DES MOINES, Iowa — David Schultz's semi-truck was found two weeks ago on a rural highway in northwest Iowa, the trailer still filled with baby pigs it was transporting. Schultz's wallet and phone were inside, and his jacket was on the side of the road.
But Schultz was nowhere to be found, and his disappearance outside Sac City on November 21 remains a mystery.
His wife said something must have gone wrong, calling the 53-year-old father of two a reliable man with a strong work ethic.
“This is not something David would do,” Sarah Schultz told the Sioux City Journal. “He would never leave. His family is his life.”
Hundreds of people volunteered to search for Schultz, but after searching 100,000 acres along the highway, the effort was paused as searchers considered their next steps. Search leaders were confident they would have found Schultz if he had wandered off due to a medical emergency or other problem.
Iowa's Division of Criminal Investigation is assisting the Sac County Sheriff's Office and the Lake View Police Department in the case. Iowa DCI referred The Associated Press to the Sac County Sheriff's Office, which declined to comment on the active investigation.
Schultz, of Wall Lake, did not arrive as expected on Nov. 21 with the load of hogs in Sac City, Iowa, a small farming town about 90 miles northwest of Des Moines. No one got him on the phone.
The truck was found later that afternoon, less than 10 miles northeast of its destination, at a cattle dealer in Sac City, according to Jake Rowley, the regional team leader for United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit search and rescue organization that typically responds to natural disasters .
Schultz's truck was not running when it was found in the middle of the two-lane road. It was heading north, Rowley said, even though it should have been heading south to reach Sac City.
The disappearance has stunned surrounding communities in Iowa, prompting more than 250 individual volunteers to join the search.
United Cajun Navy had volunteered to take over the search so law enforcement could focus on the investigation, Rowley said, but he hopes to see more from Iowa DCI and other investigators.
“Maybe they're doing a lot on the computers, but they're just not really active in the scenario,” Rowley said. “An organization the size of DCI, in my opinion, should be able to come in and make a splash.”