Authorities searched roadside ditches along Highway 30 on Monday, looking for clues in a shooting that happened early Sunday morning in rural Tama County.

Friends say 19-year-old Joshua Wohlman was shot to death at a home where a costume party was being held. Uninvited guests showed up, a fight broke out and Wohlman apparently jumped into to try to break things up. High school classmate Natosha Kaiser says that sounds like the Josh she knew. “It’s something that he would do…do the right thing to try to stop a fight,” she says. Green Mountain Garwin High School Mark Polich agrees. “I mean, he would be the one in there trying to make peace with the group and settle things down,” Polich says.

Wohlman graduated from Green Mountain-Garwin High School two years ago. We was attending William Penn College in Oskaloosa and he played on the school’s football team.

Two dozen officers leading four police dog teams searched an area along Highway 30 near the Tama-Benton County line on Monday. The sheriff would not provide details, but several deputies were seen using metal detectors, which suggests they may have been looking for a weapon tossed from a car. Four people are being held as “material witnesses” in the case.