Don Studey: What Green Hollow's Failed Investigation Missed
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
Four cadaver dog alerts. A property that reportedly spans over 400 acres. Numerous wells — some wet, some dry, many filled in over the decades. And the FBI spent parts of three days there before announcing they found nothing and walking away. That's the 2022 Green Hollow investigation in a nutshell — and it's the investigation that
Lucy Studey-McKiddy says was doomed from the start because they allegedly searched the wrong well. Lucy wasn't reportedly on site to guide them. The agencies drilled into what she says was the water well, not the dry well where she alleges her father Donald Studey disposed of the bodies of dozens of women he allegedly killed over decades. Since that investigation closed, the case has only grown more troubling.
Charlotte Studey — one of Don's wives — reportedly died in 1984 from a single gunshot wound in Omaha. Self-inflicted, they said. A re-autopsy reportedly paid for by a documentary production team concluded the original findings didn't add up. Charlotte's manner of death has been officially reclassified as undetermined. Her three daughters are reportedly fighting Omaha police in court to access the sealed investigation files.
In May 2025, a private forensic dig at Green Hollow reportedly used ground-penetrating radar and additional cadaver dogs. Both allegedly produced hits in areas that had never been fully searched. No conclusive remains have been recovered from any dig. But the hits keep coming. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta, who investigated this case independently on the ground in Green Hollow, breaks down what happened and what was missed.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brewski and Robin Drink. |
| 0:07.8 | In December of 2022, the FBI, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Fremont County Sheriff's Office went to Green Hollow to search for the remains of women allegedly killed by Donald Studey. |
| 0:19.2 | C cadaver dogs reportedly alerted at multiple locations across the property. |
| 0:23.9 | Agencies drilled into what they thought might be the well, spent parts of three days on site, and found nothing. |
| 0:32.1 | And then closed the case. |
| 0:34.5 | Lucy Stutie has said, oh, they searched the wrong well, a private forensic dig in 2025 using some ground penetrating radar on cadaver dogs and allegedly got more hits in areas that never have been fully searched. Bob's been talking about some of that. Bob, I want to ask you about is there, could there be, I mean, this is kind of theoretical, |
| 0:56.6 | but is there anybody out there? Could there be a reason today that somebody doesn't want |
| 1:03.4 | anybody digging in certain areas? Is there a mole in some of this that's leading people this way and not that way when maybe they should be looking more that way? Is there a mole in some of this that's leading people this way and not that way when maybe |
| 1:12.7 | they should be looking more that way? |
| 1:14.2 | Is there anything prohibiting them from going and looking in the areas where Lucy says |
| 1:20.7 | that the well is? |
| 1:23.0 | Or is Lucy going to keep saying every time they dig and they find nothing? |
| 1:26.2 | Oh, it's the wrong spot. What are your thoughts on that? Could there be still some reason that somebody has |
| 1:32.4 | to not discover what might be? Yeah, I don't smell any kind of like cover up. No. |
| 1:39.9 | In terms of law enforcement, much like Robin was talking about when we were talking about this case |
| 1:46.1 | last week, the feds aren't in the business of finding bodies. There's nobody at the end of the |
| 1:53.7 | at the rainbow to arrest and convict. That's not what their deal is. That's not what they get into, |
| 1:59.9 | man. they're not |
| 2:01.0 | going to waste the time and the resources just trying to recover missing persons based on this this type |
| 2:07.3 | of story not not at length at least because you know if they don't have anybody to arrest and |
| 2:13.9 | ultimately convict that's just it it's not something that's going to pull them in and i'm sure |
| 2:19.6 | robin will agree with that and that's really what happened here and what we had was this kind |
... |
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