March 13, 2021 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.