Episode Details

Donald Dean Studey was an Iowa resident who became the subject of extraordinary allegations after his daughter, Lucy Studey-McKiddy, accused him of being a prolific serial killer responsible for murdering between 50 and 70 people over approximately three decades. Studey, who lived on a secluded property near Thurman in Fremont County, died in 2013 at the age of 75, nearly a decade before his daughter's accusations attracted national attention in October 2022. According to Lucy, her father regularly targeted vulnerable women, particularly sex workers and transients he encountered around Omaha, Nebraska, before bringing them to his property and murdering them. She alleged that Studey forced her and her siblings to help dispose of the victims' bodies, transporting remains in wheelbarrows during warmer months and on sleds during winter before dumping them into an abandoned well approximately 90 feet deep. Lucy also claimed that her father used lye to accelerate decomposition and conceal evidence of his crimes. She maintained that she had been telling people about the killings since childhood but that authorities repeatedly failed to take her allegations seriously. Her accusations extended to suspicious deaths within the family, including that of her stepmother, Charlotte Studey, whose 1984 death was originally ruled a suicide but whose manner of death was later reassessed as undetermined.

The allegations prompted an investigation involving the Fremont County Sheriff's Office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI, particularly after cadaver dogs indicated possible human remains at locations identified by Lucy. In December 2022, investigators conducted an extensive excavation of the property but announced that they had recovered no evidence supporting the existence of a mass burial site. Another forensic search in May 2025, involving cadaver dogs, ground-penetrating radar and forensic anthropologists, similarly failed to uncover human remains or additional wells. Lucy continued to insist that her accusations were true, while her sister Susan publicly disputed the allegations and maintained that their father was not a murderer. Additional allegations emerged from Studey's sister, Marilyn Kepler, and a man who claimed Studey had asked him to help move a woman's body in 1975. The controversy gained renewed attention in April 2026 with the release of the documentary series My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders, which examined the competing family accounts, suspicious deaths and continuing efforts to investigate the property. Despite the disturbing allegations and testimony from multiple individuals, no homicide has been conclusively attributed to Studey, and investigators have not recovered physical evidence establishing that the alleged serial murders occurred.


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