WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.879 Welcome back to Beyond the Silence Whispers Across 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:07.299 America. I'm Sammy, and tonight we are traveling 00:00:07.299 --> 00:00:10.039 to the heart of the American Midwest, to the 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:13.699 Riverside community of Mason City, Iowa. This 00:00:13.699 --> 00:00:15.980 is a place where the local news isn't just a 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:19.239 broadcast. It's a neighborly visit every morning, 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:22.579 a shared start to the day for thousands of families 00:00:22.579 --> 00:00:26.039 who wake up to the glow of their television sets. 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:29.559 we are looking into one of the most famous and 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:32.020 frustrating disappearances in television history, 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:37.000 the 1995 vanishing of Jodi Husentruyt. This is 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:39.820 a story of a rising star, a few panicked moments 00:00:39.820 --> 00:00:42.740 in a quiet parking lot, and a mystery that has 00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:45.119 transformed a local journalist into a national 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:52.039 symbol of the missing. The year was 1995. Jodi 00:00:52.039 --> 00:00:55.840 Husentruyt was 27 years old. The morning anchor 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:00.399 for KIMT -TV, originally from Long Prairie, Minnesota, 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:04.239 Jodi was vibrant, ambitious, and possessed a 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:06.760 charismatic, infectious energy that made her 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:10.140 a household favorite across North Iowa. She was 00:01:10.140 --> 00:01:13.079 a golfer, a social butterfly, and a woman who 00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:15.359 lived her life with a sense of joyous urgency, 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:18.780 always ready for the next adventure or the next 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:22.650 big story. By the summer of 1995, her career 00:01:22.650 --> 00:01:25.890 was on an impressive upward trajectory, and her 00:01:25.890 --> 00:01:28.650 face was one of the most recognizable and trusted 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:32.810 in the region. Jodi was a woman of routine, but 00:01:32.810 --> 00:01:36.349 also a woman of the moment. Her life was a whirlwind 00:01:36.349 --> 00:01:39.769 of early morning shifts, community events, and 00:01:39.769 --> 00:01:43.010 social gatherings, making her sudden absence 00:01:43.010 --> 00:01:46.829 on a humid, heavy Tuesday morning in June a catastrophic 00:01:47.790 --> 00:01:50.370 unthinkable break in the broadcast that Mason 00:01:50.370 --> 00:01:54.890 City wasn't prepared for. The mystery began in 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:58.469 the pre -dawn hours of Tuesday, June 27, 1995. 00:01:59.269 --> 00:02:01.989 Jodi was running late for her 6 a .m. shift, 00:02:02.250 --> 00:02:05.549 not an entirely unusual occurrence for her energetic 00:02:05.549 --> 00:02:08.610 but sometimes hectic lifestyle, but enough that 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:12.009 her producer, Amy Kunz, called her apartment 00:02:12.009 --> 00:02:15.840 at 4 .10 a .m. to wake her up. Jodi answered, 00:02:16.180 --> 00:02:19.080 sounding a bit groggy but hurried, promising 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:21.680 she would be at the station shortly to lead the 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:25.759 morning news. She showered, dressed, and headed 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:28.719 out to her red Mazda Miata parked just outside 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:31.759 her apartment building in the early morning stillness. 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:36.219 She never arrived at the station. When the 6 00:02:36.219 --> 00:02:39.099 a .m. news began and Jodi was nowhere to be found, 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:43.520 Amy Kunz had to step in and fill the void. anchoring 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:46.020 the very program Jodi was supposed to lead while 00:02:46.020 --> 00:02:48.460 the crew wondered if she had simply overslept 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:52.879 again. By 7 a .m., police were called to the 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:55.360 key apartments, where they discovered a scene 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:58.800 that suggested a desperate, violent, and terrifying 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:02.500 struggle. The rising morning sun revealed a chilling 00:03:02.500 --> 00:03:05.500 sight in the parking lot. Jodi's personal items, 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:08.699 her hair dryer, her earrings, her iconic red 00:03:08.699 --> 00:03:12.270 high -heeled shoes, and her car keys were scattered 00:03:12.270 --> 00:03:16.069 haphazardly near her car. And there were unmistakable 00:03:16.069 --> 00:03:18.550 drag marks on the pavement and a bent car key 00:03:18.550 --> 00:03:21.490 that pointed toward a dark, predatory conclusion. 00:03:22.789 --> 00:03:25.849 The initial investigation was massive and immediate, 00:03:25.949 --> 00:03:29.469 involving local police, the Iowa Division of 00:03:29.469 --> 00:03:33.789 Criminal Investigation, and the FBI. Witnesses 00:03:33.789 --> 00:03:37.310 reported hearing a piercing scream around 4 .30 00:03:37.310 --> 00:03:40.419 a .m. a sound that cut through the silence of 00:03:40.419 --> 00:03:43.020 the neighborhood, and others recalled seeing 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:46.060 a light -colored mid -sized van with its parking 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:49.580 lights on idling in the lot at the time Jodi 00:03:49.580 --> 00:03:52.199 would have been leaving. Despite these leads 00:03:52.199 --> 00:03:55.020 and the recovery of a partial palm print on her 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:58.180 car, the trail went cold before it even began. 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:01.400 The window of opportunity for the abduction was 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:05.500 incredibly, terrifyingly small. roughly 10 minutes 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:08.020 from the time she left her apartment to the time 00:04:08.020 --> 00:04:11.099 the scream was heard, suggesting a kidnapper 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:13.800 who had either been meticulously watching her 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:16.600 movements for some time or was an incredibly 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:20.379 opportunistic, high -risk predator who knew her 00:04:20.379 --> 00:04:24.899 exact morning schedule. Over the last 30 years, 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.639 the investigation into Jodi's disappearance has 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:30.379 zigzagged through thousands of leads and dozens 00:04:30.379 --> 00:04:33.680 of persons of interest. One name that has surfaced 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:36.800 repeatedly is John Van Seitz, an older friend 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:39.060 of Jodi's who was the last person to see her 00:04:39.060 --> 00:04:41.819 alive at a water skiing party the night before 00:04:41.819 --> 00:04:45.360 she vanished. Van Seitz has always maintained 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:48.660 his innocence and passed a polygraph test, yet 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:51.519 he remains a focal point for amateur sleuths 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:54.980 and private investigators who parse every detail 00:04:54.980 --> 00:04:58.060 of their friendship. Other theories have looked 00:04:58.060 --> 00:05:01.850 into the dark possibility of a stalker. a common 00:05:01.850 --> 00:05:04.649 and terrifying occupational hazard for female 00:05:04.649 --> 00:05:08.110 news anchors, or even a connection to a local 00:05:08.110 --> 00:05:10.910 serial rapist who was active in the region during 00:05:10.910 --> 00:05:14.870 that era. The ambiguity of the case is compounded 00:05:14.870 --> 00:05:19.329 by the total lack of any physical remains. Despite 00:05:19.329 --> 00:05:22.550 extensive, heart -wrenching searches of landfills, 00:05:22.550 --> 00:05:25.709 rivers, and rural properties across Iowa and 00:05:25.709 --> 00:05:28.750 Minnesota, Jody Heuss' intrude has never been 00:05:28.750 --> 00:05:31.470 found. leaving her family and the community in 00:05:31.470 --> 00:05:34.189 a permanent, agonizing state of suspended grief. 00:05:35.569 --> 00:05:39.009 The disappearance of Jodi Heusentrout fundamentally 00:05:39.009 --> 00:05:41.990 changed the way news stations protect their talent, 00:05:42.269 --> 00:05:45.529 ushering in new security protocols and a loss 00:05:45.529 --> 00:05:48.850 of innocence for small -town journalists. It 00:05:48.850 --> 00:05:51.649 remains a definitive cold case that is revisited 00:05:51.649 --> 00:05:55.329 by national media every year. A haunting reminder 00:05:55.329 --> 00:05:58.509 that even those who tell us the news can become 00:05:58.509 --> 00:06:02.170 the headline in the blink of an eye. The KIMT 00:06:02.170 --> 00:06:06.029 studio has moved to a new location. The red Mazda 00:06:06.029 --> 00:06:09.389 Miata is long gone, and many of the original 00:06:09.389 --> 00:06:12.949 investigators have retired. But Jody's face still 00:06:12.949 --> 00:06:16.709 looks out from billboards across Iowa. A silent, 00:06:16.769 --> 00:06:23.290 persistent plea for the truth. I'm Sammy. And 00:06:23.290 --> 00:06:25.290 I'll keep telling these stories because someone 00:06:25.290 --> 00:06:27.490 out there knows something, and for people like 00:06:27.490 --> 00:06:31.290 Jodi Heisentrout, silence should never be the 00:06:31.290 --> 00:06:35.810 end. The truth remains just out of reach, and 00:06:35.810 --> 00:06:37.970 the shadows around this case only grow deeper 00:06:37.970 --> 00:06:41.449 as the decades pass. Someone out there knows 00:06:41.449 --> 00:06:44.470 more than they have said, and one small forgotten 00:06:44.470 --> 00:06:47.750 detail could finally crack everything wide open. 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:50.939 What do you think is still hiding beneath the 00:06:50.939 --> 00:06:54.439 surface of this Midwestern mystery? Drop your 00:06:54.439 --> 00:06:57.959 theories below. Even the smallest clue can spark 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:00.600 the breakthrough a family has waited 30 years 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:04.420 to see. For more chilling mysteries and untold 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:08.339 stories, tune in to Beyond the Silence, Whispers 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:11.699 Across America on all major podcast platforms, 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:16.279 or find us on Facebook. Until next time, listen 00:07:16.279 --> 00:07:19.800 closely. Trust your instincts and stay safe.