Remains found in Nebraska trailer belonged to Wisconsin brother killed in Missouri
Human remains found in a stock trailer in Nebraska belonged to Justin Diemel, one of two Wisconsin brothers killed in Northwest Missouri, the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday.
In a news release issued Friday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said investigators recovered the brothers’ remains on Thursday. Nick Diemel’s remains were recovered on a rural farm near Braymer, Missouri, where Garland Nelson, now charged for their murders, worked. Justin Diemel’s remains were found in a livestock trailer in Nebraska, the release said.
The identities of the remains were confirmed through dental records, according to the release.
A rancher found the remains last Friday mixed with dirt in a plastic tub inside a trailer he had just purchased online from a seller in Missouri, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s office.
The office’s deputy chief said Monday that he believed the remains belonged to one of the brothers.
The remains were found at a ranch south of Hershey, Nebraska. Lincoln County officials seized the trailer as possible evidence, the deputy chief said. In a Facebook post, Lincoln County officials said investigators from the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the remains could belong to the brothers. The Missouri State Highway Patrol flew to Lincoln County to seize the remains.
The brothers were reported missing on July 21 after they traveled to Braymer to meet with Nelson about a cattle deal and did not make their flight home.
Nelson, a 25-year-old farmer who had been previously convicted of cattle fraud, allegedly owed the brothers $250,000.
Prosecutors allege he shot the brothers, put their bodies in 55-gallon metal barrels, transported them to a pasture and burned the bodies with diesel fuel, according to court records.
Nelson was charged in July with tampering with a motor vehicle and accused of moving the brother’s rental truck from the farm to a commuter lot in Holt. He has been held without bond since.
Nelson is now charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of abandonment of a corpse, two counts of tampering with physical evidence, two counts of armed criminal action, tampering with a motor vehicle and possession of a firearm.
The investigation into the brothers’ deaths is still ongoing, according to the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office.
