The investigation into Jodi Huisentruit’s disappearance has been ongoing for over two decades, but no arrests have been made and no suspects have been identified.
Huisentruit was an excellent journalist and well-loved by her colleagues and viewers. She was known for her hard work and dedication to her job.
She graduated from St. Cloud State University in 1992 with a degree in Mass Communications. After college, she worked as a reporter for KAAL-TV in Austin, Minnesota, before moving to Mason City, Iowa, in 1995 to become a morning news anchor for KIMT-TV.
On June 27, 1995, Jodi was scheduled to start her shift for the morning show at 3:50 a.m. However, when she did not arrive at the studios at her scheduled time, Amy Kuns, the show producer called her.
Jodi had overslept and was apparently woken up by Amy’s call. She was getting ready as they talked. She assured Amy that she would rush to reach the station to produce and anchor the 6:00 am news. The TV station was a 5-minute drive from her Keys apartment.
At 5:00 a.m., Amy Kuns tried to reach her again but she didn’t answer. Ultimately, Amy Kuns anchored the 6:00 a.m. newscast since Jodi did not show up for work.
After the news was done, Amy asked a coworker to call the police to check on Jodi.
When officers arrived, they discovered some of her belongings, including a pair of women’s red dress shoes, a blow dryer, a bottle of hairspray, earrings, and her bent car key, strewn in the parking lot around her car, new red 1991 Mazda Miata. She had only bought the car a few weeks before.
The ground showed signs of drag marks suggesting she has been forcibly taken away while she was entering her car.
Police begin a missing person investigation.
Jodi’s missing belongings were never found. She always carried a large bag with items that she would use to get prepared for the broadcast each day.
Most of the days she wore a blazer jacket on air during her broadcast.
She had recently started using a new address book for her contacts.
None of these items have been found.
An extensive search operation was launched by the Mason City police, aided by the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
On June 28, 1995, agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation joined local officials in the search operation.
Investigators searched a park next to the apartment complex and along the Winnebago River that runs through the park.
The officers recovered a strain of hair and partial palm print from her car but it is unclear if these were ever matched with anyone.
Investigators suspected a foul play in her disappearance but were not able to find substantial clues.
Investigators spoke with at least three neighbors in Huisentruit’s apartment complex, all of whom claimed to have heard screams around 4:30 am, the time she would have left for work.
A neighbor reported seeing a white Ford Econoline van with its lights on and engine running in Huisentruit’s parking lot around the same time. The van was never positively identified.
Witnesses claim that they had seen and heard an unknown young male race up the apartment’s inner stairway, pound on Jodi’s door while yelling, and then quickly disappear after receiving no response from inside the apartment unit.
The mysterious incident allegedly occurred at 8:30 p.m., when Jodi was reportedly at her friend, John Vansice’s home. To date, police have been unable to confirm or find the mysterious person. It is also not clear whether the person had anything to do with Jodi’s disappearance.
In May 1996, around 100 volunteers combed an area in Cerro Gordo County, leaving flags to mark anything they found suspicious. Law enforcement re-examined each of these locations, but no promising evidence was discovered.
More than 1,000 people have been interviewed by the police and private detectives, however, none have resulted in conclusive evidence pointing to a culprit.
Unable to find any whereabouts of Huisentruit, her family filed a legal petition to have her declared dead in May 2001.
In the middle of the night in January 2020, a billboard about Huisentruit’s disappearance was defaced with a mysterious message. The billboard was spray-painted with the name “Frank Stearns”. Beneath the name “machine shed” was spraypainted in smaller letters.
Lieutenant Frank Sterns was the officer who was part of the force since Huisentruit’s disappearance,” former lieutenant of the Mason City Police Department. The vandal may be implying Frank Sterns as the culprit and “Machine shed” is the place to look for Jodi’s body.
It is uncertain if the incident was probed further and were there any leads in the case.
Numerous people were considered a suspect in Jodi’s disappearance but none of them could be convicted due to the lack of incriminating evidence.
Dennis Goff, a jail informant, claimed that Tony Dejuan Jackson had abducted and killed Jodi. Tony was twenty-one years old at the time of her abduction and lived in Mason City, about two blocks from the TV station.
After being convicted of first-degree criminal conduct, kidnapping, and first-degree burglary in the Minneapolis region in 1998 and 1999, serial rapist Tony Dejuan Jackson has served 23 years of a life sentence.
Dennis had briefly served time with Tony while Tony was awaiting trial for the rapes committed in 1997.
Dennis claimed that he gained Tony’s trust and that Tony told him he had murdered an anchorwoman, as well as reciting a rap with lyrics that could lead to the location of Huisentruit’s body.
The rap lyrics purportedly suggested that Huisentruit’s body was in Tiffin, Iowa, close to the Mason City.
After Dennis’s tip, a silo located in Tiffin, Iowa was searched with cadaver dogs in 1998, but the dogs did not find any sign of human remains.
It was also discovered that Tony had bought a car the day before Huisentruit went missing.
However, during interrogation, Tony denied knowing anything about Huisentruit’s disappearance or having any involvement in her disappearance. He also denied that he had purchased a car the day before she went missing.
In 1999, police officially cleared Jackson in relation to the disappearance of Huisentruit.
John Vansice, Huisentruit’s friend, is another possible suspect. Before she vanished, he was one of the last people to see her.
She went to John’s house the night before her disappearance, where he showed Huisentruit a video of her birthday celebration, which he had organized.
In March 2017, Police issued a search order for GPS data from two of his vehicles. It was linked to their probe into her disappearance, according to investigators. It’s unclear what, if any, information was uncovered as a result of the search.
However, John Vansice has repeatedly insisted that he had absolutely no involvement whatsoever in the apparent abduction of his friend.
Despite initial suspicion, he has never been tried or arrested for Huisentruit’s disappearance.
Thomas Corscadden is a currently incarcerated offender who, according to his ex-wife, was besotted with Jodi and had ties to the Mason City region.
At the time of Huisentruit’s disappearance, Thomas had a white van that he termed his “Porn Palace”. Interestingly, at the time of Jodi’s disappearance, a mysterious white van was said to have been outside of her apartment complex.
Despite the fact that Jodi was still a missing person, he was overheard in prison declaring “Jodi’s dead.”
Thomas’s palm print was collected to check if it matched the one found on Jodi’s car on the day of her kidnapping. However, at the time of taking the print, Thomas became furious and refused to cooperate.
It’s uncertain whether his prints were ever taken, or if they matched the ones discovered on Jodi’s car.
The special episode of ABC’s ’20/20′ looks into new leads in the 26-year-old case. It includes exclusive, unrestricted access to the Mason City Police Department and the case’s lead investigator.
It also features new interviews with members of FindJodi, a team of journalists, a podcaster, and a former police commander dedicated to collecting and investigating new tips to try to find out what happened to Huisentruit, as well as exclusive footage captured by “20/20” cameras as police investigated a new lead.
Josh Benson and Gary Peterson, two Minnesota television journalists, founded FindJodi.com. Their goal was to keep Jodi’s case in the limelight and to use the website as a repository for information that could lead to her. Josh Benson and Gary Peterson have been actively investigating the case for more than sixteen years.
Her body still hasn’t been found. The investigation into Huisentruit’s disappearance has continued for more than two decades, but no arrests have been made and no clues have been found.
Jodi Huisentruit’s case still remains an unsolved mystery.
If you have information about Jodi Huisentruit’s disappearance, you are requested to contact Mason City Police at (641) 494-3564 or email Iowa DCI at dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us.
Reference –
findjodi.com
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