Police start search for 70 bodies after woman claims her dad is serial killer

Police have started searching for bodies after a woman claimed that her father was a serial killer, with 70 women as his victims.

Law enforcement is currently on the hunt for the bodies in Thurman, Iowa, US after Lucy Studey McKiddy, 53, reported that her father Donald Studey was a serial killer.

As reported by The Mirror, McKiddy claimed her father would often be drunk, and alleged that he forced her to help him bury the bodies by a well in Thurman, Fremont County.

She said that her father's method of killing was to "smash his victims head in" before asking her to dispose of the bodies. If true, this would make Studey, who died in 2013 aged 75, one of the most prolific serial killers the US has ever seen.

According to Newsweek, McKiddy has alleged for 45 years that her father was a killer, but nobody would take her seriously. But last week, cadaver dogs alerted authorities to suspected human remains in the site she alleged was the burial ground.

Part of the property was excavated in 2007, but nothing conclusive was found though the dogs alerted authorities to one area near the well.

As a result of this, 15 vehicles from the FBI, Fremont County Sheriff's Office, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation are testing the soil around the area.

McKiddy said: "I'm not surprised they hit there because my dad said the bodies were the reason the mushrooms grow so big. I've talked to the FBI several times over the past decades - why didn't they do something then, when he was alive?"

"I look forward to the authorities digging up the bodies, identifying the people, giving their families closure and the victims a proper burial," McKiddy added.

However, her sister Susan Studey has denied the claims against her father, as she told Newsweek they were all untrue.

She told the outlet: "My father was not the man she [McKiddy] makes him out to be. He was strict, but he was a protective parent who loved his children.

"Strict fathers don't just turn into serial killers... I'm two years older than Lucy. I think I would know if my father murdered. I would know if my dad was a serial killer. He was not, and I want my father's name restored."

Law enforcement has stated "we've got to go with Lucy" just in case the claims are true.

Featured image credit: Brian Jackson / Alamy