Sac County Attorney squashes rumors surrounding reopening of missing trucker Schultz’s controversial case

The Sac County Attorney has denied that the case of missing trucker David Schultz may be reopened in the face of rumors circulating online that declare otherwise. 

Truck driver David Schultz went missing out of Sac County, Iowa in late November of 2023. His truck was found on the side of a rural road along his regular route still loaded with hogs. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance were considered suspicious by his family, and sparked a flurry of theories online. 

Schultz’s body was found about a mile and a half from where his truck was parked in April of 2024, about five months after his disappearance, which his family also considered suspicious. By June, the Sac County Attorney’s Office announced that Schultz had died of hypothermia after ingesting meth, officially closing the investigation. 

Now, several videos have been circulating online throughout the fall of 2025, declaring that the Iowa Attorney General filed a motion to reopen the case over poor police work and mistakes throughout the investigation. These videos cite “exclusive sources.” 

CDLLife reached out to the Sac County Attorney General’s office for insight on this potential reopening. Sac County Attorney Ben Smith responded personally to these emails to assure that, not only is the Attorney General’s office not investigating the closed case, but that they wouldn’t even be responsible for its reopening – that responsibility would go to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Additionally, a reopening of that case would not actually require filing a motion. 

“I have heard of this rumor as well,”  Sac County Attorney Ben Smith wrote in the email to CDLLife. 

“I believe a few attention-starved clowns on social media posted something about the Iowa Attorney General filing a motion to reopen the case. That’s what someone sent me, anyway. The Attorney General’s Office isn’t investigating this matter.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation would be the entity responsible for reopening the investigation if that were to happen. They haven’t, and they aren’t. What’s more, motions aren’t necessary to open or reopen investigations. That’s the invention of a desperate circus act performing for likes.”

Smith went on to criticize and condemn these rumors, citing the anguish such rumors may cause Schutz’s family and his community. 

“… Seeing random people online behaving like sad jugglers begging the social media algorithms for scraps only adds to the pain of those who loved Dave. This kind of attention-seeking may seem trivial to those doing it, but to his family, it is another wound. Their loss is real, and their grief is already heavy enough without someone turning it into a spectacle,” Smith continued, adding that he knew Schultz personally before his disappearance, and knows first-hand the effect the incident has had on the people living in the area. 

“What happened to Dave, a man I knew who lived in the same little town of 800 people as I did, was heartbreaking. But it was, in the end, an accident. I wish we had found him the next day, but we didn’t. It’s a hard truth to live with. There’s no changing the past, no matter how much I wish we could.

When he was finally found, I was out in the field, standing beside the state detectives and the crime scene unit as they gently lifted what was left of his body from the ground. I am not a pathologist or a biologist, but it was apparent to everyone there that Dave had been there since the day he disappeared. If I had not already known when he was last seen, I would have thought it had been much longer.”

Finally, Smith asserts that he would be the first to launch the investigation if he believed that there was anything further to investigate, and that he wishes that there was more he could do for the family and fellow truck drivers affected by the tragedy. 

“We are good at what we do. Damn good. Since I took office 15 years ago, my team has solved multiple cold cases, which is remarkable for a county with fewer than 10,000 people. If I believed for even one second that there was foul play involved in Mr. Schultz’s death, I would be working the case right now, day and night, just like we did in the many months that followed his disappearance. 

I have several friends who are truck drivers, and I remember how unsettled they were when all of this happened—some still are. I can only imagine how disconcerting it must have been for them then, and how some of that fear may linger even now. I genuinely wish I could take that weight off their shoulders. Unfortunately, the noise and misinformation that continues to spread on social media only make it harder for everyone.”

The videos alleging the reopening of the case can be viewed below. These videos have been circulating on multiple social media platforms, such as Tik Tok.