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An Iowa woman spent decades living a nightmare, with very few believing her story.
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The woman, wanting only to be identified by her maiden name of Lucy Studey, says that her late father, Donald Dean Studey, was a serial killer who could have been responsible for around 70 deaths. But her plea to get people to investigate her claims has gone unanswered for years.
“I know where the bodies are buried,” Lucy said in an interview with ‘Newsweek.’
” He would just tell us we had to go to the well , and I knew what that meant.” Before his death in 2013, Donald had owned farmland in the area of Thurman, Iowa.
“Every time I went to the well or into the hills, I didn’t think I was coming down.”
“I thought he would kill me because I wouldn’t keep my mouth shut.”
Lucy had attempted to tell teachers and authorities while growing up, but says she was often ignored or not believed.
Lucy states that her father killed women he would bring home from Omaha, Nebraska.
Lucy believes the women were mainly transients and sex workers that Donald would bring home to Thurman, which is close to Omaha.
Lucy also says that she was aware of what her father was doing, even at a young age.
“Studey said her father not only made sure his children knew what he was doing, but forced them to help with the burials,” Newsweek writes.
According to Lucy, she and her siblings were made to help bury the bodies of her father’s victims.
Lucy alleges that they would dump the bodies in a well on the property, covering them with dirt and lye. Lucy estimates that her father is responsible for anywhere from 40 to 70 murders.
Lucy had actually attempted to contact authorities in 2007.
Several years before Donald’s death, Lucy reached out to local authorities with her story, but they seemingly searched in the wrong spot.
Tim Bothwell, Deputy Sheriff of Fremont County, told WHO13, ” We have heard about this for years .”
“She (Lucy) told us in 2007 and we went out and there was only one well on the property that we could see,” he continued.
“We didn’t realize that it was on other people’s property.”
Since then, Lucy has made other attempts to have authorities recover the bodies.
She contacted Fremont county authorities again in 2021.
According to the Des Moines Register, Lucy claimed in 2021 that there were “five or six” bodies buried near a well on Donald’s property. It took the county the next year to locate the well and get permission to investigate.
Then, in October of this year, Lucy managed to have a search done on the property.
It seems that they may have a lead, as well. Two cadaver dogs, lead by their handler, Jim Peters, have possibly detected the scent of cadavers in the areas in which Lucy alleged the bodies to be.
It is important to note that the science surrounding cadaver dogs is often disputed, according to ‘Newsweek.’
But the fact that the dogs got a hit where Lucy told their handler to search is at least compelling enough for Sheriff Kevin Aistrope, who was also on the scene.
Aistrope believes this may be the evidence they need for an excavation.
“It’s hard for me to believe that two dogs would hit in the exact same places and be false,” he said. “According to the dogs, this is a very large burial site .”
h/t: Newsweek
