Schultz died of hypothermia after ingesting meth, death certificate states

Truck driver David Schultz’s cause of death has finally been released more than half a year after his disappearance. 

Schultz disappeared in late November 2023 after abandoning his truck loaded with hogs on the side of a rural road on his regular route. He was found on April 24th just off the road in some corn only a quarter mile from his commercial vehicle.    

“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 to The Gazette.

Initial autopsies led officials to state there was no sign of foul play and Schultz’s death was not a homicide, but his family and friends felt uncomfortable with that ruling, and were planning to get a second opinion, sparking controversy and theories surrounding Schultz’s death. 

As of the evening of June 20th, Schultz’s death certificate has been released, stating his cause of death as Hypothermia In the Setting of Acute Drug (methamphetamine) Intoxication.” The document goes on to state “ingested drug and exposed to environmental cold” and lists the death as an accident.

Temperature on November 20th, 2023, the night Schultz disappeared, dropped to 30 degrees, then 35 degrees the next day, then as low as 11 degrees for the next week. 

The case is officially considered closed.