Autopsy slated today on body found at bottom of farm well

Human remains found in an old farm well may be the bones of a Red Oak woman missing for two months. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says a tip to investigators in neighboring Montgomery County led them to the rural property Sunday night but it was too dark to tell much until they returned Monday morning. His agency was joined by Oakland Fire and Rescue, which helped fashion a device to let them see down the 30-foot well. The sheriff says there was water at the bottom. By three Monday afternoon they’d brought up human remains from the old well. He says they found what they think was the body of a woman, though it was in bad condition from being in the water. It’s been sent to the state medical examiner’s office in Ankeny. They also sent off clothing found with the body to the coroner’s office, hoping it’d give investigators a better idea of the victim’s age and size. The clothing may give them more details, though there was nothing on the body that offered positive identification. It’s east of Oakland in a remote location, an old farmstead on a road that’s not even gravel-surfaced, with old trees and the remnants of some old buildings. Sheriff Danker says if there was a farmstead it was years ago, because there wasn’t much there. The only traffic was a farmer who cultivates the land in the area, Danker says. He says in a case like this they go through missing-persons reports, and will consider all the information. A Red Oak woman, 24-year-old April Sheree Corter, has been missing since September 25 though the sheriff says they don’t know yet if she’s the person they found near the intersection of Highway 59 and Highway 6, a dozen miles south of Avoca. Pottawattamie County authorities were joined by Montgomery County officials and the Division of Criminal Investigation.