In this episode, Payton explores the baffling disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit, a news anchor who vanished without a trace just outside her apartment. Links: NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intothedarkpod/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbh-B5Or9CT8Hutw1wfYqQ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7 Case Sources: Fox9 KMSP - https://www.fox9.com/news/jodi-huisentruit-winsted-search-no-remains https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58m9bdDlc6Y Find Jodi - https://findjodi.com/the-team/ https://findjodi.com/jodis-early-beginnings-in-broadcasting/ News Nation - https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/jodi-huisentruit-suspect-list-four-people-private-investigator/ https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/jodi-huisentruit-search/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW4ia-90Ehg Star Tribune - https://www.startribune.com/iowa-officials-search-winsted-property-in-connection-with-disappearance-of-jodi-huisentruit/601181505 Independent - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/jodi-huisentruit-missing-new-search-b2650602.html KTTC - https://www.kttc.com/2024/12/10/investigators-revisit-previously-dismissed-lead-jodi-huisentruit-case/ https://www.kttc.com/2024/12/27/private-investigator-shares-passing-figure-once-linked-with-jodi-huisentruit-investigation/ Dakota News Now - https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2024/12/08/nonprofit-struggles-fund-search-missing-mason-city-news-anchor/?outputType=amp Mason City, Iowa - https://www.masoncity.net/pview.aspx?id=17966&catid=481 Iowa Department of Public Safety - https://dps.iowa.gov/contact-dps Biggest US Cities - https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/mason-city-iowa Arizona’s Family 3 - https://www.azfamily.com/2024/06/28/answers-may-still-lie-arizona-case-iowa-news-anchor-who-went-missing-1995/ KCCI 8 Des Moines - https://www.kcci.com/article/jodi-huisentruit-missing-person-case-investigation-update-christopher-revak/63160204 WSAW TV - https://www.wsaw.com/2024/12/06/forgotten-wisconsin-cold-cases-christopher-revak-deadly-connections/ https://www.wsaw.com/video/2024/12/06/mason-city-pd-investigating-chris-revak/ Radio Iowa - https://www.radioiowa.com/2024/12/12/podcast-sparks-new-lead-in-case-of-long-missing-mason-city-woman/ Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults - https://www.missingpersons.doj.wi.gov/sites/default/files/unsolved-cases/harm-deidre.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Jodi Huisentruit and why is her case significant?
Bevor sie sogar die Chance hatten, in die Wohnung zu kommen, sahen sie etwas sehr interessantes. Jodie's car was parked out front and there were marks on the pavement. It kind of looked like someone had dragged something heavy across the ground. And on top of that, a bunch of Jodie's personal possessions were scattered all around her parking spot.
There were earrings, a blow dryer, a pair of red high-heeled shoes that were just strewn across the ground. Untertitelung. BR 2018 The police also found a partial palm print on the handle of the car, like someone had tried to open the door. Maybe it was Jodi, or maybe it was someone else who had tried to get inside that morning.
They haven't ever publicly confirmed whether they identified who the palm print belonged to. And interestingly, there was also a hair at the scene, but the police haven't said whether they know whose hair it was either. So they have evidence that they still haven't publicly identified. But here's what I do know.
The officers noticed this, and obviously we have the context that she was rushing to work. So these personal items in the parking lot aren't actually that mysterious. It's most likely that Jodi woke up, was in a rush, grabbed a bunch of her things that she was going to need at the station to get ready for work. And something happened while she was trying to get into her car.
So when the officers went into Jodi's apartment, everything there seemed neat and tidy. Not like the parking spot. Her apartment looked exactly how it was supposed to. With one exception. In her bathroom, the toilet seat was up. Which... If you live with a man or have a husband, that probably means that a man was the last person to use it.
Now, since Jodi didn't have any male roommates, this suggested that maybe someone else had been over the night before or early that morning. But the investigators obviously don't know who. Darüber hinaus gab es keine Zeichen eines verschlossenen Einbruchs oder einer Schwierigkeit im Hintergrund.
Also, nach dem Zustand der Parkplätze, war ihre Theorie, dass Jodi recht schnell ihren Platz verlassen hat, nachdem Amy sie angerufen hat, aber sie war auf ihrer eigenen Art und Weise verlassen. Sie wurde nicht von ihrem Wohnzimmer abgedrückt. Sie hat den Weg bis aus der Tür gemacht und war bereit, ihr Auto zu öffnen, als jemand sie besiegt und sie entfernt hat.
Also ist die Krimiszene nicht unbedingt im Hintergrund von Jodis Wohnzimmer. Now while the police were reviewing the scene and gathering evidence, a man walked right up to the detectives and started talking to them. Now this obviously struck the officers as weird. There was no reason for him to be there. It's not like there's an obvious crime scene happening.
And he just seemed a bit too comfortable inserting himself into this investigation progress. So, this man comes up and they learn that the man's name was John Van Sise and he was actually one of Jody's friends. This was in spite of the fact that he was in his late 40s, so nearly twice Jody's age.
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Chapter 2: What happened to Jodi on the day of her disappearance?
Basierend auf ein paar Kommentare, die sie ihren Freunden vor ihrer Verlustung gemacht hat, hat sie auch zumindest einen Stalker. Die Polizei lernt, dass sie am 8. Oktober 1994, etwa sechs Monate vor ihrer Verlust, Jodi zu den Polizisten gegangen ist und sie für ihre Hilfe gefragt hat. An diesem Tag hat sie einen weißen Pickup-Truck gesehen, der sie umgekehrt hat.
Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like anything really came of that report. There's no record of the investigators tracking down the truck driver or making an arrest. And Jody also never filed any follow up complaints. So maybe this was a one off incident and not a big deal. Except the next spring in March. Jodi hat zu einigen Freunden erwähnt, dass sie sich für Selbstschutzklassen eingeladen hat.
Sie sagte, es war, weil sie fühlte, als ob sie in ihrer Karriere etwas zusätzliches Schutz benötigt hätte, was nicht unbedingt normal ist. Und dann kam der größte, zerstörerische Detail von nur einem Tag vor ihrer Verschmutzung. Police learn on June 26, Jodi had been playing golf with some friends.
And as they were making their way through the course, she mentioned to two of her companions that she had changed her phone number recently. Apparently, she was getting a lot of unwanted calls on her old number. In Jodis own words, these calls were nasty and naughty.
She couldn't get the caller to leave her alone, so in the end she had taken the only course she could, and now she had a whole new phone number. Aber schade ist, dass niemand wusste, wer hinter all dem war, wer sie möglicherweise im weißen Fahrzeug folgte, sie anrufte und sie fühlte, als ob sie Selbstverdienung lernen musste. Jodys Freunde wussten nicht, ob es nur eine Person war.
Vielleicht war es ein Pranker, jemand anderes, der sie in einem Fahrzeug folgte, und ein anderer Faktor, der sie wollte, diese Kurse zu nehmen. Und es ist auch wert zu erwähnen, dass wenn Jodie einen oder mehr Stalker hatte, war es unmöglich, ihre Motive zu wissen. Es könnte ein Fan gewesen sein, der mit ihr besessen war, nachdem sie sie auf TV gesehen hat.
Es könnte jemand aus ihrer eigenen Leben oder sozialen Zirkel gewesen sein. Oder eine furchtbare Ex. Oder jemand, der für sie romantische Gefühle hatte und sie zu einem Extrem nahm. Es könnte auch jemand sein, der Jodie hasste, weil sie das gemacht hat. Erinnere dich, Jodie war ein Reporter. Das wird nicht das erste Mal sein, dass wir einen Reporter von Dingen, die sie reportieren, schmerzen.
Eine große Teil von Jodies Arbeit war es, kraftvolle Menschen zu untersuchen und unbedeutende Wahrheiten in die Licht zu bringen. So maybe one of the stories she was working on had gotten her too close to someone who was dangerous. Really, I mean, police are looking at this case and thinking, geez, the possibilities for motive are endless.
So they were basically at square one in terms of figuring out who had been making Jodi feel uneasy and frightened and who had done this. So they began by looking at the people who were close to her, as in physically close to her. People who lived or worked near the areas where she spent a lot of her time.
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Chapter 3: What evidence was found at the scene of Jodi's disappearance?
unfortunately the officials haven't released the tipsters identity and we don't know exactly what the person said either i think it's safe to say that investigators in this case are keeping things closed down we do know though that the information on this tip led the investigators to a town called Winstead, Minnesota. Now, Winstead is a community of about 2,200 people.
Anywhere else it would count as a small town, but in rural Midwest it was considered a small city. It was also just about a half hour outside of Minneapolis. And it was 130 miles north of Mason City, where Jody disappeared in those early morning hours.
So it wasn't very close to her apartment, but for whatever reason, the police still thought that the information on this tip that led them to this city was worth searching. So in November, police descended on an empty field. An apartment was under construction not too far away, but the land the police were searching was part of a public city owned park.
Now, we don't know exactly what they were looking for, if they expected to find a body or a murder weapon or a clue. But I do know that after the search was over, the police confirmed that they had failed to recover any human remains. There were some animal bones, but that was to be expected in a rural, mostly empty park.
If they found anything else that was of interest in this recent search, they haven't disclosed that publicly. However, it does sound like the officials might be getting closer to learning what happened to Jodi. There's definitely things going on behind the scenes that we do not know about. And I'm basing that assumption in part on a statement from a man named Steve Ridge.
Steve is a private detective who has been working on Jody's case for a long time. And according to him, when he began his investigation, he had a huge list of potential suspects. It included every person he could think of who might have had the means, motive and opportunity to hurt Jody back in the 90s. Dann hat Steve die Leute aus dieser Liste eins nach dem anderen entfernt.
Er hat Alibis gecheckt, er hat Beweise gesammelt, ihre Motive bestätigt und so weiter. Am 16. November 2024 hatte Steve nur vier Namen auf dieser Liste, die er gemacht hatte. Und er war sehr sicher, dass einer dieser vier Leute Jodie's Killer war. He just needed a bit more evidence before he could say for sure what person was responsible.
It was tantalizing being so close to finally having an answer. Now in an interview, Steve said that while investigating Jodie's death, He uncovered what he believes to be that Jodie was murdered by someone who had romantic feelings for her. That was his thought. And the killer was jealous because she had been seeing someone new right before she went missing.
So according to Steve, on June 17th, 1995, which is about a week and a half before her disappearance, Jodi hatte eine Bar. Es war ein Sonntagabend und die Wochenende-Kreise war alles da. Bevor die Nacht vorbei war, schlug Jodi eine Gespräche mit einem Mann auf. Es gab einen sofortigen Sprech und eine instantane Begegnung. In den nächsten zehn Tagen gingen sie auf weniger als fünf Dates.
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Chapter 4: Who were the key people involved in Jodi's life?
Und wenn das der Fall war, kann ich jetzt mit Sicherheit sagen, dass John niemals Gerechtigkeit für Jodie's Verlust, wenn er involviert war, weil er am 6. Dezember 2024 von natürlichen Gründen gestorben ist. His family kept the news quiet for a few weeks. They never released an obituary. And now we will never know what he knew, if anything, about what happened to Jody.
Now, I know people just put two and two together, thinking that John was the guy that Steve was talking about. But there is another possibility out there. Es gibt einen anderen Interessenten, der nicht verurteilt werden konnte, weil er auch bereits tot ist. Dieser Name ist Christopher Rivack und er könnte ein Serialkiller sein.
Aber es ist schwer zu sagen, weil es viele Angelegenheiten gibt über seine Geschichte, die es unmöglich ist, zu bestätigen. Aber hier ist, was wir wissen. 1995 lebte Christophers Ex-Wife in der Masons-City. Das ist die gleiche Stadt, in der Jodie das selbe Jahr verletzt wurde.
Obviously, this is not a super strong connection, but if Christopher was in contact with his ex and visiting her in Mason City, he might have seen Jodie on the news or even ran into her on the street. More importantly, over 10 years later in 2006, a 21-year-old woman named Deidre Harm went missing in Wisconsin. And the circumstances of her disappearance were eerily similar to Jodie's.
Deidre war 21 Jahre alt, hat Bars mit einigen Freunden gespielt und dann ist sie ohne Fortschritt verschwunden. Monate später wurde ihr Körper gefunden und es war klar, dass sie getötet wurde. Und dann, ein Jahr später, 2007, ging Renee Williams auch miss, und dieses Mal, nachdem sie sich als Bartender in einem Missouri-Town verlassen hat.
Was Christopher, okay, this is the same Christopher, whose wife lived in Mason City and he could have been visiting her, putting him in proximity to Jodie. And even more alarmingly, Christopher's wife came forward not too long after this and said that Christopher had confessed to her and he allegedly told her point blank that he had killed Renee.
So in this again completely separate investigation, this was enough for the police to arrest him and put him in jail. But before his case could go to trial, Christopher took his own life and any information he might have had died with him. So that means to this day, they can never be sure if he really murdered Renee. It seems likely, but maybe he lied when he confessed to his wife.
I mean, he was at the bar where Renee was before she died. And then his wife also came forward and said he did it. Aber wir werden es nicht wissen. Wir werden auch nie wissen, ob er etwas mit Diedras Mord oder Jodies Verlust zu tun hatte. Das ist nur eine Verbindung, die Leute gemacht haben.
Aber sehr neulich, im Dezember 2024, hat ein Podcast namens Forgotten Wisconsin Cold Cases diese Theorie präsentiert, dass Christopher alle drei Frauen getötet hat. Und wenn er verantwortlich für diese drei Mörder war, dann hätte er auch mehr verletzt. It was impossible to say how many victims he may have had. They are just kind of assuming that Christopher was a serial killer.
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