Iowa Woman Claims She Helped Dispose Of Bodies For Her Serial Killer Father

Authorities in Iowa have launched an investigation after a woman claimed that her now-deceased father had killed nearly 70 women and that she helped him bury the dead bodies.

The alleged murderer, Donald Dean Studey's daughter said he murdered "five or six" women each year over the course of three decades, and buried their remains around an abandoned well on his property near Thurman, a city in Fremont County of southwest Iowa, county sheriff Kevin Aistrope told Des Moines Register on Monday.

The confession came eight years after Donald died in 2013 at the age of 75. The woman, Lucy Studey, made the shocking claim in an exclusive interview with Newsweek.

Lucy revealed that, as a child, she along with her siblings was forced to help dispose of the bodies by her father.

"I know where the bodies are buried," Lucy said in the chilling interview. "He would just tell us we had to go to the well, and I knew what that meant." She went on to add that Donald would typically target sex workers and runaways, luring them into his property and stabbing and killing them in a trailer parked inside.

After the alleged killings, Donald would transport the bodies to the burying site mentioned by Lucy using a wheelbarrow or a toboggan depending on the weather. The bodies were covered in dirt and lye, the woman claimed.

"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 said.

Aistrope told Des Moines Register that two cadaver dogs were deployed to the site Friday and they found the possible existence of decomposing human remains. She's got a hell of a story but we don't have any proof of anything other than we had a cadaver dog hit," the Sheriff told the outlet. "We've got to have more proof than that."

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and FBI have reportedly joined the investigation which according to the Fremont County Sheriff is still in its early stages.

Aistrope said that it's unlikely that so many women vanished from the Omaha area without drawing public attention but also acknowledged that the deaths could have gone unnoticed if the victims were from other states.

The sheriff said they began looking into the woman's claims in 2021 after she contacted the cops. Deputies acquired permission from the current owners of the property to conduct a search in the area Lucy pointed to but said it proved to be a difficult task as the well is 90 feet deep and has since been filled in.