The discovery of a body in southern Allen County may have resolved the 5½-year mystery of a missing Iola man.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Allen County Sheriff’s Office are conducting an investigation after remains were found Saturday evening near Humboldt.
Authorities have not released the person’s identity, but the discovery’s location is within a mile of where a van belonging to Iolan Dennis Jay Lushbough Jr. was found after he disappeared in August 2017.
Sherry Russell, Lushbough’s mother, said she had been notified of the discovery.
“Right now, we just don’t know anything,” Russell told the Register in a telephone interview Monday. Russell lives in Arkansas.
“We’re hoping to get some kind of answers as to what happened and to be able to put him at rest.”
In a joint news release with KBI, Sheriff Bryan Murphy said a man who was searching for antler sheds Saturday called 911 when he discovered what he believed were human remains at about 5:30 p.m.
Deputies responded to the area, east of Humboldt, near Arizona Road and 1800 Street. Upon arrival they found human skeletal remains. They, in turn, contacted KBI and the Crime Scene Response Team (CSRT).
Positive identification is expected to take longer than typical cases due to the condition of the remains, Murphy said.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death, including whether foul play was involved. No threat to the public exists related to this incident, Murphy said.
Lushbough, then 44, and his girlfriend, Ali “Dawn” Deweese, had been partying the weekend of Aug. 12 and 13 in 2017, along the banks of the Neosho River, just south of the Neosho-Allen County line.
After Deweese told investigators they had gotten into an argument, she said Lushbough dropped her off and drove away in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 13.
He was never seen again.
An extensive search of the area came up empty, until 12 days later when a crop duster flying overhead spotted Lushbough’s van parked along a row of trees near the corner of 1700 Street and Arizona road, roughly five miles from where he had last been seen. The trees were so thick the van could not be seen from the road.
The van showed no obvious signs that anything criminal had happened. One of the tires was flat and the vehicle was low on gas.
A grill had been set up outside the vehicle.
Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to contact the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME, or the Allen County Sheriff’s Office at (620) 365-1400. Tips can also be submitted anonymously online at https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar.
