Iowa journalist Jodi Huisentruit who vanished 24 years ago may have been abducted by a stalker or even killed
MASON CITY, IOWA: Twenty four years after a local news anchor went missing from Mason City, new theories behind her disappearance and possible abduction suggest that she might have been victimized by someone very close to her, kidnapped by a stalker obsessed with her or silenced after she tried to investigate her friend's murder.
Jodi Huisentruit, who was 27 years old at the time of her disappearance, and hosted the news segment called 'Daybreak' on KIMT network, was last seen on June 26, 1995, and last heard from on June 27, 1995. When she did not show up to work, her coworkers alerted the police, asking them to make a welfare check on her.
When the police arrived outside her apartment complex, they were greeted with signs of struggle. A hairdryer, a pair of red shoes, damaged car keys and a bottle of hair spray were found next to her car at her apartment complex. A partial palm print belonging to the perpetrator was recovered from her car.
Huisentruit's body was never found. No arrests were made in the case. She was declared legally dead in 2001.
A team of investigative podcasters uncovered the top theories behind her disappearance in the premiere episode of 'Up And Vanished' which aired on Oxygen on Saturday, February 15 at 7 pm ET/PT.
Unknown stalker
Both Huisentruit's sister Joann Nathe as well as her friend Tammy Baker believe that the journalist had a stalker who was obsessed with her and even followed her down the road one day when she was out jogging.
"I think some weirdo out there got an obsession with her and something bad happened," Baker said.
Nathe told the podcasters: "She was getting some strange phone calls and then that guy had been following her one day when she was out jogging. Who knows, he might have been innocent but she got very upset about it."
Although Mason City police chief Jack Schlieper denied having any knowledge of Huisentruit having a stalker or of her reporting the same, the victim's friends and family claimed that she filed a police report in November 1994, seven months before she went missing.
John Vansice
Vansice, one of the persons of interest considered at the time by the police, voluntarily went to the police on June 27, 1995, and told them he was the last person to see her before she vanished. He was never formally arrested or charged by the police.
He first met Huisentruit six months before she disappeared and many believed that he had developed a soft spot for her. It was unclear if he ever confessed his feelings to Huisentruit or if even she had romantic feelings toward him. He insisted that on the night of June 26, 1995, she came over to his house to watch a video of her birthday party which was attended by him.
Huisentruit's assistant producer, Amy Kuns, who had to take over her show after she failed to show up, said in the episode that Vansice called the news station on the morning of June 27, 1995, and asked if Huisentruit had come to work. When he was told that she had not, he pressed on, asking if she was sick.
Vansice also owned a van similar to the one seen by an eye witness in front of Huisentruit's apartment on the day of her disappearance.
However, Ladonna Woodford, a mutual friend of Huisentruit and Vansice insisted that he was with her in the morning the journalist went missing and that she had formally been his alibi in front of investigators.
In an interview at the time, Vansice said: "My heart says she's still alive, my heart says she is somewhere. And she's not able to get hold of us. I'm hoping that we can still find her. I still have hope."
Billy Pruin
Three months before Huisentruit went missing, her friend, Pruin, 45, was mysteriously found dead in his house on April 5, 1995. Although his death was initially ruled a suicide, the coroner changed the cause of death to 'inconclusive' after further investigation.
Beth Bedner, an author who has written extensively about Pruin's death, said that he would often have boating parties with Huisentruit and Vansice over weekends.
Vansice was known to be a jealous person. So it would probably not be too far-fetched to think that if Pruin and Huisentruit wanted to get romantically involved, Vansice would have taken an issue with it.
Many thought Huisentruit was investigating Pruin's death and an anonymous friend of Pruin thought his death was a murder. Hence the fact that Huisentruit might have been silenced after she possibly found out something related to Pruin's murder is not unlikely.