I recently watched some old news and tv program coverage about this case from years ago. I had heard of it in passing before, but never got a chance to learn any of the details about it. I am not going to summarize the story behind what happened to Jodi Huisentruit. There are numerous tv and news segments about it. She was an anchorwoman for the local news in Mason City, IA who disappeared on the morning of June 27, 1995 while walking out to her car at approximately a little after 4 am. She was living in an apartment complex at the time.
The part I found sort of interesting was Jodi Huisentruit's red Mazda Miata. That is important because she had only gotten this car in the past few weeks. Jodi was reported missing rather quickly, at approximately 7:15 am after she did not show up for work. When police arrived they found her belongings scattered and trailing away from her car. A bent car key was nearby indicating that someone probably came up from behind and grabbed her while she was trying to get into her car. While trying to fight off this attacker she dropped a lot of items. It is thought a white van was parked in the lot and that is where Jodi was dragged off to.
Once I actually saw the layout of where Jodi's car was parked in combination with the apartment complex door she probably would have come out of to get to her car, I could understand why so many people think she was being stalked. My guestimate is that once she appeared in view to the abductor, he would have had no more than many 15 seconds to get to her and grab her. It looks like it would only take 15 seconds(and maybe less) for her to walk out of the apartment to the car door. We also have to remember it was dark outside and that apartment lighting would also be important.
The other interesting aspect of this case is that on the morning Jodi Huisentruit was abducted, she was running late for work. This person waited for her.
There are some persons of interest and they all seem suspicious. There is an older man who seemed to have an interest in Jodi. She was at his home the night before her abduction to watch a video of a birthday party friends had for her. Another woman claimed this man had a decent alibi as he took her on a walk the morning of Jodi's abduction, but not until around 6 am. This woman believes this is too little time for him to commit the crime. There was another man who went to prison who lived only a few blocks from the station where Jodi worked. He seemed interesting as it is claimed he made a rap song about abducting and murdering a reporter. In the rap song, he talked about a body being buried near a silo in another small town in Iowa. When police sent cadaver dogs to the location, two of the dogs hit on the presence of human remains although none were actually found.
The part I never heard anything about were the other tenants who lived in Jodi Huisentruit's apartment building. I would want to make sure it was not one of them.
If you took a stopwatch and timed how long it takes from the abduction item of Jodi Huisentruit's found furthest from her car to the Mazda Miata car door, how many seconds would that be? How long would it take for someone to appear out of the doorway at the apartment complex and walk to the car door of the Mazda Miata? I think this would give a good idea of approximately how far the individual was from Jodi Huisentruit when they first saw her and started walking towards her to commit the abduction.
I would knock on all the apartment doors above, below, and on each side of her apartment to see if everyone was there the morning of the abduction. Finally I would want to take pictures of the apartment parking lot every day at approximately the same time as the abduction for the next week to see which cars park in which spaces. Then compare that to the picture of the parking lot taken on the morning of her abduction.
This case is almost as old as Jodi Huisentruit was when she went missing. Jodi Huisentruit had reported that someone may have been stalking her, leading up to her disappearance. Maybe it was an unknown stalker?
It sounds like police tried to do whatever they could to find Jodi Huisentruit, but never had any solids leads or eyewitness statements. It could literally be anyone of the thousands of viewers who watched the local news in the Mason City, Iowa area.
