Jodi Huisentruit Case Still Unsolved 24 Years Later

(ABC 6 News) – Thursday marked 24 years since former Iowa TV news anchor Jodi Huisentruit disappeared while on her way to work in Mason City. Signs of a struggle in the parking lot of her apartment complex suggested she was abducted early that morning of June 27, 1995.

The last year has seen the most results, after years of work and attention, in her missing person’s case. From a billboard campaign to extensive national coverage to a “48 Hours” episode that generated dozens of calls to Mason City police.

Lt. Rich Jensen with the Mason City Police Department says, “anytime a show airs about Jodi’s disappearance, either a first run, or reruns, or syndicated, we can always tell here at the office because we get a lot more calls.”

In another huge milestone for the case, Jodi’s friend — and longtime suspect — John Vancise, finally broke his silence after 24 years when he agreed to a first-ever interview. He insisted he had nothing to do with Jodi’s abduction.

Jodi’s friend Tammy Baker recalls, “when I talked to John right after it happened he was very distraught, and he really felt that he was being unfairly accused, and I don’t think that’s changed over the years.”

Baker was a friend of both Huisentruit and Vansice.

“I spent the last two weekends before Jodi’s disappearance with her and John Vansice,” she said. “I will always miss her. I think about her a lot.”

Baker also helped secure the interview with Vansice after all these years.

“Nobody had been able to talk to John, and I really felt that he deserved the chance to be heard. I told him a little about John’s personality and what I felt drives him,” said Baker.

The Find Jodi team learned in March of 2017 that a second federal grand jury subpoenaed fingerprints, palm prints and a DNA swab from Vansice.

“We’ve never considered this case to be a cold case. I think aside from Jodi’s friends and family, there’s no other people that want a resolution in this case more than us,” said Jensen.

If you have any information on Jodi’s disappearance, you’re asked to come forward or call the anonymous tip line at (970) 458-JODI.

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Twenty-four years ago today, Mason City news anchor Jodi Huisentruit disappeared.

Officials believe the then 27-year-old was abducted in the early morning hours from the parking lot of her apartment building while on her way to work.

She hasn’t been found since and was declared legally dead in 2001.

No one has been charged in her case, which remains open, and investigators are still asking for anyone with information to come forward.

June 5 marked her 51st birthday.