IA IA - David Schultz, 53, Wall Lake, 21 November 2023 #2

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We do cattle, not pigs, but we have had truckers deliver in the middle of the night and they handled unloading without an employee being there. We have only done that when the trucker said “no need to come in if you tell me which pen” but it doesn’t seem that crazy to me.
Similar arrangements in the old days...I have loaded in Waukesha, WI, run to a sale barn north of Huntsville, AL, backed to a chute, untied the baling wire "lock" on the gate. Picked an empty pen with water, unloaded a load of big Holstein cows, busted 2 bales of hay into the rack, got back in tractor and went to sleep.
Woke up, loaded them back on, left $2.00 in the tobacco sack nailed to the gate post of the hay pen for the hay, Wired pen gate shut and chute gate shut (security). Moved out front of the barn and did a walk around. Left for Miami...
This was in 1956. Stopped there several time. To this day, I have never met or known anyone there. It was a known way station for "bull haulers". Word of mouth and understood by all.
 
If David was planning to disappear I think he would have completed his task. You would think a person running away would want as much time as possible before people start looking for them. By not delivering the pigs David risked people being aware right away that he was missing.

If someone wanted him dead they would just shoot him in his truck, could even stage it as a robbery. Kidnapping him and hiding the body seems too difficult and really unlikely.

I personally have come to think that David left his truck on his own. I picture that he had a sudden, "last straw" moment, or "I can't do this anymore" and left his truck to harm himself. Or maybe he just started walking away with no plan in mind and succumbed to the elements.
 
If David was planning to disappear I think he would have completed his task. You would think a person running away would want as much time as possible before people start looking for them. By not delivering the pigs David risked people being aware right away that he was missing.

If someone wanted him dead they would just shoot him in his truck, could even stage it as a robbery. Kidnapping him and hiding the body seems too difficult and really unlikely.

I personally have come to think that David left his truck on his own. I picture that he had a sudden, "last straw" moment, or "I can't do this anymore" and left his truck to harm himself. Or maybe he just started walking away with no plan in mind and succumbed to the elements.
I am also inclined to think there's no foul play. I think he had a medical incident of some kind and collapsed. Perhaps he had sharp pains and wanted to pull over to see if it dissipated. It might have worsened, or perhaps he left the truck to get some air or walk around. Perhaps he was experiencing a heart attack or stroke, and didn't realize the seriousness of the situation.
 
I dunno, seeing the information from the linked source being attributed to both LB (Dave's broker) and Kevin Sievers (KS), Wiechman's assistant manager, I think it unlikely the author pulled 'midnight appointment' out of thin air. I also have more confidence in these two men providing information than I do the County Sheriff.
SFSBM

I wouldn't call LB and KS "authorities" as worded in the Freightwaves article as to where the midnight appointment information came from.

JMO

Dave picked up a load of 120 pigs near Eagle Grove, Iowa, but authorities say he never arrived for his appointment time of midnight at the site where he was supposed to offload the pigs: Wiechman Pig Co. buying station in Sac City, Iowa. Wiechman’s home office is in Fremont, Nebraska, but it has 16 locations in the Midwest, including six pig-buying stations in Iowa. Wife of Iowa trucker seeks answers a month after his disappearance
 
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Right! So I wonder what circumstances would justify no one alerting he didn't show.
I feel the circumstances which caused no one to be alerted to David not showing up was that no one was at Wiechman's when David would have arrived in the middle of the night to know he never showed up. That is until the next morning when they started looking for the missing piglets.

Probably then contracted every other trucker that was supposed to deliver or seen their paperwork was in the box and then realized it was David who didn't show. Then called Eagle Grove to make sure piggy's were loaded onto David's truck. When that checked out they likely call David's boss LB to find out where David was. And you know the rest of the story.

JMO
 
Right! So I wonder what circumstances would justify no one alerting he didn't show.

In the ag business, there are just as many legitimate reasons why DS may not have been able to unload at Wiechman's by midnight where the dealer would not have known DS did not unload until the morning. In this case, Wiechman's new before 7 AM on Tuesday morning that DS did not unload by midnight the night before, and made inquiry with LB (DS's broker) by 7:30AM. LB immediately acted on the information, left Denison-- headed to Wall Lake, looking for his driver and the piglets. Regulations govern the time the animals can be contained in the trailer and LB had them loaded to another trailer and unloaded at Wiechman's as soon as DS's tractor and trailer located at Union Ave/190th St. Fortunately for all, the dealer was only about 5 miles from where DS truck was left.

 
I’m curious if DS & Mark Reiger who is also missing, ever crossed paths . MR worked 2 jobs 1) at Bomgaars (like a Home Depot or Lowe’s) located directly across the street from Weichmans and 2) Essentia in Lytton a meat wholesaler (an 8 min drive down the same street). They are close in age 54 & 53, both 5’11”, both 180lbs . ..is it a coincidence they disappeared within a month of eachother?
This is just speculation. Apologies if it’s already been discussed.


I also looked into this, with the same thoughts. if you do a whitepages search for places lived, you may find your answer.
 
I don’t believe I’ve seen this video shared. This is from a family hog farm in SE Iowa. (This’ll Do FarmThis video shows the unloading process of baby pigs, including a snippet at about the 1:50 minute mark of the role a driver plays in the unloading process.

bumping this video up - great to see how it works
 
Going off some of the things above, if I were to murder someone, I would absolutely get rid of the body, moo. Medical episode...he's 53, he had his phone, probably a CB. He would call for help, unless it came on so quickly and made him not in his right mind. What would come on fast? Stroke? Maybe. Then they would of found him dead or alive right away, I think. Running away... in the middle of work, possible. Think there would be easier ways to dissappear on your own. But actually I think about this more, in the middle of nowhere, dark. Did he think someone would notice the truck sooner and get the piglets to their destination.? I'm racking my brain! Lol. On another note, I've been on webslueths for a awhile now, and all of you on here are amazing. I love we can give different opinions and insight. I learned something everytime I get on here.
 
Seems lots of us are in the self harm or walk away camps. I still think foul play here. I admit, this is not a case I would have expected to get to a second thread. I hope there are answers soon for those who love and care about Dave, whatever those answers are.
 
Seems lots of us are in the self harm or walk away camps. I still think foul play here. I admit, this is not a case I would have expected to get to a second thread. I hope there are answers soon for those who love and care about Dave, whatever those answers are.

The main reason I'm not thinking foul play is that I still think it looks like David chose to drive north. If he had a clandestine meeting that turned out badly, it would probably mean he was involved with something he shouldn't have been doing.

Though the idea of self-harm isn't a nice idea, I'd prefer to think he was mentally exhausted and "couldn't take it" rather than him being involved with something.
 
I dunno, seeing the information from the linked source being attributed to both LB (Dave's broker) and Kevin Sievers (KS), Wiechman's assistant manager, I think it unlikely the author pulled 'midnight appointment' out of thin air. I also have more confidence in these two men providing information than I do the County Sheriff.

Since this is a smaller facility that received a couple of semi-deliveries earlier in the night, it may have been staffed with laborers during Monday evening. Nonetheless, we already know from KS that there's a provision for truckers to unload and leave the paperwork.


I also think management alerting LB first thing Tuesday morning was a reasonable amount of time given Sievers was clear that DS load was expected to be the last delivery on Monday night, 11/20, and we know that LB acted on the news DS did not show to unload without delay. IME, contact with the broker is not usually delegated to laborers.

This was hardly Dave's first rodeo. JMO


[..]

Sievers said the site where Dave was to unload the pigs is a smaller facility and had a couple of semi-loads arrive earlier that night.

“We don’t buy a lot of hogs there,” Sievers said. “ It doesn’t have hogs in it all the time — we just use it as necessary. A lot of drivers will drop off their pigs and they’ll drop off their load paperwork in a box and put them in the pens and leave.”

Sievers said Dave was supposed to be the last truck to unload that night.

[..]


Sievers said he has had little contact with law enforcement since Dave went missing 30 days ago.

“They [the Sac County Sheriff’s Office] called one of our facilities close by and talked to the guy there and asked if we had cameras at the Sac City facilities, and I told him we did not,” Sievers said.

He said the company is considering installing cameras at the facility that it has been overseeing for the past 10-15 years.

Sievers’ and Dave’s paths crossed over the years at the pig-buying facilities.


“He’s a good trucker,” Sievers said. “I never had any problems with Dave.”

Dave was expected to be the last truck to unload that night.
If a procedure was in place for the paperwork to be dropped off in a box that doesn’t mean DS unloaded the pigs by himself. The workers unloading probably don’t handle the paperwork and this procedure would work great in that scenario.
 
I wonder what DS was supposed to do after his drop at Weichmans? Maybe it's been discussed and I don't remember. I also wonder what he did for several days prior to his disappearance? What pickups and drops, what people he interacted with, truck stops, family, plans. I HOPE!! LE is investigating beyond where we are discussing but Im not feeling super confident. I am thinking answers to those questions maybe hold a key to where he is.

All that said, sadly, I am still in the self harm, not been found yet catagory. I would love to be wrong. JMO
 
Seems lots of us are in the self harm or walk away camps. I still think foul play here.
I agree with foul play.
1) LE found one boot and jacket in ditch across the highway.
2) The search dogs stopped searching when they reached that area; indicating he was picked up.

Odd thing... just bothers me.
1) The truck had travelled (if I remember correctly) north instead of south after picking up piglets; opposite direction of what he should have driven. Why would DS drive in the opposite direction? Was something wrong with the paperwork and he was returning to fix it prior to delivery? If DS turned the truck around to return to piglet pickup location, did he encounter someone on the south side flashing him stop... and he recognized thier vehicle, possibly someone from pig farm?
 
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I wonder what DS was supposed to do after his drop at Weichmans? Maybe it's been discussed and I don't remember. I also wonder what he did for several days prior to his disappearance? What pickups and drops, what people he interacted with, truck stops, family, plans. I HOPE!! LE is investigating beyond where we are discussing but Im not feeling super confident. I am thinking answers to those questions maybe hold a key to where he is.

All that said, sadly, I am still in the self harm, not been found yet catagory. I would love to be wrong. JMO

"What pickups and drops, what people he interacted with, truck stops, family, plans."

I think knowledge of these you question will/would lead to the actual "missing link"; motive. No clear logical reason for any thing to happen to him shown so far, whether resulting in self arm or foul play.
 
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