Police have launched an investigation after an Iowa woman claimed that her father was a ruthless serial killer who murdered 70 women before his death 70 years ago. Lucy Studey said her father, Donald Dean Studey, killed a staggering 50 to 70 women over a period of 30 years, according to Newsweek.
Moreover, she also claimed she knew where the bodies were buried. Lucy also admitted to authorities to using a toboggan in the winter and a wheelbarrow in the summer to transport the corpses over the farmland in Thurman, Iowa. Police have taken Lucy's claims seriously and have started a probe and are taking help of sniffer dogs to locate the alleged buried corpses.
Bombshell Claims
Lucy has claimed that her father, Donald Dean Studey, was a serial killer who made her and her siblings dump the dead women's bodies into a 100-foot well. "I know where the bodies are buried," Lucy Studey told Newsweek.
"He would just tell us we had to go to the well, and I knew what that meant," Studey also reportedly said.
"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 claims that Studey frequently drank and enjoyed killing women by kicking or crushing their skulls against the inside of a trailer.
According to the Fremont County Sheriff's office, cadaver dogs alerted at least four locations on the property, with the final receiving "multiple hits,"
Studey, who died in March 2013 aged 75, is accused of killing anywhere between 50 to 70 women and at least two men - one in his 40s and one in his 20s. Both of his wives died before him, according to police reports. One of his wives committed suicide by shooting herself and the other by strangling herself with an electrical cord.
"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," Aistrope told the Register. "We've got to have more proof than that."
America's Biggest Serial Killer
Police believe in Lucy's story as preliminary investigations have revealed that there is truth in her claims. They also believe that the daughter's claim would make Studey one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.
According to the Register, Aistrope did admit that the "hits" from the dogs gave the daughter's claim more credence and that police would "get a game plan here together" with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
According to Newsweek, Donald Studey is suspected by law authorities of luring women, most of whom were sex workers or transients, from Omaha, Nebraska, to his five-acre farmland before killing them.
Except for a runaway teenager aged 15, Lucy believes that all of the ladies were white, had dark hair, and were in their 20s or 30s. There were also two men, she claims. Lucy claimed that her father had preserved the gold teeth as trophies and that they had all been buried dressed and wearing jewelry.
Although it is unclear if her other siblings have spoken with law enforcement, she also said that Studey made sure his children knew what he was doing. Apparently, her brother committed suicide when he was 39.
Lucy claims that she told law enforcement, schools, and clergy, both in Iowa and Nebraska, but "no one would listen to me."
Sheriff deputies started looking into Lucy's story in 2021, but they had to find the well and acquire permission from the owners of the property and properties nearby to perform searches, according to Aistrope, according to the newspaper.
He said that whereas a full excavation would cost more than $300,000, digging the well would only cost about $25,000.
The property, which is located on Green Hollow Road, is not considered a crime scene because police have not yet found any remains The probe is being supported by the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
