MASON CITY, IA — Police are investigating two vehicles that may be connected to the disappearance of an Iowa news anchor 23 years ago, according to a new report.
Jodi Huisentruit was a 27-year-old anchor at KIMT-TV in Mason City. On June 27, 1995, she did not show up for work to anchor the 6 A.M. broadcast — and she has not been seen since. Investigators believe that someone kidnapped Jodi shortly after 4 A.M. as she went to her red car in the parking lot of her apartment complex. In the parking lot, police found signs of a struggle.
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Neighbors said they heard a scream at around that time, and noticed a white van. Investigators later found her red high heels, blow dryer, hair spray, and earrings scattered around. They also reportedly found an unidentified partial palm print on her car and her bent car key on the ground, which led them to believe that she was unlocking her car door when she was taken.
The Mason City Police Department executed a search warrant on March 20, 2017, for GPS data on two cars related to John Vansice — which online court records have identified as a 1999 Honda Civic and a 2013 GMC 1500. Vansice, 72, was a friend of Huisentruit’s who may have been the last person to see her before she vanished.
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FindJodi.com reports that although the documents contained in the warrant were sealed in March 2017 for six months, and then again in October 2017 for an additional year, one of their readers spotted the information on an Iowa Courts Online search.
Vansice was reportedly questioned after the news anchor’s disappearance. The Des Moines Register reported that Jodi stopped by his house on the evening of June 26. Vansice told the paper at the time that he and Jodi had watched a videotape together, and that when she left his residence she was in “good spirits.”
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Vansice claimed that police interviewed him and gave him a polygraph test, but stated that he had been “crucified” by the press and shunned by some of his friends.
Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley said the search warrant is connected to the ongoing investigation, but did not offer any further comment. Anyone with information about Jodi’s disappearance is asked to contact Lieutenant Rich Jensen at the Mason City Police Department at (641) 421-3636.
For more on the Jodi Huisentruit case, watch the “Breaking News” episode of Investigation Discovery’s Disappeared on ID GO now!
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Main photo: Jodi Huisentruit [Wikimedia Commons]
The post New Lead In 1995 Cold Case Disappearance Of Iowa News Anchor appeared first on CrimeFeed.