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

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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] 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 point us towards as we work our way towards getting to some
of the theories the popular theories uh theories of the public and theories of our own as well as suspects and to the
Abduction of 27-year-old jod hen Tru and a lot of the points that you're going to
bring up there's a lot of speculation too so uh for all the speculation Polie 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 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 jod 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 know I don't know it makes you wonder then the reporter ask 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 jod where is she and then work back 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 MH 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 jod 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 jod 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 cooworker yeah and this one is a weird
one but I don't think it's so far out there because there's a lot of on line speculation regarding Amy Coons
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 jod 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 what 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 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 um 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 Coons 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
what 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 Jody's crime as well or
Jody'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 Jodie with the exception I will say I think the reason why there's been some suspicion cast on
Amy [ __ ] is that she's not always said wonderful bright shiny things about jod and now
keep in mind she worked side by side with her day after day after day Captain I love you you're one of my one of my
longest friends um and 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 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 and but also if you're being in interviewed with the police right that sometimes you you know if you just paint
this uh you know Glitz and glamour uh 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 if we can figure out who uh jod is that we can figure out what happened
to her and I do want to point out we we talked about the birthday party Jody's surprise birthday party 27th birthday
party uh Amy was not on the invited list for that party uh 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 Jody 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
too 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 jod 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 the 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 410 and she was busy working she was observed by other people at this television station during the
time of when jod 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 Tanya Harding uh Nancy carrian type thing where you're going to place these calls
at the same time you know that somebody is uh 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 jod 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 one
that Jody 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 jod 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 coworker Amy Coons because there is in in an interview where they ask her
directly at any time did you think that jod was on drugs and Amy said well there
was a lot of times that jod 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 Jody 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 uh so but she's also very young I mean I 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 MH 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 but you take that same person 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 at you know
4:00 in the morning that at some point you're going to get your your your second win or your first win 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 a high level of uh pressure uh 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 anything 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. how many times and I have uh reports from a woman that she worked
with named Robin woler I'm sorry walstrom 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: or 10:30 at night and that the two of them were very
close jod and her were very close and she said that sometimes she would get a phone call from jod at 10 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 Jody would say things like look you know life is meant for living you know I we I I can sleep
later and I think one thing that we see here with her falling asleep in the editing Bay I just think she wasn't
wasn't fully equipping herself to work at 3:00 a.m. every morning 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 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 cas 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 uh jod
was on drugs thought there that there has been a small amount of chatter of 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 uh Billy prun and so a lot of people think so one of the pieces 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 the issue here though is that she's technically an 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 prun 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 PO 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 don't say simply that's a lot
harder than people make it out to be but but it an anch 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 further more 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 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 jod 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 ab abducting her 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 [Music] them this show is sponsored by better
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[Music] free all right cheers mates cheers captain and while we have our glasses
raised I want to point out to everybody that 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 joring 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 just went through the Billy puin 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 yes so this is
Officer Maria o uh and I'm hoping that I'm saying her last name right it's oh 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 jod henu 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 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 uh 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
if you want to check out the Billy pruin story as well more of that information you can find there's a very good website
out there called findjodi.com it's been dedicated to finding jod who's and truth
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 uh 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 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 bling 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 she took
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 me any mention or reference to those incidences in that journal which I found
a little strange you know what I mean like if that 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 happen 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 days events right but normally in a positive light though yes
yes you're exactly right and that's just what I'm wondering is it 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 jod 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 work but the 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 that an 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 worked right so 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 anchor
woman jod hen Tru three 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 De Moine 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 jod hen troop yeah but this is coming from the prosecutor that prosecuted him but
then there's later some uh maybe a jail house 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 and he contacted them and he said look I'm not involved in in
Jody's abduction or murder I don't even know who she is I never met her we did not not know each other um and I you
know what 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 NE 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
WCC that found that Jackson had purchased a car the day before jod 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 uh 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 who's in Tru 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 H Hughes and truth's case is that the day that she was abducted Jackson reported to work but only worked
one hour that day well and you'd 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 cap and 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 uh Jody was
even in the vehicle ever a February 21st 1999 newscast suggest that who in tru's
body may have been buried in a silo that was near the Johnson County Town of tiffen and alleges a possible connection
to Mr Tony Jackson well why how does this this site come up well apparently his cellmate brings up some information and
says look Tony's ofly 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 tiffen and people had have of often
speculated that that might mean he had abducted jod henu or abducted some young woman and the body started to stiffen
near the town of tiffen so WCCO they spent their own money and they put together some tests
to and they try to track down the area of tiffen of where it could possibly be somehow they tied these silos to a
possible area now they used 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 there were three caber dogs sent out there one
report states that two of the dogs hit on something the other report state that that none of the dogs were active were
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 Judy who and Tru 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 Judy who's
in true 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 this
Source did want to remain anonymous but he told a Minneapolis news crew that just before who and truths abduction he
had become friends with Jackson since their girlfriends at the time were close MH 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 Ken tro
was a regular later this Source says you know I always wondered how he would even
know that but 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 Jody's going to be there he says to him that he knew that jod 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 Southbridge Lounge which is now gone out of business and I actually I 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 jod hen Tru sitting
at the bar Jackson allegedly walked right up to who's and true 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 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 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 jod 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 Jody's apartment complex every
morning right around 4:30 a.m. she stated that on that morning she says 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 in 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 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 story that they went to a bar that jod 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 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 jod hen tro 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 thorough with this dude it also sounds to me like as big of a
scumbag as this guy is piece of [ __ ] yeah hasht piece use a piece of [ __ ] um
I don't even think I said that right but anyway well you try I gave it a good shot hashtag use a piece of [ __ ] the the
other thing though that I find here about Tony Jackson 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 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's 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 right 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 PM print from inside the vehicle I have a lot of arguments that would suggest that this
person had no reason to reach in 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's 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 and so I mean you're talking about a lot of
people that could walk by and touch your car well right and I would 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 well 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 Van and you've heard
that name before because we spoke about him he was considered to be a friend of jodies he was also a one-time re um
neighbor of hers onetime relative yeah 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 our 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 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 the they used to be neighbors 20e 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 F friends that hey we are just friends but maybe he's starting to want something more she seemed to be
very comfortable with JN though if he was if he was a bad guy he wasn't giving out very many bad vibes to to jod
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 vanis and France 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 and then later media goes well he threw this
party for her when in actuality it was a whole group of people that threw the party no he threw the party so he won W
100% through the party I 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 somebody 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 uh 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 Van to me looks like Greg Norman
the old retired golfer the the shark yeah he he has not a bad looking guy he has some similarities to Greg Norman but
as you said he'd be 20 to 22 years older than jod 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 jod is very
odd behavior to put it as nicely as I can nobody everybody's hearing this for the first time he named his boat after
jod yes the boat was named jod he named it after her specifically but one thing I wondered about Captain is his they
stayed at his son's house and his son was out on the boat all day with them and jod and her best friend I think 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 jod 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 MH uh but the other thing that I
wondered about was is there any chance that that Jon 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 jod 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 fatherdaughter type relationship there was a lot of people
on her Inner Circle that seem to think that Jon wanted more Jodie unfortunately her father
passed away when she was very young MH 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
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 vanis who would tell police that she was at my apartment she came over to my apartment we watched
a videotape of her birthday party 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
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 have 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 jod Amy Coon's 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 Van ciss is in fact
guilty of something maybe he needs an alibi later to give him an alibi of why possibly Jodi's DNA or hair or anything
of jod would be found in his apartment 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 mhm 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 jod 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 a that's a certainty what's in question is the time that the phone call was placed so if in
fact she did go to John Van's home and if in fact that phone call took place at 10 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
there's so possibly before she went over yes or that she never went over at all and that so we know that she left the
golf course at 8:00 pm 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 1: p.m. that night so this other thing is
either either everybody else has got it wrong or this one place reported it badly 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 Van's apartment and if he lied about that
you've got to wonder what else is he lying about he's guilty of something yeah why is he lying about that and 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 JN 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 or in the
investigation so what could have happened there and you're exactly right he could you would think the first goto
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 oh is this it's a person not an object that's fine right I I can call it
a body uh 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 Jody's front door to her apartment and also stating that it is believed to have heard Jody's name
called out by whoever was knocking on the door stating something like I heard pounding on the door open up jod I know
you're in there or jod 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 cuzz he's 20 years
older right mhm and she has some guy 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 guys at her house John comes over hey I know you're in there and who are you
hanging out with mhm 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 um in a in a serious relationship so
then he had to kill her you know right or on the flip side could Jon be the Catalyst for somebody that was following
her and keeping tabs on her infatuated believed that they had some type of a relationship and what I mean by that is
if they're keeping tabs on him they see she went out of town with with this guy for a weekend they 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 well you have a 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 M and decides to take it out on jod
waiting outside of her apartment until the wee morning hours grabbing her there but back with the toilet seed up and
beers I think that somebody there I think that really suggests and somebody knocking on the door too I really
question that did Jon did she go to Jon's apartment or did he go to her apartment is what I really question well
and again with JN 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 Jon 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 uh 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 um 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 jod 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 Van ciss now
at the time of these search warrants John would be 72 years old and living in the state of AR
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 the 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 one year and then when it came near that one 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 search has 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 jod 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 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 comes back to me with um
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 Jody'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 tail spin 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 jod who and Tru 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 27 please uh think about jod and
think about her family please share Jody's picture on social media and maybe we can shine some light on this case get
people talking and get some new information [Music] 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 ax murders this is a recent release about a
rain 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 were injured over
the course of four years and 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 AXS 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
True Crim garage.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
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Jodi Huisentruit /// Part 2 /// 209

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.TrueCrimeGarage.com)

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

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses Jodi Huisentruit's abduction, theories, and key suspects, emphasizing the ongoing search for answers.

Key points

Quality Sleep with Ashley. Ashley offers top mattress brands at winning prices, helping children in need.
Shopify's E-commerce Power. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US, turning browsers into buyers.
True Crime Garage Introduction. Nick and the Captain introduce the show and share a drink.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Jody. Jody's case raises questions about police involvement and possible suspects.
Tony Jackson: A Key Suspect. Tony Jackson, a convicted rapist, becomes a suspect in Jody's disappearance.
New Witness Emerges. A second witness claims to have seen a suspicious man near the abduction site.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Do not be afraid of the dark, my friend.

Nick describes a bold beer flavor.

2:26WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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