Ruthven, Iowa — The man who had faced 1st Degree Murder charges in connection with the murder of a man whose body was found in a lake near Ruthven last summer, has pled Guilty to, and been sentenced for, that murder.
On July 22nd last year, Palo Alto County authorities received a report of a possible body in Virgin Lake, south of Ruthven. Upon arriving deputies discovered a body about 25 feet from shore. According to the Palo Alto County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was called and the body, later identified as 27-year-old Rollin J. Bontrager of Washington, Iowa, was removed from the lake and transported to the Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny.
Authorities say then-29-year-old Allan Michael Dean Schwidder was arrested in Lake Park August 15th on a warrant charging him with Bontrager’s 1st Degree Murder.
According to online court records, Schwidder was sentenced Friday in Palo Alto County District Court to a term of 50-years in prison after agreeing to plead guilty to 2nd Degree Murder in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
