NEWS / Missing Iowa trucker died from methamphetamine-related hypothermia

A death certificate has been issued for an Iowa truck driver whose body was found earlier this year. According to the vital record, David Schultz died from hypothermia caused by acute methamphetamine intoxication.

53-year-old Schultz, a resident of the small city of Wall Lake, IA, was found in a rural field in Sac County on April 24, about a quarter mile from where his semi-truck had been discovered 5 months earlier, by a local farm worker driving a tractor. He had disappeared the night of November 20, 2023.

The death certificate specifies that Schultz’s manner of death is an accident, as confirmed by state medical examiner Kelly Kruse.

According to The Gazette, Kruse listed the cause of death as “Hypothermia in the Setting of Acute Drug (methamphetamine) Intoxication,” with “description of injury” being listed as “Ingested drug and exposed to environmental cold”.

Schultz disappeared November 20, 2023, when temperatures dipped below freezing to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (about -1 degree Celsius). The following week, low temperatures at one point dipped all the way down to 11 degrees Fahrenheit (about -12 degrees Celsius).

A top Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) official told The Gazette that they consider the case closed.

“It’s not a homicide,” Darrell Simmons, special agent in charge for Iowa DCI, was quoted by The Gazette as stating, “So I don't know that we would probably release anything more, since there's really no threat or concern to the community.

Schultz is survived by his wife, Sarah, who had been tirelessly posting updates on the search for her husband on Facebook, and his twin sons.