years after she says she first made the allegations against her father to teachers, priests and law enforcement. The FBI, which has been interviewing people and families with connections to Studey, has also been aware of the allegations since at least early 2021 and took a recorded statement from her.
"After 45 years," Lucy Studey told Newsweek, authorities have finally gotten "off their asses to actually start looking for bodies."
Fremont County had taken a report on Lucy Studey's claims in 2007 after she called in her allegations to a deputy. But it wasn't until last year – when she visited Iowa and was able to walk a deputy directly to a well where she claims bodies were buried – that an active investigation got started.
Lucy Studey has said that over the decades the family lived in and out of Thurman, her father would frequent bars and an old racetrack in nearby Omaha. He would regularly lose bets and return to the family's trailer with transients, sex workers or – as he called them – "bar slushes" whom he would then kill and bury on their land or neighboring grounds, according to the allegations.
Studey, says his daughter, would sometimes use a wheelbarrow or toboggan to transport bodies. He would have his children – three girls and a son – on occasion pour dirt and lye into a well, she claims, as well as along the mushroom trails.
Lucy Studey also said she remembers her father, who had at least two wives die by suicide or under suspicious circumstances, taking at least two men to one well, which is believed to be 100 feet deep.
One of Studey's daughters, Susan, 55, has told Newsweek that her younger sister's claims are nonsense, saying that their father was strict but a loving dad who cared for his family and had nothing to do with killings.
Social media, meanwhile, has blown up since Newsweek first published Lucy Studey's allegations and the existence of the investigation Oct. 22. Some Facebook pages are dedicated to deriding Lucy Studey while others support her allegations.
People living near the Green Hollow area in and around Thurman have long heard stories about people entering the remote hollows, but never coming out. The investigation is aimed at determining whether the rumors over decades were true or were Lucy Studey's imaginings.
Lucy Studey told Newsweek and police that the count may top 50 to 70 bodies with her father killing several a year. Police reports show she first reported about five to 15 bodies in a well. Despite that inconsistency, investigators say they believe her story.
The haunting of the alleged killings, Lucy Studey said, got to her, and she told Newsweek that she recalls as a young girl walking into her father's room one night while he was sleeping. She had a gun.
"I should have shot him while he was sleeping," Lucy Studey said, recalling trauma and worry about any victims. "I didn't have it in me to pull the trigger. He looked so peaceful sleeping. I regret not shooting him. He would have never destroyed...so many lives."
