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

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[Music] crime [Music] um she has not been seen since uh last night however they did talk to her this
morning a little after 4:00 a.m. and I want to stress that what we're doing at this point in time is we're working from
the apartment and 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 half a mile or so and I don't think I want to comment 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 hold of those residents and asking them if they saw or heard anything area about 1 qu of a mile
from the U apartment complex was searched along the riverbank and out extending from the
riverbank and there were a number of hits uh along the riverbank however we have not confirmed whether those would
be something that we would follow up on or not uh we are back at the riverbank with
the uh Kines and we are going to check to see if there is additional hits along the
river on Wednesday June 28th 1995 the police in Mason City Iowa were still searching for a missing woman Judy hen
Tru 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 Kim Mt TV jod 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 jod was well-liked and she was a popular
individual jod is this upbeat friendly outgoing very lovely person this is uh according to Ray go now Ray 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 jod graduated
from Long Prairie High School and later from St Cloud State University she worked at a TV station in Cedar Rapids
Iowa from February 1991 to April of 1992 and then went to Alexander'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 Alexandria
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 and true had any such problem now jod hen trueu is well known in Alexandria Area and the
ksx TV they started Fielding calls very quickly after The Disappearance and these calls were coming in from friends
and viewers ERS 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
Marshall 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 jod 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 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 driveby 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 harlson 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 GetGo 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 27th 1995 Jo H and Tru does not report to work between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 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 jod is on the 6 o'cl morning newscast so typically they would
like for her and the other anchor and other co-workers to be there at the station at 3:00 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 3: to 3:30 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 3:00 a.m. as scheduled now at 410 a.m. jod hen tro receives a phone call at her
apartment and this is a telephone call from Amy Coons jod picks up the phone Amy Says
jod are you coming into to work today jod does not know what time it is she asks Amy you know what time is it Amy
says it's 4:10 a.m. Amy says nothing about the phone conversation was strange this was was jod 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 MH that she had overslept so uh 20 minutes go by and there's no jod then 30 then 40
minutes still nothing now the key apartment complex where jod lives is only about a 5-minute drive to the TV
station producer Amy Coons and others continue to call jod when she failed to show up but Amy had to fill in for her
on air at the 6:00 hour M she has said that at the time frankly she was angry at jod for not coming in and after the
hourlong TV show The Station staff decided to call police who would perform a welfare check on jod at her apartment
mhm 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 a Miss 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 department 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 jod so jod doesn't show up to work we have a coworker 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 into 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 Jodie at the Mason City Church
I 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 jod hen tro was
supposed to be a bridesmaid on this Saturday this was when her best friend Stacy Wagner um from back from Long
Prairie Minnesota she was getting married now on that same day as well the reward fund reaches
$11,000 the next day which is a Sunday the who's and tro friends and family join other worshippers 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 in Tru
but say that they'll continue to conduct interviews on July 6th a m a Mason City
martial arts instructor says that who's and true attended a self-defense course that he had taught in March of that same
year now the instructor says that who's and TR 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 mhm on
July 10th schleeper says that FBI Behavioral scientist is trying to determine if who and 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 tro family um 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 and Tru reward fund
at the Mason City bank now has reached $30,000 in November this is on the 10th police say A man was questioned about H
who and 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 and TR 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 newspaper article 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 and tro family say that they flew to California
and taped a session with three psychics for the television show psychic detectives the psychic 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 and we do take a
little bit of flak on this Captain as you know that we'll get some flak from people that go why did you mention
psychics we also get Flack for why do you mention lie detector test or polygraph test 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 the story we have these people here they could be total
frauds you know that when you deal with the psychics they could be total frauds well you 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
going to apologize for bringing up psychics because detectives use them all the time so why I care yeah so they
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 they I I don't mind talking to psychics but sometimes they come back with the
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 MH 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 feel F representative for the American Heart Association she had met jod 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
KT TV uh since the abduction she hasn't been on her bike since jod disappeared and she said that she would be driving
down the road and just start wondering 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 scratch 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 schaer 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 jod hen tru'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 Todo and rightfully so about the toilet seat yes 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 stated flat out
that it led them to believe that a 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 mhm well but we know who she was was 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 um 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 MH 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 want to put it past them left the seat up and failed to fess up and then this is just hey Cliff hold on I
gotta take a leak and this is just some kind of you know red herring that 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 I don't have it in my
notes but if memory serves me right it was either Kors or Kors light mhm that that was her preferred bqu of beers beer
of choice and there were some Bud Light 16 o 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 left over 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 mhm 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 is left in the refrigerator were these beers that had been brought over at a previous date and
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 that's especially if you're talking about Kors Kors light Bud Light those
but so just to be clear the while I'm unsure of what her preferred beer was this what are regarded as the strange
beer cans are bud light 16 o cans were found consumed in her apartment and some believe that that might have been from
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that cheers to you Captain cheers to everybody out there I want to give a cheers to all of our Stitcher listeners
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Stitcher premium so check out Stitcher premium.com truecrime 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 MH was bent
it was found to be bent now but it was bent in the door handle okay so I have a few different reports of that and I
think you're right there 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 opened the door
and the key was bent mhm 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 cuz 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 a 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 you 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 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 coworker this is an oh [ __ ] moment for her she picks up the
phone 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 phone
could somebody else at at jod 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
in P 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 MH 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 buy you you
you 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 I've read several
different statements mhm that it was parked only about 7 to 10 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 right
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 per 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 this person would have waited a
considerable amount of time more waiting on her mhm 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 jod to come out well when they say it was a white van I always wondered could that have been a
news van H because you know one of the angles of this case is that she worked in a pretty Cutthroat industry people
are trying to get ahead I mean we've all seen Anchor Man so we 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 F found in scattered in the parking
lot m 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 uh car seat right in the passenger seat
and then she would walk around get into the driver seat and drive off to work now like you said though something
happened before that the from 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 could just been as simple as the
remote didn't work on the passenger side door it could be something as 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 blck 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 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 jod had been incomp capacitated and then dragged to a
waiting vehicle this must be you know we have these other items that that are upsetting to find and 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 some 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 Sterns 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 you're saying that they
found hair at crime seen 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 Econoline 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 talking very
early morning he he spotted this vehicle around 4:00 a.m. MH uh he said it was parked there with either its running
lights or its breake lights on now a lot of effort went into finding this van but
police were never able to I want to point out a couple things here some people will 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 cuz he might have been speeding in the parking lot at the time he took notice of it slowed down and then what
is he doing in the parking lot um I I don't just driving home cuz that's it's really early in the morning well no 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 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's stated it's a white van mhm there are other reports that state 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 mhm 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 400 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 from Street lamps there's a good chance this was not a white vehicle not a white van and just a light color 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 I it's also interesting to me because yes we have a lot of things now 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 jod 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 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
asked to use the phone she called her mom very upset and reported it to 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 there were they could cross reference anything but nothing came 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 according to the U 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 Jodie was in fact wory 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 3:00 a.m. 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 her 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 were jodies 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 the there's a couple of I mean not only is it concerning that
nobody called 911 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 a 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 rumor and I want I want to 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 at any time 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 right 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 believe that it was somebody
that 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 mhm
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 and 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 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 and I know a Timmy and he was acting weird for a couple days my my other thought though is that
maybe we only have one earwitness 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 much Mak sense we don't have much weight to put into
this The credibility of this and do we lose the Public's help MH in the course of this investigation which we very much
need at this point do we lose their help or Miss guide 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 and the investigation that ensued afterwards but
I think it'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 and tro pursued her media dreams at Minnesota St 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 TR aspirations to break into commercial
television led to a job as an intern at kga in Ceda Rapids Iowa her colleagues remember her as a hardworking energetic
and friendly young woman and say jod 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 30,000 within months after
having arrived in Mason City who and Tru was a celebrity a local celebrity and a
growing audience for her Morning News show reflected her popularity in the Autumn of 1994 who and
Tru 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 friends had stated that I'm so
I believe this was her sister I apologize stated that jod 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 3 weeks and a day before she was abducted MH Jody's friend and one-time
neighbor this is John Van 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 Suspicion 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 ciss was having having abducted her and killing Jody now some believe Jon was infatuated with her JN in 1995 was
about 20 years older than jod 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 they Golf 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 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 MH and so I think he very very much valued their friendship well about 10 days
before the abduction Jody in 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 tamy 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 jod 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 who we had me mentioned earlier and his son Trenton vanze now 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'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 jod goes to a charity golf tournament there she is accompanied by the TV
stations news director but even though they're accompanied by one another they according to him they only see each
other brief during this event and anybody that's ever played in charity golf tournaments know that you kind of
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 8:00 p.m. following the golf tournament so she left the golf tournament approximately at 8:00 p.m.
that night the gray area here is what was going on with jod between 8:00 p.m. that night and then the following
morning when she takes the phone call from her coworker at 4 4 10: a.m. so at 8:00 p.m. that night she leaves the golf
tournament according to John Van Jody then went to his apartment they were going to view a videotape of the
birthday party from a couple of weeks before mhm he says that she left his apartment around 1 p.m. that night now
he told news reporters that jod 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 got in her car and drove home there's there's a couple of issues
here and does she call once she gets home cuz 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 um especially if you had a couple drinks the last he saw her according to John Van SI 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 jod to a friend
and we know that this came from jod 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
Jodie called but the phone was answered and jod 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 jod sounded happy she
didn't sound like anything was troubling her um 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 now so jod
technically was her boss whether the two were actually friends were 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 PCT 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 and tru's
disappearance she went with them to Jody's apartment 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 mhm
after 5 years [ __ ] said that she had finally come to grips with the idea that something terrible probably had happened
to jod 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 [ __ ] said that she had called who's and Tru around 4:10 a.m. that morning and spoke with her who's
and TR 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 Jodie after she had spoken with her on the phone she has said in an interview that she called again around
500 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 yeah now we mentioned that the show went on air at 6:00 a.m. at this
time who's and Tru had still not shown up Amy Coons had to fill in go on air for her and when there was still no sign
of who and TR by the shows 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 ask me that time and time again but I just didn't think that anything could be
wrong I really didn't a lot more to get into tomorrow but in the meantime check out our store Page we
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Jodi Huisentruit /// Part 1 /// 208

Part 1 of 2

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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

The episode discusses the 1995 disappearance of TV anchor Jodi Huisentruit and the subsequent investigation into her abduction.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jodie Hen True. Jodie Hen True, a well-liked TV anchor, goes missing under mysterious circumstances.
Search Efforts Intensify. Police and FBI join the search for Jodie, treating her case as a possible abduction.
Psychics Enter the Scene. The family consults psychics in hopes of finding Jodie, but leads remain elusive.
The Mysterious Key. A bent key found at the crime scene raises questions about what happened before the abduction.
Suspicious Vehicles. A white van spotted near the crime scene becomes a focal point in the investigation.
Jodie's Fears. Jodie reported feeling threatened and believed she was being followed.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was a popular individual, well-liked and outgoing.

Description of Judy Hen True

5:38WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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