What Happened to Jodi Huisentruit? The Unsolved Mystery of Disappearance!
Authorities believe Jodi Huisentruit was abducted on June 27, 1995, shortly after 4 a.m. local time, as she walked towards her red Mazda Miata, which was parked in a parking lot outside her apartment complex. She was neither seen nor heard from again.
Around the hour, neighbors reported hearing a woman’s screams, and Jodi’s possessions were strewn about the crime scene. Broken car keys, red high heels, a blow dryer, a can of hair spray, and a pair of earrings, all of which belonged to Jodi, were among the items discovered near her car in the parking lot.
Who was Jodi Huisentruit
Huisentruit worked as an early morning anchor for KIMT-TV, a local news station near her Mason City apartment.
She graduated from St. Cloud State University in 1992 with a degree in Mass Communications. After college, she worked as a reporter for KAAL-TV in Austin, Minnesota, before moving to Mason City, Iowa, in 1995 to become a morning news anchor for KIMT-TV.
What Happened to Jodi Huisentruit
On June 27, 1995, Jodi was scheduled to start her shift for the morning show at 3:50 a.m. However, when she did not arrive at the studios at her scheduled time, Amy Kuns, the show producer called her.
Jodi had overslept and was apparently woken up by Amy’s call. She was getting ready as they talked. She assured Amy that she would rush to reach the station to produce and anchor the 6:00 am news. The TV station was a 5-minute drive from her Keys apartment.
At 5:00 a.m., Amy Kuns tried to reach her again but she didn’t answer. Ultimately, Amy Kuns anchored the 6:00 a.m. newscast since Jodi did not show up for work.
After the news was done, Amy asked a coworker to call the police to check on Jodi.
When officers arrived, they discovered some of her belongings, including a pair of women’s red dress shoes, a blow dryer, a bottle of hairspray, earrings, and her bent car key, strewn in the parking lot around her car, new red 1991 Mazda Miata. She had only bought the car a few weeks before.
The ground showed signs of drag marks suggesting she has been forcibly taken away while she was entering her car.
Police begin a missing person investigation.
The search operation is launched
An extensive search operation was launched by the Mason City police, aided by the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
On June 28, 1995, agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation joined local officials in the search operation.
Investigators searched a park next to the apartment complex and along the Winnebago River that runs through the park.
The officers recovered a strain of hair and partial palm print from her car but it is unclear if these were ever matched with anyone.
Investigators suspected a foul play in her disappearance but were not able to find substantial clues.
No clues are found
In May 1996, around 100 volunteers combed an area in Cerro Gordo County, leaving flags to mark anything they found suspicious. Law enforcement re-examined each of these locations, but no promising evidence was discovered.
More than 1,000 people have been interviewed by the police and private detectives, however, none have resulted in conclusive evidence pointing to a culprit.
Jodi is declared dead
Unable to find any whereabouts of Huisentruit, her family filed a legal petition to have her declared dead in May 2001.
A mysterious message appears on “Find Jodi” Billboard
In the middle of the night in January 2020, a billboard about Huisentruit’s disappearance was defaced with a mysterious message. The billboard was spray-painted with the name “Frank Stearns”. Beneath the name “machine shed” was spraypainted in smaller letters.
Lieutenant Frank Sterns was the officer who was part of the force since Huisentruit’s disappearance,” former lieutenant of the Mason City Police Department. The vandal may be implying Frank Sterns as the culprit and “Machine shed” is the place to look for Jodi’s body.
It is uncertain if the incident was probed further and were there any leads in the case.
Suspects in Jodi Huisentruit Case
Numerous people were considered a suspect in Jodi’s disappearance but none of them could be convicted due to the lack of incriminating evidence.
Suspect #1 — Serial rapist Tony Dejuan Jackson
Dennis Goff, a jail informant, claimed that Tony Dejuan Jackson had abducted and killed Jodi. Tony was twenty-one years old at the time of her abduction and lived in Mason City, about two blocks from the TV station.
Though in 1999, police officially cleared Jackson in relation to the disappearance of Huisentruit.
Suspect #2 — John Vansice
John Vansice, Huisentruit’s friend, is another possible suspect. Before she vanished, he was one of the last people to see her.
She went to John’s house the night before her disappearance, where he showed Huisentruit a video of her birthday celebration, which he had organized.
Despite initial suspicion, he has never been tried or arrested for Huisentruit’s disappearance.
Suspect #3 — Thomas Corscadden
Thomas Corscadden is a currently incarcerated sex offender who, according to his ex-wife, was besotted with Jodi and had ties to the Mason City region.
Thomas’s palm print was collected to check if it matched the one found on Jodi’s car on the day of her kidnapping. However, at the time of taking the print, Thomas became furious and refused to cooperate.
It’s uncertain whether his prints were ever taken, or if they matched the ones discovered on Jodi’s car.
Jodi Huisentruit’s Disappearance Featured on ABC’s ‘20/20′
The special episode of ABC’s ‘20/20′ looks into new leads in the 26-year-old case. It includes exclusive, unrestricted access to the Mason City Police Department and the case’s lead investigator.
It also features new interviews with members of FindJodi, a team of journalists, a podcaster, and a former police commander dedicated to collecting and investigating new tips to try to find out what happened to Huisentruit, as well as exclusive footage captured by “20/20” cameras as police investigated a new lead.
Was Jodi Huisentruit found?
Jodi Huisentruit’s body was never found and her disappearance still remains an unsolved mystery.
Reference -
findjodi.com
Originally published at https://owwlogy.com on April 17, 2022.
