(Emmetsburg)– We’re learning some additional details into the death of a man who’s body was found last month in a lake near Ruthven.
Twenty-nine-year-old Allan Schwidder, of Emmetsburg, Iowa, was arrested on August 14, on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Rollin Bontrager, of Washington, Iowa.
Schwidder is being held in the Palo Alto County Jail on a $1,000,000 bond.
On July 22, the sheriff’s office received a report of a possible body in Virgin Lake near Ruthven.
The body was later identified as Bontrager.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Palo Alto County District Court on August 14, Dr. Dennis Klein, who performed the autopsy at the State Medical Examiner’s office in Ankeny, Iowa, determined Bontrager suffered multiple lacerations on the head consistent with being beaten with a bolt cutter tool.
Court documents claim multiple witnesses place Schwidder at the lake on Sunday, July 19, and claim he used the bolt cutter to assault and kill Bontrager.
The same documents claim surveillance video shows Bontrager to be alive shortly before 2:30 p.m. on July 19 and he was last seen live with Schwidder that day.
The same documents claim Schwidder admitted to multiple people that same night he killed Bontrager at Virgin Lake.
On July 31, search warrants were executed at a pair of residences in Emmetsburg. Three vehicles were also searched. Authorities say several items were seized and will be analyzed.
The investigation continues in the case. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at (712) 322-1585.
(Courtesy news partner KTIV in Sioux City)
