Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Lipstick, red heels and purse only clues in TV Star Jodi Huisentruit disappearance

Episode Date: January 3, 2019

When Iowa TV news anchor Jodi Huisentruit failed to show up for her morning show, coworkers knew something was wrong. The popular TV personality is still missing more than two decades later. Nancy Grace reopens the case in a discussion with forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan -- Author of "Blood Beneath My Feet," forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober, and North Carolina family and divorce lawyer Kathleen Murphy. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find out how to protect your child when you're out at the mall or the store or the grocery, in the parking lot, at home. Find out about protection regarding babysitters and daycare, even online. I'd rather have that any day of the week than a plastic toy or, God forbid, a toy gun. Join Justice Nation. Go to crimestopshere.com. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. And at this hour, investigators still have few clues about where Jody, who's in truth. The FBI is now involved in the case and they're beginning to concentrate their efforts...

Search dogs turn up clues, but tonight it remains untested evidence. Where is she? Who knows something hasn't come forward? Caroline Lowe is in Tiffin, Iowa with an update right now. Caroline? Well, Amelia, tonight there's a stained silo door... Being a journalist, I know what gets covered. And that's why we do things like billboards to try to get the attention. We really wish we weren't here today. 23 years later, what happened to Jodi is still a mystery.

You are watching News Channel 3 Daybreak. The time is 6 o'clock, 64 degrees, and light showers falling in North Iowa. Jodi grew up in Minnesota. Then she went to Mason City in 1993 to become the Porter Morning Anchor. This morning, our morning anchor, 27-year-old Jodi, who's in fruit, apparently disappeared. She was running late.

It appeared that Jodi had been attacked from behind and then dragged away from her car and her stuff was scattered behind. You are hearing from our friends there at CBS 48 Hours. After this aired, there's been a flood of tips but still no answers. What happened to this beautiful young KIMT TV anchor there in Mason City, Iowa, scheduled to report to work at 4 a.m. that morning? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. The tip line, 641-421-3636.

Where is Jody? Who's in truth? You know, I remember to Alan Duke joining me, my partner in crime in LA and joining me right here in the studio, Jackie Howard, along with death investigator, professor forensics at Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, Joseph Scott Morgan, renowned forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Bober, and North Carolina family lawyer. She knows her way around a courtroom, Kathleen Murphy. Alan, I remember speaking to Deborah Norville, okay, who has turned out to be a good friend over the years, and you can see her every day on Inside Edition.

Do you know, Alan, that she got her start in Atlanta? Now, she was a student at UGA in Athens, and she would stay, believe it or not, you know, you'd never know by looking at her now with all her fame and fortune and her wonderful husband and beautiful children, that she would stay in her car. And she would drive that car over from Athens to Atlanta and get here. She must have had to get here at 3 o'clock in the morning, I guess. And she would go into the offices of the TV station and she would take a sink shower and get herself ready and get on TV and look at her now. I mean, a superstar. And that, that really has always

inspired me. Now, you know, she does, is not called Debbie Norville. She is always called Deborah Norville, to my understanding. But imagine what she went through and all the sacrifices she made to make it in TV. And she certainly did. And that makes me think of Jodi Husentrout. There in Mason City, Iowa, at 4 a.m. She's getting there. You know, Alan, when I started at Court TV, after I was on with Johnny Cochran, God rest his soul, I took a morning shift. I had to be there, be there, ready to go at 645 a.m. And then I would stay through the, I had nothing else, you know, I knew nobody in New York York I would stay and then do

Larry King at night at nine o'clock and I would get home you know at 10 30 or 11 at night it was quite a long day but you know that was a sacrifice and that's what Jody was doing Alan I don't understand I remember when this happened I've never understood how they didn't find the perp or find Jody. I mean, she clearly was attacked in the parking lot. I mean, you take it on. Tell me what happened. Well, this reminds me of something that's happened to me before. And that's like, you've got to be on the air at six o'clock. Wait, they found your pocketbook and your lipstick in that? No. But you oversleep. I never overslept, Alan. That's you, not me.

Oh, no. I just know that one morning I'm going to get a call from Jackie saying, Alan, where are you? As a matter of fact, I wake up every morning at 3 o'clock. It never fails between 2.59 and 3.10 thinking it's 5 and it's time for me to get up. Yeah, Jackie gets up at 4, so we don't really want to hear about you being a sleeping beauty, Alan. But it's part of the game of being in broadcasting. Well, you have to get up early to get your ponytail done.

I do. You've got to take out those sponge rollers and get that all combed out. As a morning anchor, it did take Jody time. She had to get her hair ready and get her makeup done and everything. Oh, and listen, hold on. Isn't it true uh you have to put on a lot of makeup to be under those bright lights i mean thick and in the morning greasy and then you put that powder on top of that um so bottom line back to her yeah she

she was awakened the producer back at the station at wimt And she had to be there at 4 a.m. Normally she was there showing up at about 3 30 to look at scripts and see what was in the rundown but at four o'clock she wasn't there so her producer called her on the phone and apparently she was just getting ready and she says okay I'm sorry I'll be there soon and then the clock ticked 5 30 half hour before she's supposed to go on the air. She still wasn't there. Wait, now hold on. You're telling me something interesting. So her boss or a co-worker called her.

And that's not unusual. Very often, in fact, he went on with me to HLN and became a senior on the show at HLN, my producer, Justin, we would talk in the morning starting at 5, 5.30 in the morning or really early. So that's not unusual to be calling back and forth. Not necessarily to wake the person up, but to say, hey, this happened, that happened. And, you know, get your mind around it. Come on. Right.

Well, now we text. That's the way you and i and jackie we do that so she still wasn't there at 5 30 so there was some panic setting in uh perhaps just because what are we going to do about the show well she didn't live that far away either so not at all she didn't show up they knew something was wrong it's a small town i mean mason city iowa 27 000 is the current population, according to Wikipedia anyway. So it's not a big town. But unfortunately, it turned out that it wasn't just that she overslept and she was late,

but they found her car, but not her. And it looked like she had been involved in some sort of a struggle. Was the car at the parking lot in her apartments, at key apartments or at the studio at the station? It was it was looking like she was on her way there. The there was a red the video that I've seen of it showed a red Mazda Miata. Right. It was it was a red Mazda Miata. And she's very proud of that car.

But it was it red Mazda Miata, and she's very proud of that car. But it had her stuff. Her shoes were outside the door. Well, yes, she had a pair of red dress shoes. Now, her personal belongings were found scattered in the apartment. It's the apartment, not the station. Apartment complex parking lot around her red Mazda Miata. There was also a pair of red dress shoes, a bottle of hairspray. I got to have that.

A blow dryer, earrings, and, who's in truth, car keys. A co-worker went out and assisted cops in searching her apartment, and there was no sign of struggle in the apartment. Listen to this, our friends at 48 hours. I called her and I talked to her. She was there. It sounded like I woke her up. Her first was, what time is it? I said, Jodi, it's 10 after four. You need to come in. That was the last contact anybody has had with Jodi. It's been 38 hours now since anyone has spoken to Jodi who's in truth. Good evening,

everyone. I had such a strange collision of emotions. Residents from all across North Iowa are in turn feeling the emotion and the desperation for Jodi's safe return. And I thought, I know her so well. And all of these folks who are watching on TV right now feel like they really know her too. They had her in their home every morning, and they loved her. Way to go, Kevin. She has a hard last name. Who's in truth? After the 27th of June, she's Jodi. Doesn't need a last name anymore. She'll always be just Jodi.

The clock was ticking. I'm John Schein from KIMT Television, Mason City, Iowa. We need your help. One of our news anchors is missing. It's been 42 hours since we last heard from our dear friend Jody. There are lots and lots of theories. How would you classify John Van Sise? I would classify him as a friend.

Jody spent more time with John Van Sise in the last month that she was in Mason City than anybody that we know of. And he said, I was the last person to see her. I interviewed him the next day. Have the police indicated whether or not you're a suspect? No, there haven't been any indication. They've interviewed me twice, but there haven't been any indication I'm a suspect. Is anybody live? The Mason City police said they're now concentrating their efforts on 12 people

there's been no detainments there's only been people that have been interviewed it could be somebody we least expect you are hearing our friends at 48 hours what happened to jody who's in truth absolutely stunning in her 20s working like a maniac trying to make it in TV, a family fixture in Mason City, Iowa. Yes, it's a small market, but she was very beloved. And based on her track record, she was headed for great things when she did not report to work one morning. Super early, everything went sideways. In her apartment complex parking lot,'re at key apartments in Mason City. Her personal belongings found scattered in the apartment complex parking lot around her little

red Mazda Miata, a blow dryer, a bottle of hairspray, her earrings, her car keys, and a pair of red dress shoes. That's very common for TV people to either dress up from the waist up and dress down from the waist down. I know for the last, I don't know how many years I was on TV, I always had my black workout pants underneath a jacket or a fancy sweater or something on top. So she was wearing, for instance, tennis shoes or flats and she'd switch into her heels to go into work but it's it tells me uh i'm going so many different ways let's start with joseph scott morgan forensics expert author of blood beneath my feet on amazon detailing many of his cases as a death investigator just got one at first i would think it was somebody targeting her, okay,

because she was locally very famous. That would have to be somebody waiting in the parking lot, you know, at 4 o'clock in the morning. And I say that, Joe Scott, because who's going to be wandering around in a parking lot at 3.30? I don't know. Unless you're a cop or, you cop or a news anchor or you're delivering milk. That's a weird time of day. I spent a lot of my career, Nancy, working a graveyard shift

from midnight until six in the morning or midnight till seven in the morning. And it's an odd period of time. The individual that attacked her, they knew her movements. They were, in my opinion, this is somebody that has stalked her out. They sit up in a location where they can watch her, they can observe her, and then they took her by stealth probably where they crept up behind her. Another scenario that I'm thinking about, was she in her apartment with this individual that night and she was demanding that she go to work and they were like you're not leaving and

they followed her out into the parking lot so there's a couple of different ways you can go but it's very very limited in the spectrum here it doesn't make sense to me what you just said are you saying uh like a boyfriend or a lover with her all night that went crazy when she left yeah yeah that's one of the things yeah look if you've been in the sack with somebody all night long i doubt they're going to get that mad when you have to go to work and make a living uh i'm not not really buying that one the other one makes more sense to me dr daniel bober forensic psychiatrist joining us out of the Florida jurisdiction. Dr. Bober, look at the facts.

Divine for me, your best analysis. Is it someone that was stalking her? Or are we getting all tangled up in the fact that she was on air and anchor? Or is this just some perv in the parking lot and this was a crime of opportunity because notice her pocketbook money credit cards and so forth were missing there were her shoes blow dryer bottle hair spray earrings and her car keys no money or pocketbook nancy to me this is someone because she was a celebrity of sorts and a lot of people saw her to me this is someone who probably developed some delusional obsession with her and you know took her out i don't think that this was

you know someone she knew i think this was like like you said a crime of opportunity i will never forget dr daniel bober um when a guy i can't remember where he came from, I want to say maybe Iowa, but took a bus all the way to Time Warner in New York City with his suitcases and showed up in the lobby and said he was there to work on our relationship that we were getting married. Well, I never even heard of him. Apparently he had been writing letters for months to CNN, but I never saw them or heard about them.

They never made it to me or our staff at all. Nobody knew about them until the guy showed up. And he, you know, then there were others that were like angry. That's usually the type I got that were angry about something I said. The first time it happened, Dr. Daniel Bober, I was still actually a prosecutor and some idiot from the jail, Fulton County Jail, faxed over a threat. And I'm like, wow, how are we ever going to find him? OK, so I don't want to laugh it off because it's very serious.

But that particular one was pretty easy to solve. So it happens. And believe it or not, in fact, I wrote about it in Death on the D-List. There was a stalker in that case, which I don't want to spoil the ending, but it turned out to be a red herring, that thought somebody on air was sending them messages through their movements. And that does happen, Dr. Weber. But what about the obvious that it's somebody in the parking lot? And when you're a public figure, it's much more likely.

So to you, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family and divorce lawyer, trial lawyer. Kathleen Murphy, what do you think about this? Are we getting hung up in the fact that she's on air and she was an anchor? Or could it be someone just walking literally in the parking lot, saw her and jumped her? I think that there are two things that happened at the same time that caused me to think it's somebody she knows. It was unusual for her to be late and for her producer to call her and tell her she's late. And that occurred at the very same time that she walks outside and then disappears. And I watched the 48 Hours episode, and I was concerned about her friend that seemed to be obsessed with her. Now, tell me your thoughts on that.

Perhaps was with her that night. tell me your thoughts on that. Perhaps was with her that night. Tell me your thoughts on that. I thought it was very odd that he named his boat after her. I thought it was very odd that he would massage her shoulders. I thought it was very odd that a lot of her friends were telling her that he was obsessed with her. And I thought it was odd that she was late on the very day that she happened to disappear. Late very day that she happened to disappear. Late on the day she happened to disappear.

What do you mean by that, Kathleen? You've got to spell it out for me. Well, her producer calls her and tells her, You need to be here. Why aren't you here? She gets up and goes outside and then disappears. So there are two events back to back that were unusual for her. Unusual that she disappeared, obviously, and unusual that she was late for work.

Guys, I want you to take a listen to this. Police descended on the newsroom, searching Jodi's desk for any evidence of an angry or obsessed viewer. Had Jodi's natural warmth made her a target? You know, she went grocery shopping and it took her two hours because she talked to three people along the way and she always had time for everybody. Joanne Nathie is Jodi's sister. She definitely was too trusting. Not thinking that maybe some of those people watching her had their own potentially troubling ideas. Yeah, that's what I worry about, that she, you know, was too personable. Way to go, Kevin. I'm getting there slowly. Way to keep me in check. Revealing too much, maybe what she did day to day. I live by a big swimming pool and I can hear the and yelling. Hi, Nancy Grace here. Have you ever Googled yourself, your neighbors, somebody at work,

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Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy. Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy. Find the truth. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Jody, who's in truth's dream of making it big, ended the morning of Tuesday, June 27, 1995. The anchor of KIMT's 6 a.m. newscast, she usually arrived at work by 3.30 in the morning. If she's not there between 3.30 and 4, I give her a call and say, hey, are you awake? Producer Amy Coons noticed nothing unusual

when she called and woke Jodi up about 10 after 4 that morning. She was asking about the show. She was concerned about the show, and she said, I'll be right there. But at 5.30, still no Jodi. And this being a time before cell phones, Amy tried her at home again and got her answering machine.

At 6 a.m., Amy had to step up and deliver the news in Jody's place. She loves her show. She calls it her show. You know, she wouldn't miss it for anything. From our friends at 48 Hours as they investigate the disappearance of a gorgeous young anchor, Jody Husentruth, let's talk about this guy, John Van Sise. This is a guy that was reportedly obsessed with Jody Husentrout. Now, what do we know about him, Alan Duke? Well, John Van Sise met Jody at a bar. And by the way, it turns out that John Van Sise's

background had some DUIs. And so we know he liked to drink. But they became close friends. She and another one of her friends became friends with John. They would go out on his boat, and they would go socializing together. But he was 49 years old. She was just 27 at the time. Friends, though, thought he had feelings for her that were not mutual. In fact, as Kathleen mentioned, he named his boat after her. That is

obsession, if you ask me. My dad named his boat after my mom, okay? But she told friends that he was just like a father to her. But the mystery is, was he jealous of her, perhaps potential relationships with other men closer to her age? John Van Sise, an Arizona man who apparently remains a person of interest in the Jody Husentruth case. Now, what do we know about him? His legal name is Arthur John Van Sise, and he was named on the March 2017 search warrant for GPS data from his 99 Honda Civic and a 2013 GMC 1500. Now, to you, Joseph Scott Morgan, for instance, expert, what does that mean? Well, that means that they don't have a huge field of suspects to look at. And so they've narrowed it down to this particular gentleman gentleman along with, they said 12 others,

but I think that their focus is specifically on him. I got to tell you, Nancy, the one troubling thing about this that we've gone back to now a couple of times is this idea that she was later than she normally would be. Remember, they called her and she said that she would be there. And that was outside the norm for her. Why on that particular morning shift was she late? And that's one of the reasons I put forward this idea that maybe someone had come to visit her at her apartment. Someone coming to visit her at the apartment. But the apartment, wasn't it? I think that's Alan Duke jumping in.

Wasn't the apartment totally in order? It didn't look like anything had happened there. She hadn't done the dishes, which anyway. That doesn't matter. It did not look like there was a struggle. But John Van Sise claimed to be the last person to see her. He said in an interview two days after her disappearance that she was over at my house the night before. And she was laughing and we were having fun.

And so he claims he was the last person to see her. By the way, he was recently divorced. You mean at the time he was recently divorced? Yes, at that time. Okay, what does that mean? It means that he was going through some turbulence in his life at the time. Okay, all right. Definitely this guy, Ben Sise, was an acquaintance of Hoos and Truths,

believed to be the last person to see the 27-year-old anchor alive. Now, according to an article in the Globe Gazette, he said he passed a polygraph. I don't know that that's true. The police did say that. Okay, all right. And you'll hear that in the 48-hour special, that he did pass a polygraph soon after the disappearance. So what I'm trying to figure out, regarding this warrant, there was a warrant regarding

John Menzies that was sealed the same day, meaning no other information is available to the public about why the search was ordered or what was discovered. But whatever was discovered and why ever it was ordered, we do know that he remains a person of interest. Now, it seems to me that search warrant could have gotten, if it existed, GPS global positioning on his vehicles. Did it exist at that time, Joe Scott Morgan? Was there GPS at that time? Well, there was GPS, but it was more sophisticated to the functions of, say, for instance, like military utilization. Also, if you remember back in that time, they used a low jack, which was kind of a GPS.

But the everyday person, you know, they wouldn't have that back during that time. Now, we know he videotaped a birthday party he threw for her just days before she disappeared. And he himself admits he was at his house the night before her disappearance watching that tape he also says that he was with her the night before she disappeared there were definitely signs of a struggle now she was legally declared dead but her body has never been found police actually searched the basement of a home formerly occupied by Van Seis, but that search didn't turn anything up, and he still remains a person of interest. To you,

Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist, what does it mean to you that he's still a person of interest? It means that at this point, they still cannot rule him out as a suspect, and I think that's probably the best thing they have right now. But it is interesting that her body has never been found to date. Mason City PD searching dumpsters, parking lots, you name it. Looking for clues leading to the disappearance of the KIMT anchor Jody Husentruth. Reported missing in the early, early morning hours of June 27. Listen to this. Whoever took Jody seemed to be

familiar with her schedule. Could it have been someone she knew? To find out, investigators were piecing together the last days of Jody's life. And this man popped up on their radar by declaring he'd been the last person to see Jody alive. They've interviewed me twice, but they haven't given me any indication I'm a suspect. Jody's friend, John Van Syce, told Robin in an interview that Jody had visited his home the night before she was abducted. She was laughing the whole time she was there, and she laughed all the time she laughed. How did he strike you? Way too happy and gleeful.

He wanted to be interviewed. She was like a daughter to me. She was just like my own child uh i treated her like my own child so who exactly is john van seiss drilling down into that question is complicated by the passage of time but this certainly helps 23 years ago days after jody disappeared 48 hours was in Mason City, and we spent time with the man who had put himself at the center of the case. Honestly, she's alive somewhere. I just hope she's not hurt. I hope she's okay.

I hope she'll come back soon. Back in 1995, we caught up with John Van Syce and Jody's close friend, Ani Cruz, dockside, where we learned the three often water skied off his boat. Van Syce certainly wasn't hiding or acting like someone under a cloud of suspicion. She wouldn't want to sit around home and cry and sob. She'd want to be out having fun, because that was her. It's her.

It is. Everything is. It is her. She's coming back. We'll be ready for her. It's been an active investigation since it happened. But we're 23 years in. Right. I'm not ready to quit yet. The more we keep this story alive, it might just unlock the puzzle. I may be walking around with my cane and maybe in a wheelchair, but I am staying on this until somebody knows something. Is it you? You're hearing our friends at 48 Hours who have rekindled the case of Jody Hoosentroot. To you, Alan Duke, who is Tony Jackson and what could he have to do, if anything, with the missing, the gorgeous young missing TV anchor Jody Hoosentroot?

Tony Jackson was a student at a community college in Mason City, Iowa. He had been a college basketball player before on a higher level and then sort of had some trouble in his life, but he was interested in broadcasting. Was he the predator, the stalker, she was reporting? Well, Jackson, who lived just a few blocks away from Jody when she disappeared, is currently serving a life sentence in a Minnesota prison for a rape conviction. So let me understand this. He lives in close proximity to her and he's in on another rape charge. You know, that brings me to this question to Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert and author. Joseph Scott Morgan, how should they have processed the scene because I'm just wondering if they lost DNA or if there is any DNA

still to be found even these many years later it can still be processed that they could try to match up to this Tony Jackson yeah in a perfect world Nancy what they would have done is gone into her apartment uh and have collected things uh intimate things, say, for instance, like the bedding. You know, maybe look for specific things like cigarette butts if there was a smoker in the house. Any kind of, you know, Alan actually said a mouthful a second ago. I know he said it tongue-in-cheek, but, you know, she had dirty dishes, for instance, in her sink. Were there a couple of wine glasses, coffee cups, anything that was in there that might contain some kind of biological evidence? The key here, though, is how well did the police preserve this? Now, we can't stand in judgment of the people back in 1995 because they didn't understand

things like touch DNA and all this technology that we have now, but how well was it preserved going forward? Was it stored in some kind of musty evidence room somewhere? Was it properly packaged so that they could go back and reflect? Remember, by their own admission, the police have said this has never been classified as a cold case to them, that this is something that is active. Well, if it's active, one of the things I'm going to look at is how much evidence did you collect or potential evidence did you collect at that particular time? There were also reports that Jody Husentruth thought one day when she was out jogging that she had been followed by a black vehicle, a black vehicle. And I don't know, could that have anything to do with it? Do you know anything about that, Alan Duke? Well, she reported it to police, but they never got to the bottom of it. Do you know anything about that, Alan Duke? Well, she reported it to police, but they never got to the bottom of it. They never figured anything out. And this was several months before she disappeared. Now, I should add, Mason City Police did investigate this Tony Jackson guy, but of course, they didn't have DNA to the extent back then. And they concluded then that

they had no evidence to hold him in Jody's case. Was it a crime of opportunity? Was she targeted by an obsessed fan, or was it someone she knew? Take a listen to this. It was later that Monday evening that Van Sise claims Jody came over to his home to watch a video. And we watched the tape, and we chuckled, and we laughed, we giggled, we hee-hawed, we did everything. We said, we're going to cut this portion out of the tape, we're going to cut this portion out of the tape, and we laugh about it. The next morning, Jody was gone. Would John Van Sise have a reason to harm her? Ani couldn't think of any.

Without a doubt, I had no question that there was no possibility in my mind that he could have ever. The police were also asking Ani what she knew. The investigators are asking you about John Van Sise. Yes. And you're saying it couldn't be John. No, he's our friend. For me, I'm thinking, why would you hurt somebody that brought so much joy in your life? You know, speaking of the friend Van Sise, he was at her place the night before watching a birthday video of a birthday party he threw for her a few days before but he had stated he felt like she was his daughter to daniel bober dr daniel bober forensic psychiatrist does that make a difference yes it does i mean if that's the type of relationship that he thought he had with her but But, you know, if he had some kind of obsession with her

and felt like, you know, she rebuffed his advances, then that love or that obsession could turn to rage very quickly. But if the relationship was simply a father-daughter relationship, then it sounds like it's a lot more benign. Of course, that's what he said. Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family endorsed lawyer, that's what he says after the fact. But how did he behave during her life?

Well, according to her friends, Nancy, they warned her that his behavior was kind of creepy. Naming a boat after her was weird. And he appeared from her friend's opinions that he was just obsessed with her. That's a red flag for me. Well, it's interesting that the friends thought that at the time. Take a listen to this. It's been 38 hours now since anyone has spoken to Jody, who's in truth. Our News Channel 3 co-anchor disappeared yesterday morning.

June 28th, 1995. The investigation was expanding. We had to ask for the FBI to give us some assistance. And Jody's story was national news. Fear is growing in one Iowa farm town. Someone is missing. Not a face in the crowd, but one of the most familiar faces in town. It just struck me as so, I don't know, so sad.

And I was just sick, and I thought, this is not what we meant about being on national news. You know there are so many possibilities of who it could have been who took Jodi who's the truth listen to this our friends at 48 hours. Caroline Lowe was an investigative reporter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. She started reporting on Jodi while covering a terrifying crime spree in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. I covered a serial rapist who was accused of raping four women in 18 days. The rapist was Tony Jackson. He was arrested in 1997 after a routine traffic stop police found in his car the tools of his trade. He's got rope, he's got handcuffs,

he's got his gun, he's got duct tape. Basically, it's a rape kit. Jay Alberio, formerly a detective with the Woodbury, Minnesota Police Department, worked the Jackson case. All the victims that we know of, there's an element of stalking. Jay explored Tony Jackson's past.

He learned Jackson was living in Iowa when Jody disappeared. Jay explored Tony Jackson's past. He learned Jackson was living in Iowa when Jody disappeared. And not just anywhere. The background investigation puts him in Mason City, two blocks from the TV station that Jody worked at. Two blocks. That's chilling. That is chilling.

But listen to this. Another theory emerges after spending weeks chasing various leads pouring through 50 plus birthday cards they found in her home from the birthday party Van Sise gave her. They went door to door within her apartment complex talking to everyone. People heard a scream, a woman scream at 4 a.m. and didn't call police, did nothing, didn't call 911 in the early morning hours. They could still see where her car was parked and where drag marks ended up about 100 feet away, right to a white van. That white van became a major component in the investigation. Flyers went everywhere urging the public to help.

Still no leads in the search. Where is Jody? Still not giving up. The case not classified as a cold case. Listen. Ani says Van Syce had a history of jealousy when it came to Jody. If we were out somewhere, if she was visiting with somebody, he would come join the conversation. Just swoop in? Pretty much, yeah. He wanted to make sure that everybody knew Jody was his. Okay, that doesn't sound good.

He still remains a person of interest in the disappearance of TV anchor Jody Husentrout, but never enough evidence for anything more than a POI classification. This is a case that has festered, that has caused pain for so many years. Someone with such a bright future. Outside of the TV station, there is a tree planted and there is a stone marker there with engravings of her favorite things,

a golf ball and a news camera. Her voice was silenced that early morning, but her story goes on. Tip line 641-421-3636. Repeat 641-421-3636. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.