Jodi Huisentruit // 502
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Thank you for tuning in today. Man, over the years, so many of you have recommended this case, including...

Wow, that was a lot of recommendations from you guys. I mean, we've wanted to cover this case forever, and it just finally felt like the right time, especially with what has recently come out in the news.

something was released, like a sealed document was released just a few weeks ago. But this is one of those cases that is so mysterious that it is really stuck in my mind since I heard it for the first time on another true crime podcast like seven years ago. So it's just one of those really disturbing, perplexing stories. Yeah, there's a little bit of like stalker elements going on in this episode.

Yeah, it's actually quite a creepy tale. Well, without further ado, this is episode 502 of Going West. So let's get into it. ♪♪♪

In June of 1995, a 27-year-old morning news anchor vanished outside her Iowa apartment complex as she rushed to go to work in the dark, early morning hours. When police came upon the scene, they found her high-heeled shoe and various other items like a hairdryer strewn next to her car door, proving that she had likely been abducted.

As evidence of a stalker came into light, telling friends of disturbing anonymous phone calls, investigators worked hard to find a suspect. This is the disappearance of Jody Who's in Truth. ♪♪

Jodi Sue Husentrout was born on June 5th, 1968 in Long Prairie, Minnesota to mother Imogene, who went by Jane, and Maurice Husentrout. 18 years after getting married, Jane and Maurice welcomed baby Jodi into the family, but Jodi also had a sister named Joanne, who she was very close with.

Jodi was known to have a strong bond with her family in general, and her parents were always super supportive. And as far as it goes for Jodi's personality, she was bubbly, she was charismatic, she had this sharp wit that kept everybody laughing, which really leads into her future career so well, as we will discuss.

Jodi grew up in her birthplace of Long Prairie, Minnesota, in a close-knit community where she was involved in a variety of activities. She attended Long Prairie High School, where she was active in sports, especially golf, where she led her high school golf team to victory in the Minnesota Class A state tournament. And I don't know what it is about a high school golf team that seems so...

I don't know, like unnatural, maybe because it's not really like a team sport that you go to the games like football or basketball. Yeah, yeah. Like I always forget my high school had a golf team. Yeah, I wanted to join my high school's golf team. I never did, but I always golfed, so... That tracks. Well, anyway, she was a really big golfer. You guys are going to see that in this episode. So she was doing big things for her team and...

And then after graduating high school in 1986, she moved on to St. Cloud University in the nearby city of St. Cloud, Minnesota. It's just an hour away where she majored in mass communications with a concentration on journalism. And although she wanted to explore career options in journalism, she still loved playing sports and actually was a part of the basketball team at her college.

even playing softball and volleyball on the side. So really, Jodi was, she was into fitness across the board, but really she loved sports. Yeah, she was athletic and smart. Also, she was really into exercising in general. Like she always went on neighborhood runs. She was a rollerblader. Like she did it all.

She graduated from St. Cloud University in 1990 as she was turning 22 years old and then jumped straight into the workforce. But before exploring her passion of storytelling just yet, Jodi briefly worked as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines because she was so kind and so personable. So this would have been a really good career path for her, I think. But soon enough, she

She knew she wanted to take a stab at journalism. So in 1991, 23-year-old Jodi got a job in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at CBS affiliate KGAN-TV, which marked her entry into broadcast journalism. Well, a year later, Jodi left Iowa and she moved back to her home state of Minnesota, but this time to Alexandria.

where she joined the team at ABC affiliate KSAX-TV, and she joined them as a reporter and anchor. But in 1993, she moved back to Iowa, now in Mason City, which at the time had a population of around 30,000 people, where she landed a job as the morning news anchor for the show Daybreak with CBS affiliate KIMT-TV.

And it was during her time at KIMT that Jodi really became known for her captivating on-air presence and her commitment to sharing news stories. Now, Jodi's typical workday started pretty early. She'd usually get to the station super early around 3 a.m. to get ready for daybreak, which was the morning show that aired at 6 a.m.,

And despite the early hours, Jodi was just so committed to her job, and that earned her a lot of respect from her colleagues. And honestly, beyond, because when the clock hit 6 a.m., local Mason City residents watched as this effervescent and well-presented young woman shared the news through her thick Minnesota accent, covering local stories to even larger breaking headlines, like the O.J. Simpson trial in 1994. I mean, people just really loved Jodi.

She was a dedicated worker, but also had amazing qualities out of the office. Like, Jodi was known to write beautifully handwritten notes and postcards to loved ones regularly.

She was just a kind of thoughtful, caring person who always remembered people's birthdays. Jodi's niece remembers her Aunt Jodi often showering her in presents, from teddy bears to roller skates, and even a very special music box with a twirling ballerina inside.

Jodi was even a member of the Optimist Club, which is a volunteer organization dedicated to serving youths and aiming to, quote, bring out the best in kids through various programs and initiatives. So, yeah, I mean, she was just like a community person. She really wanted to put a lot of her time into her family and the people that, you know, were surrounding her in her community. Which really makes so much sense for her because...

It's not just about being on TV for her, even though she loved that element as well with her cute blonde bob. Yeah, how could you not? Yeah, but it's also she really is so genuinely community-oriented. She loves talking to people. She loves interviewing people. She loves...

giving people the information that they need that's relevant to their life. Like, she was just a people person. I mean, even at her work desk, like, she had this short essay framed, and it was like a set of principles for living a more positive, purposeful life. So she really cared about that kind of thing. And she really should have had this long career brightening people's days and telling others the morning news.

But Jodi, who's in truth, would soon become the story herself. It was late June of 1995. Summer had officially arrived and newly 27-year-old Jodi's schedule was packed. On Saturday, June 24th, Jodi and her friends Tammy, Annie, and John Van Sise took a 150-mile road trip to Coralville Lake,

just to spend the weekend days like swimming and water skiing behind John's boat. And then the nights bar hopping in nearby Iowa City, which remember is where Jodi used to work.

So this sounds like such a fun weekend, you know, first summer weekend trip. Sounds exactly like something I would love. No, literally, this is like you to a T. So she just had so much fun letting loose and even running into some old co-workers. And this was especially enjoyed after what Jodi had recently been experiencing because...

Around this time, Jodi sent a letter to her good friend Kelly in Mississippi that she was being stalked and that she worried about her safety.

Now, oddly enough, one of her old coworkers back in Iowa City where she had been visiting this weekend, a woman named Amy Johnson had reportedly been experiencing something similar in the last couple months. So that's very strange because obviously there's a connection there. Yeah, I mean, we don't really know if Jodi ran into Amy during this trip. Like I just said, she ran into some coworkers, but we don't, or some old coworkers.

but we don't know if one of those people was Amy because that has not been released. But this is obviously, yeah, it is such a fascinating connection because here's what Amy said about it later. Quote,

That frightened me terribly. And another time would be, there was a mentally disturbed man who felt like he had to get to me to tell me that Channel 2 was broadcasting negative images over the airwaves that were killing his parents. That those negative images were coming from the son of Sam. Okay, um, very weird. Imagine, like...

This man knows who you are. He watches you on the news and he is thinking that something you're a part of

is killing his parents and that a serial killer from the 1970s is behind it. Like, this is just such a disturbing thing to receive. It's very, very unhinged. And I feel like just because you're not like this national celebrity, you can still get these types of people like stalking and following you, even if you're just a local news anchor. It's actually crazy how many people in the spotlight in any way have stalkers or have

experiences like this that they don't want to share because they're afraid. You know, it's like when you put yourself out there like this on TV and people watch you every day, they think they know you, they become comfortable with you, and it can be really scary like this. Yeah, they feel like they're almost connected to you in some way. Well, the second man, the one that she described as mentally disturbed,

was found and absconded around the time that Jodi herself went missing. We don't know exactly when, but he was reportedly sent to a psychiatric hospital. And just all this to say again that people in Jodi's career, even in her circle, were experiencing similar terrors that she herself was.

But sadly, Kelly would not receive this letter from Jodi about her stalker until after she went missing. Because just a couple of days after this trip to the lake, she would be gone. Going into the week in question, the day after returning from the lake, work was really busy, but excitement buzzed in the air because her friend Stacy's wedding was that weekend, and Jodi was set to stand as a bridesmaid.

So it was the start of like a hectic but very happy week, and Monday, June 26th began like any other weekday. Jodi arrived at KIMT station at around 3 a.m. as she always did, and prepared for the morning segment daybreak as usual. After her regular broadcast of sharing local news, Jodi participated in the Mason City Chamber of Commerce golf tournament at the Highland Park Golf Course.

But that afternoon, a rain shower swept through the area. So Jodi headed home to change into something dry and suitable for the evening ahead. Then later, she arrived at the Mason City Country Club where she attended an awards dinner and mingled with friends and colleagues.

Now, according to findjody.com, during the event, Jody mentioned to two different golfers that she had been receiving, quote, nasty and naughty phone calls. Now, it doesn't seem like she really elaborated much on this disturbing development in her life, but she did mention that she was considering changing her phone number because of this. So it must have been at least somewhat incessant.

And he was obviously scaring her enough to tell multiple people that she came into contact with, and of course, as we know, her friend Kelly. And actually, speaking of Kelly, after Jodi got home that evening at 8:24 p.m., she called Kelly's house, but she wasn't home. Instead, Jodi spoke briefly with Kelly's husband, who said that Jodi seemed in good spirits during their short interaction.

Well, later that night, Jodi stopped by at her friend John Van Sise's home, one of the friends that she went on that lake trip with, to watch a video from her recent surprise birthday party that occurred only a few weeks prior, one that John himself helped throw for her. Now, it's worth noting that John was 22 years older than Jodi, but they were still good friends after meeting when he previously lived in her apartment complex.

And here's a couple quotes from John on Jodi, quote: "I'm Jodi's dad. No, I'm not really her dad, but I feel like I'm her dad because I watch over her." And then later he said, quote: "I just loved watching her have fun. I tried to watch over her. I tried to check on her once in a while. Not all the time, just once in a while. See how she's getting along."

If you ever go into her apartment and you see men's clothes, they're mine. If I had a shirt that she liked, you know I'd wear it for a while and then I'd give it to her.

Very interesting dynamic there. Feels a little concerning just the fact that he's like, well, if she liked this shirt that I was wearing, I would wear it for her all the time and then I would retire it to her. It's kind of, it's a little weird. It definitely feels like he really enjoyed her attention. He liked being in her life. He liked being...

that she considered a friend. You know, it feels like he's really into what they have going on. But on the flip side of this, she also, you know, went to the lake with him. So it seemed like there was something that was mutual there. But I do agree that the comments are just a bit weird. Well, she was at his house that Monday night. Like you said, Heath, she was watching that birthday party video. So after spending some time at John's just up the street from her own apartment, she

She reportedly left and went back home where she fell asleep. As we know, working as a local news anchor, Jodi's shifts began hours before the sun even rose for the day. I'm going to tell you the times again just so you remember. The morning broadcast she hosted, Daybreak, always aired at 6 a.m. So Jodi and her colleagues had to arrive at KIMT station by about 3 a.m. to prepare.

But on the morning of Tuesday, June 27th, 1995, it seems like Jodi missed her alarm. A producer of Daybreak named Amy Coons was at the station reading over the material for the day and realized that Jodi was a no-show. And this wasn't all that weird. I'll say like sometimes she was late for work or at least late for work prep because she would often sleep through her alarm. And it's interesting to bring this up because I feel like in,

In most other cases that we cover, we always say they would never just no-show work or they were never late. But Jodi was known to sometimes do this. So she's kind of giving it a little time, giving Jodi a grace period. But a few minutes after 4 a.m., with Jodi being over an hour late, Amy punched in the number on the phone to Jodi's apartment.

groggily 27-year-old Jodi answered and asked for the time, to which Amy said, it's 10 past 4 p.m.

So obviously, if the first thing she's doing is asking for the time, she is asleep when this phone call comes in. So with Amy saying that it was 10 past four, she could tell that Jodi was suddenly wide awake in a panic. And she told Amy that she would be right there. I mean, her apartment was only a five minute drive from the station.

Now, aside from being tired, Amy didn't notice anything off with Jodi's demeanor, which is an important thing to note because Amy was the last known person to speak to Jodi who's in truth.

Jodi hung up the phone and scurried around her apartment, leaving clear signs for investigators later to tell that she got dressed and grabbed her hair dryer and a can of hairspray to bring to work, which were essentials for maintaining her signature blonde bob. Clutching her vanity gear to her chest, she bolted out the door into the still dark morning. The sun was over an hour from rising at this point.

We know that she walked down the stairs of her second floor apartment down to her car in the small parking lot that was right in front of the building. This is a very small building. This wasn't like a major complex. Her car is right out front. And actually, her car was parked only 12 feet away from the apartment building door. And as her arms were overflowing with things...

She began to unlock the door of her red 1995 Mazda Miata. But alarmingly, by 5 a.m., Jodi still had not arrived to work, and countless phone calls to her apartment now went unanswered. So Amy was just absolutely confused by this. It had been almost an hour since she spoke to Jodi, who was awake and aware that she was running very late.

And also, she had a quick commute to the station. Remember, it's only five minutes away. So for her to be this late was just completely odd. Another hour came and went, and when 6 a.m. rolled around, Jodi still had not arrived at work. So Amy actually had to fill in for the 6 a.m. daybreak newscast that was an hour-long segment.

When Amy finished this segment, panic was really starting to set in. So much so, that at 7:13 AM, Amy called the police to request a welfare check on Jody. Shortly after calling, police arrived to Jody's apartment complex in Mason City. And to their dismay, Jody's car was parked still in that parking lot.

And outside the driver's side door of Jodi's red Mazda Miata, right there on the ground, was a collection of Jodi's personal belongings strewn right beside her vehicle. Her corded gray hair dryer, a red kitten heel shoe, earrings, and a can of hairspray were all lying there in a glamorous but disorderly manner.

And the solo key to her Mazda was also found amongst the varying objects, as though right as she was reaching her car, something happened that caused her to drop everything that she was holding as she rushed to work. Now, concerningly, the metal of her key was actually bent, insinuating that she inserted that key into the lock cylinder of the door before being disrupted.

Now, her car, which was a very recent purchase of hers, just a few weeks old, actually, had keyless entry, which was a new technology around this time. But it doesn't appear that she used it that morning. And I mean, maybe she just kind of wasn't used to it yet. That is such a puzzling piece of this story is if the metal was bent, like if you think about how thick a car key is, that metal is not just easy to bend. So it would make more sense if it was sitting in the lock when a

You know, like a struggle happened and maybe she was forced against the key and then it bent the key and then it fell out onto the floor. But it is interesting that she had keyless entry even in 1995. And like you're saying, was she just not used to using it?

Did it get bent in a different way? That's just, it really proves a struggle. Yeah, I mean, it's really hard to say what exactly happened because there were no witnesses, but eerily, there were actually visible drag marks on the muddied patch of asphalt near the car from somebody's feet, but there was no clear path to where they led.

On the vehicle itself was an unidentified partial palm print, along with a strand of hair which were later tested. Though at this time, we don't really know what came of that testing. But the scene very much showed signs of a struggle, making it seem like she was approached while entering her car and forcibly taken away from the scene. Police were told that Jodi never went anywhere without her purse and briefcase, and both of those items were just nowhere to be found.

But everything else was just left behind. Now, her car sat abandoned in that parking lot. Her vanity items scattered about. But there was no sign of 27-year-old Jody who's in truth.

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Within hours of discovering Jodi's car, police officers and local volunteers begin searching the area around her apartment complex and beyond, including fields and wooded areas. But nothing came up in any of those early searches.

Investigators searched Jodi's apartment as well in an attempt to gather some clues, of course, but overall, her apartment was pretty much in order, aside from like a general, normal house mess.

In her home, a standing rack that displayed her many hats was overflowing with accessories, and she clearly had a lot of clothes and shoes. In her home, she also had a collection of golf clubs, there was mail on the dining table mixed up with some vitamin bottles, and her comforter was pulled over her bed. So the apartment didn't look at all like it had been ransacked by any means. It really seemed like whoever had attacked her

had done so outside by her car. However, while it was believed that Jodi returned home alone the night before her disappearance, as investigators looked around her apartment for evidence of a guest, some signs inside suggested otherwise, like for one, in the kitchen sink there were some open cans of beer and there were also two wine glasses found on the countertop

which naturally made it look like Jodi had very recently had a visitor over, right? Now, obviously, this didn't necessarily mean that someone had been over the night before she vanished. You know, sometimes dishes pile up.

Like, especially for me, wine glasses, because they can be so finicky to wash and dry. Like, I've been known to keep a couple by the sink to dry, sometimes for a couple days, because I just don't get to actually putting them away in the cabinet. Yeah, and sometimes they're so thin that you don't want to put them in the dishwasher because they could break. So... Yeah, exactly. Hand washing them can be just annoying. Yeah, and I mean, Jodi was so busy. She had just been on a trip. So maybe these were from before the trip.

I mean, it's just impossible to say based on the glasses alone, but investigators also found something else.

So when they went into the bathroom, they noticed that the toilet seat was up, which is notoriously done by men. You know, women would have no reason to, like, leave the toilet seat up. So obviously this was kind of concerning to them. And surely at some point, Jodi, you know, would have had to have used the toilet between arriving home the night before and when she was leaving for work.

Which, again, made investigators believe that a male visitor had recently used that bathroom. The only thing that I could explain, or the only reason that maybe she would put it up is if she, like, threw up or something. Yeah, or if she was possibly cleaning it. Yeah, but then it's like, if she's gonna clean it, or if she's getting sick in it, she's gonna close the lid, you know? So it's like, it is very weird because if she had gone to the restroom, even if she was in such a hurry that morning, she didn't even...

And I completely get that. Like the wine glasses being there, the toilet seat being up, you know, it obviously raises suspicion. But this really did not lead to any concrete answers in the investigation. Right.

Now, due to the unusual nature of Jodi's disappearance, foul play was and is absolutely suspected, and it always has been. So early on in the investigation, the FBI became involved in the search. So with the extra help, within days, over 100 suspects had been interviewed, but none of them were seriously considered for this case.

As we mentioned, only one of her bright red heeled shoes was found at the crime scene, and the second shoe was never located, which added to the mystery of her disappearance, and it also gave police hope that the other shoe could potentially be uncovered and lead them to another clue.

Police and investigators scoured the neighborhood looking for any other items of Jody's, and the Mason City Fire Department even searched the Winnebago River, which ran right behind Jody's apartment complex.

Special teams were brought in, including canine search units to help track her scent, and helicopters were utilized to conduct aerial searches of the area in case, you know, she had possibly moved further out of the city. But unfortunately, these efforts did not result in finding Jodi. Community members came together very quickly, forming volunteer search parties that covered miles of terrain around Mason City.

They searched fields, ditches, forests, and rural areas, just hoping to find any trace of her. Well, in a disturbing development, after Jodi went missing as neighbors in her building were naturally interviewed, multiple reported hearing what sounded like a scream at around 4 a.m. that morning, which would have been around the time Jodi left her apartment for work. And this is a small city...

There's no other reason to hear a scream if multiple people are saying that around that time in that exact area. Like, what are the chances this is something that is not Jodi? Yeah, and this honestly goes back to one of the bonus episodes that we covered where a bunch of people, like, heard a woman being murdered and they didn't really do anything. It's one of those things where if you don't physically see it...

It's almost like, well, it's probably someone just fucking around. Yeah, and for anybody wondering, that is the case of Kitty Genovese, which we covered recently on Real Crime. That is a wild story. And yeah, I mean, if people heard it also, if they're kind of,

They heard it in their sleep. You're like, wait, did I really hear that? Like recently we heard like a gunshot in our sleep and we're like, was that a gunshot? Or did I imagine that? Or did I dream that? Like, what was that from? And that's when you get on Citizen, the app, but you obviously couldn't do that back when Jodi disappeared. So like with multiple people saying this, it really did feel like that most likely was Jodi. And I will say as well, some even mentioned a mysterious white van in the area around the time as well.

One man who lived in the neighborhood claimed to see a white Ford Econoline the morning Jody disappeared. He explained that it was parked in a way that made him originally think that it was a police vehicle and that it was also around four in the morning. So it was dark outside. Was it really a white van? Was

Was it a different color? Did you really see this? Was it connected? Or is this just somebody in the area's van? Yeah. It's like all these people are coming forward with these clues that could help, but we really don't know if they're reliable. And I wonder kind of what made them think that it was so weird. Like maybe if the van had been parked or like backed up into a parking space and there was a person just sitting in the driver's seat, that would be kind of weird. Yeah, maybe just not parked like...

in an acceptable way that you could walk away from it, but more so in a way that feels like somebody is staking out, right? So days after Jodi vanished without a trace, the Mason City Police held a press conference that would fuel one of the most compelling mysteries of the story.

They announced that they were searching for a white Ford Econoline van, likely from the mid-1980s, so about 10 years old at this time, that had been spotted in the vicinity of Jodi's apartment complex early on the morning she disappeared. Again, this is from that one witness. So now police are taking this seriously. They're thinking...

Maybe this van is relevant. Let's see if somebody can call in a tip and say, hey, I got a neighbor who has a white 40 Conaline and he was being really weird that day. They're just trying to get some tips. And actually, several neighbors recalled seeing a similar vehicle lingering in the area around this time. And one witness even claimed to have seen the van driving off shortly after the time of her suspected abduction.

Which is really interesting to me. These are kind of a lot of tips from so early in the morning. Yeah. Like, how many people are awake and watching the streets at 4 a.m.? This is so weird. I guess somebody was. Yeah, I guess multiple people were somehow. But even so, nobody saw exactly what happened to Jodi. So...

The presence of the van combined with witness statements led authorities to believe that it may have belonged to somebody who had been watching Jodi, possibly stalking her and learning her routine before making a move. Obviously, as we know, Jodi was at the very least receiving what she described as, quote, nasty and naughty phone calls and messages.

She was listed in the white pages. So this could have been how a stalker, possibly somebody who watched her on the news,

could have found her home phone number and her address, even down to her apartment number. Which is really, really scary. Yeah, I mean, her apartment address and number and phone number were all listed in the white pages. So anybody could have found her that way. I don't know why I'm getting this feeling of like Terminator when he's like looking through the white pages trying to find the right Sarah Connor, you know? And he's like going down the list. Yeah, he just goes down the list, goes to the first Sarah Connor. Are you Sarah Connor? Yeah.

But there's only one Jodi who's in true. Right. So it's like it would have been very easy for somebody to find her. Like I'm saying, especially if they already knew who she was from the news. All they got to do is look in the book and there she is. And I got to say, the nasty and naughty phone calls. You just brought up a movie reference. I'm about to do the same. We always do that. We always do. It really reminds me so much of, I know you'll agree, Heath, the original Black Christmas because...

Like you have to imagine this would have been maybe like crude or sexual in nature. The phone calls would have been based on that description, naughty and nasty. Sure. Which just gives you the idea of like the depravity that this person would have had to

to bother her like this? And it makes you wonder, were they physically watching her as well? Because it does seem like that was also the case, as we're going to get into in a minute. But anyway, back to the van really quick. So despite efforts to identify the driver or trace down the vehicle, the alleged white 40 Connellyne van sadly remained a mystery in this investigation, and

And police have not released whether or not there was a clear connection there. Well, through July of 1995, the search for Jodi continued, with her case being treated as an abduction, of course. Helicopters continued circling in the early days of July around Mason City, and interviews continued to be conducted with possible suspects.

Within a month of Jodi's disappearance, investigators had received more than 700 tips on the tip line, but none of them seemed to stick. At this point, police had interviewed almost 800 people with no significant leads. That's a lot of people, especially when you consider how small this city is. Yeah, that's a lot of people. Well, by the end of summer, ground searches were still being conducted, but disappointingly, those really didn't come up with anything either.

Now, as we can imagine, Jody's family was completely devastated, and they were very involved in the quest to find her. The Who's and Truth's even hired a private investigator in hopes that their extensive expertise would be beneficial to finding Jody. I mean, they even flew to Los Angeles to meet with three psychics and a televised special. I mean, it really is clear that they were just trying anything that they could, but nothing helpful came from this.

Jodi's case was also featured on several national television shows, including America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries. And as shocking as her disappearance was, those close to her really couldn't help but recollect a pre-reported incident. So in October of 1994, about nine months before she went missing, Jodi had actually called the police to report an incident where she believed she was being followed.

proving that this had been going on for a while. She had been out for a jog one autumn morning when she noticed a truck following her and the driver staring at her. Then, when she started getting those unsolicited phone calls in the months leading up to her disappearance, Jodi understandably had reason to be concerned, which police only learned after she went missing. But this only strengthened their belief that somebody snatched her.

It's reported that officials tried to trace the potential stalking calls, but sadly, they were unable to identify this caller. Yeah, so she told many people in the final months of her life about these various stalking incidents. She told her family, she told her friends, she told the police, she told those random golfers. Like a lot of people knew about this and she was trying to be proactive. That's why she reported this situation to the police, which

Which is why looking at her abduction, it's really hard to believe that this would just be a random crime. You know, we think about her walking out at 4 a.m. ish to go to work. What are the chances that there is just some random person on the street and they take that opportunity to abduct her and that it's a crime of opportunity? That feels so unlikely. Yeah, it feels unlikely to me that this person is.

would be in that apartment complex area looking for a victim. I feel like if they're cruising around at 4 a.m. looking for a victim, it's probably not going to be in a selective area like an apartment complex parking lot. You know what I mean? It might be on the street, but... Yeah, I definitely think that this was... I mean, we'll get into our theories later, but I'm just going to say right now, this does not at all feel random at all.

or like a crime of opportunity. And I also want to say, just kind of piggybacking on Heath's story just then about that being a pickup truck that was following her. We have no description of that really. There are some reports say that it was a dark colored pickup truck. Others say that it was a white pickup truck. So it doesn't seem like the description of this pickup truck is very clear, but it wasn't a Ford Econoline. So then you wonder,

Is this the same person? Do they have two vehicles? Is this a group of people? Yeah, does this person own that truck? And maybe they use their work van to abduct Jodi. Right, exactly. I mean, all we really know is that she was so spooked by this and everything that was happening that she also asked for advice

if she should start carrying maize. And you can imagine that she didn't know anybody with this pickup truck. She didn't know who was driving since she did identify that the person was staring at her. So that means she got at least a decent look at them, even if it had been brief. So that would kind of tell us that this was a stranger, but we don't have the description of the person or as it's clear from what I'm saying, even a clear description of

of either vehicle, but it does appear like these are two separate vehicles. And again, it is important to note that Jodi was kind of a celebrity in Mason City. And remember, it was a very small city of about 30,000 people. And she was the face of the morning news. So people very much knew who she was. Her work schedule was known. And like I mentioned earlier, her address was public in the phone book.

Now, according to a local martial arts instructor in Mason City, Jodi had been taking self-defense classes in the months before she vanished in response to her fears. So this shows that Jodi had clearly not been feeling safe and the stalker concern really comes into play and it feels like it was only getting worse. It started with somebody maybe physically following her and then calling her and harassing her over the phone.

Now, during the investigation into Jodi's disappearance, several people were questioned. Like Heath said, there were so many suspects in this case, so many people of interest, but also people like her colleagues, her friends, her neighbors were all interviewed. But colleagues reported that Jodi had seemed fine and in good spirits leading up to her disappearance. And no one noted any signs that she was in immediate danger or being threatened. So whether this was because things had been...

Yeah, and you don't often show everything in your personal life with your colleagues. Maybe that's something you just don't want to get into. Right. She probably shared it with friends and family, but yeah, I could see her not sharing it with colleagues. Oh yeah, so true. But like I said earlier as well, she sent that letter around this very time to her best friend...

explaining more about her stalking situation, and her friend didn't get it until after Jodi disappeared. So we can imagine she sent it maybe the day before she vanished-ish, right? So it does seem like around this time, the stalking was still very much going on. And she may have known that something was coming, something was going to happen to her. Well, while countless individuals were questioned and interviewed,

A few names did stand out, capturing the public's attention and speculation. First, a man named Tony DeJohn Jackson. He lived right there in Mason City, Iowa during the time of Jody's disappearance. And three years after Jody vanished, Tony was convicted of serial rape. And according to a jailhouse informant, he admitted to killing Jody.

The informant said that Tony told him he had murdered an anchor woman and recited a rap with lyrics that might lead to where Jodi's body could be found. But of course, Tony denied this and no evidence at this point proved that he was connected. Then three months after Jodi disappeared, a convicted sex offender who did not know Jodi personally named Thomas Korskaden was questioned.

At the time, nothing came of it, and he was cleared for suspicion due to lack of evidence. But years later, he made a comment regarding Jody during a psychological evaluation.

Saying that she was dead when the evaluator expressed doubt that she was alive. Yeah, so basically during this evaluation, they bring up Mason City, Iowa. And they're kind of like, what comes to mind when you think of Mason City? And he smiles and says, Jodi, who's in truth? So creepy. Yeah. And then they're saying, oh, yeah, I don't think she's alive. And he goes, no, she's dead. It felt very kind of final. Yeah.

And Thomas' reaction and certainty, along with those creepy-ass smiles, led to him being re-examined. So in 2004, nine years after Jody went missing, a search warrant was obtained for his home, during which his daughter even admitted that her dad knew who Jody was and watched her on TV.

Unfortunately, aside from this, no further link was made, though it's known that when she went missing, he was living about 45 minutes away in Austin, Minnesota. But he did frequently travel to Iowa to work. So like you're saying, did he have a work vehicle? Was he following her like we're talking about with the stalker? Very well could be. So or is this just a guy...

who watched her on the news and liked her and just had an opinion on her disappearance case. That could be as well. You know, I mean, people like to get involved in cases and in investigations because it's interesting, obviously. Yeah, of course, especially if he was a fan of her news program. Well, while it's possible that Tony or Thomas are behind Jodi's abduction and likely murder, there's one man in particular that has landed in the center of Jodi's case.

Enter, once again, John Van Sise. Now, as we know, John was a friend of Jodi's, and if you recall, he was the one that was with her the night before she disappeared. They had spent the evening watching that birthday video at his home on Monday, June 26, 1995. Investigators questioned him thoroughly due to the close nature of their relationship and his proximity to her in the days leading up to her vanishing.

So before we get into why he's been looked at so heavily, let's talk about who John Van Sise is here. At the time of Jody's untimely disappearance, John was about 49 years old, whereas Jody was 27 years old. Like I think Heath mentioned earlier, he was 22 years older.

Jodi moved into her apartment complex in November of 1993, and around that time, she crossed paths with John, who lived there too.

The two became close friends, and John said that they bonded over their similar interests in, you know, like outdoor activities, boating, water skiing, stuff like that. And as we mentioned, John owned a boat. They were enjoying it that previous weekend. But in an expression of his admiration for Jodi, he named the boat after her. That's pretty wild. Yeah, it's like...

It's really hard to figure this out because, like I said earlier, it seems like he was really into their friendship. She's this beautiful young woman. She is adventurous. She's sporty. She loves to have fun. She's very serious about her career. She's passionate. She's on TV. She's kind of got it all. But I can see this in kind of an interesting angle, though, because it's like if he really had all this admiration for Jodi...

Why would he want her dead unless it was one of those situations where he just wanted to force himself upon her and then something happened and it was an accident and he had to get rid of evidence or whatever. But it really feels that's kind of an interesting thing to me. If I can't have her, no one can perhaps. Just a thought. You know, so a lot of people have just kind of looked at him sideways for various reasons.

naming his boat after her. You read that quote earlier about how he would give his clothes to her, like his t-shirts to her, if she liked them after he wore them for a little while. But he says, oh, well, I was like a father figure to her. And it just kind of makes you wonder if there was more interest there on his side. She looks at him like this,

Cool guy who she likes hanging out with and he's super fun and they have a ton in common, but it's super platonic on her end. But for him, like I said, she's got it all. He has her attention and he wants more. Perhaps, we don't know. But we do know that they spent quite a lot of time together.

One friend even asked Jodi if she and John had a secret romance, which Jodi adamantly denied. But again, many at least question John's intentions. Even Jodi's sister believed that John had quite an infatuation with Jodi and that she herself was aware of it. Like Jodi knew that he was interested in her, but she didn't want him like that. She just wanted her friend to stay her friend.

But even after Jodi disappeared, John insisted that they were nothing but friends. He participated in a public interview with KIMT, the station where Jodi worked, and said, quote, And I do want to add, John did have a son that Jodi knew as well, and he was with them on the lake the weekend earlier.

John was reportedly at home about five minutes away when Jody vanished without a trace. And this would be a very difficult alibi to confirm with certainty because he said that he was alone. But his friend LaDonna recalled calling John at 6 a.m., so about an hour and a half-ish to two hours after Jody vanished, on his landline to confirm their usual routine morning walk.

which he allegedly answered and agreed to as usual. So if this is true, and knowing what we do know about many killers calling out of work the day they commit a horrific crime,

It would potentially be hard to believe that John would have agreed to go on this walk at all. Maybe he would have said, I can't today. But apparently he did go on this walk. And when the two met up around 7 a.m., LaDonna says that John seemed completely normal and showed no signs that anything was out of the ordinary. But since there is really no evidence of this walk, many question its validity.

But I will say there really is no real reason to question it other than because of the fact that it feels like a convenient alibi. But that's mostly people who feel like John is probably responsible just based on all of these notes. Yeah, I mean, without any concrete evidence or physical evidence...

really not a whole lot there unless there's something that police haven't released to the public. We don't know about that, but you know, it is possible, but I wouldn't go too far down that rabbit hole. Well, then I think about the case we covered recently, murder at Carol Ann Chateau and how he was acting totally normally afterwards as well. He showed up to things. Yeah. His sister said he wasn't acting strange at all and that was only a couple hours after the murder as well. So it

It doesn't mean that he's in the clear here. But I will say that Mason City Police did confirm that John passed a polygraph test, though some reports claim that he did fail and that he had willingly given his fingerprints and a palm print. So I guess there's that. But it's hard because we also don't know if the partial palm print or even the hair found amongst her car belonged to her abductor. That could have been a person...

It's too hard to say. While not willing to give up on John just yet, shortly after Jodi disappeared, police turned their attention to John's home, focusing specifically on his basement, but they found nothing of significance.

And then, John moved to Arizona. And while this does kind of look suspicious to us, when a person of interest, you know, relocates shortly after the crime in question takes place, he later explained in an interview that the publicity surrounding him and locals' knowledge of him being close to Jody led to him losing his job, his home, and his boat. Though we're not sure, you know, how that's true, but that's what he says at least.

He also says that he lost his dignity and his friends, so he moved to Phoenix to start anew. Though even there, he continued to be questioned by police in relation to Jody's case.

In February of 2017, as renewed investigations surrounding her case were underway, investigators with the Mason City Police Department received approval for a search warrant in order to place a GPS tracker on two of John's vehicles.

And the search warrant was granted to collect data for a 1999 Honda Civic and a 2013 GMC SUV, which were both, of course, manufactured after Jody's disappearance. Which, obviously, a lot of people questioned during that time. But despite efforts, Mason City Police disclosed that no helpful information in Jody's case was discovered as a result of that search warrant.

And what the search warrant revealed regarding, you know, the GPS trackers has remained sealed for several years. Until April of 2025, just a couple of weeks before the release of this episode.

The vehicles were monitored between March 2nd and March 6th of 2017, and it showed John traveling from Baxter, Iowa, and back to Phoenix, where he lived. So that's kind of interesting. And I know that this sounds so random to trace his movements over two decades after Jody went missing, but...

and the full reasoning and findings are still sealed, but it's believed that they think that he was meeting with somebody involved in the case thanks to a new tip and a new lead.

And considering that he drove to Iowa on this trip, we can assume police learned about this trip ahead of time and were hoping to kind of catch him in the act or something. I mean, it's not like he was going to Florida. Like, Iowa is where Jody lived and disappeared from. To be fair, that's also where he used to live. So it's like he could have been, you know, going back to see an old friend or possibly a family member. Who knows? Yes, absolutely. But, of course, as far as we know, they didn't catch him in anything. Right.

Well, less than two years later in 2019, John was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which seemed to close any remaining chance of clarity or confession. And he left behind another unanswered chapter in the mystery of Jody's fate when he died in December of 2024.

And by the way, he passed away at 78. A private investigator named Steve Ridge, who joined the case back in 2019, recently said that his suspect list has since been narrowed down to four people. And he did not provide names. We don't know if John is even on his list. But he revealed that Jody had recently started dating a man who lived out of state.

P.I. Ridge said, quote, I think plain and simply things came to a head given the fact that she had developed this new relationship. I believe this was ultimately the motive of the confrontation that would have occurred in the parking lot at her apartment. So he has reason to believe that the motive for abducting and possibly killing Jodi was jealousy.

And I can definitely see that. I mean, a lot of these guys that stalk women, they get really, really possessive over those women. And if they start dating a new guy, it's like heartbreak for them. It's like backstabbing to them. But it's also hard because...

Are they like, does Steve think that the ex-boyfriend is involved or that the stalker of hers was involved and killed her out of jealousy that she was dating somebody? That's kind of what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that the stalker was jealous that she was dating somebody and he couldn't have her. It's so hard to say. I mean, again, it does seem like somebody, a man could have very well been at her apartment that night. So was it a man? But then I would, I don't know. It's kind of would be surprising to me that,

that there was a man in her apartment and that police never released that. Obviously, even her family has said that they were worried about the documents of 2017 being released by a judge recently because they want to keep the integrity of the investigation. So it's possible they know way more than we know about

and can kind of dispute a lot of this. And just being able to narrow down a suspect list to four people when we talked about the fact that they interviewed, the police interviewed over 800 people, I think that says a lot. Well, despite clear signs of a struggle at the scene back in June of 1995, the extensive searches for Jodi have remained unsuccessful.

Six years later, in May of 2001, Jodi's family declared her legally dead, which was a painful but necessary step forward, though the search for her has never stopped, even as we approach 30 years since her disappearance this June.

And really quick, I want to go back to the crime scene. We will post photos of her apartment complex so you can see the layout and just how close the entrance is to where her car was. We said parking lot, but it's a very small parking lot. The cars are just outside of the door. So something that interests me about the stalking angle versus somebody that she knew angle is that

Especially considering it was so dark outside, the sun was not going to start coming up for another hour and a half or so. If someone was waiting outside for her, they'd have to have been really close to her car waiting to kind of jump out and grab her. Obviously to abscond her the way that they would have needed to, their own vehicle would have had to have been really right next to her as possibly a van or

or a truck parked directly next to her or behind her car, but...

This person, if they knew her schedule, would have been waiting over an hour past when she was supposed to come out to her car since she was running so late that day. Which just makes me wonder if it was someone who was in her apartment that night that followed her out. Possibly the new person she was seeing or even John. But it's so hard to ignore the stalker angle. We know that she had been followed for at least eight months, so...

Was this just a creep who was watching her, you know, maybe not wanting to act on anything just yet until that very day?

And then did they finally decide to do something to her that day? And knowing her routine well, they waited next to her car and sprung out when she scurried out? I think that it's very possible that this person did, in fact, wait over an hour. Because if they were really set in their decision to take Jodi that morning, I don't think anything was going to stop them. Even if she slept in for an hour, I think they were going to wait longer.

And they were just going to wait it out. Well, only a few years into her flourishing career as a news broadcaster, Jodi had big ambitions in her life. At 27 years old, Jodi had an admirable work ethic. And if she had been given the chance, she likely would have become a widely known star and excelled as a famous national news anchor.

As of 2025, it has now been 30 years since Jodi Husentrout vanished from the parking lot of her apartment complex in Mason City, Iowa. Regardless of the years gone by, Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley says the case remains open and active. In an interview, Chief Brinkley said, "...it's never been a cold case for us. It's been an active investigation since it happened."

Refusing to give up, Chief Brinkley remains hopeful that she will one day be found. So, if you have any information about Jodi's case, please call the Mason City Police Department at 641-421-3636. You can also find important contact information at findjodi.com.

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I find it so wild that we have this, the drag marks in the parking lot. We have information that leads us to believe that Jodi was abducted. But other than that, there is absolutely nothing. And it feels like this whole case is just...

rife with speculation, but somebody does know something. Somebody was responsible and hopefully someday we will have those answers. I really wonder how close police are. If they really do know a lot more than we know. Obviously, they know that she had started dating somebody before she went missing. I

I'm assuming they have that person's name. I'm assuming they've interviewed them. But I wonder how close or far they really are. Well, I surely hope that they are really close because, I mean, it's been 30 years since Jodi vanished and her family is still fighting for answers. And it's such a perplexing case. There's so much to discuss regarding her stalker and...

All the different people in her life and just the fact that she was a figure on TV. She was a morning news reporter that people watched every single day. There's so many people that watch the news every morning. They're comfortable with their local hosts. And Jodi was one of those people. So was this somebody who was a fan and they were watching her or was it somebody she knew or somebody else?

I really hope that her family can get answers someday and that we can figure out what really happened to her. Well, just like Daphne said, make sure you go and check out those photos of today's case on our socials. We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast, and we're also on Facebook. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Also, huge thank you to all the people that recommended this case. We've been wanting to cover this again for so long. So glad we finally did. And we will see you again on Friday.

All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.

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