Jodi Huisentruit /// Part 1 /// 208 | Forensic Files

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[Music] she has not been seeing since last night however they did talk to her this morning a little after four o'clock
am and I want to stress that what we're doing at this point in time is we're working from the apartment and then
we're working our way out and we are at about a quarter of a mile right now we'll be extending that search probably
to about a half a mile or so and I don't think I want to accommodate any further
about that we'll be doing a neighborhood canvas those houses that would front streets that would be that would have
access to the apartment complex we'll be getting a hold of those residents and asking them if they saw or heard
anything about one quarter of a mile from the apartment complex was searched along the
riverbank and out extending from the riverbank and there were a number of hits along
the riverbank however we have not confirmed whether those would be something that we would follow up on or
not we are back at the riverbank with the canines and we are going to check to see
if there is additional hits along the river on Wednesday June 28 1995 the police in
Mason City Iowa were still searching for a missing woman Judy husen trout age 27
apparently was abducted early on the 27th as she left her apartment for work she is the morning and noon producer and
television anchor at k i m t TV Jody grew up in Long Prairie Minnesota she was a flight attendant for Northwest
Airlines for a few years before going into a career in television and one thing looking into this case right away
you're going to see that Jody was well liked and she was a popular individual Jody is this upbeat friendly outgoing
very lovely person this is uh according to Ray Gove now Rey was her former band director at the Long Prairie High School
where she twice was a member of the state champion High School golf team as well you always knew when she was in the
room he said Jody graduated from Long Prairie High School and later from Saint Cloud State University she worked at a
TV station in Cedar Rapids Iowa from February 1991 to April of 1992 and then went to Alexandra's ksax TV to be a
reporter and morning anchor until November of 1993 when she moved to Mason City Iowa
her former station manager at Alexandra said it has become common for TV news women to receive unwanted attention from
men who become obsessed but police say they are not aware that who's in true had any such problem
now Jody who's in true is well known in Alexandra area and the ksax TV they started Fielding calls very quickly
after The Disappearance and these calls were coming in from friends and viewers seeking information or wanting to pass
along their concerns Mike Burgess who hired her at Alexandra said she is one of those very nice
people who come from small towns she works hard and is always willing to Marshal a parade speak at a breakfast
cover a news event someone you could really count on well it's kind of interesting because we met so many
people from at crime con from Minnesota and Jody had that Minnesota accent and they actually told her at some point
that she should try to get rid of it and I think she was looking and working towards losing that accent or at least
was being encouraged to do so which was kind of funny though Captain because everything
that I found from people that she worked for and worked with they would always say uh you know her charm was that she
was this Minnesota girl from a small town that was her charm and it came like blaring through the TV and that's why
people just loved watching her and loved listening to her yet they they made her
wanted to kind of lose that a bit anyway regarding the television officials becoming increasingly concerned about
unwanted attention that some of the women in TV news were getting according to her former boss Mike he stated that
what from what he saw usually was not what he would call stalking it was typically men would get some kind of
fixation on a reporter or anchor who was coming into their house every day through the television and he stated
that in bigger markets it seems like every station has one of these guys but it's usually just some unwanted phone
calls and letters and and maybe a drive-by once in a while but it's but sometimes I guess it could be more
serious and that could be the case here now according to the Mason City Police Captain Mike harvlson he states that
they considered this to be an abduction a possible abduction right away now he was the he was heading up this
investigation and he admitted that from the get-go that we really don't have any
other possible theories about what happened and we don't like what we found at the crime scene so we have a bunch of
good information here Captain so let's start with the timeline of her disappearance and the Investigations out
shall we on Tuesday June 27 1995. Jody who's introot does not report to work between 3 AM and 4 a.m her this is
her regular arrival time as the morning and noon anchor and producer at kimt TV okay so let's pour through this first
just so everyone has a good understanding Jody is on the six o'clock morning newscast so typically they would like
for her and the other anchor and other co-workers to be there at the station at 3 A.M by most accounts it sounds like
this may have been not such a hard and fast rule because by most accounts they refer to starting
time as three to three Thirty a.m and it also sounds like that it may not have been terribly uncommon for her or other
employees to be late right now Amy Coons who is also a producer at the TV station
she does arrive for work that day at 3 A.M as scheduled now at 4 10 a.m Jody who's introot receives a phone call at
her apartment and this is a telephone call from Amy Coons Jody picks up the phone Amy Says Jody
are you coming into work today Jody does not know what time it is she asked Amy you know what time is it and he says
it's 4 10 a.m Amy says nothing about the phone conversation was strange this was
Jody asking the normal questions and normal answers no commotion in the background you know
nothing to trigger that this is a strange phone call well this is the normal you overslept are you coming to
work call yeah yeah she got the impression that she had woke her up that she had overslept so uh 20 minutes go by
and there's no Jody then 30 then 40 minutes still nothing now the key apartment complex where Jody lives is
only about a five minute drive to the TV station producer Amy Coons and others continue to call Jody when she failed to
show up but Amy had to fill in for her on air at the six o'clock hour she has said that at the time frankly she was
angry at Jody for not coming in and after the hour-long TV show The Station staff decided to call police who would
perform a welfare check on Jody at her apartment which is just like we said about a mile
or so away now when they get there the police they clearly see that something was amiss
there was something wrong from the get-go so the welfare check takes place around 7 15 a.m officers find her red
Mazda Miata in the parking lot of of the downtown Mason City Apartment Complex also found at the scene where a pair of
red women's dress shoes a blow dryer a bottle of hairspray car keys and earrings now these items are found
scattered beside her car police began a missing person's investigation immediately
officers searched a park next to the apartment complex and along with the uh the Winnebago river that runs through
the park about 20 officers and several trained dogs searched a half-mile area around
her apartment Mason City police chief Jack schleeper says that his department has no concrete leads this is on the
first day of her disappearance at her apartment they found the apartment to be in order there was no evidence of anyone
else having been there but Jody so Jody doesn't show up to work we have a co-worker calling her to wake her up
sounds like she woke her up seems like she got ready to go to work she went down to the parking lot
with items to go to work she seems like she was attacked on some level we have no
disturbance in the apartment and then we also have reports of uh female scream roughly around this same time yeah some
of the Neighbors in the apartment complex would later tell police that they had heard a scream or screams
around 4 30 a.m but unfortunately nobody called police when they heard that they
they didn't report this until they were later asked did you hear anything strange see anything strange now the
following day on Wednesday June 28th Agents from the Iowa division of criminal investigation and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation joined local officials in the search schleeper says that he suspects Foul Play but says that
there are few clues that have been discovered on the 29th of June this is just two days into the investigation the
police chief says investigators have interviewed more than 100 people but no one is considered a suspect at this time
and also on this day a prayer service is held for Jody at the mace City Church I
I think they should just always make the statement that at this time everybody's
a suspect yeah yeah you're right I think like keep people on their toes well and I think that on July 1st you
know just about five or six days into this investigation I think unfortunately this is when it's really going to start
to sink in for friends and family that that she is gone that something terrible possibly could have happened this is
when the police chief says that her disappearance is being treated as an abduction and he says people that day
had saw a white van in the parking lot of her apartment complex and also this is when it's first reported about the
screams that were heard around the time that she had vanished also on this day captain and this is pretty sad but
Jody who's in true was supposed to be a bridesmaid on this Saturday this was when her best friend Stacy Wagner uh
from back from Long Prairie Minnesota she was getting married now on that same day as well the reward
fund reaches eleven thousand dollars the next day which is a Sunday the who's and
true friends and family join other worshipers for a Sunday service at a Mason City Church on July 3rd late in
the day police call off the ground and air search for who's introot but say that they'll continue to conduct
interviews on July 6th a maze a Mason City martial arts instructor says that who's in true
attended a self-defense course that he had taught in March of that same year now the instructor says that who's
intrude told him that she had an incident a few months back and that she wasn't comfortable with it and this was
her reasoning for taking the classes on July 10th schleeper says the FBI Behavioral scientist is trying to
determine if who's in truth's case is linked to other disappearances of young women in the region he also says that
investigators have received more than 700 tips at this time but they have no significant leads
on July 25th schleeper says about 800 people have been interviewed at this time but again no solid suspects so
we're seeing a a constant pour in of tips and we see help from outside agencies however still over a month later no
solid suspects no significant leads on September 8th the who's and true family from Minnesota they say that they've
hired a private investigator Mason City police continue to investigate leads and
rumors surrounding the case the who's in true reward fund at the Mason City bank
now has reached thirty thousand dollars in November this is on the 10th police say A man was questioned about Houston
who's in truth's disappearance he has been charged with stalking a television anchor in St Louis Park
Minnesota but Mason City police say that the man is not considered a suspect in the who's in true case they are just
questioning him this is Charles Allen Davidson his name hasn't ever come up again in the investigation as far as I
could find a newspaper articles so I have to assume that they took a look at him and there was either nothing there
or he was cleared but there's no public statement that this man was cleared on November 13th members of the who's
and true family say that they flew to California and taped a session with three psychics for the television show
psychic detectives the psychics said that who's intrudes kidnapper was someone who saw her on TV and had become
obsessed with her family members say three private investigators have found nothing to identify their suspect right
so they go to these psychics well they were probably offered to go out there and you know how it is and and we do
take a little bit of flack on this Captain as you know that we'll get some Flack from people that go why did you
mention psychics we also get Flack for why do you mention lie detector tests or polygraph tests the reason being is
they're part of the story okay and we here we have a victim's family that when you're talking about almost half a year
later they start grasping at straws right and when you get a phone call that says hey would you come out to
California tell us your story or tell us what you know about this story we have these people here they could be total
frauds you know that when you deal with psychics they could be total frauds you know that dealing with anybody that's
true but you know how the family is that at this point they need anything that they can latch on I'm not gonna
apologize for bringing up psychics because detectives use them all the time so well I care yeah so they're these but
that we also have the interesting thought here of the statement that the the family has now hired three private
investigators that have also produced no leads in this case well the thing that I
was laughing about is you know their I I don't mind talking to psychics but sometimes they come back with the
obvious answer and then you go okay well this person's probably a a bunch of malarkey yeah yeah and and to be honest
with you that single statement there of a TV you know someone saw her on TV and became obsessed with her that was kind
of the general Public's thought all along that it was either somebody that was stalking her or somebody that knew
her now in June of 1996 this would be the one year anniversary of the abduction many newspapers ran stories
featuring the case her best friend had the following to say now when I say best friend I'm talking about her best friend
at the time remember she had moved away from friends and family to pursue this career
she said that to think that somebody would want to hurt her I try to block it out because I can't picture that this is
Annie Cruz who was 29 years old during the course of this interview she's a field representative for the
American Heart Association she admit Jody in 1993 at a benefit golf tournament and ever since they were
inseparable now they said that they enjoyed bicycling boating inline skating so they
had a lot of shared Hobbies now Cruz says she can't bring herself to watch kimt TV uh since the abduction she
hasn't been on her bike since Jody disappeared and she said that she would be driving
down the road and just start wandering did this really happen like it started to feel like a movie to her did she
really know her was the last year really real that her friend had disappeared and
this investigation is ongoing and she said it's just a real bout with reality stating that I just can't see her being
raped and hurt my hope is instead that someone is keeping her maybe in a basement or an attic and that they're
are feeding her because they think that she is in love with them as well and and
that she is their girlfriend now let's go through some details Captain because there were some strange
details that didn't come out right away in this investigation and for whatever reason most reports only scratched the
surface but when you dig a Little Deeper you find some interesting particulars about the abduction now I say abduction
and you and I have had this conversation before we turned on the mics today abduction not disappearance you know
when we've talked about Mara Murray and Brian Shafer there were things in those individuals backgrounds that point to
things where they they may have wanted to walk away from their life there were things found at this crime
scene and things that found in uh Jody who's in truth's life that didn't suggest that she walked away
and the crime scene shows that she was taken away so we'll just refer to this as an abduction going forward now her
apartment While most reports state that nothing was out of order there there was a big to do and rightfully so
about the toilet seat so the toilet seat was found in the up position in her apartment yes now I
cannot overstate the significance of this fact enough you know this many people have gone on to discuss this now
police state have flat out that it led them to believe that the man had been in her apartment either the night before or
the morning of which is possible the other possibility is that she had some drinks and got sick yeah that's
interesting that's interesting so you have to wonder if there was a man there then is it
likely that he killed her you know and why the why would there be the crime scene in the parking lot was
this some kind of argument that might have spilled outside of the apartment well but we know who's who's hanging out
with the night before well we believe so and we'll get into that but we also don't have any of her
friends stating that she had any sleepover buddies let's call it right but she might not have been telling them
about a sleepover buddy okay so alternatively like you said either a guy would be there or maybe she got sick she
was known to tie one on from time to time nothing wrong with that we know that she overslept that day was she
sleeping one off and got sick that morning or the night before was it just she was doing a little light
cleaning and didn't put the seat down yeah or she had a guy friend that she's been hanging out with that people didn't
know about and she got sick in the morning one thing I wonder too Captain is is there a possibility that
and we've heard of this it's it's rare but it does happen is there a possibility that maybe one of
the police officers used the restroom I don't want to put it past them left the seat up and failed to fess up and then
this is Jay Cliff hold on I gotta take a leak and this is just some kind of you know red herring that there's nothing to
do with anything here yeah but there's also some beers found in her uh apartment as well that weren't
consistent with beers that she normally would drink yeah and I find this to be a
little more of a valuable clue and I think it puts more weight to the toilet seat situation like you said she was
known to drink a specific kind of beer and I I'm I don't have it in my notes but if memory serves me right it was
either cores or Coors Light that that was her preferred Barefoot of beers beer of choice and there were some Bud Light
16 ounce cans that were also found in her apartment that were had been consumed so there's some thought there that she
could have went to a party or something and they had leftover beers and she just
took those instead of taking cores I mean just because you you know I like to drink Guinness but not every time you
come over do you see Guinness in my refrigerator yeah I know types that drink the same beer all the time you
know whenever they're drinking they have the same beer you and I obviously very different than that a lot of our
listeners very different that than that the other thought would be how many times have even the people that
state that they only drink a certain kind of beer well if you're at a party and that beer Runs Out
you very quickly drink whatever's left in the refrigerator were these beers that had been brought over at a previous
date if you just left in her refrigerator and she decided to consume them the night before yeah if you drink
enough beers they all start tasting the same especially if you're talking about Coors
Coors Light Bud Light those but so just to be clear that while I'm unsure of what her preferred beer was this what
are regarded as the strange beer cans are Bud Light 16 ounce cans were found consumed in her apartment and some
believe that that might have been from the night before all right cheers to you Captain cheers to
everybody out there I want to give a cheers to all of our Stitcher listeners as well yeah for all of our old episodes
they're available for free on the Stitcher app and also our show off the Record which I think episode number
three was released yesterday and that's only on Stitcher premium so check out Stitcher
premium.com True Crime garage all right Captain where we left off we were about to talk about what I think
might be one of the more important items found at the crime scene and that is we're talking about
Jody's keys so one of the keys the key to her red Mazda Miata was bent it was found to be bent now but
it was bent and the door handle okay so I have a few different reports of that and I think you're right there I
that seems to be the what is reported most often that the key was found bent and still in the lock you know somebody
was in the process of unlocking the door or had unlocked the door open the door and the key was bent other reports state
that a bent key was found near her car giving the impression that maybe it had been on the ground I would like to know
if it was a factory key or a replacement key because a replacement key would be easier to bend but a factory key I mean
you're talking about some pressure that you're going to have to put on that key to bend it well so I want to give a
little background on the car and her apartment before we go too far into what this could mean
so her her Miata was in 1995. so it was a very new vehicle and in fact she had purchased it shortly before her
abduction now I don't have an exact date on that I believe that it was months before her abduction so that would lead
me to believe that it's more of a factory key that came with the vehicle itself um one thing that's been highly
speculated and I think it should be is that the vehicle had keyless entry so use putting the key in the car door
is not required where a lot of people that's where that's where the argument comes into play of well okay I read that
it was found near the vehicle and somebody else says well I read that it was found in the car door then the
people that are of the belief that it was found near the vehicle say well there was keyless entry so it's more
likely that it was found near the vehicle and not in the car door my argument against that thought
would be I think we're putting too much thought one into whether it was found in
the door or near the car I think the important thing is that it was in fact bent
um some people have suggested that the key was very thin and would have bent just by Falling to the ground I disagree
with that a million times over I had I had an 89 Mazda and while it was not the same
vehicle not the same set of keys I didn't find that those keys to be frail at all and I dropped them several
times and none of them were ever bent and like I said it was an older vehicle there was more opportunity for this key
to be bent the the other thing that I think is interesting here though captain is we are talking about a young woman
that was woke up by a co-worker this is an oh [ __ ] moment for her she picks up
the phone you are you coming to work today what time what time is it you know that's an
you know that's an oh [ __ ] moment when the first response is what time is it right and you find out that it's 4 10
that you are already more than an hour late for work and we I believe this there is some speculation could that
have been somebody else on the phones could somebody else at at uh Jody's apartment have answered that phone that
day I don't think that's likely because she says well I'll be there in 20 minutes well and she has a very distinct
voice as well yes thank you for pointing that out but here's the thing captain what I'm thinking about is have you ever
been running late for somewhere important this would be an important place for her she loved her career she
was work she wanted to advance her career not only with this station but to get into bigger markets have you ever
been running late for somewhere and you realize you're rushing and you're panicking and in the course of that
you're doing things that don't make sense and you're actually causing yourself to be increasingly more late
I've never been invited somewhere important well what I what I mean is is there a chance that this car was
relatively new to her it had keyless entry maybe the vehicle she had before she did not have keyless entry and in
the midst of being running late to this important job of hers she just hurried out to the car and
came what was natural and stuck the key in the car door even though that it had keyless entry well what I'd like to know
is was their batteries in the remote because if those batteries were taken out then maybe somebody knew this is how
they're going to attack or somebody that knew her closely could say okay well I know that she leaves for work around
this time to this time I'm going to be waiting I'm going to take the batteries out of her remote when those don't work
right and by you you use some more time to get her before she gets in the car we
should paint a picture of the parking lot in the apartment complex so people have a good idea so Bob Ross it up her
Miata was parked it I've heard I've read several different statements that it was parked only about seven to
ten or 12 to 15 Steps from the apartment complex door so regardless of who you want to uh believe there it's still a
very short distance from the apartment complex door now her apartment was on the second floor and it's one of those
apartments where you would walk in and there's a big shared hallway and everybody that lives in that building
would access the door to their apartment from that hallway yeah hers is on the second floor the stairs to get
downstairs is inside that shared hallway so she would come out of her apartment door walk down the steps and then still
be in the hallway and exit the door there before walking the 7 to 15 Steps to get to her car
so what does that mean that means that if she was attacked by somebody that was outside waiting for her yeah they have a
very short very brief time period to see her react attack and then successfully abduct her from that spot yeah and the
other thing here is that she was running late so if somebody was waiting for her
on a regular time they were waiting longer in anticipation of her coming out yeah
and that's wild too because like you said the this person would have waited considerable amount of time more
waiting on her and the whole time you're waiting you're adding to the risk level
that you are taking to perform this abduction you're talking about somebody that would be waiting an additional 70
to 100 minutes for Jody to come out well when they say it was a white van I always wondered could that have been a
news van hmm because you know one of the angles of this case is that she worked in a
pretty Cutthroat industry people were trying to get ahead I mean we've all seen Anchorman so we know the battles
that happened yeah before we get into the van though Captain I want to kind of go through some of the things that were
found at the crime scene as well so we have like we mentioned before there were several items that she was going to take
to work with her and the captain has pointed out that these were items that her friends and colleagues had said that
she would always carry to work these were not items you know these were found in scattered in the parking lot it's the
hair dryer a pair of heels hairspray earrings these were found at the crime scene these were not items that she was
taking because she was late that day these were items she took every day they were in a tote that she it appears she
was planning on placing the tote in the passenger side car seat right in the passenger seat and
then she would walk around get into the driver's seat and drive off to work now like you said though something
happened before that the for most reports that I read regarding about the the key being found in the car door
state that the key was found in the passenger side car door so it's just been as simple as the remote
didn't work on the passenger side door right it could be something else and she goes to open the door somebody comes up
from behind incapacitates her there's enough force on that key to bend it but leave it in the lock right now regarding
blood at the scene was there any blood at the scene now contrary to many many rumors that are out there the police
have constantly and consistently denied that any blood was found at the crime scene
also we have a palm print to discuss there's a partial palm print that was found on or in the car now police have
never said where on the vehicle that they found this palm print it's probably on the outside they
my initial thought here is that they must be convinced that it came from the perpetrator of this abduction
because it seems that at times they have relied on this palm print to rule out potential perpetrators well so we have
this palm print we have our items scattered everywhere but we also have these drag marks that were found in the
dirt close to her car yeah this leading the police to believe that Jody had been
incapacitated and then dragged to a waiting vehicle this must be you know we have these other items that that are
upsetting to find in of concern to find and I think this would be the icing on the cake when they stated immediately
that we are working this as a possible abduction it's because everything at the scene is pointing to exactly that now
one interesting piece of evidence and I don't know how much value this can have but it must have something because
there was a hair found at the crime scene as well and this is something that we are not told about for many many
years after the crime this is Frank Stearns of the ncpd I'm sorry mcpd he told this to
Nancy Grace on her show in 2013. so we're talking about almost 20 years later that they state that we found hair
at the crime scene they did not say and they're saying that they found hair at the crime scene what they wouldn't say
is if they had found DNA on this hair I can see her now so you wanted to get into the suspicious vehicles and I say
suspicious Vehicles because there's been a couple of different reports about vehicles of suspicion that morning the
first being the obvious one the white van and a lot of people have referred to this as a possible or likely Ford
economy line van that was seen by a neighbor this is Randy Linderman in the parking lot of the apartment complex
that morning he spotted this vehicle around it's a very early morning he he spotted
this vehicle around 4am he said it was parked there with either its running lights or its brake lights on now a lot
of effort went into finding this vamba police were never able to I want to point out a couple things here but some
people think well maybe Randy Linderman might be a person of interest because why would he take notice of this van if
he was unaware that something important was going to happen that day now he stated later that the only reason why he
noticed the van was from when he first spotted it he actually thought it was a police vehicle and he was of concern
because he might have been speeding in the parking lot at the time he took notice of it slowed down and then what
was he doing in the parking lot um I I don't driving home because that's really early in the morning no no I
should I guess I should be clear I the parking lot is very near a road obviously I don't know if he was
traveling on on the road or if he was traveling in the parking lot what I do know is that he states that he took
notice of it because he thought it was a police vehicle and he thought that he had been exceeding the speed limit at
that time he slowed down looked at the vehicle and we've all done this when you think that you're when you think that
you're speeding and you see a police vehicle you slow down and then you look to observe to see if in fact it was a
police vehicle and if it was are they going to pull out of that spot and follow me I speed up and turn off my
lights he is the one that was the eyewitness to this white van now I I want to bring something up here
because this is something that I've seen in a couple of different cases regarding
this white van this white van in reports it stated it's a white van there are other reports that stay a light colored
van where I think that we run some risky business here when we really specify things that might not be known at the
time was this a white van or was it a light colored van because under the cover of darkness and in a parking lot
where it's lit by street lights you could get the impression of a different color than what the actual color of that
van is now remember he states that he saw this vehicle around 4 a.m or so we know that she was abducted around 4 30
a.m that day the sun did not rise until 5 35 a.m that day so it still would have
been dark at this time we would have the light would have been provided for it's
from Street lamps there's a good chance this was not a white vehicle not a white
van and just a light color it could be yellow I mean how many people have seen a yellow or a gray van at night and it
appears to be lighter colored than what it is yeah it's also interesting to me because yes we have a lot of things now
um we'll have restaurants we'll have fast food chains we'll have grocery stores that are open 24 7. that wasn't
very common in 1995. so you're talking about a time period between 4 and 4 30 a.m where you're talking about a very
small percentage of people that are even going to be awake right and then as far
as suspicious Vehicles go we also have that incident that Jody had reported in the past you know that took place just a
few months before her abduction that her family said had scared her enough to to
the point where she even reported it to the Mason City police this took place when she was rollerblading one day she
says the that she believes she was closely followed by a black pickup truck with dark Windows her family says that
she was so upset enough to run into a house and ask to use the phone she called her mom very upset and reported
it to the mcpd police escorted her to work a few times to and from work a few times after the incident yeah this this
is where it gets weird for me because there is rumors that she talked about threats that she felt
threatened that she was concerned about this she was concerned that somebody would try to attack her or abduct her
and then there's rumors that she wasn't that concerned but if you're calling the
police and they're escorting you to and from work seems like you're taking that part pretty serious my guess is that
this is something that she often found herself into com in conversation regarding and depending on her mood one
might get a different thought of of her opinion of what was going on I don't know that she received any
threats per se but we do have this incident with the vehicle that she believed was
following her and like you said to the point where she gets a police escort they probably recommended the police
escort she receives this a couple of times the police actually even ran Mason City black pickup registrations against
criminal records to see if they were they could cross-reference anything but nothing
yeah and but again and I think I think you're more right than some of these other thoughts and opinions because
not only did she get that police escort but she also took a few self-defense classes according to the uh the
instructor there right also her colleague Amy Coons this was the the woman that called her because
she was late that morning and filled in for her because she didn't arrive she says that it was very obvious to her
that Jody was in fact wary about uh some things in particular she was worried about leaving for work alone in the
middle of the night you know she's supposed to be there at 3am we also have the item the thought that
there might have been some screams heard that that morning so well she if she's attacked get in
into our car I'm assuming if she took defense classes one of the things they tell you is to Make Some Noise try to
get people's attention so I I believe that those screams definitely were Jody's yeah and there's people that have
said that the screams came around 4 30 a.m it's too much of a coincidence I think captain that that time period
lines up with the very most likely time that she was abducted for people to hear
these screams that there's a couple of I mean not only is it concerning that nobody called 9-1-1 but there were a lot
of those windows from those apartments that looked down into the parking lot nobody nobody
looked outside to see if they could see anything so this while we while this really only backs up the fact that they
might have the time right of when she was abducted it provides us with little to no other leads there are some rumors
well and it's sad too because like like her co-worker said you know we she didn't show up and then we called the
police afterwards which maybe if they would have called the police earlier that they maybe they would have seen
something or seen the vehicle yeah um so there's all these little things that had to happen just right for us to
really not know and the thing though too is we have there's a rumor and I wanna I
wanna say that the reason why I'm stating that this is a rumor is because the only place that I found this was it
came from it came from legit news sources however I could not find it anytime an actual
officer on record stating this uh whether it be a detective or somebody involved in the case yeah but the rumor
was that during the course of hearing those screams that one or maybe more people heard a name shouted out or a
name screamed out now whatever that name was was never released I couldn't find anywhere where they're saying Oh it
sounded like a woman was yelling the name Todd or Tim or anything like that um so then the news
Outlets went on to speculate further that police must believe that the perpetrator was someone known to her
because after she's attacked or before she's grabbed she's shouting out their name you know no no Todd don't do this
or Tim let me go you know something to that effect the problem I have with this is I I don't know you know I'm on the
fence here because this seems like something that the police would either a hold back because they they need to hold
on to that name right but it also seems to me doesn't it seem to you Captain if if they really believed that it was
somebody that knew her we're not talking about a woman that had a huge circle of
people in the sense that of close friends and family in the area yeah but if they know what that name is
right so then they have a pretty good idea like if we have a couple let's call them ear witnesses that say yeah we
heard this scream around 4 30 and we also think that we heard a name and the police know that name but the
perpetrator doesn't know that the police know that name so that would be to me information that if it's a person
inside her Circle you would not want to release that name because you're going to try to get the upper hand on them
you're going to try to catch them in a lie I I mean I totally agree the only issue I take with that is that you at
the same time you have the newspapers and uh the media stating that a name was heard and the police are aware of that
okay right but then my my other argument for not keeping it close to the chest is
if that person is not in that Circle and that name isn't known to you within a couple days of looking into her life
then maybe you'd release that name just to have anybody say oh well you know this lady that went missing she was
screaming Timmy or whatever and I know what to me and he was acting weird for a couple days my my other thought though
is that maybe we only have one ear witness stating that they think they heard a name and
what what was reported to the police was it oh it could have been Todd it could have been Tim it could have been John it
could have been you know what I mean or are they the only ones saying it definitely was a Todd I heard a Todd and
then the police are going well wait a second we don't know how it makes sense we don't know how much weight to put
into this The credibility of this and do we lose the Public's help in the course of this investigation
which we very much need at this point do we lose their help or misguide them because now they think we're looking for
a Todd and only a Todd just like I said that I think that the white van description is a little irresponsible
does it mislead the public that we are now only looking for a white van yeah well we did a good job captain of
talking about the abduction what could have happened that day in the investigation that ensued afterwards but
I think that's important to address her life before the abduction as well now we
state that police suspect that she was abducted they say that the roots of that abduction May lie in the overwhelming
ambition her dream to be on television who's in troupe pursued her media dreams at Minnesota's Saint Cloud University
where she studied mass communications professors say she stood out at a time when more and more college students were
drawn to the television Spotlight now after college who's in truths aspirations to break into commercial
television led to a job as an intern at KGAN in Cedar Rapids Iowa her colleagues
remember her as a hard-working energetic and friendly young woman and say Jody was a fast learner after only a
year she left Cedar Rapids for a bigger job in a smaller television market this is Mason City Iowa a farm and family
oriented community of thirty thousand within months after having arrived in Mason City who's introot was a celebrity
a local celebrity and a growing audience for her Morning News show reflected her
popularity in the Autumn of 1994 husen troupe feared one viewer was taking that sense
of intimacy too far she was convinced that a suspicious black pickup truck was following her now a little more on this
was that Francis stated that I'm so I believe this was her sister I apologize stated
that Jody had got very very nervous and was even crying and eventually called her
mom on the phone and her mother was telling her you need to take more precautions
so she was nervous enough as we had said to file a police report the police helped her out thank God
during this tough time for her they say there was no further problems now on her
27th birthday this was on June 5th now this situation didn't take place on her 27th birthday but her 27th birthday
would have been about three weeks in a day before she was abducted Jody's friend and one time neighbor this
is John Van sice he threw a surprise birthday party for her this is at a bar and invited were Jody's friends and
co-workers there will be a lot of suspicions surrounding this man later but I wanted to make sure that we
brought up things that were going on in her life leading up to the abduction many people out there have long
suspected that John Van sice was having having abducted her and killing Jody now some believe John was infatuated
with her John in 1995 was about 20 years older than Jody now they met when he lived at the Key Apartment Complex in
1994. reportedly the two of them spent a lot of time together they had similar Hobbies than Goff and I and he had a
boat yes and John described his relationship with her as friends and as a father-daughter type relationship and
as you had said they shared several of the same Hobbies Jody's Family reported that there was nothing romantic about
the two's relationship and there is actually nothing out there to suggest that anything otherwise well and Jody
was a very positive person and so I think she came into his life at a time where maybe things weren't going so
great but she was somebody that was you know upbeat and positive about things so
he's it changed his outlook on his life and so I think he very very much valued their friendship well about 10 days
before the abduction Jody and what I would suspect to have been Jody's best friend at the time or at least someone
she seemed to spend a lot of well a great deal of time with this is Tammy Baker the two were Fast Friends sharing
the same interest uh they were roughly the same age according to Tammy Jody and her spent much of the weekend together
so this is the weekend 10 days before her abduction now the following weekend let's go to Friday June 23rd 1995 the
weekend before Jody was abducted Jody with her good friend Tammy Baker they go and they spend a day on the lake water
skiing with Jody's friend John Van sice who we had mentioned earlier and his son
Trenton van sice after a full day the ladies stayed the night in an apartment on Iowa city in Iowa City I'm sorry this
is Trenton's apartment so John Van sice's son this is his apartment right and as you had mentioned when they were
out on the water they spent that day on John's boat they they were going to stay
there for a full weekend but rain cut that trip a little shorter than they had planned so they returned home
now Monday the day before the abduction this is after work Jody goes to a charity golf tournament there she is
accompanied by the TV station's news director but even though they're accompanied by one another they
according to him they only see each other briefly during this event and anybody that's ever played in charity
golf tournaments know that you kind of are paired off with a group of people you spend the majority of the day with
them you see the rest of the people in passing now 8 P.M following the golf tournament so she left the golf
tournament approximately at 8 p.m that night the gray area here is what was going on with Jody between 8 P.M that
night and then the following morning when she takes the phone call from her co-worker at 4 10 am
so at 8 pm that night she leaves the golf tournament according to John Van sice Jody then
went to his apartment they were going to view a videotape of the birthday party from a couple of
weeks before he says that she left his apartment around 10 p.m that night now he told
news reporters that Jody you know he was very specific about her leaving he's like I watched her walk down the stairs
she turned around the corner and she must have gotten her car and drove home there's there's a couple of issues here
and does she call once she gets home because normally like if I'm hanging out with a friend guy or girl and we leave a
bar or they leave or if I'm at their house and I leave their house like I'll text when I get home hey made it home
especially if you had a couple drinks the last he saw her according to John Van sice was her walking down the stairs
from his apartment and turning around the corner to go to her vehicle there's a couple of conflicting reports out
there and we can get we'll dive more into this in tomorrow's episode because we're we're running out of time here but
I do want to point out that there was a phone call that there was in fact a phone call that was made that night the
timing of that phone call is slightly unclear and we'll get into that again tomorrow's show but there was a phone
call that was made from Jody to a friend and we know that this came from Jody because it was made from a landline
inside her apartment and this would be to her friend Kelly Torgerson now Kelly lives in Mississippi
when Kelly was not home when Jody called but the phone was answered and Jody spoke to
Kelly's husband who she knew well she knew him well the husband would later tell reporters
and police that on the phone Jody sounded happy she didn't sound like anything was
troubling her he simply told her hey look Kelly's not home take a message I'll have her call you back the two
didn't speak okay there was never any return call before she was abducted now as we know likely the last person to
speak with Jody was Amy Coons and Amy was actually Jody's assistant at the time we had said her colleague her title
was associate producer or assistant producer of this TV station so Jody technically was her boss whether the two
were actually friends were more than just co-workers is a point of debate in an interview Amy had the following to
say to be honest I almost dread the anniversary coming around every year it's dredging it's the dredging up of
all the old feelings and all the unanswered questions almost an eerie feeling you always have
those questions in your mind you always wonder if you could have done something more there's almost a guilt I have to
live with wondering if something could have been done now Coons who was the associate producer of the early morning
show that who's in true anchored said the two had discussed the what if possibilities in terms of having to
leave from work I'm sorry from home for work in the early morning Darkness each day she said that we had talked about it
we had conversations that went so far to ask if someone if something would happen
to one of us who would know saying we had a pact that if either of us was late we would call each other well that's why
she called her that morning and Coons worked very closely with police in the days following who's in truth's
disappearance she went with them to Jody's apartment the the police wanted her to see if anything looked out of
place now she would later say that nothing did then she had to go through Jody's clothing
they wanted her to figure out what possible outfit she might have been wearing at the time of her abduction
after five years [ __ ] said that she had finally come to grips with the idea that
something terrible probably had happened to Jody saying that if she's dead I hope
she didn't have to suffer that's the hard thing to think about I just hope she didn't have to suffer now [ __ ] said
that she called remember going back to that morning Kuhn said that she had called
who's in true around 4 10 a.m that morning and spoke with her who's in true had said that she had
overslept and that she would be heading to the studio shortly this has been a hotly debated issue online now we should
mention that Amy Coons also left a phone message and then another phone message for Jody after she had spoken with her
on the phone she has said in an interview that she called again around 5 a.m and left a frantic message for her
stating that honestly at the time at first she was really mad because Amy was going to have to edit and write the show
and put everything together at the last minute now we mentioned that the show went on air at 6 a.m at this time who's
in true it's still not shown up Amy Coons had to fill in go on air for her and when there was still no sign of
who's in troop by the show's end at 7 A.M this is when the police were called now Amy has been questioned by many
people over the years of why didn't you do something more why didn't you call and call again why did you wait so long
to call the police and her answer is very simple stating I don't know why I didn't call the police and so many
people have asked me that time and time again but I just didn't think that anything could be wrong I really didn't
foreign a lot more to get into tomorrow but in the meantime check out our store Page we
got a limited edition shirt that we made uh it's girls don't like boys girls like
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and don't let it [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Jodi Huisentruit /// Part 1 /// 208

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

June of 1995 in Mason City, Iowa a beautiful, successful woman is abducted in the parking lot of her apartment complex. Jodi Huisentruit was on her way to the top. The 27 year old Newscast producer and anchor was leaving to go to work. She had carried some items to her car. When she opened the passenger side door someone attacked her from behind. Screams were heard as well as a name shouted out in the dark. Her neighbors heard the screams yet no one called the police. Jodi’s body has never been found and she has never been seen again. This case has no shortage suspects, everyone from friends to strangers to convicted felons have been accused of perpetuating the abduction and murder of Jodi. This week we discuss the haunting case of Jodi Huisentruit.Beer of the Week - Fat Julian by Actual Brewing Garage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

Jody Husentru, a TV anchor, vanished in 1995; her case remains unsolved despite extensive investigations and numerous theories.

Key points

Jody's Disappearance. Jody Husen Trout, a TV anchor, goes missing under mysterious circumstances.
Search Efforts Intensify. Police begin extensive searches for Jody, suspecting foul play.
Community Support. A prayer service is held for Jody as the community rallies around her family.
The Bent Key Mystery. A bent key found at the scene raises questions about Jody's last moments.
Jody's Panic. Jody wakes up late for work, leading to a frantic rush.
Suspicious White Van. A neighbor reports a white van seen near Jody's apartment around the time of her abduction.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was this upbeat, friendly, outgoing, very lovely person.

Describing Jody's personality.

4:36WatchNov 25, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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