Sac County Attorney’s Office releases the cause of David Schultz’s death, more details

Editor’s note: Officials had previously provided an incorrect detail, which they have since corrected. This story has been updated to match the correction.

SAC COUNTY, Iowa (KCAU) — The Sac County Attorney’s Office has provided more information on the David Schultz death investigation.

According to a release from the Attorney’s Office, the state medical examiner determined that his cause of death was “hypothermia in the setting of acute drug (methamphetamine) intoxication,” backing up details reported by the Sioux City Journal.

The release states: “In the months that followed the discovery of Schultz’s body, law enforcement conducted an exhaustive investigation, which yielded no signs of foul play. The investigation uncovered that Schultz had been trucking for nearly 30 consecutive hours with little to no rest, motivated to support his business and young family. The combination of severe sleep deprivation and methamphetamine use is believed to have induced a medical emergency, causing Schultz to abandon his truck and ultimately succumb to the elements in the field where he was later found.”

The Attorney’s Office stated that the field where Schultz was found presented a unique challenge that impeded detection. They said that the cornstalks in the field were, in some areas, shin high, which may have camouflaged his body. This caused his body to be missed during initial investigations. The farmhand who claimed to have found the body had told officials that he didn’t see the body until he was about 13 meters away from it while in his tractor.

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PREVIOUS (9:00 a.m.) – The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation confirmed to KCAU 9 via email that the result of David Schultz’s death was not a homicide.

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Nearly two months after the body of a missing Sac County man was found , sources are reporting that Iowa state investigators have determined his death was not a homicide.

According to reports from the Sioux City Journal and the Des Moines Register , Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations Special Agent Darrell Simmons said that David Schultz’s death was not a homicide.

Agent Simmons told the Register that throughout the investigation, the autopsy found no signs that Schultz had been harmed by anyone else. According to the R egister , Simmons declined to comment on whether or not Schultz died of natural causes and added that DCI considered the case to be closed.

The Sioux City Journal reports that they obtained Schultz’s death certificate and they report that it lists his death as an accident and that the immediate cause of death was “Hypothermia In the Setting of Acute Drug (methamphetamine) Intoxication.”

According to the Sioux City Journal , the Sac County Attorney’s Office plans to comment on the investigation’s final findings in the upcoming days.

Schultz first went missing in November of last year and was found in a Sac County field in April.

KCAU 9 has reached out to the Division of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office, and the Iowa Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records for confirmation on these reports.

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