BOONE COUNTY, Iowa — Over seven years ago, Jesse Leopold was last seen alive leaving his job at a meat processing plant in Jewell, Iowa.
Boone County Sheriff Andrew Godzicki said Leopold had moved up to Jewell, Iowa from Boone (a 30 minute drive), while he was recovering from methamphetamine use and looking to get away from some "bad influences."
On Oct. 13, 2016, Leopold was reported missing — and a day later, a park ranger came across Leopold's purple truck in the corner of the parking lot at Ledges State Park in Boone.
"It's likely that Jesse drove himself here," Godzicki said.
Godzicki mentioned that Jesse Leopold's father — Jerry Leopold — came and got the truck after it was discovered, and drove it to the sheriff's office to report what had been inside.
Aside from these details, not a lot of other evidence has been discovered pertaining to this case.
"We did start off here during a similar time of the year, but we have been busy working on the other avenues to this case that said 'Jesse was murdered,' 'Jesse, something bad happened to him,'" Godzicki said.
However, Godzicki later said there's no foul play suspected in this case.
Seven years later, Leopold still remains missing, but Iowans aren't forgetting about him until they can find an answer.
"We're gonna have hope until he's found," Godzicki said.
"It's an overall goal of helping families get closure," explained search volunteer Thomas Dale. "Hopefully you find something. If you don't, it's just another, another trail gone down."
On Saturday, more than 100 Iowans arrived at Ledges State Park to explore the expansive area, but didn't find any detailed clues leading them in the right direction.
Godzicki said they waited to do the search on Saturday because almost all the leaves have fallen, making this time of year the "best time" to do ground searches in missing persons cases.
He also mentioned the sheriff's department plans to schedule more searches for Jesse Leopold at Ledges State Park in the future.