Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - MISSING TV ANCHOR'S SECRET FLING WITH MYSTERY MAN BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARS?

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

As morning news anchor for KIMV TV, Jodi Huisentruit normally arrives by 3:30 AM. to prepare to go on at 6 AM. When Huisentruit doesn't arrive at the studio by 4 a.m. producer Amy Kuns calls the 27-year-old, apparently waking her up. Huisentruit says she is heading to the station right away. Huisentruit doesn't arrive at the station. Other calls made to her phone go unanswered. At 6 AM producer Amy Kuns fills in on-air for Huisentruit and when she finishes,  she calls the police asking for a welfare check.  At 7:16 AM police are at Huisentruit's apartment complex where they find her red Mazda Miata in the parking lot. A pair of red women’s dress shoes, a blow dryer, bottle of hair spray, car keys and earrings are scattered beside the car, along with a bent car key. There are signs of a struggle. Police begin a missing persons investigation.    JOINING NANCY TODAY:  Tammara "Tammy" Baker - friend Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, President and Founder of Black Swan Verdicts, author: "Why Bad Looks Good", wendypatrickphd.com, ‘Today with Dr. Wendy’ on KCBQ in San Diego, Twitter: @WendyPatrickPHD Steve Ridge - Private Investigator   Dr. Heidi Green - Clinical Psychologist, Trauma specialist, Author: ‘The Path to Self-Love and World Domination, www.drheidigreen.com, IG: @drheidigreen   Tara Gettman - Former anchor & reporter at KIMT   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Did a missing TV anchor have a secret fling with a mystery man just before she disappears? Clues left behind? A hair dryer and a pair of red high heels? Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. We never, you know, anticipated anything like this ever happening. We thought Jody would be safe in Mason City. It wasn't that big of a community, and she just, she took a lot of safety courses and stuff, and she was careful.

She really was. She wanted to have a good reputation in the community. And, yeah, we were just stunned. We were on a bus trip up north, my mom and aunt, just with a group of ladies, you know. And we were going to this casino. It was going to be a fun day. And so we were up in Walker, Minnesota, and then they asked us to come to the room when we got there and that there was an emergency phone call.

It was shortly after we arrived. And so we came in and they said, it's from Mason City. And right away my mom said, oh, no, Jody. And we thought maybe she'd been in a car accident. That's what I thought. And she'll be okay. Jody, who's in truth, seemingly vanishes in thin air. I only left behind a few clues, a pair of red high heels, a hair dryer,

signs of potentially a scuffle near her car where she parked at the studio typically. She had an early, early morning shift on air, but she never made it. What happened to Jodi? Just then you were hearing Jodi's sister describing going on an all girls trip to a casino when they were told they had an emergency phone call and they went and were told something has happened to Jodi. They naturally assumed, oh dear, there's been a car accident, but there's more. Listen. Halverson said, oh, she's missing, Joanne. Are you sitting down? I said, missing? Well well we'll find her you know there's some mistake why would she be missing you know and um but then we we got pretty nervous and um

about it all of course and we left they provided a vehicle for us to go back to Long Prairie they brought us it was quite a drive too but. But, yeah, it was very hard. Then we got back, and nobody had found her, you know, by the end of the day. And so then we were getting very worried. But we thought it would be, that it was some kind of a mistake, that she would be found and she'd be okay. What happened to Jodi? First, I want to go out to former Anchorman reporter K.I.M.T. This is the station where Jody was on air.

Tara Getman joining us. Tara, thank you so much for being with us. What do you recall around the time that Jody disappeared? Everybody that was a close friend of hers had to put on their journalist hat and cover the abduction and disappearance of their friend. It was a very bizarre time. I'm thinking through what could have happened to Jodi Husen's route. This is we're learning about claims she had just started a fling with a mystery man just before she goes missing. But what facts are actually left behind at the scene? Tara Getman joining us, formerly reporter K-I-M-T, where Jody worked. What time of the day or night was Jody on air? She was a morning news anchor at the time, and it was not uncharacteristic of her to come into work running late. You know how that goes with those morning shifts in small

town TV networks or markets, rather. So the producer was not incredibly alarmed when Jodi never showed up and jumped into the role of filling in for Jody. So as we know, when you're under-resourced in those small market newsrooms, so there just was not a sense of urgency, knowing that it was so rare for something like this to happen, that a lot of time was lost where the police weren't called until ultimately about four hours after she was potentially abducted. Joining me, high-profile lawyer and prosecutor, Wendy Patrick. She is the author of several books, Red Flags, Why Bad Looks Good, and Reading People.

Wendy, Jodi had to be at work at 6 a.m. Now, listen to this. That morning, she actually spoke to a producer on the phone and said she would be there in time for the 6 a.m. broadcast. So when we're saying morning shift, a lot of people think of a 9 to 5, 9 o'clock in the morning. No, she had to be on the air at 6 a.m., which means she probably had to be in the studio somewhere in the building by 4 to be in here in makeup, to read everything she had to read, to know about what had happened that morning in the news and the overnights. She had to get there, I would say, around 4 a.m. to prep. So,

when we're hearing about the morning shift, what does that mean to us, Wendy Patrick, evidentially? It means she's up around 2.30 or 3 in the morning in order to get to work by 4. There's nobody around. The streets, everything is dark. In a less populated area, there may not be streetlights. There's nobody idling at a red light or an intersection. There are no witnesses. That's what I'm getting at. And a largely abandoned parking lot. It's not like you're pulling into Kroger at high noon where it's packed,

right? There's nobody there. So getting to her car, getting in her car, getting to the station, getting out of her car, going into the station for a stalker, this is prime hunting time because nobody is around, right? But that leads me a little bit further. Wendy, go with me. And then I want to hear your analysis. Who in the hay would be up at that time of the morning other than somebody that was stalking her? Yeah, that's exactly the way I was going to tie it up. Thank you for that. Yeah. You think about who would basically keep those types of hours. They would have to be somebody that not only knew that Jodi was on at six, but also knew the routine involved to be on at six.

Unless you're in the business, sometimes people underestimate the amount of prep time, the time it takes to drive somewhere. But Nancy, there's more to this particular story that struck my eye. She overslept. So she wouldn't have been walking to her car at the time she normally did. In addition to that, the lighting would have been different. So there's a couple other factors that make this morning different.

Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. Hold on. I'm with you in that she overslept. But she was alive that morning because she spoke to the producer and said she would be there in time for her 6 a.m. broadcast. And to be on the air, as you well know, you don't just show up a minute, five minutes,

10 minutes before you go on air. It's a process. You've got to be prepared and ready. You have to read your scripts. If you're someone that has to have scripts, you've got to read the news. You've got to be prepared with your research. You've got to know the game plan, the drill for the production. You don't just come and flop down in a chair and start talking. It doesn't work that way. So when you say she overslept, she assured them she'd be there in time to make the 6 a.m. hit, right? Which

means she would have been there by at least five. But we know she was alive that morning. So when you're saying she was late, who was stalking, whoever was stalking her wouldn't have seen her come out. No, I guarantee you they were perched somewhere waiting and they may have been ill. They may have looked at their watch a couple of times. But what you're saying the kidnapper was inconvenienced? No, no. He, and, what I'm, he, and I guarantee it's a man waited on her. Right. What I'm saying is if you do have that mindset, whether or not the routine is, is, is deviated from even by a little bit, you're going to wait. If you are there and that's your intention, you're going to wait it out. And whenever she comes out, you're going to be ready.

But let me also say that the small town aspect of this crime also caught my eye because sometimes people are more situationally aware in areas that are notoriously dangerous. This wasn't an area that was notoriously dangerous. Small town atmospheres often mean familiarity breeds complacency in some sense. You have the same routine every morning.

Your guard tends to be down. Nothing has happened so far. You have the same routine every morning. Your guard tends to be down. Nothing has happened so far. You do the same thing in the same way. You walk across the same parking lots. You take the same route. That can be dangerous if you have a stalker like this gorgeous young woman might have had who is able to easily learn the routines that she has become so comfortable with. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know what's curious? Even now, the population is below 30,000 in this area, Mason City, Iowa. But at the time that Jody Husentrout went missing, the population was in the mid-20,000s. You're right. And that means so much forensically. Joining me in addition to Wendy Patrick, really a prolific author and and instructor and Tara Getman, who worked at the same station

as Jodi Husentrout. Steve Ridge is with us, private investigator extraordinaire. You're very well versed in the disappearance of Jodi Husentrout. Steve Ridge, just a four mile distance between where she worked at the station and her apartment. Just 4.1 miles she had to drive in the morning. That's less than a five minute drive at three o'clock in the morning, Steve. That's right. And I think you're also right that someone was perched and waiting. There is no doubt, based on the work that I've done on this case in the last five years, that there was an individual that intended to confront Jody that morning. And we don't know whether the confrontation was meant to be an abduction or not, but it certainly turned into an abduction. What do you mean by that? Well, I think this is a crime of jealousy, if you want me to kind of cut through where I am on the case at this juncture.

I think there's little doubt that the individual that did this had personal aspirations of a relationship, a long-term relationship, and had been rebuffed along the way and was determined to... Hold on just a moment. Hold on. You've got me drinking out of the fire hydrant. Steve Ridge is a very well-known private investigator, and he sees the fingerprints of a rebuffed male all over this. I'm very curious about your thinking. Joining me, Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski, and I'm not disagreeing with Steve Ridge at all. I'm intrigued. I want this case solved like everybody else. Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski, forensic psychologist. You can find him on YouTube at Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski, forensic psychologist.

Dr. Jeff, explain to me why this has the hallmarks of a stalker and how a kidnapping by a stalker would then be exacerbated, escalated to potential murder. And if you really want a relationship with a woman, why would you confront her outside of her car when she's trying to dash in? Well, a couple of things here. I know a lot about this case. I was a graduate student at the University of Iowa when this happened. So I followed this case over the years. One thing that strikes me, my knowledge of the case is there wasn't a lot of overt, obvious evidence left behind. So not that I would disagree with Steve, but I wonder, and I think about this as obviously a very well-planned and well-executed abduction. And I would argue that this was probably done by someone who's done something like this before, rather than an impulsive act by a deranged fan. Jody was at her car, and it appears that she was attempting to put the key in the door lock to open the door to her car when she was grabbed, more likely from behind.

Because there's indications that the key that she had was bent, which tells me that she had the key in the door lock when she was grabbed. So the force of somebody grabbing her pushed her towards the front of the car, possibly, and bent the key. The driver's side mirror on the door was also bent forward. And again, that indicates there's a struggle taking place and the perpetrator has grabbed her and has taken her towards the front of the car away from her apartment building. So what do we know? The driver's side mirror on the door was also bent forward. That indicates a struggle taking place outside of Jody's car. Does it suggest the perpetrator grabbed her and was

taking her toward the front of the car and away from her apartment building? What more do we know? The key, the key to the car was bent. Back to Steve Ridge, a private investigator who has closely studied Jody's disappearance. Tell me the significance about the key. Well, I think it's clear that the key was at least partially engaged in the door or that it was all the way in the door lock and that as the individual spun Jody around, her hand came out and the force of her body being moved upward toward the rearview mirror would have potentially bent that key and then dropped it on the ground. But would you agree, Steve Ridge, and I'm not saying that's not how it happened, but the key could have been bent in any number of ways. That's true, although I think having gone through this in great detail and looked at where all of the other items were found laying and the bent mirror and a palm print that was found on the car, you know, we've come to the conclusion that it probably

was bent partially while it was engaged in the lock. Question, where on the car was the palm print, Steve? It was behind the, this is a small Mazda Miata with just a single door and it was just behind the door on the upper part of the car. So it was in an area where... Hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay, we've got a Miata, which yes, is small. When you say a single door, there's a single door on either side, on each side. And you're saying it was above that on the driver's side? Well, it was actually behind the door on the upper panel of the car. So more in the area where you would typically see a side gas tank mounted on a car. That's more of the reason. On the driver's side is my question. That's correct. Yes. You know, all those things together, I don't know if you agree with me

or not, Wendy Patrick. I think he's right. I think Steve Ridge is right. And the reason I'm focusing on this so much is I'm trying to determine who would have approached her on her side of the car that early in the morning. What do you make of those clues? We've got the key bent as if it had been put in the car door. That makes sense to me because a human couldn't just bend it. It had to be in that lock to be pushed forward. You had to have some mechanical force to actually bend the key to the car. Then you've got the side mirror moved, and then you've got an unknown palm print. I don't know what that really means. Anybody could have touched the car, but all of that being at the driver's door is significant, Wendy. It is significant, and it also is significant as to how fast this might have

happened. When you figure out, well, how are we even going to start a search for subjects? The first question is, would it have been somebody that she knew that would have approached her in that fashion and that quickly to have bent the key, to have bent the mirror, to have caused the dynamics of that car that appear to be more like a stranger rushing up. And then where did he come from? So the fact that this occurred on the driver's side of the door would also let investigators, which they obviously did, start looking at the dynamics of, well, what's the lighting like in that particular parking lot? Where would they have come from? Who might have seen something? This is way before ring cameras. So they had some real old

school, good investigatory techniques that they could start with just looking at those clues you just mentioned. Joining me now is a special guest, Tammy Baker, a very dear friend of Jodi's. Tammy, thank you for being with us. Thank you for doing the story. Tammy, tell me your recollections of Jodi. I have so many great memories of her. She was effervescent. She was very, very smart, very driven. She could be very naive, which I sometimes reminded her that she needed to be more cautious with people. She was just a lot of fun and she didn't have a problem asserting herself.

It was one of the things that I was really happy for. Did you say she was naive? She was very naive, yes. Very naive. Yes, she was. At the time that Jodi went missing, what did you think happened? You know, I had just spent the previous two weekends with her and saw her on Sunday. When I got home from work at Tuesday evening, I had all these messages on my machine that said, what happened to Jodi?

And I didn't know anything about it. So I went and looked, watched the news. And I just figured somebody grabbed her because she was not the kind of person to be irresponsible. And she wouldn't just take off. And this was before knowing about the key and the mirror and all that, but it just didn't make any sense. And I just, I broke down immediately. I knew it was something horrible. But what did you think had happened? What was your immediate gut thought? Because Tammy, I found so often that those closest to the victims, their immediate thoughts are typically correct. What did you think had happened to her?

My first thought was that somebody grabbed her. My first thought was that she was being stalked and that somebody ambushed her when she was on her way to work early in the morning because there would be no one around. Guys, you're hearing Tammy Baker, Jodi's dear friend, who was with her in the days leading up to her disappearance. You know, Steve Ridge joining me, private investigator along with Wendy Patrick, Dr. Jeff and Tara Getman. Steve, it does have all the fingerprints, the earmarks of a sexual stalker. And when I say sexual, I don't necessarily mean she was in a sex relationship. I mean someone that cared enough to follow her, to stalk her. That's almost always someone you know. There are very few random stalkings. It had to be someone willing to get up and be in that parking lot at say three or four o'clock in the morning,

knowing her routine, who would know her routine, all of this leads to someone that knows her did this to her. I think there's no doubt that it was someone that knew her and that knew her very well. And I can tell you, without getting a lot more specific, that I have actually narrowed it down to one of four people in total who I believe make that list, if you will. And that's why it's frustrating that people are not coming forward to talk about what they know. There are people out there that know more about this case than have ever been shared. What we know is there are a pair of red

high heels, which would seem to suggest that Jody was likely wearing something with red or all red that day. We don't know exactly as far as we know what she was wearing has never been found. There was hairspray, there was a blow dryer, There were earrings. So the basics of what you would wear to go on the air. What's missing is a bag that she carried it in. We've never heard anything about whether that was located. Presumably, Jody did not run to her car carrying all these things in her arms. Doesn't make sense. So where is that bag? To Wendy Patrick joining us, prosecutor and author of not one, but three books, including Red Flags. And I'm focusing on that book

of yours because out of all of them, I believe that directly impacts on this case. But first of all, since you're also a prosecutor, I want you to address the clues left behind. The red shoes, the high heels. I'm very curious. The blow dryer, hairspray, everything she would need to get ready to go on the air. But the bag is gone. What does all this mean to you, Wendy? You know, when I first read it, I thought that sounds like the signs of a struggle, that there would have been a bag and there would have been some kind of a tussle outside the car. But you would have thought that would have created noise and that I would have thought there would have been neighbors that would have heard screaming or something that would

have led them to believe there's an active struggle going on in the parking lot. But because that wasn't the case, you wonder whether or not maybe those were the items that were taken without a bag. That was actually a thought that I had when in combination with the fact that she was running late, that it wouldn't have been convenient to just have everything nicely ready to go. But one way or another, it also begs the question of, you know, this couldn't possibly be somebody that already knew her. It sounded more like she was surprised and that these were the items that were dropped at the last minute as she struggled with an assailant. That's one of the

reasonable interpretations, I think, of that property that was scattered at the scene. And there's more. Listen. She was dragged easterly. They saw marks in the silt, if you will, and they believe that that's what happened, that she was dragged easterly most toward Kentucky Avenue, which is the main road going by the key apartments where Jody lived. So how could they tell? How could they tell, Steve Ridge,

that she was dragged in an easterly direction? Well, it had been very rainy in that particular three-day period. There was quite a lot of rain. In fact, it had actually canceled the golf tournament the day before that Jody was to play in. And so there was mud, even in areas where there was grass, it was wet enough that the heel of a person being drug along the area would have made an indentation. I believe that she was probably wearing tennis shoes or some other type of shoe and was carrying not only the bag over her shoulder, but she probably had those high heels and the hairdryer in her arms and was in a hurry. And

those were the things that fell. I think that she was actually abducted, that is lifted off the ground or drug with the bag still attached up over her shoulder. Back to Jody's dear friend, Tamara, Tammy Baker. Tammy, what does this mean to you? And yes, we're going through it in a meticulous fashion. We're looking at every single clue that's been left behind. What does it mean to you that the items she normally carried in that bag were strewn outside her car, that she apparently was dragged? What does it mean to you? Does it reinforce your opinion that she was being sexually stalked by someone?

I believe that whoever it was came up behind her and surprised her. But I also know from being out with her on many occasions that if a stranger approached her and said, I've seen you on air, I love your show, she would always stop and talk to them. And it didn't matter who they were or where we were.

And if a stranger, I've always thought it was a stranger because someone who knew her routine would know that something was wrong because she didn't leave at her normal time. And a stranger who was just talking would not know that. You know, Tara Getman, who, a former anchor at the same station, KIMT, that's a whole nother layer of Jodi's disappearance. We keep saying it was a sexual stalking, either someone that wanted to be intimate with her, had been intimate with her,

had dreams of a relationship. But the fact that she's on TV, that changes things, Tara, because so many people see you and can imagine that they've got a relationship with you. It doesn't necessarily mean you've ever even met. What about that? Absolutely. And as you know, Nancy, that TV news was appointment television. Everybody in that community watched Jodi.

They loved her. The list of suspects was over 200 because she was popular. She was social and everyone talked to her. And so to sort out all of these fans, if you will, was very challenging. Not to mention, we had no formal structure for capturing tips that would regularly come into the newsroom. I can remember countless times fielding calls from information that was flooding in with like a fire hydrant with no way to record it or turn it over to authority. To Dr. Jeff Kaliszewski, joining us, forensic psychologist on YouTube at Dr. Jeff Kaliszewski, forensic psychologist.

Dr. Jeff, that's a whole nother layer to finding the perp because typically this does look like a sexual stalking. Someone that either does or wants to have a relationship or reignite a dead relationship, an intimate relationship. That's what it looks like, right? But I think we're discounting the fact that this gorgeous young girl is on TV for the entire morning. People see her all around the region. Do you know how many times female anchors have stalkers they've never even met or spoken to? Right. And again, what happens in this case is everyone's coming in with all different theories because there's just not a lot of obvious evidence. You've covered many abductions on this

show. I've seen abductions in my clinical practice. There tends to be more evidence laying around that gives you better places to start and better questions to ask. In this case, it's wide open, which from my perspective really leads me to start to think that how well planned, how not much evidence was left behind, that this was someone who sort of knew what they were doing. About one quarter of a mile from the apartment complex was searched along the riverbank and out extending from the riverbank and there were a number of hits along the riverbank however we have not confirmed whether those would be something that we would follow up on or not

we are back at the riverbank with the canines and we are going to check to see if there is additional hits along the river. If so, we will then load the canines into a boat and see if we can do a grid search along the river. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Wendy Patrick, prosecutor and author. I think that we have rushed to a judgment here. And that is that the perp has to be somebody that knows her and is a sexual stalker. I'm not saying that's not true, but we have to open up the field to other suspects since she's on TV every single morning. Yeah, I think that's absolutely true.

And if we narrow the focus too quickly, too early, then we may miss clues that would be of enormous relevance if we just kind of thought the big picture here. Yes, she's on TV. Lots of people know her. It doesn't need to be somebody that's pathological obsessed. It could simply be somebody that knows her routine, maybe even lives in the area, or actually knows her socially. So when we broaden the range of

suspects to include all of the above, it really allows us to think about other avenues to go in, determining who might have been there that morning, who may have seen her within the last couple of months, who may live in that area. And it allows us to more objectively think about who are we going to suspect. For instance, a man 22 years older than her with a seeming fascination with her. Listen, John Van Sise, a man 22 years older than Jody Husentruth, develops a friendship with Jody. Some suggest he has romantic feelings for Jody that she does not reciprocate. Van Sise holds a birthday party for Jody's 27th birthday, and the night before her disappearance, he invites her to come to his house and watch the video from the party.

Van Sise tells police and the media he treats Jody like his own child, like a daughter. But some of Jody's friends suggest Van Sise has deeper feelings for Jody. Van Sise becomes a person of interest to police. He insists it's more like an uncle-niece or father-daughter relationship, but that is not borne out by the facts. Listen. His name is John Van Sise. He was 22 years older than Jody.

And just two days earlier that weekend, he and several of Jody's friends had gotten together in northern Iowa to go on a water skiing trip. In fact, she writes about him in her journal. The last thing she writes about two days before she disappeared talks about what a great time she had with John Van Sise, her other friends, Ani Cruz and Tammy Baker. So he's an older friend who spent a lot of time with her in the last couple months before she disappeared. You are hearing our friend Carolyn Lowe, investigative journalist at findjody.com, Find Jody podcast to Tamara Tammy Baker.

Did you know about this guy, John Van Sise? Well, I was with Jodi the two weekends prior to her disappearance, and John was with us both times. How did he act? You know, he was very protective of Jodi. He loved her. I mean, everybody loved her. There was no way to not love her. She was just a great, she was just way to not love her. She was just a great,

she was just a wonderful, kind person. She was fun. She was funny. And I did not ever see anything with him that indicated to me that there was an obsession of any kind. We also went down to Iowa City together. We stayed in the same house in Iowa City and, you know, with John and Jody and some other friends. And I just didn't see it. Well, I believe he actually named his boat after her. And take a listen to her sister. I didn't know about the guy till this all happened. She had mentioned to my mom. My mom cautioned her that she was not really dating this guy, but he was a friend, you know, and stuff. And my mom said, well, you better be careful because, you know, he might be getting romantically interested in you. Oh, we're just good friends, Jody would say, you know. So, but I, after hearing about, after it all happened, we know that he was quite obsessed with Jodi.

He wanted to always be around her and he wanted to, you know, he said he even named his boat after her, which was odd. And the friends knew that, too. They cautioned Jodi. They said, Jodi, are you sure that John isn't more interested in you than you think? And it was just very obvious that he was very interested in her. Dr. Kaliszewski, I will never forget. I was working late. This is when I was in the CNN building at Time Warner in New York.

That waiting for me, late hours, okay? I would work at Court tv all day long then go over and do HLN headline news at eight o'clock at nine o'clock I very often guest with Larry King or help guest host his show so I wouldn't be getting off until late 10 and then I would speak talk to the staff what went right what went wrong and it'd be pretty late before I 10. And then I would speak, talk to the staff, what went right, what went wrong. And it'd be pretty late before I would leave. Little did I know waiting in the lobby all the way from, I think Oklahoma, a guy with a suitcase who wanted to work on our relationship. Unbeknownst to me, he had been writing the public email line, uh, site for, I have no idea how,

how long about our relationship and had come all the way across the country to meet and again, work on our relationship. Well, I was floored. What I'm saying is this is not unusual. It happens a lot. And that is just one instance. There was another guy that showed up with zip ties and a folder full of newspaper articles about myself and another female colleague. I wasn't special. So it happens quite often. And I'd like to find out from you how that phenomena weighs into Jody's disappearance. Then, on the other hand, you've got a guy who names his boat after her that Jody's sister says was obviously obsessed with her. Right. If we go with the idea of a stalker fan, one thing that these folks do is they study the person in depth. And if this stalker fan, for example, is local, he may follow her. He may know her habits.

So just like the examples that you provided, these people get so wrapped up, sometimes actually delusional, believing that they have a relationship with the celebrity that they're following. And they can sometimes distort reality to the point where it becomes dangerous. Also, we're learning that apparently she had a fling with a mystery man. I'm not talking about John Van Sise. As a matter of fact, he's never been named an official suspect in her disappearance. He's voluntarily taken two polygraph tests. He's taken a DNA test, finger and palm printing, which would have ruled him out of that palm print on her car, on her Miata. He is now living in Arizona and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Who was the mystery man? To Tammy Baker, any idea with whom she was, who she was seeing just before she disappeared?

You know that we were out at a bar in Clear Lake the second weekend, the first of the two weekends. And she did meet a guy, dark haired guy. I mean, it's been so long, I don't remember more than that. But I do remember that he was pretty touchy feely with her when we were dancing. But she told me, I mean, we talked all the time. We went to Iowa City.

We slept in the same bed and talked all night. She would have said something. And she didn't say anything about a guy at all. Isn't it true cops put the so-called mystery man under surveillance, even scooping up his trash to try to get possibly a DNA print, the street side garbage for examination. Yeah, that's absolutely right. They did. And he confirmed for me that he put his trash out and that the police showed up early in the morning before the trash pickup happened and the police took that trash away. He also did meet with them three times, went through all their questions.

He did not take a polygraph test. However, they concluded that he was not involved other than perhaps the fact that others may have known about this relationship. There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Jodi who's in truth. If you know or even think you know anything about Autonomous tip line 641-999-1109. Repeat 641-999-1109. A $100,000 reward. Nancy Grace signing off. Good night, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.