Jodi Huisentruit /// Part 2 /// 209 | Forensic Files

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around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Yesterday, Captain, we did a fairly good
job of going through the timeline and all of picking apart some of the items found at the scene and what they could
mean and what they might not mean and what it could point us towards as we work our way towards getting to some of
the theories, the popular theories, theories of the public and theories of our own, as well as suspects and to the
abduction of 27-year-old Jodi Huisentruit. And a lot of the points that you're going to bring up, there's a lot of
speculation too. So, for all the speculation, please, this is your warning. Turn it off if you don't like
speculation. Yeah, and we're going to sift through some of this and see if we can come up with some answers or in the
very least eliminate some of the possibilities that people have thrown out there. Mhm. So, when it comes to
theories, I found this article that I think is a great lead into the theory section. It's an article featuring a
reporter who was interviewing an FBI agent and a Mason City police officer regarding the abduction of Jodi. The
reporter asked, "Do you think you've interviewed the person who committed this crime?" The FBI agent responds to
the question saying, "I don't know. I don't know. It makes you wonder." Then the reporter asked, "Do you think that
this case Do you think that this is a case where you know who did it but just cannot prove it?" The Mason City police
officer answers, "I don't think so. There are so many different stories and theories and possibilities that I don't
think we could ever narrow it down to who did it. Right now, it's trying to figure out what happened to Jodi. Where
is she? And then work backwards from there." And I He brings up a very good point
here, Captain. He's very right, the officer. We don't know what happened or the result of this abduction. We have no
body. So, there is only a cold trail that leads to her being grabbed and taken in the parking lot of her
apartment complex. With no result or no body, there is nothing. There's no dots to connect.
Now, the FBI agent goes on to say if if it was anybody but Jodi, and because she was a local news anchor, you could
say it was a chance encounter, but you can't rule out the fact that someone was stalking her just because of who she
was. And the officer's thought thoughts regarding the crime is if you're a kidnapper,
there are a lot of possibilities that you should have gotten caught. In an apartment complex, there are a lot of
windows facing out. What a risky place to abduct someone. So, you think maybe it was someone that knew her.
There again, what if it was someone who was just lurking around the apartments looking for prey. So, some items to keep
in mind regarding theories as we go through these as to what the police and FBI's agents' thoughts were at the time.
So, as you can see, there were no shortage of theories out there. But let's start off by going
through some of the theories that have been discussed on other platforms regarding what is likely to have
happened to Jodi. The theories are this. Let's do this, Captain. Let's list out these theories and then we'll kind of go
through them one at a time if that's okay with you. Mhm. All right. So, one, someone that she knew abducted and
killed her. Two, someone stalking her abducted and killed her. Now, this could either be
someone she knows or does not know. Three, total stranger on stranger attack or like a serial killer, someone spots her
leaving that day and grabs her. Mhm. Some of these are a little more out there. That's my warning as we move on
to these next ones. Four, the police killed her. Five, drugs. That somehow drugs were
involved. Either she was using or she reported on something and someone got upset. And six, someone from work,
possible co-worker, was involved in her abduction and murder. Well, let's start backwards. So,
let's start with the first one, a co-worker. Yeah, and this one is a weird one and but I don't think it's so far
out there because there's a lot of online speculation regarding Amy Koopmans specifically.
Now, this is the girl that called her that day, woke her up, said, "Hey, are you coming to work?" and then then fills
in for her for that day. I want to paint the real picture of of her co-workers and of that television
station there. So, even though Jodi was missing, there was a long time that she was still
technically employed by the television station. That she was They were getting people to constantly fill in for her for
months and months and months after the fact. People People pulling together. This is where I see a kind of close-knit
group that considers each other friends on some level, kind of pulling together for this young woman who has gone
missing. Someone that they Probably lots of them cared very deeply about. Well, it also shows that there wasn't somebody
next in line to to take her spot. Yeah, and as you pointed out yesterday, Captain, it is a very competitive
business. There's a lot of people that want to be on TV. I'm sure that the the position pays well.
Usually, the people working under somebody, under the anchor there, are people that aspire to be a news anchor
someday. So, that's why some suspicion has fallen on Amy Koopmans throughout the years. Now,
over the years, many of her co-workers have been interviewed. And many of them seem to be
very willing to sit down and and be a part of these interviews. Right. And the other thing we want got
to keep in mind here is like we said yesterday, there was a thought at the time that there was an
increasing that that this was an increasing thing. That there was unwanted attention from
females that worked on television, worked on camera, that they were receiving a lot of unwanted attention
from male viewers. And it was of concern to everybody in the industry. So, a lot of the
surrounding areas would often feature Jodi's crime as well or Jodi's case as well because they're trying to bring
attention to this. They're trying to put an end to this, an awareness to this situation. Now, her co-workers, more
specifically, one had nothing but great things to say for for Jodi. With the exception, I will
say I think the reason why there's been some suspicion cast on Amy Koopmans is that she's not always said wonderful,
bright, shiny things about Jodi. And now, keep in mind, she worked side by side with her day after day after
day. Mhm. Captain, I love you. You're one of my one of my longest friends. Um And but but But I'm sure that there are
people that are aware that there's times that we bicker at one another on the show or we have a disagreement on the
show regarding something. It's I talk [ __ ] about you all the time. I know, and
I find that strange that I seem to have your back, but you you have a different opinion of our relationship. Yeah, if
you ever go missing, they'd know where to But moving on to the point where here's where I don't find anything
suspicious about Amy's behavior. And you know, some people first people bring up
the fact that are they were they in fact friends? I don't think that they were. I don't I
actually don't think that there's anything to suggest that they were friends. And I don't think at any time
Amy pretends that they were friends. She makes it sound like what we were co-workers first off, but you
also have to understand she technically was my boss. Yeah, but also if you're being
interviewed with the police, right? That sometimes you you know, if you just paint this
you know, glitz and glamour portrayal of this person that might not be the actual truth. And the more
truthful that you can be with police officers, the more that they can follow certain leads and figure out, you know,
maybe if we can figure out who Jodi is that we can figure out what happened to her. And I do want to point out we we
talked about the birthday party, Jodi's surprise birthday party, 27th birthday party.
Amy was not on the invited list for that party. So I think this would further back up
that they were just they were more co-workers and less friends. At no time has the police ever said that they
suspect anybody that she works with. At no time. And to back that up a little bit more is we have Amy Coons who
has done a bazillion, and I think that number is extremely accurate, a bazillion interviews regarding her
relationship with Jodi, regarding their And then the telephone call, too. Yeah. So here's the thing. I think that
ultimately police have a much better idea on this than we do as they should. I think that
the public might be jumping to conclusions here thinking Amy could be a suspect. I don't know so much about her
other co-workers, but she's the one that I'm focusing in on because she's the one
that we know the most about because she's done a bazillion interviews over the years. But what police did with Amy
was they brought her to the actual crime scene. They brought her to where Jodi was abducted. They brought her into her
apartment and had her look through her things to verify, "Hey, tell us what she might have been wearing
when she was abducted, so when we when we give out her physical description, we can give out what we think she was
wearing at the time." Right. And the thing is, I really think that see, here's the alibi. Amy has an
alibi, and the alibi is what you just said, the phone call. Right. If in fact that she spoke with her at 4:10, and she
was busy working, she was observed by other people at this television station during the time of when Jodi would have
been abducted. Now Yes, there's some more far-fetched ideas out there that that Amy could have killed her the night
before and pretended that those phone calls happened. Yes. Or Amy That's a possibility, or it's kind of a
Tonya Harding Nancy Kerrigan type thing where you're going to place these calls at the same
time you know that somebody is abducting her. So I'm going to go ahead and rule out the first possibility of that Amy
was involved somehow and something happened to Jodi the night before, and then Amy later faked those phone calls.
And the the reason why I'm going to rule that out as a possibility is I think the
police were able to rule it out. I don't I don't have confirmation of this, but what I believe to be confirmation of
this is that they in fact must have ruled Amy out as a suspect enough that they brought her to the crime scene,
that they brought her into the apartment to get her opinion on different things of what she would see there. So you're
kind of ruling out co-workers. I'm not going to just yet, but I also don't think the motive is that strong.
So let's go to the next theory of that possibly there was some drugs involved somehow. Yes, and there's kind of two
thoughts to this this theory. Um Mhm. One that Jodi had been reporting on something on some drug activity
and had gotten too close to the story and someone wanted to silence her. Mhm. The other portion of this drug theory is
that maybe was Jodi herself using drugs. And I I think I'd like to address that one first, and then we can get into the
the investigative reporting aspect of it. Yeah, I mean it's pretty clear, right? I mean there's no evidence or
even rumors that she did drugs. We this is this again is where Amy where people question her co-worker Amy
Coons because there is in a in an interview where they ask her directly, "At any
time did you think that Jodi was on drugs?" And Amy said, "Well, there was a lot of times that
Jodi would show up and she would be very tired and not seem real dedicated, not really applying herself, kind of out of
it for the first few hours of her shift, and sometimes we would find her sleeping
in editing bays during her shift. Right. And at other times she would be really tired one moment and then very
hyper and excited the next, as well as she she could have mood swings where she would yell at a co-worker or yell at
somebody that was um you know, worked for her, and then the next minute be on top of the world
saying how much she loved her job and how much she loved everybody she worked with.
Well, it really seemed that Jodi was driven. I think in her journals you can see
where she writes down different goals of where she'd like to be at at a certain time.
So, but she's also very young. I mean I'd say very young, but 27 it's like you you think, "Well, I'm approaching 30. I
got some stuff figured out," but you really don't. Well, very young in a very professional setting. Mhm. You know,
it's you could be you could be 27 and working at Cedar Point and and seem like a very adult
professional person. I mean you could take that same person and you put them working for I don't know, the oil
industry or some kind of big capitalism industry and they don't seem so um mature.
So I think for me, as far as her behavior, I can't answer to. Maybe that was her behavior all the time. Maybe she
was just an excited person that would be that could be angry one moment and very
happy the next moment. Well, obviously if you're getting into work you know, 4:00 in the morning, that at
some point you're going to get your your second wind or your first wind and you're going to come to life and go,
"Okay, here we go. It's time to get some work done." And I have to believe that that position, especially being an
on-camera person, probably comes with a high level of pressure. Mhm. You know, at times she could have felt like she
was in the pressure cooker, and then at other times that camera shuts off and there's
probably some relief. You know, "Oh, I made it through the day," or "Oh, I did a great job on that piece."
The thing here is Amy has said outright that it was those types of behavior that
led her to suspect that drugs were a possibility. I don't think there was any other any evidence
other than her behavior that there was any types of drugs involved. You know, nobody seen anything
to to to 100% point to drugs. I think too that you bring up a good a good thought there, Captain, is that
we have this young woman, 27. She has to get up and be at work at 3:00 a.m. Mhm.
How many times, and I have reports from a woman that she worked with named Robin Wolfer, I'm sorry,
Wolstrom, I believe is her name. Forgive me. She was the she was the evening anchor.
Yeah. And she would say that she didn't get off till 10:00 or 10:30 at night, and that the two of them were very
close. Jodi and her were very close. And she said that sometimes she would get a
phone call from Jodi at 10:00, 10:30 at night and say, "What are you doing tonight, Robin? Do
you have any plans?" And Robin Robin would say, "Hey, don't you have to be at work at 3:00 a.m.?" And Jodi would
say things like, "Look, you know, life is meant for living. You know, I I I can sleep later." And I think one
thing that we see here with her falling asleep in the editing bays, I just think
she wasn't wasn't fully equipping herself to work at 3:00 a.m. every morning. Mhm. We all know people that have fallen
into vicious cycles of, you know, outgoing people that like to go out every night, and what do they do? They
fall into a vicious cycle of wake up early, go to work, work as hard as you can, come home, you take a little bit of
a nap, your phone rings, and you're out again that night, and you fall into the same cycle day after day after day.
Well, she's also in a town by herself, and we know that she likes to drink beer.
So maybe she likes to be social, and maybe that makes her not feel so alone. Hey, let's go have a couple drinks, and
we're you know, I'm not going to feel so alone here where my family is so far away, and my friends are so far away.
More importantly, if in fact she was rushing off to work with very little time to prepare,
and she's abducted then, and next thing you know, police are in her apartment going through her things, you think they
would have found something to suggest that she was using drugs. And this was not the case, and I think the reason why
we can prove that that's not the case, they never seem to be following up on that angle. They never seem to be
working that angle. So, I think we can I think we can squash the Jody was on drugs
thought there that there has been a small amount of chatter that I think it should just be quieted.
What if drugs were involved, then what might be more likely was that she was reporting on something and somebody
thought that she should be silenced. Yeah, and it could be some kind of drug thing that she's going
to report on, but there was also this criminal case going on where a man was going to be charged with murder, Billy
Prune. And so, a lot of people think so one of the pieces of of evidence is that her
briefcase was missing. And so, a lot of people think that is evidence that there was something in there that she
was going to report on. The issue here though is that she's technically a anchor and she wasn't
technically a journalist. Right. And and you bring up a very good a good point there. And a little more on this Billy
Prune person, he was somebody that would later commit suicide. He was, I believe,
charged with three homicides. They were all related to illegal drug activity. Right. And it's thought that he was some
kind of drug lord or or or kingpin in this area and he was up to all these bad things. She's reporting on these on
these stories. So, naturally people wonder, well, did he decide to go and kidnap her and
silence her? Yeah, or put a hit out on her. There and there's here's what the police have said. The
And these are these are their words. That for someone to believe that she got too close to a story or she knew too
much, the port the person would have to be crazy. And that's their words. And what they mean by that is what you were
just what you were just feeding us there, Captain, is this that she sat behind a
desk. She didn't do investigative reporting. She wasn't doing the investigation. She was simply reporting
it and telling all of us about say simply. That's a lot harder than people make it out to be. No, but but it
but she was an anchor anchor, not a journalist. I'm not degrading her job. I'm just
saying that when you when you break it down, she's reporting it to the rest of us.
Right. She's not out investigating it. She's not knocking on doors, following leads, making phone calls. She's just
saying, this is what we believe happened. This is what we know to have happened. This man's facing these
charges. So, in a sense, the police are exactly right that the person would have to take
it to the next level and believe that she knows something that she would not have known. Right. And furthermore,
if you're going to go silence her, isn't she just reporting what everyone else in
the area would be reporting as well? Wouldn't you have to go and silence everyone that you saw on TV? Possibly,
unless she got some lead or a tip that she's keeping close to the vest. And and this person knew about it. I mean,
I think the main thing to focus on here is that she you know, Jody is missing, but so is her briefcase.
Okay. And you bring up a good point. The with the briefcase having gone missing,
then you would think that there must be Why would somebody drag that along with them in the process of abducting her?
Mhm. That would lead you to believe that their name or some reference to them or
some phone number or something in her information kept in that briefcase could be traced back to them.
All right. Cheers, mates. Cheers, Captain. And while we have our glasses raised, I want to point out to everybody
that it is National Police Officer Week. So, a thank you to all of the dedicated
officers, past and present. And in particular, we would like to honor officers Eric Joering and Anthony
Morelli, two Westerville officers that were killed on duty earlier this year. May they rest in peace and God bless
their families. And thank you to all the good people that came together to honor
them. Now, where we left off, Captain, we were going through these different thoughts
and theories. And the one that we just went through, the Billy Prune's theory. Right. That either he was
involved or someone that he knew had killed Jody. We want to point out there that I don't
want anybody to get the impression that we just glossed over it for no reason at
all. The thing is, there's been a lot of people that have looked into this theory
and they have many good reasons to dismiss it. And actually, my personal thoughts on this theory is while it's a
very interesting story and it's an interesting possibility, for me, very quickly in looking into it,
I was able to There was so many question marks that I thought there are so many more likely possibilities in this case
that if you want to spend your time on it, we don't have the time today. So, if you want to spend some time on that,
that's something you can certainly look into. I encourage you to, but I think you'll find a lot of the same question
marks and red flags that I found as well. Well, and there's another kind of out there theory, too, that of these
that the cops are responsible. And that comes from this lady that worked for the
police department and she claims that there was three men that worked for the police department or maybe three police
officers that for whatever reason decided to abduct Jody. Yeah, so this is Officer Maria Ohl
and I'm hoping that I'm saying her last name right. It's O H L if anybody wants to look into that. But she is no longer
an officer with the Mason City Police Department. She has been released from there because she has violated several
of the department's regulations. Now, the she's an interesting part of this story,
too, because she states the reason why she was let go is because she had information that these three officers
were involved in the abduction and murder of Jody Huisentruit. And how did she come across this information? It was
she is the sister-in-law of a reverend at one of the local churches there. And this is
um a reverend that received information from a guy named Donald Milk. And this person
called the reverend and spoke to him back in 2010, I believe, informed the reverend that he had information of
police misconduct and he knew where Jody's body was. That is what I have heard to be his
as close as you can get to his exact words. That he was aware of police misconduct.
He was afraid of the police and he knew that where Jody's body was. I think from
that is where the story pulls together and states that well, these the police might have been
involved in this. Right. So, she's the sister-in-law of this reverend. He shares the information with her because
he I don't think he knew where to take this information. And she was a police officer at the time. So, she runs into
this sticky situation of well, who does she go to? You know, when people that you work for
might have been involved in something, do you go to them or do you not go to them? This
what makes this even more weird is that the the police department comes right out and says, look,
she says she had this information on us and that she has evidence against us. And we're letting her go because of that
information that she had and the way that she handled that evidence. So, it's a it's a very weird story and I
encourage people to check that out. And and if you want to check out the Billy Prune story as well, more of that
information, you can find there's a very good website out there called findjody.com. It's been dedicated to
finding Jody Huisentruit and it's been put together by a lot of investigative journalists and reporters that have
worked this case very hard and continue to work it to this day. So, if you are interested in those angles, I encourage
you to check that out. We have to move on from those theories though, Captain, because there are some much more likely
theories in in my very humble garage opinion. And those being that either she was
abducted and killed by somebody that either knew her or that was stalking her. Well, I put a lot more weight into this
based on the evidence of her calling people and saying that this truck, you know, and the funny thing is there's
twice that she has mentioned a black truck. And then you start wondering, is it the
same person that is stalking her? Yeah, here's one weird thought though and we talked about her journal a little bit.
Now, where the police have done Okay, so there there's been Look, without getting
too far into it, the police have not done a great job on every aspect of this investigation. I'll go ahead and throw
that out there. Personally, I feel like they spent too much time looking in or around the river very quickly in this
investigation where I think they could have been looking for things to lead them to other possibilities. Well, but
in their defense, they did get some hits. You know, some scent dog hits. And the
other the other angle here where I don't think they did a great job and I don't know who this There's probably only one
person to blame here. But Jody's journal that she kept in her apartment that was found in her
apartment after she was abducted Mhm. was taken into evidence and it was somehow leaked to the media. Somebody
had sent copies, you know, like photocopied the pages and sent them to the media. That happened from somebody
within the department. We don't know who did it, but you bring up this black truck and you bring bring up the
possible harassment or was there somebody stalking her and we know that she had some of these thoughts because
she shared them with family. She filed a police report. The weird thing self-defense classes. The weird thing
though is I I went through what I could find of her journal online and I didn't see any
any mention or reference to those incidences in that journal, which I found a little strange. You know what I
mean? Like if that was Well, it depends on what your journal is meant for. Some people will have a
uh you know, like a gratitude journal. So, at the end of each day you kind of go over
a lot of the good things that happened and what you're appreciative for and you don't spend a bunch of time on what is
weighing you down. Right. And hers appears to be a lot of career goals uh and personal goals, but
it also does state a lot of recounting the day's events. Right, but all normally in a positive
light though. Yes. Yes, you're exactly right. just what I'm wondering is that maybe
she was the type of person that was like, "Well, that did bother me, but there's no point of
you know, cuz some people want to go back and read their journal here and there a year later, but they don't want
to hear every negative thing." Mhm. Yeah, that's a good point. Now, we do have two of two suspects that have been
discussed much more than anybody else. Do you have a preference on order, Captain, as how we
get into that? One is a a so-called friend of hers or might be friend of hers and one was a a man that she did
not know. Let's start with the one she did not know. Okay, so this is a man by the name of Tony Jackson.
So, he was a man that lived just a couple of blocks away from the television station where Jodi had
worked. Right, and she didn't live that far away from the station. No, and what's
important here is that later this man would be brought up on and convicted of three separate counts of rape. So, he's
a serial rapist that lived in the area of where she lived and worked. crimes he's convicted of happened in
1997. This took place in 1995. So, how does he get on the police's radar? Well, I think
the way that he got onto the police radar was that the media found this guy. The investigative journalist and
reporter found this guy and made some connections here because of these crimes, being a serial rapist, and then
later learning that he was in fact living in the area just blocks from where she lived and worked.
Right. So, here here's what I was able to track down that on July 10th, 1998, the assistant county attorney who
successfully prosecuted Tony Jackson for rape in Minnesota said that she believes
that he is responsible for the disappearance of Iowa TV anchorwoman Jodi Huisentruit 3 years ago. Quote, "In
my own mind and in my own heart, I think he did it." said the assistant county attorney.
She told the Des Moines Register for a story that was published on the following day. What she's pointing out
is that this man is a patterned sex offender. And then again quote, goes on to say, "Knowing what I know about him,"
this is Tony Jackson, "the way he has been involved as a rapist, I would bet my bottom dollar
that Jackson abducted Jodi Huisentruit." Yeah, but this is coming from the prosecutor that prosecuted him, but then
there's later some maybe a jailhouse confession. Yeah, and some information regarding
Tony Jackson that does not So, Jackson would come out and he he actually called the the news station
that was reporting that he could be involved in this. Mhm. And he contacted them and he said,
"Look, I'm not involved in in Jodi's abduction or murder. I don't even know who she is. I never met her. We did not
know each other." Um And I you know, I should clear I should clean that up a little bit, Captain. I
can't state that he didn't know who she was. He could have known her from TV, but he states not they didn't know each
other, the two. Personally. Yeah. So, the the things that don't look good for this man is that there were record
records obtained by this TV station, which is WCCO, that found that Jackson had purchased a
car the day before Jodi was before she disappeared. What kind of car? I have no idea. But he returned
It didn't seem important, so I didn't add those to my notes. The important thing is though, this vehicle was
purchased the day before and then it was returned just a couple weeks later. Uh this was because the check that he
had written for the vehicle had bounced. Mhm. The other thing that's strange is Jackson worked the evening shift as a at
a meat packing plant. Mhm. So, the night before Huisentruit disappeared, he left
work early saying that he had hurt his leg and was going to an emergency room. Now, WCCO
does not back up if he actually went to the emergency room or not, but they report that he left work early. What
they also reported on a possible connection to Huisentruit's case is that the day that she was abducted, Jackson
reported to work, but only worked 1 hour that day. Well, and you think there there'd be
some kind of workers' comp or something like that if he got hurt at work. Well, and also I want to dig into something a
little deeper, Captain. You mentioned what kind of vehicle it was. That That is an important item because we do have
the black pickup truck that we've talked about. We have the light-colored van that we talked about. The issue here
though is when when doing the research, it was I know this. It was a car. It was
not a truck nor a van and that's why I didn't include the actual description of the vehicle. So, I apologize for that. I
I wish I would have included that in the notes other than that it was not a truck
or van. It would have been nice if they could have found the vehicle and then did some DNA tests to see if Jodi was
even in the vehicle ever. A February 21st, 1999 newscast suggest that Huisentruit's body may have been buried
in a silo that was near the Johnson County town of Tiffin and alleges a possible connection to Mr. Tony Jackson.
Well, why How does this this site come up? Well, apparently his cellmate Mhm. brings up some
information and says, "Look, Tony's awfully often reciting these rap lyrics that seems to be a rap that he made up."
And one of the lyrics is says something to the effect of, "She started to stiffen in Tiffin."
And people had have awfully often speculated that that might mean he had abducted Jodi Huisentruit or abducted
some young woman and the body started to stiffen near the town of Tiffin. Right.
So, WCCO, they spent their own money and they put together some tests to and they
try to track down the area of Tiffin of where it could possibly be. Somehow they tied these silos to a possible
area. Now, they use their own money for laboratory test and they they sent dogs out there. There are several different
reports about what the dogs' findings were be were to be. One report states that two of the dogs hit on something.
The other report state that that none of the dogs were active or were uh hitting on
anything during this search. Now, they did remove boards from the silo that were tested and later were determined
not to be linked to the disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit. Now, that doesn't necessarily rule out Tony Jackson
because that might just mean that they have the wrong area, that there was nothing to be found in that area.
Let's go through a little bit more of his information because I find this individual to be a very
interesting, I will say, suspect, okay? Because we have him we have Tony Jackson
publicly stating that he didn't he've ne- he've never seen her or met Jodi Huisentruit in public,
right? Right. But later a former friend of his came forward when investigative journalists and and
reporters were out trying to fact-check some of Jackson's story. Now, this source did want to remain anonymous, but
he told a Minneapolis news crew that just before Huisentruit's abduction, he had become friends with Jackson since
their girlfriends at the time were close. Mhm. He says one day after playing basketball that Jackson had
asked him out to happy hour drinks to a bar where Jackson had said that he knew Husen Trott was a regular.
Later, this source says, "You know, I always wondered how he would even know that."
But, the man went along for drinks. Wait, hold on. I'm confused. So, he says, "Let's go get some drinks
at this happy hour. And I know that Jodi's going to be there." He says to him that he knew that Jodi
was a regular at the bar. Before they went to the bar. Correct. Um so, he goes along for the drinks. I
guess this was a few blocks away, some kind of bar called South Bridge Lounge, which is now gone out of business. And I
actually think it went out of business in the late '90s. He states that they entered through the back door. And when
they walked in, they saw Jodi Husen Trott sitting at the bar. Mhm. Jackson allegedly walked right up to
Husen Trott and started chatting her up. Now, this former friend says that he could not hear what their conversation
was. He was not near them when they were talking. Mhm. But, he also we also know this
about Jackson, that while he was living in Mason City, Jackson attended North Iowa Community College where he had
developed an interest in broadcasting while he was hosting his own student talk show. Mhm. So, now his friend knows
this about him. So, he assumed that the two were just kind of talking about TV and TV-related things.
But, he says after Jackson was arrested, tried, and convicted for those rape charges, he says looking back, he
actually thinks that Jackson's interest in Jodi could be a sign that he's possibly guilty of having
abducted her and worse. Mhm. Now, there's another witness that I find interesting here that they dug up years
after the the um abduction. This second witness also wished to remain unidentified. This is a
female who says that she used to run past Jodi's apartment complex every morning right around 4:30 a.m. She
stated that on that morning, she said she was almost hit by a car that was zooming out of the complex's
parking lot. She also added that she was coming up to the apartments and a car comes out really fast and it nearly hits
me and then I have to jump onto the sidewalk. And its headlights were off as it was speeding out of the parking lot.
She also said that just the day before the abduction at the same time and place, she says that a young
African-American man, perhaps in his teens, was riding a bike outside of the apartment complex. He then started
biking right beside her as she ran, which she thought was weird at the time of the morning. Meaning, when she looks
back, she thinks maybe this man could be could have been following her on his bike.
The weird thing here is, as far as vague descriptions go, well, Jackson would fit the vague
description of a young African-American man, perhaps in his teens, as being the one on the bicycle. Because at the time,
he would have been 19 years old. So, that makes it interesting. And he also had a car at the time. And this
witness says that she saw a car speeding out of the parking lot on the day of the
abduction around 4:30, around that same time with its lights off. So, as far as vague
description goes, that's interesting that he matches that vague description. As far as this quote-unquote former
friend's story that they went to a bar that Jodi would frequent, the thing that I find interesting there
is, and we don't know, I know that underage people do drink at bars, it does happen.
Um and probably in 1995, it happened a lot more than it happens today. However, this man uh Jackson would not have been
old enough to drink in that bar on that particular day in question. Yeah, but it could have been like a
neighborhood pub where they also serve food. So, maybe they don't ID you to get in. I mean, who knows? Right. It's not
an impossibility. What What makes it seem unlikely, even all those things we pointed out about Jackson,
about not possibly not being a good suspect, is that he was looked at significantly. Now, this was years after
the abduction. Yeah. But, and these are direct quotes from investigators that worked the Jodi Husen Trott case. And
one being, "After conducting a thorough investigation, which included interviews, crime laboratory analysis,
records review, and polygraph examination, Tony Jackson is not is not considered at this time a viable suspect
in the investigation." Going on to state, "We haven't been able to develop anything that will tie him in
with this case. However, that does not mean something won't come forward that could put him right back in there
at being looked at again." So, it it seems to me, Captain, like they were pretty thorough with this dude. It also
sounds to me like, as big of a scumbag as this guy is, piece of [ __ ] Yeah. Hashtag piece use a piece of [ __ ]
Um I don't know if I think I said that right. But, anyway, Well, well, you tried. I gave it a good
shot. Hashtag use a piece of [ __ ] The The other thing though that I find here about Tony
Jackson, I as much as I like him for to be a suspect, I find his willingness to suggest possibly otherwise. He seems
to be extremely willing to one speak with the media and say, as soon as they come out with the report, he's going,
"No, no, no, no, no. I didn't know her and I wasn't involved in this." Look, he might have knew who she was.
And he might have said, "Hey, man, let's go get a beer. I actually saw this news
anchor in there." And then they see her in in the bar and he went up and said hi.
That still doesn't mean he's involved. It's kind of a weird coincidence, but that if the police are saying that he's
not involved, or they don't think he's involved, then it's I don't know. It doesn't seem like there was a ton there.
Well, and that makes you wonder what evidence do they have regarding that hair that was found at the scene? Were
they able to compare it to some of his hair and determine that that it wasn't his hair that was found? Did they
compare the palm print? Yeah, and I also heard that he had somewhat of an alibi that that checked out. So, Okay. And and
the thing here is, too, here's what I wonder about though, Captain. It seems to me like they've been using
this palm print to eliminate people. I don't know that that's I I hope that the wording is wrong on those reports.
Because I think that's irresponsible on their on their part. Because you and I spoke about this at length earlier.
You and I we question if the palm print even has anything to do with the abduction at
all. Right. Especially if where it was found on the vehicle. If this was a palm print from
inside the vehicle, I have a lot of arguments that would suggest that this person had no reason to reach into the
vehicle at all. Right. Well, and you also wonder if it's on the outside, we're talking about she's parking one at
work with a lot of people. And she is parking in a apartment complex that not only has a lot of people, but has a lot
of people visiting the people that live there. so, I mean, you're talking about a lot of
people that could walk by and touch a car. Well, right. And I would have I would suspect that many of us have many
random palm prints on our vehicles. And people that have a lot of people inside their vehicles would have different palm
prints as well. Now, I think the person that we've we've delayed getting to, and
for good reason, is the person that is probably what maybe True Crime Garage would consider to be the prime suspect
here. Yeah, I think most people looking into this case uh this guy, there's some red flags right away. Yeah,
and and I want to go on record as stating that the police have never said that they have a prime suspect in this
case. But, one person that drew an early focus from police attention was Mason City businessman John Vansice. And
you've heard that name before because we spoke about him. He was considered to be
a friend of Jodi's. He was also a one-time rel- um neighbor of hers. One-time relative.
Good catch. Um he had hosted the surprise 27th birthday party for her just uh days
weeks before her her uh abduction. Well, he claims that he saw her last. He also claims that they were hanging out
the the evening before she went missing. So, You know what's weird about the birthday
party? And I think that what a lot of people speculate is that John had developed an infatuation with her and
and was infatuated with her and this led to some unhealthy behavior and then he developed some kind of relationship that
wasn't actually going on in his mind and got upset with her that she didn't see things the same way that he did and he
abducted her and killed her. Mhm. I think there's some things to to that thought. One, the birthday party
seems a little strange. How well did they know each other? Go ahead. Well, let's start off with it. They used to be
neighbors. 20-year difference. Um but, they have similar hobbies. He had a boat, she liked going out on the
boat. They like to golf. And she mentioned multiple times to family and frie- friends that, "Hey, we
are just friends, but maybe he's starting to want something more." She seemed to be very comfortable with John
though. If he was if he was a bad guy, he wasn't giving out very many bad vibes to to Jodi
because Right. Or, she just has a really bad picker. She she brought him around her
friends. She brought him around some of her relatives as well. Now, to Well, let's start with the surprise party.
Okay. The thing that I felt found very odd is that some point there's like these
invitations or some kind of flyer poster, right? And it says that the party is thrown by him
and friends. And just the fact that it's almost like he wanted he wanted the credit.
He wanted the recognition. It said that on the invitation. Thrown by John Vansice and friends.
Like look at me, I'm such a great guy. Yeah, that's that's interesting and that actually squashes one question that I
had regarding that party was you know, was he just the connection to the bar that that that booked the event?
Mhm. And then later media goes, well, he threw this party for her when in in actuality it was a whole group of
people that threw the party. No, he threw the party. So, he won 100% threw the party. I'll
tell you what, on the other side, on the flip side, it is a nice gesture for a young woman to
receive some kind of birthday party from a close friend. Yeah. Especially when it's somebody that she's only lived in
town for what? A year and a half? She doesn't know a lot of people outside of work or outside of her very inner
circle. And in fact, she comments in her journal about the party stating, you know, it was a great time. John and some
of my friends threw this party for me. There was there was a cake. We were dancing on the tables. Everybody had a
fantastic time. There was cameras there filming some of it. There were people taking pictures. And this but this
relationship could be as innocent as as John claims it is. He's saying, I met this young lady.
She's obviously attractive, but she's 20 years younger than me, but she's very positive and she was a very positive
influence on my life. And you know, for some you know, maybe John doesn't have a
lot of friends himself. So, maybe this really helped his life. And so, you know, he's trying to repay
this this new found positive person that came into his existence and saying, hey,
well, let's let's throw a party for you. So, if anybody's familiar, John Vansice
to me looks like Greg Norman, the old retired golfer, the the shark. Yeah. He he has
looking guy. He has some similarities to Greg Norman, but as you said, he'd be 20
to 22 years older than Jody at this time. Now, one thing I've always wondered, the weekend before she was
abducted, they went out on his boat and yes, his boat being named Jody is very odd behavior to put it as nicely as I
can. Nobody's everybody's hearing this for the first time. He named his boat after
Jody. Yes, the boat was named Jody. He named it after her specifically. But one thing I wondered about Captain
is his they stated his son's house and his son was out on the boat all day with them and Jody and her best friend.
Mhm. I think her I said her name was Tammy, right? So, the four of them and maybe others are out on this boat for a
considerable amount of time. Part of me wondered, you know, like when you Jody bringing a friend along,
you know, that's probably somewhat for her could be just to have a good time or somewhat for her own comfort level.
Mhm. Uh but the other thing that I wondered about was is there any chance that that John was trying to hook up
this young one of these young women with his son? Right. You know, that maybe his son was single
at the time and he just thought Jody was the best thing under the sun and thought
that maybe the two of them might you know, hit it off while they're in each other's presence.
He states that there was a father-daughter type relationship. There is a lot of people on her inner circle
that seemed to think that John wanted more. Uh Jody, unfortunately, her father passed away when she was very young.
Mhm. Some people have speculated that she could have been friends with this older man one because he could have been
charming and fun to be around, they share the same hobbies, but also maybe did she see it as a father-daughter type
relationship? Right. But also just because she is telling friends and family members that she
thinks possibly that he wants something more. She was never definitive about that. I mean, it could have just been,
you know, he called her pretty one day, you know, and she's like, oh, well, that's kind of a
new wrinkle in the relationship. So, I don't put too much into that. I mean, we don't have any proof that he
wanted to be anything more than just friends. Well, the night before she was abducted,
we have John Vansice who would tell police that she was at my apartment. She came over to my apartment. We watched a
video tape of her birthday party. Mhm. She left around 10:00. That is the last that I have seen of her.
Now, there are people that says that he seemed excited or weird when he was talking with police the morning of the
abduction. There are all also people out there that point out that John would have had a very limited amount of time
to abduct her, do whatever and dispose of her body if in fact he was the one who did it and
did it single-handedly. Mhm. Because he was speaking with the police shortly after they were on scene. You
know, within hours of them being on the scene, he's being interviewed by police and telling them, hey, she was at my
place last night. Yeah, which you think if you have something to do with her disappearance, you might not want to
state that she was at your place. Yeah, so the interesting thing here is was she
at his place? And a lot of people said, well, why would it why would he bring up that she
was at his place if if she was not? And I throw into the argument then, well, what if later
you know, some some speculate, well, what if what if he needed an alibi for that night? I think less likely he
needed an alibi for that night because I believe that that phone call is real. is
real. The following morning that Jody Amy Coons phone call at 4:10 was absolutely real.
So, therefore, she is fine and unharmed and does not seem to be worried about anything at 4:10 a.m. the next morning.
The thing here is though, if John Vansice is in fact guilty of something, maybe he needs an alibi later to
give him an alibi of why possibly Jody's DNA or hair or anything of Jody's would
be found in his apartment. Right. Because then later he can say, I already told you guys she was here the night
before. Wouldn't you expect to find some some evidence of that? or something, yeah. But I mean, if
you have proof that you've been friends with her for a while. So, you wouldn't have to necessarily state the day
you know, hours before she went missing, she was at my place. He gave a lot of interviews in the
beginning to TV, a lot of interviews to police. In the beginning, he was very Talked to the family a lot. Yes, he was
very forthcoming with everything. Some things that that I think are are could be an issue, the one that really stands
out for me is remember we spoke about Jody calling her friend Kelly after 10:00 that night. And this would be
if all these things are true and we do know that that phone call happened to Kelly. That's that's a certainty. What's
in question is the time that that phone call was placed. Mhm. So, if in fact she did go to John
Vansice's home and if in fact that phone call took place at 10:00 after 10:00 that night, that means his she was fine
when she placed that phone call. After leaving his home, his apartment, she was 100% fine. I did find one report.
I found one report out there that stated that that phone call occurred at 8:40 p.m. that night. Now, So, possibly
before she went over. Yes, or that she never went over at all. Mhm. And that So, we know that she left the golf
course at 8:00 p.m. We have several eyewitnesses stating that. Was she golfing with him? No, she was golfing a
charity event that she she attended with somebody she worked with. So, here's what I'm getting at. Now, there
are many more reports out there. I want to be clear about this. There are a lot of reports about this phone call. This
is very important, the phone call. Every one of them but one that I could find state that the phone call took
place at after 10:00 p.m. that night. So, this other thing is either either everybody else has got it wrong
or this one place reported it badly. Mhm. They report that the phone call took place at 8:40 p.m. Multiple of
those reports state that the police they were able to seize outgoing phone call records from Jody's apartment. So, they
do know that the phone call took place. I only bring up the potential that the time might be wrong. Right.
It's wrong one of these places. We know that for certain. If if 8:40 is in fact the correct time,
then maybe she never went to John Vansice's apartment. And if he lied about that, you've got to wonder what
else is he lying about. He's guilty of something. why is he lying about that? And I think
also, you know, you you have um a very beautiful woman that was abducted. We have no remains have been found.
And you have somebody that owns a boat. And if you're going to get rid of somebody and and have no trace or
lack of tracing. You do it through through a boat, right? Yeah, that's interesting because
even though police were talking to John early on and he would have had limited time to do anything with her, you got to
wonder his his his home, his vehicle, his boats, these items were not searched early in the investigation.
So, what could have happened there? And you're exactly right. He could You would
think the first go-to would be use the boat to get rid of this object that you you need to hide and conceal forever.
This person. So, let's talk about I just It's a person, not an object. That's fine.
Right. I I can call it a body. The thing is there's another eyewitness account that's interesting regarding the night
before she was abducted. There is at least one neighbor that says that reported hearing somebody knocking or
pounding on Jodi's front door to her apartment and also stating that it is believed to have heard Jodi's name
called out by whoever was knocking on the door stating something like, "I heard pounding on the door. Open up,
Jodi. I know you're in there." or "Jodi, I know you're home." something to that effect. Which is an interesting thing
because then there's the thought was there somebody with her in that apartment at some point that night
whether they stayed the night and stayed until the morning or were they there for
some portion of the night and then have left. And furthermore, if there was somebody
there, why have they never come forward and stated I I was at her apartment that
night or I stayed the night? Here's kind of what I wonder. What if she's seeing somebody? So, she
goes golfing and then she goes over to her buddy John's house and he's not available bachelor for her because she
doesn't like him cuz he's 20 years older, right? And she has some guys she's talking to
on the side. Okay. So, then she leaves John's house and then she meets up with said guy, right? Said
guy's at her house. John comes over. "Hey, I know you're in there. And who you hanging out with?"
And maybe And that would be the motive. I mean, I guess the motive for for John would be that she didn't want
to be with him in a in a serious relationship. So, then he had to kill her, you know. Right.
Or on the flip side, could John be the catalyst for somebody that was following her and keeping tabs on her, infatuated,
believed that they had some type of relationship. And what I mean by that if they're keeping tabs on him, they see
she went out of town with with this guy for a weekend, then she's off golfing and then she's at his
apartment. They got some She she's out running around on me. A lot of these stalkers believe that they are in an
actual relationship. boat named after her. Right. And then this person thinks, "Oh my god, she's
involved with this dude. She's cheating on me with this dude." and decides to take it out on Jodi waiting outside of
her apartment until the wee morning hours grabbing her there. But back with the toilet seat up
and beers. I think that Was somebody there? I think that really suggests and somebody knocking on the
door, too. I really question that Did John Did she go to John's apartment or did he
go to her apartment? Is what I really question. Well, and again with John, he was very cooperative with the police.
So, I don't know. But if it's only one or the other, I think there's more evidence to suggest
that maybe John was at her apartment rather than her being at his. Meaning that we have a neighbor that reports
hearing a knock on the door, we have the beer cans, we have the toilet seat up, and then on the flip side, all we have
is John saying that she had gone to his apartment. Now, some updates some things that have taken place more
recently regarding this case is we have a search warrants that were conducted. They did a search on
John's basement at the apartment that he had held at the time of her abduction. Now, keep in mind they did searches on
this basement years and years after the fact and claiming that they had not found anything to suggest that Jodi was
in that basement at any time. In March on March 20th, 2017, a search warrant was executed for GPS
data on two cars related to John Vansice. Now, at the time of the search warrants,
John would be 72 years old and living in the state of Arizona. They wanted to find out GPS data from a
1999 Honda Civic and a 2013 GMC 1500. So, that would be a truck. What I find to be interesting about
these search warrants is these were executed last year, early last year. We don't know the result of these search
warrants because the warrants and the search has been sealed. And they actually filed for this to be sealed for
I believe it was for 1 year and then when it came near that 1-year mark, they went back to seal it again
and it has been sealed for an additional 6 months. So, the information regarding that search is sealed until
October of this year. What I'm guessing is maybe there's some kind of lead, some kind of information
that those searches yielded and now that they're following up on that information
or using that to to further conduct their investigation and they don't want that information to come out or they
believe they can find what they're looking for and have not been able to locate it yet. The curious thing though
is and the obvious thing is these vehicles were not even they didn't even exist at the time of
her abduction. So, what does this mean? Does this mean that they suspect John and suspect him
enough that he would have used these vehicles at a later date to transport the body of Jodi or that they would find
some evidence all those years later in these vehicles. Well, I wish they would have done these
searches earlier and I wish they would have searched John's boat because the fact that we don't have a body,
you know, having the boat access to the boat gives you a access to get rid of the body. Mhm. I wish they
would have done that. And as much as I mean, it's just whose story do you believe? And I do believe
John's story on some level and then it always back to me with the the briefcase. Why did the person take
the briefcase? It seems like something so unnecessary when abducting this young woman to drag
along that briefcase as well. Now, obviously, Captain, we could talk about this case for three, four, five hours.
There is a lot of information here. The issue with Jodi's case, like others, is that some of these items, some of these
details in here kind of throw you into throw us all into a tailspin of of going, "What if? What if? What about
this? What about that?" If you want more information or if you yourself have any
information regarding the disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit, please use that website that we have referenced several
times during this these two podcasts. That is findjodi.com. They have more information there and you
can submit tips there as well. And please please keep following this case and we are coming up on another
anniversary of her abduction. So, on June 27th, please think about Jodi and think about her
family. Please share Jodi's picture on social media and maybe we can shine some light
on this case, get people talking, and get some new information. And for all of our old episodes, check
out the Stitcher app. And a little recommended reading before we close out today's show. This week we are
recommending the infamous Birmingham Axe Murders. This is a recent release about
a reign of terror that swept the streets of Birmingham in the 1920s. Criminals armed with small axes attacked immigrant
merchants and interracial couples leaving dozens dead or injured over the course of 4 years. In desperate for
answers, police well, the investigation got unconventional, let's say. Eventually, four men and a teenage girl
were charged and tried while copycat killers emerged from the woodwork. So, check out the infamous Birmingham Axe
Murders, Prohibition Gangsters and Vigilante Justice by Jeremy Gray. And you don't have to write down that title
now. You can simply go to truecrimegarage.com and click on the recommended page and we have our
recommended books there for you to check out. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling
a friend and we'll see you next week. Until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.
Hey.

Jodi Huisentruit /// Part 2 /// 209

Part 2 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

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode discusses Jodi Huisentruit's abduction, theories, and suspects including John Vansice and Tony Jackson.

Key points

Speculation Warning. A cautionary note about the speculative nature of the discussion.
Theories on Jodi Huisentruit's Abduction. Exploring various theories surrounding the mysterious case of Jodi Huisentruit.
The Missing Briefcase. Jody's missing briefcase raises questions about her abduction. Could it hold vital clues?
Police Misconduct Allegations. Allegations arise that police officers may have been involved in Jody's abduction.
The Black Truck Connection. Jody's journal mentions a black truck, raising suspicions about a potential stalker.
Tony Jackson's Dark Past. Tony Jackson, a convicted serial rapist, becomes a prime suspect in Jody's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Where is she?

A police officer's poignant question about Jodi Huisentruit.

4:20WatchNov 25, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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