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Mega Edition: Donald Studey And The Claim That He Was A Serial Killer (10/29/26) · The Moscow Murders and More

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. We've
0:04
Speaker 1: been following along with this crazy story out of Iowa
0:07
Speaker 1: about a possible serial killer named Donald Dean Studi. And
0:13
Speaker 1: the question is, was this man really a serial killer? Well,
0:15
Speaker 1: his daughter alleges that he was. bury a bunch of
0:19
Speaker 1: bodies on this property for a while and in other places.
0:24
Speaker 1: So the authorities, they go and search these areas that
0:27
Speaker 1: they say she told them to search and they came
0:30
Speaker 1: up with nothing. Well, now Lucy has penned an open
0:34
Speaker 1: letter where she's slamming the investigators and saying that her
0:39
Speaker 1: father did kill these people and that there's some sort
0:42
Speaker 1: of concerted effort, if you will, to make sure that
0:45
Speaker 1: nobody ever finds out the truth. Now, I don't know
0:51
Speaker 1: where I stand on all of this. I don't know
0:53
Speaker 1: if I believe her or if I don't believe her
0:55
Speaker 1: or if the cops just aren't doing the right thing
0:58
Speaker 1: because we all know that the FBI is not infallible. However,
1:02
Speaker 1: we also have to keep in mind that she might
1:05
Speaker 1: be telling stories. We know that she has an axe
1:08
Speaker 1: to grind with her dad, over $ 16, 000 that she stole
1:11
Speaker 1: from him, and then Chet said she didn't. So we
1:15
Speaker 1: know that there's an axe to grind, and we know
1:16
Speaker 1: that they had some issues between the two of them
1:19
Speaker 1: for quite some time. So we have to keep that
1:22
Speaker 1: in mind while she's telling her story. With that said,
1:24
Speaker 1: why don't we just dive into this article from Newsweek,
1:27
Speaker 1: and let's see what Lucy has to say for herself. Headline,
1:33
Speaker 1: open letter, daughter who alleges father killed dozens, slams investigators.
1:39
Speaker 1: Lucy Studi, the 53-year-old Florida woman who claims her father
1:43
Speaker 1: killed scores of people over three decades, released an open
1:46
Speaker 1: letter Wednesday calling on investigators to take more action. Reiterating,
1:51
Speaker 1: they searched the wrong area last week. So how is
1:55
Speaker 1: it possible that they can search the wrong area when
1:57
Speaker 1: she's given them the coordinates and walked them to the
2:00
Speaker 1: site's director? See, there's a lot of confusion here. Now,
2:04
Speaker 1: does the FBI and the local police just not want
2:07
Speaker 1: to find these bodies? Not want to deal with all
2:10
Speaker 1: of the paperwork and the investigation that'll come afterwards? Now,
2:14
Speaker 1: I hope that's not the case, but that's kind of
2:17
Speaker 1: what Lucy is insinuating here. Studi, who alleges her dad,
2:22
Speaker 1: Donald Dean Studi, killed dozens of women, mostly transients and prostitutes,
2:27
Speaker 1: and at least two men, says she tried during the
2:29
Speaker 1: excavation to reach authorities and let them know they were
2:33
Speaker 1: searching in the wrong spot. She says she got no
2:36
Speaker 1: reply from the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
2:40
Speaker 1: You would think that if they're digging in these spots,
2:44
Speaker 1: they'd bring this woman out there to show them directly
2:47
Speaker 1: where it is. Why is that so difficult? and occasionally
2:50
Speaker 1: suicidal students. Come out to this site and point out
2:54
Speaker 1: directly where you think that you buried these bodies. There
2:58
Speaker 1: can be no miscommunication then, right? No excuses of, oh, well,
3:03
Speaker 1: I got the wrong coordinates. But no, of course not.
3:06
Speaker 1: That has to be a song and a dance, like
3:09
Speaker 1: everything else with the federal government. The following is the
3:15
Speaker 1: open letter she sent to Newsweek calling out investigators who
3:18
Speaker 1: did not immediately respond to requests from Newsweek for comment.
3:22
Speaker 1: Now remember, Newsweek has been running this story since the beginning.
3:26
Speaker 1: And they say that they vetted it and that Lucy's
3:29
Speaker 1: story seems to check out. But the authorities see it
3:32
Speaker 1: a different way, obviously. I'm sure nobody's ever even heard
3:35
Speaker 1: of it. In April or May of 2021, Fremont County
3:38
Speaker 1: Sheriff Deputy Mike Wake walked up the hillside on the
3:41
Speaker 1: right side of my dad's old trailer. He followed my
3:44
Speaker 1: instructions and walked right to the well that my dad
3:47
Speaker 1: dumped bodies in for at least a decade. Seems pretty
3:51
Speaker 1: clear here, huh? McKinney told Newsweek reporters her father could
3:54
Speaker 1: have been responsible for 50 to 70 deaths over 45
3:56
Speaker 1: years before he died in 2013. Why does there have
3:57
Speaker 1: to be a whole thing? If her claims were to
4:04
Speaker 1: prove true, the author said, the FBI, Fremont County Sheriff's Department,
4:09
Speaker 1: and I stood right beside the correct well, on the
4:12
Speaker 1: correct hill. FBI agent Ben Carter took photos and supposedly
4:16
Speaker 1: GPS coordinates. I saw him take photos. I didn't see
4:20
Speaker 1: him get the coordinates. So this is Lucy, remember, defending
4:24
Speaker 1: herself and defending the story that she told. According to her,
4:28
Speaker 1: this agent, Mr. Ben Carter, didn't take any GPS coordinates
4:34
Speaker 1: and only took photographs of the area. Agent Carter told
4:39
Speaker 1: me the FBI will be core drilling and excavating in
4:43
Speaker 1: the spring and summer of 2022. McKitty, who has not
4:47
Speaker 1: responded to an interview request by the Des Moines Register,
4:50
Speaker 1: told Newsweek, for previous attempts to report her father's killings,
4:54
Speaker 1: Over the years, I was stupid and had blind faith
4:56
Speaker 1: in the authorities to do what was right, so I
4:58
Speaker 1: didn't bother them in the summer. In September of 2022,
5:03
Speaker 1: Agent Carter called to say he couldn't get funding and
5:05
Speaker 1: was probably closing the case. I said, I can't let
5:09
Speaker 1: the FBI close the case. I told him that I
5:10
Speaker 1: was going to the media. Now remember, if you lie
5:16
Speaker 1: to an FBI agent, that's a crime. So if she
5:19
Speaker 1: told the FBI lies and they can prove that, she
5:23
Speaker 1: can be arrested for that. So when you're talking to
5:26
Speaker 1: the FBI in any manner and you're not up front
5:29
Speaker 1: and you're lying to them, remember, you can be charged
5:32
Speaker 1: for that. On October 21st, 2022, Newsweek, the Fremont County
5:36
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department, Jim Peters, when a Samaritan detection dog and
5:43
Speaker 1: I went back up in the hills. We came in
5:45
Speaker 1: through Smith's property off Cemetery Road, but the reference is
5:49
Speaker 1: to neighbor Sean Smith's property. We followed the Sheriff's Department
5:53
Speaker 1: to the well area. I walked to the ridge and
5:55
Speaker 1: looked down. Smith had bulldozed the entire area. We didn't
6:00
Speaker 1: know that a little bit before. The majority of the
6:02
Speaker 1: trees were gone. This was the mound of dirt with
6:05
Speaker 1: a hole in the ground. The sheriff said that was
6:07
Speaker 1: the well. I asked him a couple of times if
6:10
Speaker 1: he was sure. He said yes. I knew it wasn't.
6:12
Speaker 1: My well wouldn't have been closer to the old dead
6:16
Speaker 1: tree to the right, about 25 to 30 feet. I
6:19
Speaker 1: thought we were in the right area because the sheriff
6:21
Speaker 1: said so, and I couldn't tell because of all the bulldozing.
6:25
Speaker 1: I thought somehow they killed several people mixed up with
6:29
Speaker 1: the dry well. I thought maybe certain people were purposely
6:32
Speaker 1: trying to switch wells on me. There is a reason
6:35
Speaker 1: behind that thinking, but I won't get into details about
6:38
Speaker 1: it right now. zeroed in on a specific area, including
6:42
Speaker 1: the well, suggesting human remains may be nearby. So, again,
6:46
Speaker 1: there's a lot here to unpack. We don't have all
6:50
Speaker 1: the details now. We hardly have any of the details yet.
6:54
Speaker 1: But if this does prove to be correct, think about
6:57
Speaker 1: how much closure this could provide for people. And while
7:01
Speaker 1: that's not a great consolation prize, everybody wants their relatives
7:05
Speaker 1: to come home, the closure does give people the ability
7:07
Speaker 1: to start to move on. Another of Studi's four children,
7:09
Speaker 1: Susan Studi, has since told Newsweek that McKinney was not
7:11
Speaker 1: telling the truth. Susan Stude said her father was strict
7:26
Speaker 1: for performing good journalism. You don't just come and write
7:28
Speaker 1: one story. You follow up on that story. You add context.
7:32
Speaker 1: You provide more information. And a lot of people in
7:35
Speaker 1: the media have forgotten how to do that. They'll write
7:39
Speaker 1: one hit piece, and then it comes out that the
7:41
Speaker 1: hit piece isn't even correct. And then you never even
7:44
Speaker 1: come back with a new story updating it. I contacted
7:48
Speaker 1: FBI agent Ben Carter and the Iowa DCI several times.
7:52
Speaker 1: to let them know that was the wet well, not
7:54
Speaker 1: the dry well. And I suspected certain people were trying
7:57
Speaker 1: to switch wells on us. I got no reply. I
8:00
Speaker 1: offered to pay my own way from Florida to Iowa
8:03
Speaker 1: so I could be present during the excavation. I got
8:06
Speaker 1: no reply. They never contacted me. So why wouldn't the
8:09
Speaker 1: FBI want her there? That's the question that I have.
8:12
Speaker 1: So we stepped forward again. The FBI is such a
8:15
Speaker 1: secretive organization. Ever since Robert Mueller turned them from actual
8:19
Speaker 1: investigative work into an intelligence agency when he was in charge.
8:24
Speaker 1: And ever since then, especially, the FBI has been pretty
8:28
Speaker 1: much useless in my opinion. On December 6, 2022, on
8:33
Speaker 1: a Tuesday, the FBI, DCI, and other authorities started to
8:37
Speaker 1: excavate I was excited. I had Bob Moda up in
8:40
Speaker 1: the hills on the studio side of the fence line
8:43
Speaker 1: watching the authorities work. He told me that they were
8:45
Speaker 1: on the hilltop to the left of my dad's old trailer,
8:49
Speaker 1: not the right side. I called the Iowa DCI and
8:52
Speaker 1: told them that they were on the wrong hill. They
8:54
Speaker 1: were on the left and needed to be on the right.
8:56
Speaker 1: I have no information to provide at this time. On
8:59
Speaker 1: December 7th, 2022, on a Wednesday, I was under the
9:02
Speaker 1: impression that the authorities would bring cadaver dogs, sonar, and
9:06
Speaker 1: excavation equipment that they would go grid by grid and
9:09
Speaker 1: eventually get to my well. I just had to have
9:12
Speaker 1: patience and let the authorities work. So, I shut my mouth.
9:16
Speaker 1: Sounds familiar, huh? Well, shut your mouth and let us
9:19
Speaker 1: do our work. You have to trust us. Kind of
9:22
Speaker 1: hard to trust you when every other move is fumbling
9:25
Speaker 1: the ball. Early Thursday morning on December 8th of 2022,
9:31
Speaker 1: I was told by Bob Moda that the authorities were
9:34
Speaker 1: packing up and clearing out. The DCI released a statement
9:37
Speaker 1: and said that their exhaustive investigation was over. No evidence found. Well,
9:42
Speaker 1: you can't find evidence when you're in the wrong spot,
9:45
Speaker 1: and she's not wrong, right? If they're in the wrong spot,
9:47
Speaker 1: they're not going to find anything. Important information. Last week,
9:53
Speaker 1: she also walked right to the site of the well
9:55
Speaker 1: in question, one of the places the cadaver dogs hid
9:58
Speaker 1: for human remains. help get people and equipment to the well.
10:02
Speaker 1: Smith bulldozed the only area that he knew had a
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Speaker 1: wet and dry well. He bulldozed the area on the
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Speaker 1: left hill between my dad's old trailer and Jeff Rice's trailer.
10:12
Speaker 1: Smith stated to me that he didn't know where was
10:15
Speaker 1: a wet and dry well on the right hill. I
10:17
Speaker 1: believe him. I confirm with Smith that my dry well
10:21
Speaker 1: on the right hill has been undisturbed. It only took
10:25
Speaker 1: an attempted suicide by me on December 11th, 2022, and
10:28
Speaker 1: a note posted on Facebook blaming them for my death
10:32
Speaker 1: in order for the FBI and Iowa DCI to finally
10:35
Speaker 1: contact me. That could include taking soil samples, using radar,
10:39
Speaker 1: or drilling for core samples with the help of forensic experts.
10:44
Speaker 1: Activating the now-covered well where McKitty said her father dumped
10:47
Speaker 1: bodies would be difficult before winter. And Baldwin said archaeologists
10:52
Speaker 1: are needed to correct and identify any bones. Though Astro
10:56
Speaker 1: said he wants to work as quickly as feasible as
10:59
Speaker 1: feasible on behalf of family and any potential victims, to
11:03
Speaker 1: announce that they were in the wrong spot and on
11:05
Speaker 1: the wrong hill. They stand firm on the fact that
11:08
Speaker 1: they searched the correct area. Mitch Mortvitt, with the DCI,
11:12
Speaker 1: told Rolling Stone that the case is finished. The investigation
11:15
Speaker 1: is closed since nothing was discovered on the property and
11:19
Speaker 1: locations that Lucy led law enforcement to on two separate occasions.
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Speaker 1: He said, Mortvitt reiterated on Tuesday that the investigation has concluded.
11:28
Speaker 1: Since they refuse to do the right thing, I'm releasing
11:31
Speaker 1: this announcement today to every form of media. Well, what
11:35
Speaker 1: do you folks think? Do you think that there was
11:38
Speaker 1: a serial killer that her dad, Donald Dean Studing, was
11:41
Speaker 1: a serial killer? Or do you think that Lucy... is
11:45
Speaker 1: playing loose with the truth. Should be some emails, let
11:48
Speaker 1: me know. All right, everybody, that's going to do it
11:51
Speaker 1: for this one. If you'd like to contact me, you
11:53
Speaker 1: can do that at BobbyCappucci at ProtonMail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at ProtonMail.com.
11:57
Speaker 1: You can also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The
12:00
Speaker 1: link that I discussed can be found In the description box.
12:13
Speaker 1: Nearly 20 incident reports from the register obtained this week
12:17
Speaker 1: from the sheriff's office dating to the late 1990s show
12:20
Speaker 1: Studi was a source of concern for his family and
12:23
Speaker 1: could be violent. One from 2005 said he threatened to
12:27
Speaker 1: kill the son of his last wife, Anna, Tordoff Studi,
12:31
Speaker 1: and another from 2012 said he shot himself in one
12:35
Speaker 1: of several reported suicidal episodes. Astrop said deputies were on
12:40
Speaker 1: the scene when Donald Studi shot himself in the arm.
12:43
Speaker 1: So he exhibited all of the, you know, profile of
12:48
Speaker 1: being a sicko, a serial killer, somebody who is disturbed,
12:52
Speaker 1: a curmudgeon, you know, shoots himself in the arm, has
12:55
Speaker 1: drug problems, all of that stuff. Dan Tordoff, Anna Tordoff
13:01
Speaker 1: Studi's son, told the Register he called deputies in 2005
13:06
Speaker 1: after Studi threatened both his life and hers. Tordoff said
13:10
Speaker 1: his mother was afraid of Studi and he often was
13:13
Speaker 1: afraid for her safety before she died in 2006. And
13:18
Speaker 1: this is one of the women that was allegedly dead
13:21
Speaker 1: by suicide who was involved with Studi. While Studi's behavior
13:26
Speaker 1: could be erratic, so have been some of McKitty's assertions
13:29
Speaker 1: about the killings. A McKitty account in an incident report
13:33
Speaker 1: obtained by the Register, written by Deputy Mike Wake after
13:36
Speaker 1: a 2021 phone interview, was sharply different in some ways
13:40
Speaker 1: from the story portrayed in the interview with Newsweek. So
13:44
Speaker 1: we have to keep in mind that McKitty could be
13:46
Speaker 1: just looking for fame, looking for, you know, popularity, whatever.
13:50
Speaker 1: There's people out there that are like that. For example,
13:56
Speaker 1: McKitty told Newsweek her father killed up to 70 people,
13:59
Speaker 1: including prostitutes and transients from the Omaha area. The article
14:03
Speaker 1: also quoted her as saying Studi sometimes forced his children
14:07
Speaker 1: to help with burials. But in the 2021 interview with Wake,
14:12
Speaker 1: McKitty said she knew of only five bodies in the
14:14
Speaker 1: well by her father's home, but she'd heard stories that
14:17
Speaker 1: there could be up to 15. She also alleged to
14:20
Speaker 1: the deputy that she was sometimes with her father before
14:24
Speaker 1: and after he'd kill people. So getting transients is the
14:28
Speaker 1: right way to do it if you're one of these sickos.
14:31
Speaker 1: I guess they're going to have to go back and
14:32
Speaker 1: look at the time this guy was active, if you will,
14:36
Speaker 1: how many transients went missing from Omaha and build the
14:39
Speaker 1: whole entire profile. Specifics in the 2021 account were horrific.
14:48
Speaker 1: She told Wake that in 1976 or 77, she saw
14:52
Speaker 1: her father go outside with a. 22 rifle and come
14:55
Speaker 1: back in the house and put the rifle up. Later,
14:58
Speaker 1: she said she saw her dad and two other men
15:01
Speaker 1: take a body out of the trunk of a car
15:03
Speaker 1: and haul it by a wheelbarrow to the 90-foot deep well.
15:07
Speaker 1: Not long after that, in the 1970s or 80s, McKitty
15:10
Speaker 1: said she was with her father in his car when
15:13
Speaker 1: he picked up a 15-year-old girl on an interstate exit,
15:16
Speaker 1: the incident report states. She said her father convinced the
15:20
Speaker 1: girl it was safe to go with them because he
15:23
Speaker 1: was a single dad with four kids. But McKitty said
15:26
Speaker 1: she believed he raped and murdered her. The girl was
15:29
Speaker 1: gone the next morning, the incident report says. Yo, that's
15:32
Speaker 1: pretty terrifying and chilling. But the question is, is it true?
15:40
Speaker 1: McKitty also said she awoke one night to the screaming
15:42
Speaker 1: of a homeless woman. Her father was beating the woman
15:45
Speaker 1: and dragging her by her hair in the living room.
15:48
Speaker 1: The next morning, she said, her father told her the
15:52
Speaker 1: woman had left, but she figured she was in the well.
15:56
Speaker 1: McKitty said she saw a dead body by an old
15:58
Speaker 1: cellar on the family property one day around 1979, and
16:02
Speaker 1: her dad loaded it onto the wheelbarrow and took it
16:05
Speaker 1: to the well. Around the same time, she said, her
16:08
Speaker 1: father took two bags of lye to the well, where
16:11
Speaker 1: she saw that body and another of a man in
16:14
Speaker 1: his 20s lying face down. So if you use lye,
16:17
Speaker 1: it helps get the body to decompose quicker. And you'll
16:21
Speaker 1: see that with the mafia or criminal organizations who want
16:25
Speaker 1: the body to go away. She said that her dad
16:31
Speaker 1: told her they were putting the lye on the bodies
16:33
Speaker 1: to help deteriorate them faster, Wake wrote in the incident report. Afterward,
16:38
Speaker 1: McKitty said, they went mushroom hunting. In the report, Wake
16:41
Speaker 1: mentions that he had heard that Studi killed a man
16:45
Speaker 1: named Doug Seymour and put his body in a well,
16:48
Speaker 1: but we can never get in any information on when
16:50
Speaker 1: or where. I believe the last time I saw Doug
16:53
Speaker 1: was in 1988. He wrote that McKitty thought Seymour had
16:57
Speaker 1: been a witness to a local stabbing in which her
17:00
Speaker 1: dad was involved. So a local scumbag, there's no doubt
17:03
Speaker 1: about it. We just have to ask the real question here.
17:07
Speaker 1: Is he a serial killer? Whispers about Green Hollow, but
17:12
Speaker 1: no answers. In Thurmond, a shrinking wisp of a town
17:16
Speaker 1: where a few families, including the Studys, go back to
17:19
Speaker 1: the 1800s. Many adults, including the mayor, still recall being
17:23
Speaker 1: told as children never to go to Green Hollow. There
17:26
Speaker 1: were always stories about Green Hollow, said Bill Reeves, who
17:30
Speaker 1: was elected mayor in the town of fewer than 170.
17:35
Speaker 1: You just didn't go up there, even when my dad
17:37
Speaker 1: was a boy. Some, like Johnson, remember children teasing each
17:40
Speaker 1: other about the Greenholler Mauler, a fabled monster that roamed
17:44
Speaker 1: the woods near where Studi lived, with one wife and
17:47
Speaker 1: later another, both long dead. Now, everybody wonders if the
17:52
Speaker 1: truth will turn out to be stranger than fiction, and
17:55
Speaker 1: that there really was a monster up there to be feared.
17:58
Speaker 1: Who knows what could happen up in them woods, asked Johnson,
18:01
Speaker 1: the former rodeo performer. I'm not surprised. Well, what do
18:05
Speaker 1: you folks think? Do you think that this guy was
18:07
Speaker 1: a serial killer? Or is his daughter out here pitching
18:11
Speaker 1: some stories? Shoot me some email and let me know.
18:14
Speaker 1: If you'd like to contact me, you can do that
18:16
Speaker 1: at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can
18:25
Speaker 1: also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The
18:32
Speaker 1: link that I discussed can be found in the description box.
18:36
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. Last week,
18:40
Speaker 1: we were talking about a woman... who claimed that her
18:43
Speaker 1: father was a prolific serial killer and how the police
18:49
Speaker 1: believe what she had to say. Well, now we're learning
18:52
Speaker 1: that the police are planning to excavate the area where
18:56
Speaker 1: this woman said that these bodies are buried. And I
19:00
Speaker 1: think that's the proper way to go about this. I mean,
19:03
Speaker 1: if someone's coming out here and telling you this and
19:05
Speaker 1: there has been a lot of questions surrounding this dude,
19:08
Speaker 1: meaning Dean Studi for all of these years, probably a
19:12
Speaker 1: good idea to get out here and excavate the land
19:15
Speaker 1: to see what's going on. Especially when you add the
19:18
Speaker 1: fact that he says that, you know, two of his
19:21
Speaker 1: wives died from suicide. Right there, that's hella suspect to me,
19:25
Speaker 1: especially considering what the dude's being alleged to be involved in.
19:31
Speaker 1: Because a guy who is killing 70 people certainly would
19:34
Speaker 1: have no qualms of getting rid of a wife or
19:36
Speaker 1: two if he felt the need, right? So I think
19:40
Speaker 1: that the police excavating this is a good idea. And
19:44
Speaker 1: doing the due diligence is the only way to figure
19:47
Speaker 1: out if this lady is telling the truth. And if
19:50
Speaker 1: she is, think about all of the closure that this
19:52
Speaker 1: could provide moving forward to the families of these missing people.
19:57
Speaker 1: So today we have an article from Fox News. Headline,
20:00
Speaker 1: Iowa serial killer fears. Police planning excavation amid new details
20:05
Speaker 1: of 2007 murder says report. This article was authored by
20:12
Speaker 1: Stephanie Pagonis and it was published by Fox News. Iowa
20:19
Speaker 1: police are planning to excavate land for the second time
20:22
Speaker 1: in decades after a woman claimed her father was a
20:25
Speaker 1: prolific serial killer who murdered up to 70 women and
20:29
Speaker 1: ordered his children to help them move the bodies, according
20:32
Speaker 1: to reports. Now, we know that the other daughter said
20:34
Speaker 1: this never happened. They can't find one of the siblings.
20:39
Speaker 1: And one of the siblings, shockingly enough, has killed themselves.
20:42
Speaker 1: So what we have here are two daughters, one saying
20:45
Speaker 1: that it happened and one saying it didn't. The Fremont
20:50
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office will soon be excavating a portion of
20:53
Speaker 1: land in Thurman, Iowa, near where Donald Dean Studi and
20:57
Speaker 1: his family lived. The action comes in the wake of
21:00
Speaker 1: Studi's daughter and her renewed claims that her father killed
21:03
Speaker 1: 50 to 70 young women before his death in 2013,
21:08
Speaker 1: according to reports from WHO 13 and Newsweek. Now, when
21:13
Speaker 1: she first made these allegations... Very concerning, right? Imagine somebody
21:19
Speaker 1: coming into your office as a police officer or a
21:22
Speaker 1: sheriff or whatever and saying, hey, look, my pops, prolific
21:25
Speaker 1: serial killer. He killed 70 people, 70 women. I think
21:29
Speaker 1: you should look into him. Probably the time when you
21:31
Speaker 1: put down the donuts and the coffee and get up
21:34
Speaker 1: and go and, you know, do your job. And that's
21:37
Speaker 1: what it looks like happened here. This lady brought these
21:39
Speaker 1: allegations up. And with all of the concerns surrounding Mr.
21:43
Speaker 1: Studi previously, seems like the local law enforcement was willing
21:47
Speaker 1: to at the very least listen. Studi's daughter, Lucy Studi McKitty,
21:54
Speaker 1: previously told investigators about her father's alleged history for years,
21:58
Speaker 1: including in 2007, which prompted them to excavate a portion
22:02
Speaker 1: of the property WHO 13 reported. So they've already been
22:07
Speaker 1: down this road. She's reported them once. They've been on
22:10
Speaker 1: the property. They've excavated an area. And my guess is
22:14
Speaker 1: they turned up nothing. Lucy told us in 2007, and
22:19
Speaker 1: we went out there and only one well on the
22:22
Speaker 1: property that we could see. We didn't realize that it
22:25
Speaker 1: was on other people's property. Fremont County Deputy Sheriff Tim
22:28
Speaker 1: Bothwell told the news station. So they were at the
22:32
Speaker 1: wrong well, I guess. According to what he has to
22:34
Speaker 1: say here, there were other wells on the property and
22:38
Speaker 1: on neighboring properties. So they're going to have to go back.
22:41
Speaker 1: They're going to have to grid the whole area. There's
22:43
Speaker 1: going to be a huge undertaking. It's going to be
22:45
Speaker 1: winter soon. They're going to have to grid out this
22:47
Speaker 1: whole area and then they're going to have to excavate it.
22:50
Speaker 1: But once the ground starts freezing, some permafrost gets involved,
22:54
Speaker 1: it's going to be a difficult task. You know, Iowa
22:57
Speaker 1: gets pretty cold in the winter and it's, you know,
22:59
Speaker 1: we're creeping November 2nd. So, yeah, it's it's time is
23:04
Speaker 1: of the essence if they're going to try and do
23:06
Speaker 1: this quickly. But my guess is it's going to be
23:08
Speaker 1: a drawn out process. Something like this doesn't happen quickly, usually.
23:15
Speaker 1: The first excavation cost the county more than $ 300, 000, Bothwell
23:20
Speaker 1: told the station. Sheriff's deputies are now planning a second
23:23
Speaker 1: excavation in light of a new tip that led investigators
23:27
Speaker 1: to search land behind the Stude property, reports states. Sheriff's
23:31
Speaker 1: office officials are also reportedly planning to meet with the
23:35
Speaker 1: FBI and Iowa's Division of Criminal Investigation this week. So
23:40
Speaker 1: they're bringing everybody to the site. They're going to have
23:43
Speaker 1: everybody involved, and that's the way to do it. This
23:45
Speaker 1: little police force isn't capable of doing something like this
23:49
Speaker 1: without guidance and help. They don't have the resources, the manpower,
23:53
Speaker 1: or the expertise, is my guess, to really dig in here.
23:57
Speaker 1: Now you bring in the FBI, and this is where
24:00
Speaker 1: they excel. Excavating sites, preserving evidence, this is what they do.
24:05
Speaker 1: So you bring these guys in, you get the little
24:07
Speaker 1: bit of the extra bump and help, and off you go.
24:12
Speaker 1: Last week, the Des Moines Register reported about some of
24:15
Speaker 1: McKitty's conflicting claims surrounding her father. According to the report,
24:19
Speaker 1: McKitty told sheriff's deputies in 2021... that she had heard
24:23
Speaker 1: stories that there could be up to 15 bodies buried
24:26
Speaker 1: near her father's home, but said she only knew of
24:29
Speaker 1: five personally. Now again, look, this all comes down to credibility.
24:33
Speaker 1: Do you believe what this lady has to say or not?
24:36
Speaker 1: And the only way to truly prove what's going on
24:38
Speaker 1: here is to go out to these sites and dig
24:40
Speaker 1: them up. But of course, that costs resources, man hours,
24:44
Speaker 1: and if this turns out to be a false claim,
24:47
Speaker 1: then should there be repercussions for the person making these claims?
24:52
Speaker 1: I mean, you would think, right? There's a lot of manpower, resources,
24:56
Speaker 1: as we said, money that goes into this, and all
24:58
Speaker 1: of that has to be accounted for. McKitty's 2021 statement
25:05
Speaker 1: and documents in a sheriff's incident report obtained by the
25:08
Speaker 1: news site were different from those she made to Newsweek.
25:11
Speaker 1: In the Newsweek piece, McKitty described her father and how
25:14
Speaker 1: he had killed dozens of young women over the course
25:17
Speaker 1: of 30 years and enlisted his children to help bury
25:21
Speaker 1: his victims. I know where the bodies are buried, McKitty
25:25
Speaker 1: told the site. He would just tell us that we
25:27
Speaker 1: had to go to the well and I knew what
25:29
Speaker 1: that meant. So it should be a pretty easy process.
25:32
Speaker 1: If she knows where the bodies are and she knows
25:34
Speaker 1: where the sites are, then the authority should obviously focus
25:39
Speaker 1: on those areas and grid it off and get to work.
25:43
Speaker 1: So my guess is that's what they're going to do. Now,
25:46
Speaker 1: do I have any idea what they're going to find?
25:49
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. I honestly don't even know where I stand
25:52
Speaker 1: as far as believing the allegations yet. You know, I'm
25:55
Speaker 1: agnostic like usual. Wherever the evidence leads us, that's where
25:59
Speaker 1: we're going to go. McKinney went on to describe how
26:05
Speaker 1: she always feared he would kill me because I wouldn't
26:08
Speaker 1: keep my mouth shut. McKitty's claims in 2021 were chilling,
26:13
Speaker 1: with details about how she watched her father and two
26:16
Speaker 1: others carry a body from the trunk of a vehicle,
26:19
Speaker 1: and her suspicion was that her dad sexually assaulted and
26:22
Speaker 1: killed a 15-year-old girl, the Register reported. Now, imagine being
26:28
Speaker 1: such a brute that this is the way your daughter
26:31
Speaker 1: thinks about you. What sort of relationship must have they had?
26:37
Speaker 1: McKitty allegedly told detectives multiple other stories. She has not
26:41
Speaker 1: responded to Fox News Digital's multiple requests for comment and confirmation. Additionally,
26:47
Speaker 1: Studi has a history of violence and run-ins with the law,
26:51
Speaker 1: including threatening to kill relatives, according to a different incident
26:55
Speaker 1: report obtained by the register. So again, take it for
26:59
Speaker 1: what it's worth, folks. Grand Assault. Does she have an
27:02
Speaker 1: axe to grind? Is she just somebody who is suffering
27:04
Speaker 1: from maybe some sort of mental break? There's a lot
27:08
Speaker 1: that goes into it. Because we just don't know. These
27:12
Speaker 1: are serious allegations, and if it proves to be correct
27:16
Speaker 1: and true, then we have ourselves a serious situation here. However,
27:22
Speaker 1: Studi's other daughter, Susan, denied her sister's claims and rejected
27:25
Speaker 1: that she was ever ordered to help her father move
27:28
Speaker 1: a body, according to Newsweek. Susan went on to say
27:31
Speaker 1: that she first learned about these claims against her father
27:34
Speaker 1: when she spoke to her sister about a year ago.
27:36
Speaker 1: Susan stressed that her father was not the man Lucy
27:38
Speaker 1: makes him out to be, according to the report. Now,
27:40
Speaker 1: this is a big problem for Lucy, right? In my opinion,
27:59
Speaker 1: if you say your sister was helping move the bodies
28:01
Speaker 1: and then she says she wasn't, well, there's a problem.
28:08
Speaker 1: He was strict, but he was a protective parent who
28:10
Speaker 1: loved his children, Susan told Newsweek. Strict fathers don't just
28:14
Speaker 1: turn into serial killers. A woman who answered the phone
28:17
Speaker 1: at a number appearing to belong to Susan hung up
28:20
Speaker 1: when contacted by Fox News Digital on Wednesday afternoon. Yeah,
28:24
Speaker 1: I don't doubt it. I don't blame her either, honestly.
28:29
Speaker 1: Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Astrope has not responded to Fox
28:32
Speaker 1: News Digital's request for comment, but confirmed to the register
28:35
Speaker 1: that his office had been investigating the allegations. Newsweek reported
28:39
Speaker 1: last week that two human remains detection canines reportedly made
28:43
Speaker 1: discoveries at locations McKitty had suggested. And that's the sort
28:48
Speaker 1: of thing that leads me to believe that there might
28:50
Speaker 1: be a little something here. She you know, they found
28:53
Speaker 1: a hit, if you will, on human remains with the dog.
28:57
Speaker 1: And the sheriff himself has said that he believes that
29:00
Speaker 1: this has legs. Astro told the Des Moines Register investigators
29:07
Speaker 1: do not do not yet have any proof other than
29:10
Speaker 1: a pair of cadaver dog alerts. He said the FBI
29:13
Speaker 1: also begun probing over a year ago, but had backed
29:16
Speaker 1: away in the last couple of weeks, according to the register.
29:20
Speaker 1: I'm not going to let it die. I'm not going
29:22
Speaker 1: to just let that happen, Astro told the site. He
29:24
Speaker 1: later added, we've got to go with Lucy. No matter
29:27
Speaker 1: if they say it's not true or say she's crazy
29:30
Speaker 1: or whatever, they can say, we have to look into it.
29:33
Speaker 1: We have no other choice. A spokesperson for the FBI's Omaha,
29:37
Speaker 1: Nebraska field office would not say if the agency was
29:40
Speaker 1: involved in the investigation. And Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation
29:45
Speaker 1: Assistant Director Mitch Mortvett wrote in a prepared statement that
29:50
Speaker 1: the agency is assisting the Fremont County, Iowa Sheriff's Office
29:54
Speaker 1: with this investigation. The investigation is in the infancy stages
29:59
Speaker 1: with a lot of work to be completed, Mortvett wrote.
30:02
Speaker 1: There are no new updates and nothing more that will
30:04
Speaker 1: be released at this time. Well, there's where we're at
30:08
Speaker 1: as far as this goes. Now, we'll have to see
30:11
Speaker 1: what comes of this as far as a bigger investigation,
30:14
Speaker 1: if they're going to excavate the site and, you know,
30:17
Speaker 1: go all in, then obviously we're going to keep covering
30:20
Speaker 1: it and keep adding, you know, details to some of
30:23
Speaker 1: these areas where we're lacking. So we'll see what happens
30:27
Speaker 1: and we'll continue to keep our eye on this one
30:29
Speaker 1: as well as the others. All right, folks, it's going
30:32
Speaker 1: to do it for this episode. If you'd like to
30:34
Speaker 1: contact me, you can do that at BobbyCapucci at ProtonMail.com.
30:39
Speaker 1: That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at ProtonMail.com. You can also find me on
30:46
Speaker 1: Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that I discussed
30:53
Speaker 1: can be found in the description box. What's up, everyone,
30:56
Speaker 1: and welcome back to the program. We were talking about
31:01
Speaker 1: the possibility that there is a serial killer or was
31:05
Speaker 1: a serial killer active in Iowa for a bunch of years.
31:10
Speaker 1: And the reason we know this or the reason these
31:13
Speaker 1: allegations have been made is because the man's daughter, well,
31:17
Speaker 1: she says that she helped him bury the bodies. Now
31:21
Speaker 1: the police are in the middle of getting ready to
31:25
Speaker 1: excavate the area where she said that this all went down.
31:28
Speaker 1: But before that happens, they're out there with cadaver dogs
31:32
Speaker 1: and they've had another hit. So let's get into this
31:35
Speaker 1: article from Newsweek and let's get caught up on what
31:38
Speaker 1: the hell's going on up in Iowa. This article was
31:42
Speaker 1: authored by Eric Ferenhoff and Naveed Jamali. Headline, Third Cadaver
31:49
Speaker 1: Dog Flags Remains at Alleged Iowa Serial Killers Burial Site.
31:57
Speaker 1: A third cadaver dog has sniffed out the scent of
31:59
Speaker 1: human remains at locations investigators are probing as a possible
32:03
Speaker 1: mass gravesite where a woman claims her father dumped the
32:06
Speaker 1: bodies of dozens of women in the Green Hollow area
32:10
Speaker 1: around Thurman, Iowa, Newsweek has learned. And this is a
32:14
Speaker 1: very crazy story. Like if this turns out to be
32:17
Speaker 1: true and this guy was this prolific of a serial killer,
32:21
Speaker 1: This could provide closure to a whole lot of families
32:24
Speaker 1: who have missing people out there that they never heard
32:26
Speaker 1: from again or that they've been looking for. So I
32:30
Speaker 1: think it's important that the police go through with this
32:33
Speaker 1: and pursue this, especially if these cadaver dogs keep hitting.
32:38
Speaker 1: The dog, a German Shepherd, hit along the Morel Mushroom
32:41
Speaker 1: Trails Lucy Studi remembers venturing along with her father and
32:45
Speaker 1: family as a child. I'm not surprised they hit there
32:48
Speaker 1: because my dad said the bodies were the reason that
32:51
Speaker 1: the mushrooms grow so big. Lucy Studi, 53, told Newsweek.
32:55
Speaker 1: We put lion spots on the mushrooms trail. Yo, that's wild.
32:58
Speaker 1: Imagine telling that to your kid. Imagine being some kind
33:01
Speaker 1: of psycho serial killer and telling your kid the mushrooms
33:04
Speaker 1: grow here because this is where we put the bodies. Meanwhile,
33:10
Speaker 1: Fremont County Sheriff's investigators met with state and federal authorities
33:13
Speaker 1: this week to map out next steps in the search
33:16
Speaker 1: for bodies on vast farmland and the hollows where Studi
33:20
Speaker 1: claims her father, Donald Dean Studi, buried mostly women and
33:24
Speaker 1: at least two men over the decades, occasionally using his
33:27
Speaker 1: children to spread lye and dirt to cover up bodies.
33:31
Speaker 1: At least three SUVs from the agencies visited the site
33:34
Speaker 1: after meeting at the sheriff's office on Monday. A source
33:38
Speaker 1: said boring of a well where bodies might be dumped
33:40
Speaker 1: could begin next month. And it's going to be a
33:43
Speaker 1: little bit difficult to dig through all of this ground.
33:45
Speaker 1: It's going to be real cold up there soon. We're
33:47
Speaker 1: talking about Iowa. It gets freezing up there. So you
33:50
Speaker 1: got like that permafrost ground and all of that. Obviously,
33:53
Speaker 1: they have the tools and the manpower to get the
33:56
Speaker 1: job done. It just depends on what sort of budget,
33:59
Speaker 1: you know, the counselors and the commission they're going to
34:01
Speaker 1: give these guys to excavate this. What I would hope
34:05
Speaker 1: is that the federal government would get involved and take
34:07
Speaker 1: some of that cost restriction away from the local district.
34:11
Speaker 1: Because if this is a serial killer, I think that
34:13
Speaker 1: we all have some skin in the game to get
34:16
Speaker 1: some closure for the family, right? On October 20th, the
34:20
Speaker 1: first of two dogs, both healers, separately signaled to their
34:24
Speaker 1: handler possible remains near a deep well, where Donald Studi
34:27
Speaker 1: allegedly buried some victims. Those dogs, going one by one,
34:31
Speaker 1: also hit on the trails. Newsweek was present at the time,
34:36
Speaker 1: so Newsweek has been all over this story, and they
34:38
Speaker 1: were the first ones that Lucy Studi came out to
34:41
Speaker 1: and gave her story to. So, obviously, they've been following
34:45
Speaker 1: this story pretty close and doing a really good job
34:47
Speaker 1: of keeping us up to date on what's going on.
34:52
Speaker 1: Last Tuesday, the same handler returned with a German Shepherd
34:55
Speaker 1: at the request of the Fremont Sheriff's Office, Newsweek has learned.
34:59
Speaker 1: asked about the dog's behavior or other aspects of the investigation.
35:04
Speaker 1: Sheriff Kevin Astro refused comment, directing all questions to the
35:08
Speaker 1: Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the agency in charge of
35:12
Speaker 1: media inquiries. DCI spokesman Mitch Mortvett also refused to comment
35:17
Speaker 1: beyond the brief statement that investigation into Lucy Studi's claims continue.
35:23
Speaker 1: And this is just par for the course. They're never
35:25
Speaker 1: going to be very revealing with what they have going on.
35:28
Speaker 1: In this case, I don't really see a need for
35:31
Speaker 1: any kind of secrecy. The guy's dead already, meaning the
35:34
Speaker 1: person who allegedly was the serial killer. So it's not
35:37
Speaker 1: like you're going to tip him off as the investigators
35:39
Speaker 1: come to kick in his door. But you know, the
35:42
Speaker 1: police officers and the police forces, they like to keep
35:45
Speaker 1: these investigations close to the vest. They don't want anything
35:48
Speaker 1: interrupting them. And I see for the most part why
35:51
Speaker 1: they would do that. But in cases like this, I
35:53
Speaker 1: would expect a lot of transparency. But sources said that
36:00
Speaker 1: after hours-long meetings in Iowa on Monday with three agencies, Fremont,
36:04
Speaker 1: the DCI, and the FBI, investigators visited the site again.
36:09
Speaker 1: The FBI field office in Omaha, which covers Fremont County,
36:13
Speaker 1: has offered assistance to locals and the DCI, according to
36:16
Speaker 1: the FBI's national office. Exactly which agency is the lead
36:20
Speaker 1: on the investigation is unclear, with officials only saying they
36:24
Speaker 1: are working cooperatively. Well, that's good. because that means if
36:27
Speaker 1: the FBI is involved, then maybe some of those federal
36:30
Speaker 1: dollars will trickle down here and they'll be able to
36:33
Speaker 1: really have a robust investigation of this site. They're moving
36:38
Speaker 1: with momentum and want to see this resolved as quickly
36:40
Speaker 1: as possible, said one official familiar with the probe. Any
36:44
Speaker 1: hit that they're struggling on the investigative side is not true.
36:47
Speaker 1: This is not two guys with a shovel digging in
36:49
Speaker 1: a well. It's a big undertaking. So they must really
36:52
Speaker 1: believe what's going on or they wouldn't be pumping these
36:55
Speaker 1: resources here. Right. Or maybe it's just due diligence saying
36:58
Speaker 1: if we don't do this and it turned out to
37:00
Speaker 1: be true. Imagine the blowback from the public then. Next
37:06
Speaker 1: step could include more cadaver dogs using sonar to check
37:10
Speaker 1: for remains and searching shallow graves around the trails, as
37:14
Speaker 1: well as utilizing forensic anthropologists and genealogists. Sources have said
37:19
Speaker 1: that the price tag could run about 500 grand. It's
37:22
Speaker 1: a lot of money for one of these little counties.
37:24
Speaker 1: You know, we live in these big cities, at least
37:26
Speaker 1: for me, and 500 grand is still a big chunk
37:28
Speaker 1: of change, but easy for, you know, a county like
37:32
Speaker 1: Clark County, just for example, where I live here in Nevada,
37:35
Speaker 1: to come up with that, though. You look at one
37:37
Speaker 1: of these counties in Iowa, however, a little bit different.
37:41
Speaker 1: So hopefully the feds help with some of those cost
37:43
Speaker 1: restrictions and really get things cracking. The Studi property is
37:48
Speaker 1: only about five acres, but bodies could be buried on
37:51
Speaker 1: two adjacent properties. Investigative sources have told Newsweek that no
37:56
Speaker 1: warrants will be needed to search those properties stretching over
37:59
Speaker 1: 425 acres after landowners agreed to allow their land to
38:03
Speaker 1: be searched. And if you own some land and the
38:06
Speaker 1: FBI shows up and they're like, hey, look, I hate
38:08
Speaker 1: to tell you this, but there might be some bodies
38:10
Speaker 1: buried on your land. I don't know many people that
38:13
Speaker 1: are going to be like, hey, you know what? I
38:14
Speaker 1: think we'll just let sleeping dogs lie and I don't
38:17
Speaker 1: want you to get out here and excavate. I'd be like, bro,
38:20
Speaker 1: please get these bodies off of my land ASAP. This
38:25
Speaker 1: meeting came about 18 months after police started taking Lucy
38:29
Speaker 1: Studi's claims seriously and some 45 years after she says
38:33
Speaker 1: she made the first allegations against her father to teachers,
38:37
Speaker 1: priests and law enforcement. The FBI, which has been interviewing
38:41
Speaker 1: people and families with connections to Studi, has also been
38:44
Speaker 1: aware of the allegations since at least early 2021 and
38:48
Speaker 1: took a recorded statement from her. After 45 years, Lucy
38:51
Speaker 1: Studi told Newsweek, authorities have finally gotten off their asses
38:55
Speaker 1: to actually start looking for bodies. So now this is
38:58
Speaker 1: interesting too, because if you lie to the FBI agents
39:02
Speaker 1: at all, you can go to jail for that. You
39:04
Speaker 1: are not allowed to lie to an FBI agent, a
39:06
Speaker 1: federal agent. So that signals to me that Mrs. Studi
39:11
Speaker 1: here is telling the truth. Fremont County had taken a
39:16
Speaker 1: report on Lucy Studi's claims in 2007 and after she
39:19
Speaker 1: called in her allegations to a deputy. But it wasn't
39:22
Speaker 1: until last year when she visited Iowa and was able
39:25
Speaker 1: to walk a deputy directly to a well where she
39:28
Speaker 1: claims bodies were buried that an active investigation got started.
39:33
Speaker 1: So she actually physically had to go to the site
39:35
Speaker 1: with the investigators and walk them to the well. And
39:38
Speaker 1: I could see why the investigators would be hesitant. This
39:42
Speaker 1: is a big undertaking. These are big claims. And like usual,
39:46
Speaker 1: big claims, well, they require big evidence. Lucy Studia said
39:51
Speaker 1: that over the decades the family lived in and out
39:53
Speaker 1: of Thurman, her father would frequent bars and an old
39:56
Speaker 1: racetrack nearby Omaha. He would regularly lose bets and return
40:00
Speaker 1: to the family's trailer with transients, sex workers, or, as
40:04
Speaker 1: he called them, bar slushes, whom he would kill and
40:08
Speaker 1: bury on their land or neighboring grounds, according to the allegations. Well,
40:12
Speaker 1: I could see prostitutes and transients, but I don't know
40:16
Speaker 1: about bar slushes. If people go missing, even if they're
40:20
Speaker 1: a slush or lush and they have family, they're going
40:24
Speaker 1: to be reported missing. So a lot of times these
40:26
Speaker 1: serial killers, they stick to the transient population because they
40:30
Speaker 1: don't want to get caught. Studi says his daughter would
40:35
Speaker 1: sometimes use a wheelbarrow or toboggan to transport bodies. He
40:39
Speaker 1: would have his children, three girls and the son, on occasion,
40:43
Speaker 1: pour dirt and lye into a well, she claims, as
40:46
Speaker 1: well as along the mushroom trail. Lucy Studi also said
40:49
Speaker 1: she remembers her father, who had at least two wives
40:52
Speaker 1: die by suicide or under suspicious circumstances, taking at least
40:57
Speaker 1: two men to one well, which is believed to be
40:59
Speaker 1: 100 feet deep. So you have this this woman calling
41:03
Speaker 1: her pop a serial killer. And then we hear about
41:06
Speaker 1: the two wives that, quote unquote, died of suicide. Yeah,
41:10
Speaker 1: that's not suspect or anything. One of Studi's daughters, Susan, 55,
41:16
Speaker 1: has told Newsweek that her younger sister's claims are nonsense,
41:20
Speaker 1: saying that their father was strict, but a loving dad
41:23
Speaker 1: who cared for his family and had nothing to do
41:25
Speaker 1: with killings. Look how many of these serial killers have
41:28
Speaker 1: families and have a different skin when they're at their home.
41:31
Speaker 1: Plenty of them. Social media, meanwhile, has blown up since
41:36
Speaker 1: Newsweek first published Lucy Studi's allegations and the existence of
41:40
Speaker 1: the investigation October 22nd. Some Facebook pages are dedicated to
41:45
Speaker 1: deriding Lucy Studi, while others support her allegations. People living
41:50
Speaker 1: near the Green Hollow area, in and around Thurman, have
41:53
Speaker 1: long heard stories about people entering the remote hollows, but
41:57
Speaker 1: never come out. The investigation is aimed at determining whether
42:01
Speaker 1: the rumors over decades were true, or were Lucy Studi's imaginings.
42:06
Speaker 1: So again, if she lied, she's going to get in
42:08
Speaker 1: trouble here. So... I don't know what's going on in
42:12
Speaker 1: her brain, and I certainly don't know if this man
42:13
Speaker 1: was a serial killer, but the authorities seem to be
42:16
Speaker 1: taking it seriously. Lucy Studi told Newsweek and police that
42:22
Speaker 1: the Count may top 50 to 70 bodies, with her
42:26
Speaker 1: father killing several a year. Police reports show she first
42:30
Speaker 1: reported about 5 to 15 bodies in a well. Despite
42:33
Speaker 1: that inconsistency, investigators say they believe her story. The haunting
42:38
Speaker 1: of the alleged killings, Lucy Studi said, got to her,
42:42
Speaker 1: and she told Newsweek that she recalls as a young
42:44
Speaker 1: girl walking into her father's room one night while he
42:47
Speaker 1: was sleeping, she had a gun. I should have shot
42:50
Speaker 1: him while he was sleeping, Lucy Studi said, recalling trauma
42:54
Speaker 1: and worry about victims. I didn't have it in me
42:57
Speaker 1: to pull the trigger. He looked so peaceful sleeping. I
42:59
Speaker 1: regret not shooting him. He would have never destroyed so
43:03
Speaker 1: many lives. All right, folks. Well, there you have it.
43:06
Speaker 1: That's where we stand as far as the alleged serial
43:08
Speaker 1: killer in Iowa and where the investigation or search into
43:13
Speaker 1: these allegations is currently at. We'll keep our eye on
43:18
Speaker 1: this one as well, and when any new information is available,
43:22
Speaker 1: we will add it to the catalog. All right, folks,
43:25
Speaker 1: that's going to do it. If you'd like to contact me,
43:27
Speaker 1: you can do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I
43:34
Speaker 1: at protonmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter at
43:38
Speaker 1: B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that I discussed can be
43:44
Speaker 1: found in the description box. up everyone and welcome back
43:48
Speaker 1: to the program we've been following along with what's going
43:52
Speaker 1: on up in iowa about the alleged serial killer well
43:57
Speaker 1: the fbi and authorities did a bit of excavation and
44:01
Speaker 1: they didn't find any evidence of there being any bodies
44:05
Speaker 1: at these places where the daughter lucy studi said that
44:09
Speaker 1: these bodies would be now quick recap she said that
44:12
Speaker 1: her father Donald Dean's duty was a serial killer, a
44:16
Speaker 1: prolific serial killer, who killed over 70 women. And those women,
44:21
Speaker 1: according to Lucy, were buried on this property and property
44:26
Speaker 1: around where their father had lived. Well, the FBI and
44:30
Speaker 1: the investigators who were in the state, they took her
44:33
Speaker 1: allegation seriously finally, and they did a bit of an investigation.
44:38
Speaker 1: And that investigation, even including a bit of excavation, after
44:43
Speaker 1: they brought in some cadaver dogs that hit on a
44:45
Speaker 1: couple of sites. Now, after that excavation has been done,
44:50
Speaker 1: they haven't found any evidence of Donald Dean Studi being
44:54
Speaker 1: a serial killer. So let's get into this article from
44:57
Speaker 1: the Des Moines Register and let's get caught up. Headline,
45:02
Speaker 1: search of alleged serial killer's land turns up no evidence.
45:05
Speaker 1: Daughter says she'll take a polygraph. This article was authored
45:10
Speaker 1: by Lee Rood. Now, remember, her sister, Lucy's sister, said
45:15
Speaker 1: none of this ever happened. It wasn't true. And that
45:18
Speaker 1: their father certainly wasn't a serial killer. Lucy, on the
45:22
Speaker 1: other hand, had a different memory of who their father
45:26
Speaker 1: was or who she says he was and that he
45:29
Speaker 1: was an abusive killer. Now, she's also saying she'll take
45:32
Speaker 1: a polygraph test. But if there's no bodies where you
45:36
Speaker 1: say they're going to be, then what's the point of
45:39
Speaker 1: even taking a polygraph test? A woman who alleges her
45:44
Speaker 1: late father was a prolific Iowa serial killer said Friday
45:47
Speaker 1: she's frustrated a law enforcement team spent just two days
45:51
Speaker 1: this week digging and testing soil before declaring it found
45:55
Speaker 1: no evidence to support her claim that she had used
45:58
Speaker 1: the area behind the family's home to bury victims. Now,
46:02
Speaker 1: she has been adamant about this. And finally, after decades
46:06
Speaker 1: of her saying nobody listened to her, they paid attention.
46:10
Speaker 1: And they get out here, they do their digging, they
46:12
Speaker 1: do their searching, and they don't come up with anything. Well,
46:15
Speaker 1: she says they didn't search hard enough, they didn't look
46:18
Speaker 1: good enough, and that the bodies are definitely there. Lucy
46:22
Speaker 1: Studi McKitty of Lakeland, Florida, stuck by her assertion that
46:26
Speaker 1: her late father, Donald Dean Studi, murdered five or six
46:29
Speaker 1: women a year over several decades and buried them in
46:33
Speaker 1: and around an abandoned well on the site near Thurman,
46:36
Speaker 1: about 40 miles from Omaha, Nebraska. Studi died at age
46:41
Speaker 1: 75 in 2013. McKitty said she is willing to take
46:45
Speaker 1: a lie detector test to prove she's telling the truth. Well,
46:49
Speaker 1: the best proof would be to find the bodies, right?
46:52
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's possible that they were moved.
46:55
Speaker 1: Not very likely, but I guess it's possible that Donald
46:58
Speaker 1: Dean Studi at some point, you know, pulled the bodies
47:02
Speaker 1: out of their burial ground and moved them somewhere else.
47:05
Speaker 1: Is it likely? No, but I guess it's possible. But
47:11
Speaker 1: Mitch Morvitt, a spokesperson for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations,
47:16
Speaker 1: said the team, which included anthropology and crime scene evidence
47:19
Speaker 1: recovery experts, went to the exact GPS locations and well
47:24
Speaker 1: that McKitty told authorities to search and found nothing. So
47:27
Speaker 1: it looks like it's been one giant goose chase, right?
47:32
Speaker 1: And that's never a good thing. And if that is
47:34
Speaker 1: the case, and she was telling stories here, how much
47:37
Speaker 1: money and resources were wasted. We're talking about a small county.
47:41
Speaker 1: We're not talking about a place where they have resources
47:44
Speaker 1: falling out of their ears. So is she going to
47:48
Speaker 1: be liable for some kind of BS if this comes
47:51
Speaker 1: back to be a false story? DCI and FBI agents
47:56
Speaker 1: joined sheriff's deputies at the remote 425 acre area behind
48:01
Speaker 1: Studi's former home near Thurman in Southwest Iowa's Fremont County.
48:06
Speaker 1: The DCI announced in a news release late Thursday that
48:09
Speaker 1: the exhaustive search had been called off after investigators found
48:13
Speaker 1: no evidence or items of concern. It said the team
48:17
Speaker 1: was at the site over three days. So they were
48:19
Speaker 1: there for quite some time, three days, going over all
48:22
Speaker 1: this evidence, excavating the site, digging in the well, and
48:26
Speaker 1: they came up with nothing. And when you have all
48:29
Speaker 1: of these resources here, you're talking about anthropology experts, FBI agents,
48:35
Speaker 1: It's not just the state and local police officers that
48:39
Speaker 1: are involved here. So it's not like you can say, oh,
48:41
Speaker 1: they're going to miss something. Usually when you have the
48:44
Speaker 1: FBI involved and anthropologists, you're going to get a nice
48:48
Speaker 1: workup of whatever's pulled out of the ground. They're going
48:51
Speaker 1: to be able to give you an idea of what
48:54
Speaker 1: things are. This is XXX and X. No, that's not
48:57
Speaker 1: human remains. And it looks like, according to this report anyway,
49:02
Speaker 1: that's what happened. Even so, McKitty, 53, one of four
49:07
Speaker 1: children of Studi, told the Des Moines Register on Friday
49:10
Speaker 1: that she would keep trying to have her claims investigated
49:13
Speaker 1: until she dies. One way or another, those bodies are
49:16
Speaker 1: coming up, she said, with or without help. So without help...
49:20
Speaker 1: what does that mean? Are they just going to raise
49:22
Speaker 1: up like zombies on their own and come out of
49:24
Speaker 1: the ground? What does that even mean? They're going to
49:26
Speaker 1: come up without help. McKitty also said she showed up
49:32
Speaker 1: October 2nd for a polygraph test scheduled by FBI agent
49:36
Speaker 1: John Herman in Lakeland, but was turned away. The FBI
49:39
Speaker 1: has not responded to messages seeking comment on the case. Now,
49:44
Speaker 1: the more we get into this and the more we
49:45
Speaker 1: learn about it, the more it seems like a, you know,
49:49
Speaker 1: a false lead or a wild goose chase. And who
49:54
Speaker 1: knows what sort of beef Lucy Studi has with her dad, right?
49:58
Speaker 1: What kind of acts she has to grind. Serial killer
50:01
Speaker 1: allegations draw wide attention. McKitty's claims made international news after
50:06
Speaker 1: Newsweek reported two cadaver dogs registered hits at the site
50:10
Speaker 1: in late October, indicating the possibility and presence of decomposing
50:16
Speaker 1: remains in the area near the well. So when that
50:18
Speaker 1: all happened, obviously people took note. All right, this lady's
50:23
Speaker 1: making these claims and now cadaver dogs are hitting on
50:27
Speaker 1: the sites where she's saying these bodies are buried. That
50:31
Speaker 1: has to make people take pause, right? Take a look
50:33
Speaker 1: at what's going on. evaluate the situation and at the
50:35
Speaker 1: very least listen to what she has to say. Mortved
50:41
Speaker 1: said late Friday afternoon that he checked this week with
50:44
Speaker 1: the DCI team on a new report by Newsweek, which
50:47
Speaker 1: cited no-name source that a third cadaver dog taking to
50:51
Speaker 1: the site had a similar reaction. They knew nothing about that,
50:54
Speaker 1: he said. Studi had previously attempted to report her father's
50:58
Speaker 1: killings over the years and had been ignored by teachers, counselors, clergy,
51:03
Speaker 1: and law enforcement officials in both Iowa and Nebraska. I
51:08
Speaker 1: now understand how my dad got away with it, she
51:10
Speaker 1: told the Register. For decades, I've had nothing but disappointment
51:14
Speaker 1: from authorities. So you have two competing narratives here, right?
51:18
Speaker 1: You have Lucy Studi's narrative of her father was a
51:21
Speaker 1: serial killer and everybody ignored her for all of these
51:24
Speaker 1: years when she tried to alert them. And then on
51:26
Speaker 1: the flip side of that, You have the authorities here
51:29
Speaker 1: who are saying, look, we didn't find anything. We went
51:32
Speaker 1: out there, we dug, we took a look at what
51:34
Speaker 1: was going on, and sometimes there's just nothing to find.
51:41
Speaker 1: In Thurman, where locals long avoided the wooded hollow north
51:45
Speaker 1: of town, McKitty's allegations that Studi could have been a
51:48
Speaker 1: serial killer generated lots of gossip and made some shudder.
51:53
Speaker 1: Longtime residents told the Register that They were not surprised
51:56
Speaker 1: to hear that the local recluse, who was the subject
51:58
Speaker 1: of numerous law enforcement calls before he died, had been
52:02
Speaker 1: accused by his own daughter of killing scores of people.
52:05
Speaker 1: Sheriff's reports showed he had threatened others over the years,
52:09
Speaker 1: including his live-in girlfriend, and that he was sometimes suicidal
52:13
Speaker 1: once shooting himself in the arm in the presence of deputies. Look,
52:16
Speaker 1: this was not a well-adjusted man. He had two wives
52:19
Speaker 1: who ended up allegedly committing suicide. So, look, a guy
52:24
Speaker 1: that is not a great guy, it would seem. But
52:27
Speaker 1: is he a serial killer? I guess that's the question.
52:32
Speaker 1: But others expressed doubts about the accusations by McKitty, whose
52:35
Speaker 1: account shifted over time. Chief Deputy Timothy Bothwell said the
52:40
Speaker 1: Fremont County Sheriff's Office first heard the allegation in 2007
52:44
Speaker 1: when Studi claimed his daughter had stolen $ 16, 000 from him.
52:47
Speaker 1: McKitty Bothwell said, denied that she took the money, but
52:52
Speaker 1: alleged her father had buried bodies in the disused well
52:56
Speaker 1: on the former site of a county-run home for the poor. So,
53:00
Speaker 1: an axe to grind, right? You always look for an
53:02
Speaker 1: axe to grind, at least I do, when it comes
53:04
Speaker 1: to something like this. Somebody's making an allegation about somebody.
53:07
Speaker 1: Somebody has something to say about somebody. All right, where
53:11
Speaker 1: is their beef? What's the axe to grind? And if
53:13
Speaker 1: there is no axe to grind, well, then, you know,
53:15
Speaker 1: it's something else probably. Bothwell said he was unable to
53:20
Speaker 1: find the well she described and the investigation stalled. He
53:23
Speaker 1: also doubted her credibility, he said. She later admitted, as
53:27
Speaker 1: he suspected, that she had taken the money and we
53:30
Speaker 1: thought she was just trying to get her dad in
53:32
Speaker 1: trouble or have us look at him because she stole
53:35
Speaker 1: his money. Speaking in 2021 with another deputy, McKinney claimed
53:40
Speaker 1: a second time that her father had killed several people
53:43
Speaker 1: and she believed he disposed of their bodies in the well.
53:47
Speaker 1: In that phone interview, she described instances when she had
53:50
Speaker 1: seen bodies on the property and helped her father put
53:53
Speaker 1: lye in the well, apparently to speed their decomposition. Well,
53:58
Speaker 1: we looked in that well now, and there's nothing there.
54:01
Speaker 1: So I'm leaning towards this not being a true story,
54:04
Speaker 1: and her having an axe to grind with pops, stole
54:07
Speaker 1: the money, and used this as kind of a cover
54:10
Speaker 1: so she didn't get in trouble. That's the way I'm
54:12
Speaker 1: leaning right now. But another of Studi's four children, Susan Studi,
54:18
Speaker 1: subsequently told Newsweek that McKitty was not telling the truth.
54:21
Speaker 1: She said her father was strict, but not a serial killer,
54:24
Speaker 1: and she wanted to restore his name. The register could
54:27
Speaker 1: not locate the third Studi daughter. A brother, Gary Studi,
54:31
Speaker 1: died in 2004. According to a Sheriff's 2021 investigative report,
54:37
Speaker 1: McKitty told deputies she knew of five bodies in the
54:40
Speaker 1: well and had heard stories that there were up to 15.
54:44
Speaker 1: But Newsweek reported in an online story October 22nd that
54:49
Speaker 1: in a subsequent interview with reporters from the magazine, she
54:52
Speaker 1: said there were 50 to 70. So her story continued
54:55
Speaker 1: to change. And you want to give somebody the benefit
54:58
Speaker 1: of the doubt, right? If they're a little kid and
55:00
Speaker 1: they're helping their father or their mother bury bodies, that
55:03
Speaker 1: has to be traumatizing as hell. So you want to
55:06
Speaker 1: give people the benefit of the doubt. But at some point,
55:09
Speaker 1: you have to realize there's no meat on the bone here.
55:12
Speaker 1: You made... Kevin Astrope, sheriff for 14 years in Fremont County,
55:17
Speaker 1: said that despite the inconsistencies, he had no choice but
55:20
Speaker 1: to push for further investigation, especially after the reactions of
55:24
Speaker 1: the cadaver dogs in October that supported McKitty's claims. Of course,
55:29
Speaker 1: if the dogs pop and the dogs hit, you have
55:31
Speaker 1: to look harder, look at all of the details that
55:34
Speaker 1: are surrounding what's going on. On Friday, Astrope was out
55:37
Speaker 1: of the office and could not be reached for comment.
55:41
Speaker 1: Donald Studi didn't have a criminal record in Iowa, but
55:44
Speaker 1: McKitty insisted her father was a crook and a gambler
55:47
Speaker 1: most of his life. She said he picked up people,
55:50
Speaker 1: mostly women and transients, near the Omaha Council Bluffs Metro
55:54
Speaker 1: and that some of the women came to live with
55:56
Speaker 1: the family for a while. He stole from every job
55:59
Speaker 1: he ever had, she told Watchdog in an interview. He
56:03
Speaker 1: ran drugs, guns, and dealt in stolen property. He got
56:06
Speaker 1: jobs only when he needed to, she told Bothwell last year.
56:11
Speaker 1: she also had seen her father dispose of the bodies
56:13
Speaker 1: of some men. You know, it's pretty funny someone talking about, oh,
56:17
Speaker 1: he never had a job, this, that, the other thing,
56:19
Speaker 1: but you stole 16 grand from him. So what does
56:22
Speaker 1: that say about you? In an interview with CNN's Anderson
56:27
Speaker 1: Cooper in late October, Naveed Jamali, a Newsweek editor at
56:30
Speaker 1: large working on the story, said the staff had established
56:33
Speaker 1: evidence that Studi was a gambler who lived a life
56:36
Speaker 1: of crime. That alone didn't make him a serial killer,
56:39
Speaker 1: he acknowledged. However, in speaking to people, Jamali said, reporters
56:44
Speaker 1: also discovered a pattern suggesting Studi may have been connected
56:48
Speaker 1: to a criminal ring and potentially organized crime. All right, folks, well,
56:53
Speaker 1: there it is. The allegations that were made by Lucy,
56:58
Speaker 1: the allegations that were investigated by the investigators, and according
57:02
Speaker 1: to that investigation, at least at the site where they
57:05
Speaker 1: were directed, they didn't find anything. So what do you
57:09
Speaker 1: folks think? Do you think that Lucy Studi is telling
57:12
Speaker 1: the truth? Or do you think that this was all
57:16
Speaker 1: just a big lie? If you'd like to contact me,
57:21
Speaker 1: you can do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I
57:29
Speaker 1: at protonmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter at
57:32
Speaker 1: B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that I discussed can be
57:39
Speaker 1: found in the description box.