The weather has impacted the search for Kathlynn Shepard, the 15-year-old north-central Iowa girl who’s been missing since last Monday. Part of the search for Shepard had involved patrols of the Des Moines River, but with the river now above flood stage, authorities say it has become too dangerous to search the river and its banks.
Instead, officers and dogs are revisiting many sites that have already been checked, including various locations the man accused of kidnapping Shepard visited on the day of the abduction. The suspect, 42-year-old Michael Klunder, committed suicide.
Authorities said he hung himself a few hours after allegedly abducting Shepard and a 12-year-old girl in Dayton. The 12-year-old escaped from a hog confinement operation where Klunder worked and had taken the girls.
In total, law enforcement and volunteers have searched around 220 square miles of Webster, Boone, and Hamilton Counties – but they’ve yet to find Kathlynn Shepard.