Donald Studey Claimed His 2 Wives Died by Suicide, Then His Daughter Said She Helped Him Bury Other Bodies. Inside the Green Hollow Murders

NEED TO KNOW

• Donald Dean Studey lived in Iowa with his young children, who were allegedly involved in his criminal activities

• One of his daughters claimed that he killed between 50 and 70 victims, including two of his romantic partners

• The Paramount+ docuseries My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders explores the allegations and reveals latest findings

Donald Dean Studey may have been a prolific serial killer, according to one of his daughters.

Lucy Studey McKiddy claimed that Donald, who died in 2013 at 75 years old, murdered between 50 and 70 people, including her mother, stepmother and one of Donald's girlfriends, and alleged that she helped him hide his victims' bodies in wells on their property when she was a child.

In the Paramount+ docuseries My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders , which premiered April 28, McKiddy and her siblings reckon with the possibility that their dad may have been a murderer and try to find answers about a number of the women who died in his wake.

"He's got two wives and a girlfriend who he called in to the police reporting their deaths," McKiddy said. "What's the odds of that? I think he'd be better off winning the lottery."

While McKiddy is insistent that her father slayed numerous people, not all of her family members agree.

So, what was Donald Dean Studey accused of? Here's what to know about the suspect and his crimes, per his children and other eyewitnesses.

He was accused of physically abusing his partners and children

Even some of those closest to Donald who don't believe he was a killer concede that he physically abused his wives and kids.

“My dad was an abusive p---k, but he was no murderer,” Susan Studey told the Missoulian in October 2024, adding that she once tried protecting her stepmother Charlotte Studey “because [Donald] was beating her to a pulp."

"He beat everybody that he knew. But there are no bodies in those hills," Susan added. "He was not a serial killer; there’s nothing there.”

McKiddy said in My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders that Donald was physically abusive throughout her childhood, which made her angry at her mother for dying by suicide and leaving her with "this monster."

Anna Tordoff was not married to Donald, but was his longtime girlfriend.

Her son, Dan Tordoff, claimed that while Anna never told him Donald was abusive, he once noticed she had a black eye. And when Dan asked her if Donald hit her, she refused to discuss it.

He claimed that Donald threatened to kill him, and that it wasn't long after getting the black eye that Anna died in July 2006, reportedly from an overdose of medication.

Donald's daughter Marilyn Hill told the Missoulian that he physically and sexually abused her mother, Barbara Hill. “He was a very scary man and he exuded that,” she said. “I just felt like he was evil personified.”

One of Donald's ex-girlfriends also told the newspaper that Donald was abusive and tried to kill her after she ended their relationship.

She said that at the time, she was pregnant and fleeing from him on foot, she alleged, and he chased her in his car and tried to run her over. On another occasion, she and her son were in her car when Donald allegedly pulled up and pointed a gun at her and threatened to harm her.

Two of Donald Dean Studey's wives allegedly died by suicide

Lucy Studey, McKiddy's mother, died in what Donald claimed was a suicide in January 1970.

Donald said that Lucy hanged herself in a small closet in their home, but investigators reportedly found blood and signs of a struggle at the scene. Further, family members said that the closet was small enough for Lucy's knees to touch the floor from the spot she allegedly hung.

McKiddy told The Citizen that Donald later admitted to killing Lucy by accident. "My father stated for decades that he didn't mean to kill my mom," she said. "He said he either choked her too hard or too long."

In a different conflict years later, Charlotte broke up with Donald and had gotten her own place. The night she died in February 1984, she came back to Donald's house to pick up her clothes and got into an argument with Donald.

What happened next is debated between McKiddy and Susan, according to their recollections in My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders .

McKiddy said that Charlotte left the family's home, with Donald following her and threatening her life. The next morning, McKiddy alleged, Donald called the police and said Charlotte died by suicide in his car and instructed his daughters to tell investigators that he'd been home with them all night.

McKiddy said that when Charlotte left their house, she didn't take Donald's gun with her, which reports claimed she used in her suicide.

Susan, however, remembered the night differently: She denied that Donald threatened Charlotte and claimed Charlotte was drunk and threatened to kill herself on her way out of the house.

Susan also denied that Donald told the girls what to say to police the night Charlotte died, explaining that Donald had been home all night and that she saw him sleeping in his bed.

However, Susan revealed, "I can't remember what went down that night. I just remember [that] when they started arguing, we all went to our rooms."

Investigators believe Charlotte Studey may not have ended her own life

In My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders , Charlotte's daughters sought closure, believing that their mother didn't really take her own life.

In the docuseries, forensic pathologist Dr. Erin Linde, M.D., claimed that the rifle Charlotte allegedly used to take her own life was 24 inches long, and that a person Charlotte's size would not have been able to fire it at herself successfully.

She told Charlotte's daughters that the entrance wound on Charlotte's body was "very round and punched out" and that there was no "associated tearing of the skin" and that there was no searing or residual soot near the wound, all of which would normally be seen in most self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

Dr. Linde also claimed that Charlotte had red marks from gunpowder on the inside of one of her elbows, which meant that the barrel of the firearm may have been further away than initially reported.

She said that based on her observations and the context provided, the manner of death would be "undetermined," because there were too many questions as to whether her death could conceivably be a suicide or a homicide.

There were other reasons Charlotte's daughters questioned her manner of death.

One of the police officers who first responded to Donald's call noted that Charlotte's body was positioned in a peculiar way: She was in the center of the vehicle's interior, not in any one of the car's seats.

A second death investigator also found that for the rifle to be positioned the way that it was in Charlotte's hands, it would have to have been placed there, indicating that her death may likely have been a homicide.

One of Donald Dean Studey's daughters claimed he murdered between 50 and 70 women

McKiddy alleged to Newsweek in October 2022 that Donald murdered between 50 and 70 women, most of whom were transients and sex workers that he picked up in Omaha.

She claimed the slayings occurred over the course of three decades and that he murdered five or six women each year and buried their bodies in and around a 90-foot deep well on his property, according to The Des Moines Register .

"I know where the bodies are buried," McKiddy told Newsweek . "He would just tell us we had to go to the well, and I knew what that meant."

McKiddy said that Donald would take her with him to transport the women's bodies to the well and that he used a wheelbarrow in the summer and a toboggan in the winter.

A man came forward and said he helped Donald Dean Studey dispose of a body

Robert Masson said that in 1975, he visited a bar where Donald was working when Donald bought him some drinks and offered him $100 to help him move something at his property, Masson recalled in My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders .

He said he and Donald each took their own vehicles from the bar to Donald's Green Hollow property.

"He was nice enough to me, but he lifted this tarp and there was a wrapped-up body in the back of the truck," Masson told the Missoulian . "If you can just imagine the trauma I felt. It was crazy, and the paranoia set in."

He added, "If I didn’t do it, he could just kill me right there, right? That’s the only reason I did it.”

In the docuseries, Masson said he helped Studey carry the dismembered corpse of a woman wearing black Converse sneakers; Masson claimed he carried the torso and Donald carried the woman's feet.

Masson said that before taking the body all the way to Donald's chosen destination, he fled in terror without getting paid, fearing that Donald may have killed him for what he witnessed.

Donald Dean Studey's sister said she was present for one of his murders

Donald's sister Marilyn Kepler — who was on parole for an aggravated assault charge when interviewed — said that when they were at a gas station together one day, Donald killed a man who Kepler alleged had raped her, per the Missoulian . She also claimed to have seen him dispose of at least one other body.

She believes McKiddy and claims Donald may have murdered as many as 100 people. Kepler told investigators that he had "no human compassion whatsoever."

In detailed journal entries, she also alleged that he had envelopes he kept hidden above his refrigerator with information about targets and that he was an arsonist who burned numerous homes for insurance money, including hers after he got into an argument with her husband.

No definitive proof has been found yet that Donald Dean Studey was a killer

Despite Charlotte's cause of death coming under question, so far there hasn't been any definitive evidence that Donald killed her or anyone else.

In addition, since he has been deceased for over a decade, there's no possibility for a trial for any of the cases to which he's been linked. Authorities also previously noted that because Donald is dead, the investigation would be slower.

McKiddy, as well as Charlotte's daughters, attended an excavation in May 2025 in Fremont County near Thurman, Iowa, in which forensics teams and cadaver dogs searched for the bodies and wells McKiddy described. They didn't find any, though cadaver dogs did alert about several spots in the areas searched.

William Belcher, a forensic archaeologist and anthropologist, told The Citizen , “Just from an archeological standpoint, where we looked, we didn't find anything overall. But that doesn't mean there's nothing out there in places that we didn't look.”

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