Searchers are looking for Kathlynn Shepard who was abducted in Webster County.

Investigators in Dayton say blood evidence found around a hog confinement lot has tested positive as belonging to Kathlynn Shepard. The 15-year-old has been missing since she and a 12-year-old girl were abducted Monday. The younger girl escaped.

Agent Bill Kietzman with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation provided an update on the case late this afternoon. “I won’t go into the quantity of blood that was found. It’s enough to show that she probably sustained some injuries and we’ll leave it at that for now,” Kietzman said.

The teen’s blood was also found on the tailgate of the pickup belonging to Michael Klunder. The 42-year-old is the accused kidnapper. He was found dead Monday night and Kietzman revealed today that Klunder had hung himself.

Authorities have expanded the search for Shepard 10 miles to the west and northwest of the hog confinement where the girls were taken. “We are not giving up hope that we can find Kathlynn. Our intent is to find her and bring her home to her family,” Kietzman said. “Clearly, this (blood) evidence diminishes hopes that we’re going to find her in a safe manner.”

Hundreds of people have volunteered their time, helping police in the search for Shepard. Kietzman issued a call for even more help. “We’re asking any farmers in the area to search their own outbuildings,” Kietzman said. “If they have abandoned buildings on their property they know about, they can either search them themselves or call us and we’ll do that search for them.”

Kietzman said Klunder’s wife has been cooperating with the investigation and is not a suspect in the case. Investigators believe Klunder acted alone.

Dezirea Hughes and her family.

Dezirea  Hughes, a seventh-grader from Dayton has identified herself as the girl who escaped an abduction attempt Monday afternoon in which her friend Kathlynn Shepard was taken.

Shepard is still missing, and search crews continue to look for her in the surrounding area.

Hughes says 42-year-old Michael Klunder got them into his pickup truck Monday soon after they got off the school bus.
Audio:  Hughes :24

The girls were driven to a hog confinement building outside of town, where Hughes says Klunder zip-tied their hands and took Shepard away. That’s when Hughes ran.
Audio: Hughes :06

Hughes is unharmed other than some scratches on her arms and legs. She doesn’t believe what she did was anything special.
Audio:  Hughes :07

Jeanette Andrews, Hughes’ mother, talked about her daughter’s call after getting away.
Audio:  Andrews  :07

Klunder was found dead at another location and investigators say he took his own life. The search for Kathlynn Shepard continues, and officials say they will give an update with new information today 4 p.m.

Audio and photo for this story provided by Iowa Public Radio.

The Iowa Attorney General’s office has a warning for Iowans who want to help tornado victims in Moore, Oklahoma. Monday’s tornado killed at least two dozen people and could end up being the most expensive twister in U.S. history as damage is estimated at $2 billion.

Iowa Attorney General’s office spokesperson Geoff Greenwood says, in the wake of such disasters, there are always scam artists looking to take advantage of the situation. “They may cold call you, they may send an unsolicited email, and they may even pop up in social networks,” Greenwood says.

“And they’ll ask for money. They’ll appeal to your emotions and they will make you think that you’re trying to help when all you’re doing is funding criminals.” In some cases, scam artists will use a “sound-alike” organization name. But, Greenwood suggests Iowans stick to donating to familiar, established disaster relief organizations.

“For example, there’s the American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and there are church charities that have been around…those are the organizations that we recommend you donate to,” Greenwood says.

While Iowa’s Consumer Protection Division has not received any complaints tied to Oklahoma tornado relief efforts, Greenwood says it’s probably only a matter of time before someone will try to use the tragedy to exploit Iowans.

This is a photo of Kathlynn Shepard exiting her bus prior to her abduction Monday.

Some items have been found that belong to the two girls who police say were abducted by a registered sex offender in north-central Iowa.

But, 15 year old Kathlynn Shepard remains missing. Police say she was abducted in Dayton on Monday, along with a 12-year-old girl, by 42 year old Michael Klunder. The 12-year-old escaped and then police found Klunder dead.

The girls’ backpacks and a purse were found Tuesday about 14 miles SE of Dayton. Meanwhile, authorities have narrowed their search for Shepard.

Special Agent Bill Keitzman with the Iowa DCI says today’s search is focused on a smaller area. “It’s about a three or four mile area we’re going to primarily,” Keitzman says. “We’re looking at an area between where the girls were taken initially and an area we think is very important.”

The DCI released a picture of Kathlynn right before she got off the school bus. Reports originally said she was wearing a Vikings hat, but the photo shows it is an Iowa Cubs hat. 

Officials say the search area is primarily in rural and uninhabited terrain, and they are continuing to solicit information from locals and frequent visitors. In particular, investigators are asking any hunters that may have placed hunting cameras in the area, to check their recorders and report any findings to law enforcement by calling 515-573-1410.

The DCI released this map of the search area.

Click on the map to make it larger.

The kidnapping case in the north-central Iowa town of Dayton comes just nine months after the kidnapping and murder of two cousins in Evansdale in northeast Iowa. No one has been arrested in the Black Hawk County case.

Evansadale Police Chief, Kent Smock, says they are looking at the Webster County case to see if kidnapper there could’ve been responsible for the deaths of eight-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey. He says they’ve been looking closely at all such cases since the girls first went missing.

“So we are looking if for any connections, at this time it is way too early in the investigation to say that there are any ties, but we are certainly doing our duty and following up,” Smock says. The bodies of Collins and Cook-Morrissey were found in a recreation area about 20 miles north of Evansdale on December 5th, nearly five months after their July 13th disappearance.

Smock says the case remains active. “We will continue to investigate, we are continuing to follow up on all leads like we have been, there’s nothing else that we are releasing to the public,” Smock says.

Smock remains hopeful the Evansdale case will be solved. “I am very confident that this case will be solved at some point,” he says. “We’ve always stayed with that focus ….it’s just a matter of putting everything together and making sure that information comes together that we can present.”

Searchers in the Dayton case are looking for 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard, one of two girls abducted by a man who later killed himself.

By Elwin Huffman, KOEL, Olwein/Waterloo