Brothers disappear in Missouri: Sheriff mounts ‘death investigation,’ searches farm
The case of two Wisconsin brothers who disappeared in northwest Missouri has now been labeled a “long term death investigation,” authorities announced Saturday.
Nicholas Diemel, 35, and Justin Diemel, 24, had traveled last weekend to Clinton and Caldwell counties for business related to a livestock company they run in Shawano County, near Green Bay.
A Facebook group called “Prayers for Nick Diemel and Justin Diemel” shared the news to over 22,000 members Friday, saying that the brothers’ lives “were senselessly cut short.”
The pair missed their flight home July 21 and had not returned relatives’ calls, according to KMBC, prompting a missing persons investigation.
Then, on Friday, prosecutors charged Garland Joseph “Joey” Nelson, a 25-year-old Braymer, Missouri, man, with tampering with a vehicle the brothers used. On July 22, the vehicle was found abandoned in a commuter parking lot in Holt, near Interstate 35.
Records show Nelson has been previously convicted in federal court in a separate case.
In 2016, Nelson was sentenced to two years in prison for selling more than 600 head of cattle that didn’t belong to him. Nelson had pleaded guilty to conducting a cattle fraud scheme that “resulted in losses of more than $262,000 to his victims,” including the USDA Farm Service Agency, Cyclone Cattle Company and individual victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Missouri announced then. He was released from prison in March 2018, according to online records provided by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Also on Friday, Clinton County Sheriff Larry Fish announced that the case of the missing Diemel brothers had become a death investigation.
On Saturday, the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office reiterated the statement, saying “this is and will be a long term death investigation,” but authorities have not offered further details.
According to the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office, investigators continued their search Saturday at a farm outside Braymer, about 65 miles northeast of Kansas City.
Agencies helping with the investigation include Buchanan, Clay and Platte counties; the Cameron and Kearney police departments; and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office said it plans to hold a news conference at 4:30 p.m. Monday in the Braymer High School parking lot.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 27, 2019 at 7:27 PM.
