Human remains found on Missouri farm during search for missing Wisconsin brothers
Human remains were found on the Missouri farm where officials have been searching for two Wisconsin brothers reported missing more than a week ago, the area’s sheriff said Wednesday.
The remains were found Tuesday on the 74-acre farm law enforcement agencies have been searching in Braymer, Missouri, according to Clinton County Sheriff Larry Fish.
At a three-minute news conference in Polo, Fish said investigators worked with forensic anthropologists to find the remains.
Officials have not yet determined the identity of the remains. No cause of death has been determined, Fish said.
Braymer, Missouri, is about 70 miles northeast of Kansas City.
Nicholas Diemel, 35, and Justin Diemel, 24, were reported missing July 21 when they missed their flight back to Wisconsin.
The next day the truck they rented from Budget Rent a Car was found abandoned in a commuter lot near Interstate 35 in Holt, Missouri, about 35 miles northeast of Kansas City.
The case was later labeled a “long-term death investigation.”
Nicholas Diemel’s wife, Lisa Diemel, petitioned a Wisconsin court Tuesday to declare the two brothers dead as of July 21 so that she could manage their estates.
Garland Nelson, a Braymer farmer who has spent time in prison for cattle fraud, has been charged with tampering with the rental truck.
At a bond hearing Thursday morning in Caldwell County Circuit Court, Nelson said he has hired a lawyer. He remained held in jail without bond and a new hearing was scheduled for Aug. 8.
Nelson allegedly admitted to driving the 2019 Ford F-150 from the farm where he worked to the commuter lot without permission, according to charging documents. He has been the only person charged in the case.
Local resident Destiny Cosgrove, one of about 20 people who gathered at Wednesday’s news conference, said her siblings went to school with Nelson’s.
In Braymer, a town of fewer than 900 people, everyone knows everyone else, Cosgrove said.
Before the brothers disappeared, she said, many people likely could not find the town on a map. Now when she tells people she is from Braymer, she said, they respond: “Oh.”
“It’s kind of heartbreaking for everyone around the town,” she said.
Fish initially said he could not comment on where and how the remains were found, but later said they were discovered on the farm investigators have been searching for more than a week.
Asked if detectives thought there was foul play in relation to the remains found, Fish said: “Correct, and we’re still investigating that right now to find out.” He then said that was undetermined as of Wednesday.
The brothers vanished the day they went to the farm for a cattle deal related to a livestock company they ran in Shawano County, near Green Bay in Wisconsin.
More than two hours after GPS information from their rental truck’s black box showed they arrived at the farm, the vehicle left and was later seen on video near a Casey’s General Store in Polo, according to charging documents. There appeared to be no passenger in the front seat of the truck, a deputy wrote in the records.
The truck was left running. It was found in the commuter lot with the keys in the ignition and the lights on.
A Facebook group called “Prayers for Nick Diemel and Justin Diemel” shared the news to more than 30,000 members, saying that the brothers’ lives “were senselessly cut short.”
A Caldwell County sheriff’s deputy said in court records that Nelson was a danger to the community and had tried to mislead law enforcement, though a probable cause statement did not say how.
He did not yet have an attorney listed in public court records who could be reached for comment.
Two years ago, Nelson was sentenced to two years in federal prison for selling more than 600 head of cattle that didn’t belong to him, according to court records.
He 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 individuals, the U.S. Attorneys office for the Western District of Missouri said at the time.
The Diemel brothers were not among those victims.
Nelson was released in March 2018.
Multiple investigators, including from state and federal agencies, were working together to “bring this case to a conclusion,” Fish said.
Fish declined to offer further comment on the investigation.
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 3:49 PM.
