Death certificate: Drugs involved in missing Iowa trucker’s death

SAC CITY — Wall Lake trucker David Schultz, whose body was found earlier this year not far from where he disappeared months earlier, died from hypothermia related to acute methamphetamine intoxication, according to a death certificate.

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Schultz, 53, was found April 24 in a rural Sac County field, about a quarter-mile from where his semitractor-trailer truck was discovered abandoned more than five months earlier. Authorities have said his death was not a homicide, but had declined to elaborate.

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.

The immediate cause of death was listed as "Hypothermia In the Setting of Acute Drug (methamphetamine) Intoxication." In the "description of injury line," the medical examiner listed: "Ingested drug and exposed to environmental cold."

Temperatures on Nov. 20, 2023, the night Schultz disappeared, dipped to 30 degrees. The low the following day, Nov. 21, was 35. During the week that followed, the overnight low temperature at one point fell as low as 11 degrees. For three straight nights that week, the low temperature was 18 degrees.

Based on the final results of an autopsy, the medical examiner ruled out a homicide in the death of the Wall Lake trucker. A top Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official told The Journal the agency considers the case closed.

"It's not a homicide," Darrell Simmons, special agent in charge for the Iowa DCI, said Tuesday. "So I don't know that we would probably release anything more, since there's really no threat or concern to the community."

Schultz, a married father of twin boys, was last heard from in the early morning hours of Nov. 21. His red with white stripes Peterbilt semi was parked in the middle of the northbound lane of County Road N-14 (Union Avenue), not far from where it intersects with D-15 (190th Street), in rural Sac County.

Schultz was nowhere to be found by searchers on that stretch of paved roadway, which is flanked by cornfields.

The truck reportedly was shut off, the lights were off and the key was in the ignition. Deputies found Schultz's wallet and cellphone inside. A towel, cellphone charger and pocketknife were found with his coat on the opposite side of the road, according to Sac County Sheriff Ken McClure.

His mysterious disappearance attracted media attention around the globe, generating an outpouring of support for Schultz's family. His wife, Sarah, posted nearly daily Facebook updates about the search for her husband and details of his life, drawing scores of followers.

David Schultz's body was discovered April 24 by a farmworker, driving a tractor, who was preparing the field for spring planting. The body was about a quarter mile east of N-14 and about a quarter mile south of where his truck was found.

The death certificate listed drone GPS coordinates of 42.51146, -94.9514 as the place of death. A farmstead is located nearly directly across the county road from where his body was found.

In the days after Schultz disappeared, authorities, assisted by scores of volunteers, searched a reported 100,000 acres extending out from where his truck was abandoned.

"I think it was close enough to the road that searchers thought, 'Well, we don’t need to look here because we could definitely see him,'" Sac County Attorney Ben Smith said Thursday.

Schultz's body was shielded from the road by shin-high cornstalk stubble, he said.

Preliminary autopsy results released by the DCI indicated "no signs of trauma or serious injury" and authorities did not suspect foul play. State officials had been waiting for the state Office of the State Medical Examiner to finish the autopsy.

Schultz traveled to a hog confinement unit near Eagle Grove on the night of Nov. 20 to pick up a load of hogs and deliver them to a hog buying station in Sac City. Video footage showed him at a truck stop near Fort Dodge around 11:15 p.m. on Nov. 20. After leaving the truck stop, his truck was seen heading west on U.S. Highway 20. After reaching the intersection of Hwys. 20 and 71, the truck turned north on N-14, rather than traveling south toward the Wiechman Pig station in Sac City, the intended destination.

Cellphone data shows Schultz's truck may have been just north of the intersection of N-14 and D-15 since 12:40 a.m. Nov. 21. A county roads worker discovered the truck abandoned later that afternoon.

Dolly Butz, Mason Dockter and Jared McNett of The Journal contributed to this report.