The sisters are somewhat divided on their father's past.
Police are using cadaver dogs and taking dirt samples at a property in the US to help establish if a woman's claims that her dad murdered 70 women and dumped their bodies are true.
Lucy Studey McKiddy has alleged that her late father, Donald Dean Studey, was a serial killer who forced her and her siblings to dump the bodies of women he killed into a 100ft well on a property in Iowa.
The 53-year-old said that Studey, who died in March 2013 aged 75, was "routinely drunk" and killed women by smashing or kicking in their heads inside a trailer.
If proven, the claims would make Studey one of the worst serial killers in American history. Newsweek lists America's most notorious serial killers
here.
Sources told
Newsweek that authorities plan to bore into the well where the bodies were dumped and dig and test for shallow graves.
McKiddy is said to have pushed for authorities to act for 45 years and reportedly said, "finally", when told that the land was being examined on Tuesday.
Deputy Sheriff Tim Bothwell said that McKiddy had told them about her father's alleged history in 2007 – which prompted them to excavate a portion of the property, a process that cost the county $300,000.
Authorities are now planning a second excavation after searching land behind the Studey property.
Cadaver dogs are said to have hit on four spots on the property.
McKiddy's elder sister, Susan, has rubbished the claims, telling Newsweek: "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."
She suggested cadaver dogs may have been misled by remains of their stillborn infant sister, who was buried on the property along with a dog.
Studey reportedly forced his children to pile dirt and chemical lye on top of the bodies after dumping them into the well.
Lucy said: "All I want is to get these sites dug up, and to bring closure for people and to give these women a proper burial. My father was a lifelong criminal and murderer."
McKiddy told deputies in 2021 that she had "heard stories that there could be up to 15 bodies" buried on her father’s land but she only knew about five personally, the Des Moines Register reported.
She told Newsweek she had watched her father and two others carry a body from the trunk of a vehicle and that there could be as many as 70 victims.
Read Newsweek's report
here.
