Jodi Huisentruit was a 27-year-old rising star at a local news station in Mason City, Iowa, when she suddenly went missing less than two hours before she was scheduled to anchor the morning news one day in 1995.
When Jodi Huisentruit did n’t show up for work as a morning anchor at KIMT - TV on June 27 , 1995 , her producer did n’t worry . She called Huisentruit , who answer , apologized , and order she was run belatedly . But Jodi Huisentruit never come in .
Before long , it became unclouded that something horrible had happen to the 27 - year - old as she rushed out of her apartment . Police , asked by KIMT - TV to conduct a welfare check , found Huisentruit ’s property scattered around her Mazda Miata in the parking lot of her apartment construction .
Jodi HuisentruitJodi Huisentruit was working her pipe dream job as a news anchor when she depart miss in 1995 .
Jodi HuisentruitJodi Huisentruit was working her dream job as a news anchor when she went missing in 1995.
It was the outset of a enigma that has endured until this day . What find to Jodi Huisentruit ? Was she abducted by a stalker ? A local raper ? Or even by a booster who may have become haunt with her ?
This is the full fib behind the disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit , the morning news anchor whose fate has remained changeable for more than two decades .
Jodi Huisentruit’s Path To Becoming A News Anchor
Born on June 5 , 1968 , Jodi Sue Huisentruit grew up in Long Prairie , Minnesota , where she played on her high schooltime golf game team and shoot for to become a newsworthiness anchor .
“ She wanted to be famous , ” her high-pitched schooling best Quaker , Kim Feist , told48 Hours . “ She jazz … in high-pitched school that she wanted to be a news anchor . ”
In pursuit of that goal , Huisentruit attend St. Cloud State University , where she play for the school ’s video place . She work for several other television place upon graduation before she determine a line of work as a aurora anchor at KIMT - TV in Mason City , Iowa , just four hours from where she ’d grown up .
Mason City Police DepartmentJodi Huisentruit’s red high heels were found outside her apartment building on the day she disappeared.
She seemed to resolve quickly into her newfangled caper and young metropolis . Her colleagues remembered Huisentruit as “ champagne ” and “ effervescent , ” despite the former hours she worked . And Huisentruit made a mathematical group of new booster that included an old man call John Vansice .
In the 24-hour interval leading up to Jodi Huisentruit ’s fade , everything seemed normal . She went on a waterskiing misstep to Iowa City with a group of Friend that included Vansice . And the night before she disappeared , she concisely terminate by Vansice ’s house to watch a videotape from her surprise birthday party to begin with that calendar month .
But on June 27 , 1995 , Jodi Huisentruit never showed up for her break of the day shift at KIMT - TV .
Ani KruseJohn Vansice with Jodi Huisentruit and some of her friends.
The Morning That Jodi Huisentruit Went Missing
Normally , Jodi Huisentruit go far at work at 3 a.m. so that she could anchor the 6 a.m. KIMT - TV break of the day show calledDayBreak .
When 3 a.m. come and buy the farm , DayBreakproducer Amy Kuns called Huisentruit at home base a small after 4 a.m.
“ I called her double . I talked to her and woke her up that first metre , ” Kuns toldFindJodi.comco - beginner Josh Benson in 2011 . “ The second clock time , it just rang and rang … I had plain inflame her up . She asked what prison term it was . I told her . She articulate she ’d be right in . ”
KIMT-TVJodi Huisentruit was the morning anchor for a KIMT-TV show calledDayBreakwhen she vanished.
But Jodi Huisentruit never showed up for work . Kuns , nark , end up doing the programme herself . Then , thinking that Huisentruit may have light in the shower , she asked a co - actor to call the law and quest a wellbeing baulk .
Mason City Police DepartmentJodi Huisentruit ’s red high heels were found outside her flat edifice on the day she disappear .
When the police arrive at Huisentruit ’s Mason City flat around 7 a.m. , however , they find evidence that something much worse had happened to Huisentruit . Her red Mazda Miata was still park in front of the construction , and police bump her dead set key on the footing nearby along with her red high heels , blow dryer , and earring . There were puff mark on the wet sidewalk .
Some of Huisentruit ’s neighbors also enjoin constabulary that they ’d heard a scream around 4:30 ante meridiem , and a man who subsist nearby remember seeing a clean - color vanguard as he exit for work . Because of the bended key fruit , police surmise that someone had kidnap the young news anchor as she was unlocking her railcar .
But away from that suspicion , investigators did n’t have much to go on . A hunt of the area around Huisentruit ’s apartment turned up no newfangled clues . However , police did find a palm mark on her windshield and an errant strand of hair near her car .
“ regrettably , in this vitrine , there ’s not a lot of evidence , point , ” Lieutenant Ron Vande Weerd of the Mason City Police Department toldFindJodi.com , before add : “ But we do have definite parts of the investigation , different things that we have a go at it , that we are deduct for just that understanding , that if we are able to evolve a subject , that we are capable to eliminate him or corroborate with him . ”
That read , a routine of defendant in Jodi Huisentruit ’s disappearance have emerged since she disappeared in 1995 .
The Wide-Ranging Theories About The Young Anchor’s Disappearance
constabulary may not have launch much grounds at Huisentruit ’s flat , but they have weighed different suspect over the year . One is John Vansice , Huisentruit ’s friend and in all probability the last person to see her alert .
Ani KruseJohn Vansice with Jodi Huisentruit and some of her friends .
harmonize to48 Hours , Vansice first met Huisentruit and her friend , Ani Kruse , at a bar . Though he was 22 years sr. than them , they hit it off and became friends . However , some of Huisentruit ’s booster suspect that he wanted something more . Vansice hosted Huisentruit ’s twenty-seventh birthday political party and even talked about naming his gravy boat after her .
“ She was like a daughter to me . She was just like my own fry , ” he insisted to KIMT - TV in 1995 . “ I treated her like my own child . ”
Indeed , Vansice has lapse a polygraph test , provided his palm prints and DNA to a grand panel , and offered an alibi for his whereabouts on the morning Jodi Huisentruit vanish . He ’s since relocate to Arizona and refuses to talk about the instance with the medium .
So if Vansice did n’t snatch Jodi Huisentruit , then who did ?
Another possibility is that Huisentruit was abducted by someone who take in her on TV .
“ Jodi would have been easy to haunt , ” FindJodi.com notes . “ Her nursing home name and address , apartment unit and phone number were list in the public Mason City phone directory … She also had the same employment schedule every day and ofttimes lecture about her social and biotic community event design when she was delivering the news . ”
Indeed , Huisentruit even reported to police force in October 1994 that someone driving a white hand truck had made her nervous . And she later tell Friend that she care about being followed .
As such , two men who did n’t in person know Jodi Huisentruit have emerged as possible suspect .
One is Tony Jackson , a serial rapist who lived just two blocks from Huisentruit ’s oeuvre at the time of her disappearance . In 1997 , he was arrest and convicted of rap four women . While serving life in prison for his offence , he allegedly separate another captive that he ’d killed Huisentruit .
Jackson purportedly rapped : “ She ’s a - stiffin ’ around Tiffin in pileage of silage in a bylow , low below … ” which led police to search silos in Tiffin , Iowa , two hour aside from Mason City .
They did n’t find anything , however , and in 1999 the Mason City Police Department stated that Jackson was not debate a defendant . Jackson , for his part , has also insisted on his innocence .
Another defendant was Jerry Burns . In 2018 , DNA connected him to the execution of 18 - year - onetime Michelle Martinko , a immature , blond adult female killed in Iowa in 1979 . Not only did Martinko and Huisentruit resemble each other , but , harmonize toCBS News , Burns even convey up Huisentruit ’s name during his interrogation .
Other theory about Jodi Huisentruit ’s disappearance suggest more of a conspiracy at play . One suggest that she was killed for look into the death of Billy Pruin , a farmer shot at his Mason City home after complaining about local methamphetamine rings .
KIMT - TVJodi Huisentruit was the dawn anchor for a KIMT - TV show calledDayBreakwhen she disappear .
Another suggest that someone within the Mason City Police Department killed her . harmonize toAETV , Mason City Police Officer Maria Ohl claimed that an witness tell her that the police were involve in Huisentruit ’s abduction .
Indeed , when FindJodi.com financed four billboards to raise awareness about her showcase , one of them was vandalise with the name of Frank Stearns , a withdraw Mason City Police Department investigator , and the word “ machine shed . ” Police never found out who vandalize it and concluded it was done by someone with their “ own schedule . ”
Today , Jodi Huisentruit ’s disappearance remains a mystery . But though the 27 - year - honest-to-god was declare legally dead in 2001 , her case remains capable .
“ We have never shut the slip , ” Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley told CBS News . “ It ’s never been a cold-blooded face for us . It ’s been an active investigating since it materialise . ”
As the billboards financed by FindJodi.com say , “ Someone knows something … is it YOU ? ” Any information about Jodi Huisentruit ’s disappearance should be reported to the Mason City Police Department , the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation , or the FBI .
After reading about Jodi Huisentruit ’s disappearing , see howAmy Lynn Bradleydisappeared while on a cruise with her family . Or , go inside the write up ofBrian Shaffer , the medical student who vanished from an Ohio barroom .
