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E034: Jodi Huisentruit
1.6k Plays5 years ago
A beautiful and vivacious young news reporter in the beginning stages of her bright career… disappeared. Signs of a struggle revealed her abduction, but now, 25 years later, we are still left wondering who would have taken Jodi Huisentruit? And why?
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Transcript
Podcast Updates and Listener Engagement
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to Coffee and Cases. I am happy that I get to share a small bit of good news with you, Sleuthhounds. Maggie and I will, after our respective family vacations are over, be back together for our episodes.
00:00:17
Speaker
I'm getting ready to go on vacation. Maggie has just moved and, as she mentioned in a previous episode, she hasn't moved far away just to a different nearby town, but she has been painting and unpacking and decorating and renovating and, well, keeping herself more than busy. But she will be back with you, Sleuth Hounds, next week with an episode.
00:00:42
Speaker
So if you're new to coffee and cases, please know that our podcast has changed slightly as our world is continuing to adjust to a global pandemic, especially here in the U.S. While we are being asked to keep our distance from others, to stay inside when possible and to not gather in large groups, we ask that you bear with us as our podcast has changed a little as well. As always, thank you for bearing with us and for understanding we care about you.
00:01:12
Speaker
Stay together, united in the human spirit, even if not physically, and stay safe. Now, Sleuthhounds, this week, our episode just so happens to be a listener suggestion.
00:01:28
Speaker
Please, Sleuthhounds, if there is a case that you read about, you saw on television, you heard about, please pass that case along to us by reaching out on Facebook. As I've said a million times, this is a relationship we're building here on this podcast, and Maggie and I love hearing from you. Only together
00:01:50
Speaker
Can we bring awareness to these cold cases and potentially closure for these families? And what better or more noble pursuit is there than that? Now, onto this week's episode.
Honesty in America: The Honest Tea Experiment
00:02:05
Speaker
Trust. Honesty. Those two traits are ones that are likely the most important characteristics we all look for in friends and in partners alike.
00:02:19
Speaker
The American tea company Honest Tea has, for years, completed a social experiment to test the reaches of those very traits. Are they common traits? Trust in honesty? Or are they rare ones?
00:02:36
Speaker
Honest Tea set up bottled tea displays across America where one could buy a bottle for only one dollar. The kicker? These displays were unmanned, and paying for the bottle you take was based upon the honor system. So every person who took a bottle would have a choice to make. Take the bottle for free, knowing full well that you owe a dollar, or pay what you know the bottle costs.
00:03:04
Speaker
With no one to praise and, conversely, no one to reprimand, would you do what is right? What's truthful? What is honest?
00:03:15
Speaker
While some cities have been statistically more dishonest than others, an overwhelming majority of Americans every year around the mid 90th percentile, roughly 93 to 95% of those grabbing a bottle, left a dollar to pay for the beverage. Some cities like Honolulu were the most honest with 100% paying customers for multiple years in a row of the experiment.
00:03:46
Speaker
And it's experiments like these that give us hope, that maybe the world isn't so dark, that we can trust our friends, our neighbors, or even strangers. But then...
00:04:01
Speaker
There
Case Introduction: Jodi Huisentruit's Disappearance
00:04:02
Speaker
are also cases like today that cast the doubt again. Cases like today that re-prompt that small voice in the back of our minds, warning us that there are still those five to seven percent of people, the ones who are not to be trusted, who take advantage, who are dangerous, some of whom you maybe even thought were your friends.
00:04:30
Speaker
Did the focus of our case today fall prey to one of those dangerous few? This is the case of Jodi, who's intrude.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:16
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:05:35
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:05:52
Speaker
Before I begin our show today, I want to remind you about our challenge. This one, as we say each week, is a lofty goal that has not changed. But Maggie and I want to get to 150 ratings on iTunes. We now have 97, including another new written comment this past week. Now, for all of you listeners who have not yet rated us, I want to
00:06:20
Speaker
No, that's the wrong word. I need to do a squeal of joy to celebrate you. Please consider leaving us a review on iTunes. It only takes a split second if you're listening to us to click for that five star rating and leave us a few words about what you enjoy most about the podcast. We have listeners from all over the world. So while this is a big ask,
00:06:43
Speaker
As we say each week, Maggie, I know that you can do it. When we get to 150, we'll do another bonus episode. Just make sure that you follow us on social media, Coffee and Cases podcast on Facebook, or at Coffee Cases podcast on Instagram, or as always, listen in each week to know when that bonus episode will air. Now, let's get into our show.
00:07:09
Speaker
In
Jodi's Career and Personal Life
00:07:10
Speaker
June 1995, Jodie Hoosentrud was a rising star on the local news network and she didn't want her fame to stop there. She had dreams of being on a national stage and of the fame that stage would bring. Unfortunately, Jodie never got the chance to fulfill that dream. Nor was she ever seen or heard from again.
00:07:40
Speaker
Jodi was born June 25, 1968, the youngest daughter of Maurice Nicholas Hoosentrute and Emma Jean, who went by Jane Hoosentrute and grew up in Long Prairie, Minnesota. Her whole life, anyone who knew Jodi knew how driven she was and
00:08:01
Speaker
how talented. She was highly skilled in golf. Her high school golf team won the state Class A tournament in both 1995 and 1996, and she knew that she wanted to go into broadcasting. She was good at it, a natural, just like in golf, and she wanted to become a household name.
00:08:24
Speaker
So, after high school, Jodi majored in mass communications and speech communication at St. Cloud State University. While she took a job right after college to work for Northwest Airlines, that was just a small pause on her bigger life plans.
00:08:43
Speaker
It was when Jodi was offered a job in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at the CBS affiliate KGAN that her career goals were finally getting started. In her growth, as is often required in careers such as this one, one has to move around, taking small steps of growth as one goes.
00:09:02
Speaker
Likewise, Jodi, after a stint in Cedar Rapids, took a position at ABC affiliate KSAX in Alexandria, Minnesota, and then moved back to her home state of Iowa for a news anchor job with the CBS affiliate KIMT in Mason City.
00:09:22
Speaker
She was now officially on her way. Her diary entry from January 1994 succinctly stated her goals, quote, improve my career, make more money, communicate, have more impact on a larger audience, get the who's and true name out, make mom proud, end quote.
00:09:47
Speaker
When I tried to psychoanalyze that diary entry, it's clear that Jodi saw her career as a means to achieve the rest of her goals since it's what she listed first, but it isn't her own fame that she views as the ultimate realization of all of her hard work. It was pleasing her mom, making her mom proud of her.
00:10:12
Speaker
Jodi loved her family. Her sister, Joanne Nath, recalls in an interview with WOWT in Omaha, quote, I couldn't have had a better kid sister. She tried to motivate me. What are your goals? End quote.
00:10:29
Speaker
From the research I've done, it seems that Jodi was one who came alive around people and she pushed them to be better in return. She was social, happy, and she made friends easily. So even though when she took the news anchor job in Mason City, she was a couple of hours away from where her mother lived, she likely settled in quickly and soon established a close-knit friend group as well as a broader reaching network of acquaintances.
00:10:58
Speaker
One particular person who seemed significant in her life in Mason City was a man named John Van Sice. Van Sice, who was 20-plus years Jodi Sr., recalls that he and Jodi quickly fell into a father-daughter type relationship.
00:11:15
Speaker
In an interview with CBS in 1995, Van Sice said, quote, I just loved watching her have fun. I tried to watch over her. I tried to check in on her once in a while. Not all the time, just once in a while. See how she's getting along. If you ever go into her apartment and you see men's clothes, they're mine. If I had a shirt she liked, you know, I'd wear it for a while and then I'd give it to her, end quote.
00:11:43
Speaker
Van Sice also said something similar in an interview with KIMT in 1995, quote, she was like a daughter to me. She was just like my own child. I treated her like my own child, end quote.
00:11:59
Speaker
Van Sice was so close to Jodi, in fact, that he threw her a surprise 27th birthday party with many of her other close friends and would often take her, along with his own son, out for fun days out on the water in the boat that he had actually named after Jodi.
The Weekend Before Jodi Vanished
00:12:17
Speaker
The weekend of June 24th through the 25th, 1995, Jodi spent one of those weekends on the water with two friends of hers, Van Sice and Van Sice's son.
00:12:30
Speaker
According to an article by Kim Pascolini, Jodi wrote an entry in her diary on June 25th that read, quote, got home from a weekend trip to Iowa City. Oh, we had fun. It was wild partying and water skiing. We skied at the Coralville reservoir. I'm improving on the skis, hips up, lean, et cetera. John's son Trent gave me some great ski tip advice, end quote.
00:12:58
Speaker
In addition to skiing that weekend, reporter Mike Bunch wrote that Steve Ridge, a cold case investigator, heard reports and saw video footage that show images from that weekend of Jodi and a female friend of hers boarding a Mastercraft ski boat of two men whom Jodi had not previously known but met that weekend. Jodi and her friend were drinking with the men, singing and later dancing on the ski boat. This was a weekend of carefree attitudes and
00:13:28
Speaker
enjoying just being young. The young man who owned the boat videoed Jodie and her friend exhibiting just that mood in their laughter-filled dancing. That video of the energetic and fun-loving Jodie Hoosentrute was one of the last taken though before Jodie disappeared on June 27th, only two days later.
00:13:53
Speaker
Several sources reported that John Van Sice was not pleased that Sunday on the lake by Jodi and her friend boarding the other boat and with the behavior while there, but that he didn't overreact or act in any way alarming to show that displeasure. Obviously, Jodi was an adult and could make her own decisions about what she wanted to do, but perhaps if Van Sice felt like a father figure for Jodi, he might have just been worried. As a parent,
00:14:22
Speaker
those parents out there, you know that worry doesn't stop even when your children are grown.
00:14:29
Speaker
As the workweek started back after that fun-filled weekend, Jodi had work early Monday morning. She would have to leave her apartment around 3 a.m. in order to report to the station by 4 to prep for her news segment that would air between 6 to 7 a.m. And as much as Jodi loved to enjoy herself with skiing weekends, it was her career that kept her centered.
00:14:53
Speaker
On Monday, June 26, after work, Jodi participated in a golf tournament hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. During the tournament, while enjoying her other love of golfing, Jodi mentioned in conversations with others that day that she had been receiving crank calls lately.
00:15:13
Speaker
While she didn't mention in any of the research I completed what, if anything, the caller said on the phone, I did read that the calls were disturbing her to the extent that she mentioned to friends either going to the police or changing her phone number.
00:15:30
Speaker
Later that evening, the day before she disappeared, Jodi went to spend several hours with John Van Sice. He had a videotape of the 27th birthday party he had co-hosted for her and wanted to watch it with Jodi. She had gone over to his place to view the video before returning home that evening and calling a friend of hers from Mississippi before going to bed. Jodi, despite having had those crank calls recently, was reported to have sounded happy.
00:16:00
Speaker
cheerful, both in her visit with Vance Ice and in that phone conversation. She likely went to bed soon after the phone call. After all, she had an early alarm set in order to leave her apartment at 3 a.m. to be at work by 4.
00:16:18
Speaker
Tuesday morning, June 27, 1995, Amy Coons, an assistant producer for KIMT, the station for which Jodi worked, noticed that the clock read 4 a.m. and Jodi was not yet at the station. Since this was unlike Jodi, remember her career was everything to her. Amy called Jodi.
00:16:42
Speaker
The answer on the other end of the line was a groggy Jodie who's intrude. She had overslept. Amy Coons said that the call had obviously woken Jodie up, but that Jodie said she would be right in. An article by Danielle Gurr notes that a follow-up phone call from Amy Coons to Jodie at 5am went unanswered.
00:17:06
Speaker
The morning of June 27th, according to the Find Jodi website, was a foggy and drizzly morning. And now, since she normally left at 3 a.m., Jodi would have been nearly two hours late already. So she would have been in a rush.
The Morning of the Disappearance: Unusual Circumstances
00:17:25
Speaker
But Jodi never made it to work.
00:17:28
Speaker
Despite the phone call from Jodi's producer, which would have still allowed Jodi to make it to work in time for the morning anchor spot, Coons, the producer, had to fill in for Jodi. Now, fearing that something had happened, an accident, a fall, something, right after the morning show ended at seven, Coons called the police at 7.13 a.m. and asked them to do a welfare check on Jodi.
00:17:56
Speaker
When police arrived, they found a scene that indicated foul play. There, in the parking lot, was Jodi's red Mazda Miata. On the ground beside of her car were obvious signs that a struggle had taken place. On the ground was a hair dryer, a bottle of hairspray, a pair of earrings, a pair of red shoes, and her bent car key.
00:18:23
Speaker
It was that bent car key that indicated to police that Jodi was likely in the process of getting into her car when an attack took place. Having dropped all of her items and noting heel marks, drug in the dirt near the car as if Jodi had been physically drug away, were all the authorities needed to know that this was the scene of a crime.
00:18:49
Speaker
They began interviewing neighbors, dusting for fingerprints, checking her apartment, and calling friends to discover last known whereabouts. The police were able to lift a partial palm print off of the car that did not belong to Jodi and presumably happened in the struggle. But Jodi's apartment?
00:19:10
Speaker
It was put together, no sign of a struggle there. The crime had obviously happened in the parking lot itself.
00:19:21
Speaker
Now, while the hour was early and the attack or abduction likely took place shortly after 4 a.m. when most people are still asleep, this parking lot was very open, very public. Despite the openness, unfortunately, not a single witness saw what happened to Jodi or at least has never come forward with that information.
00:19:49
Speaker
There were only two reports of things out of the ordinary that morning. First, an article in the Globe Gazette cites that Police Chief Jack Schlepper found, in interviewing others in the apartment complex, that shortly after 4 a.m., there had been a mid-80s white Ford Eco Line van sitting in the apartment complex parking lot with its parking lights on.
00:20:14
Speaker
In that article, Schleiber stated, quote, I want to emphasize that the person or persons associated with the van are not necessarily suspects. They simply may have information that would help us in our investigation, end quote. But no one ever came forward and not even a license plate for the van was ever given.
00:20:39
Speaker
The second report came from several witnesses from the apartment complex who reported hearing a scream coming from the direction of the parking lot shortly after 4 a.m. However, most research seemed to indicate that because the scream only happened a single time, no one went to investigate. No one called 911. Then, sleuth hound sadly,
00:21:07
Speaker
I can skip to today, because we still don't know where Jodi is, nor who was involved in her abduction.
00:21:17
Speaker
Bodies of water have been dredged looking for her remains. Thousands of interviews have been conducted. Hundreds of leads followed, but with no viable leads. Jodi Housentrout was declared legally dead in 2001. And today, 25 years after her disappearance, there's still no solid suspect, no named perpetrator.
00:21:48
Speaker
Instead, there are just lots of theories. So I'll go through several of those with you now, and I'll begin with several people and events mentioned thus far in the episode. Theory 1. The Stalker. Someone after a public figure.
00:22:07
Speaker
Not only did Jodi mention crank calls to acquaintances at the golf tournament the day before she disappeared, she told friends and family further fears about a stalker. Jodi's cousin, Mary Lee Moberg, believes a stalker is the most likely possibility.
00:22:24
Speaker
Additionally,
Theories and Persons of Interest
00:22:25
Speaker
Jodi's sister Joanne and a friend, Tammy Baker, add that Jodi had felt that she was being followed by a man in a black truck one day close to the date of her disappearance when she was out jogging. Jodi's sister admits that the man in the truck may have been an innocent bystander, but it was enough to scare Jodi, which, at minimum,
00:22:48
Speaker
indicates how much the crank calls were worrying her and how much she felt she was in danger. Friends and family report that Jodi had filed a police report on a stalker some seven months before her disappearance, but the police deny knowledge of any such report ever being filed. Could this have been the result of someone who became obsessed with Jodi after seeing her on the news program?
00:23:18
Speaker
theory to the boat owner. Officers reported that the owner of the Mastercraft ski boat made it a habit of inviting women on board, giving them drinks and getting them dancing and then videoing them dancing on his boat.
00:23:36
Speaker
Some wonder whether one of the young men on the boat maybe followed Jodi home to know where she lived, showed up in the following days to make a move on her, confront her, or even abduct Jodi. And while I think it's a bit creepy to video a barrage of women dancing on his boat,
00:23:58
Speaker
The owner, who has never been named a suspect, voluntarily turned over the video he had taken of Jodi and her friend and, again, is not considered a viable lead.
00:24:13
Speaker
Theory three, the driver of the white van. This theory has no other backing than the fact that the white van was in the parking lot right around the time the abduction took place. This fact has led many to believe that those driving the van either were involved in Jodi's abduction or saw something concerning the crime.
00:24:36
Speaker
And because no one associated with the van has come forward, that alone has led many to believe that it's linked to Jodie's disappearance. After all, whoever took Jodie, that person was aware of Jodie's schedule. They knew what time she left in the mornings, where she lived, which door she would exit, and which car was hers. Theory four, her friend, John Van Sice,
00:25:07
Speaker
Most who look into this case end up wanting to take a closer look at Jodi's older friend, John. Many people do not understand the relationship he argues they had and instead believe that there must have been something more, that he truly wanted a romantic relationship with Jodi and maybe he became jealous when Jodi would show attention to other males and not to him.
00:25:31
Speaker
particularly damaging for Van Sice's role in the investigation is that he was the last person to see Jodie alive when she came to watch the video of her birthday party. Adding fuel to those accusations, FBI profiler Jim Clementi, based on an article by Lou Raguse, told the producers of Up and Vanished that
00:25:56
Speaker
When he himself watched the birthday party video, he felt that when Jodi would show attention to other men at the party, that Van Sice, quote, had a really evil look in his eyes, end quote. Could he have made an advance that Jodi rejected and that angered him?
00:26:18
Speaker
Sleuthhounds, while Van Sice was and still is a person of interest in this case, he was never charged. He willingly turned over the birthday party videotape, and Van Sice passed a polygraph test denying his involvement in the disappearance.
00:26:39
Speaker
At the time, he told a reporter with a Globe Gazette, quote, I was offended at first, but now I understand. I'm glad I did this because it proves I had nothing to do with it. End quote. Even his home was searched, but no viable evidence was found.
00:26:59
Speaker
Several of Van Sice and Hoosentrute's mutual friends maintain John's innocence as well. A woman by the name of LaDonna Woodson provided an alibi for Van Sice. She argues, and I agree with her, it's hard to argue someone's definitive involvement in murder because you think he gave an odd look. Solid evidence? Yes, that's enough. A facial expression? No.
00:27:31
Speaker
Woodson says that she and John went for a walk together the morning of Jodie's abduction from 6.45 to 7.45 a.m. She had called him at 6 a.m. and to her it sounded as if she had just woken him up. She has sworn to her timeline under oath and reported that Van Sice did not show any indication of anxiety or stress on their walk that morning as he likely would have done had he been involved in a crime less than two hours earlier.
00:27:59
Speaker
In March 2017, another search warrant was issued for GPS data on two of Van Sice's vehicles based upon a tip received by law enforcement. However, this search didn't turn up anything either.
00:28:19
Speaker
Vansize has notably turned down almost every interview about Jodie's disappearance. He's now 74, tired of the accusations and currently battling an aggressive form of Alzheimer's and still maintaining in one of the few interviews he did grant to investigative journalist Steve Ridge that he would never have hurt the bubbly young girl he treated as if she were his own.
00:28:46
Speaker
LaDonna Woodson has also never changed her story about her time with Van Sice that day. However, Payne Lindsey of Up and Vanished said that their investigation has revealed new information. And while Lindsey did not accuse Van Sice directly of involvement, he did say the following, quote, basically, all I want to say is that timelines aren't matching up for everyone in Jodie's life.
00:29:16
Speaker
I think that a clean timeline is truly key in a missing person's case like this. I always go back to the timeline for each person of interest." End quote. Do with that, sleuthounds, what you will. Now, a couple of other possibilities were also discovered as police began a more detailed investigation.
Potential Leads and Unconvincing Suspects
00:29:42
Speaker
Theory 5 – Link with a Friend's Death In April 1995, just three months before Jodie's disappearance, her friend Billy Pruehn died mysteriously in his apartment.
00:29:57
Speaker
His death was initially ruled a suicide, but was later changed to inconclusive, as there were some oddities in the case, like the fact that there was no gunshot residue found on his body, as there would have been had he committed suicide.
00:30:18
Speaker
According to an article by Ali van der Heyden, Pruehn had been vocal about the growing methamphetamine problem in the area and had likely angered many local drug traffickers. Many believed Jodi was investigating her friend Billy's death.
00:30:36
Speaker
if, indeed, he was murdered. Some argue that she may have gotten too close to the truth and was abducted as a result in order to silence her. According to Oxygen Network's Up and Vanished production, a friend of Billy Pruehn's noted, quote, sometime before his death, I had talked to him and he was nervous about something.
00:31:01
Speaker
He acted like something could happen to him, something bad. I definitely feel that Billy was murdered." End quote. Did Jodi have similar notions? Did she find something that she wasn't supposed to? After all, Pruehn's death also remains an unsolved case. Theory six, a local convicted rapist
00:31:29
Speaker
Officers discovered that only two blocks away from Jodi's apartment now lived a man convicted of a string of rapes across Minnesota, all of whom were stalked before they were raped. Many noticed a striking resemblance between Jodi and the man's ex-girlfriend who had broken up with the man less than a week before Jodi's disappearance.
00:31:54
Speaker
However, despite denying interviews, the man, now serving time in prison for the confessed rapes, has replied to several investigative programs, like 48 Hours, maintaining his innocence and denying any involvement in Jodie Housentrout's disappearance.
00:32:11
Speaker
And even though a cellmate informed that the man had written a rap about Jodi, no solid evidence has been found to link the man to the crime. The Mason City Police released the following statement, quote, after conducting a thorough investigation, which included interviews, crime laboratory analysis, records review,
00:32:34
Speaker
and polygraph examination, the man in question is not considered at this time a viable suspect in the investigation." Theory 7. Police Cover-up. A former detective for the Mason City Police Department accused both a retired Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent and two officers of being involved in Jodie Housentrute's kidnapping and murder.
00:33:05
Speaker
The detective reported that an informant had given her credible information that would implicate the three in the crime. According to an article by Kim Pascolini, the detective reported the information to her superiors, but nothing was done to them. Instead, she was terminated.
00:33:28
Speaker
I will admit a different source I read, however, noted that the detective, the one accusing, had been fired before her accusations of the other officers. Those same accusations of law enforcement surfaced again when several billboards were put up around Mason City about Jodie Husentrute. On them were pictures of Jodie with the following poignant question,
00:33:56
Speaker
Somebody knows something. Is it you? One of those billboards was vandalized with the name of one of those detectives mentioned as implicated in the crime with the additional phrase, machine shed.
00:34:12
Speaker
The officer named on the billboard did have a machine shed behind his home. However, that was not the house the officer lived in at the time of Jodi's disappearance. So it appears that this was more likely an act of vandalism instead of insight into the crime. Additionally, official investigations found no validity to the accusing detectives claims.
00:34:42
Speaker
Theory 8. The Country Club Golf Tournament.
00:34:46
Speaker
Several believe that Jodi may have come into contact with people at the country club during the golf tournament who later came to abduct her. Up and vanished on the oxygen network proposed that two individuals, a man and a woman, could have been involved. The woman was an employee at the golf course and she and the gentleman she's associated with were arrested for the murder of five people.
00:35:13
Speaker
The man is now on death row, and the woman was sentenced to life in prison. A recent article entitled, Journalist Expects Arrest and Murder of Jodi Housentrout, published April 10th of this year, reported that an accomplice of the man's says he knows what happened to Jodi. Additionally, the woman from the country club says a man who she was involved with knows what happened to Jodi.
00:35:42
Speaker
Currently, that man's execution is on hold due to COVID-19. I can only hope these accusations can be verified before time runs out.
00:35:56
Speaker
While Jodi
Hopes for Justice and Community Involvement
00:35:57
Speaker
can't be brought back and Jodi's mother unfortunately passed away without ever knowing what happened to her daughter, her family still needs closure. Jodi still needs a resting place. Let's not forget Jodi who's in truth's name. That's the last thing she or anyone who values justice wants.
00:36:27
Speaker
No one remaining in Jodi's family has given up hope that one day justice will be served. Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley stated in an interview with the Globe Gazette, quote, a lot of people think it's a cold case, but it's not. It's still an active investigation. We follow up on every tip we get, and we always will. Someone out there knows what happened. You can't do something like this without telling someone. Someone?
00:36:58
Speaker
knows." The Fine Jodi website has recently launched a podcast about what might have happened to Jodi. Carolyn Lowe, a former crime reporter and an investigative reporter for the new podcast, hopes that her podcast will help keep the focus on the case and lead to justice being served to the one or ones who know something coming forward.
00:37:23
Speaker
Investigative journalist Steve Ridge mentioned earlier in this episode also stated in an interview with Taylor Vessel, published only two weeks ago, that he has spoken to, quote, new and potentially valuable witnesses, end quote, and that based on new information, solving this case is still, he believes, a distinct possibility. Hope and closure, Sleuthhounds.
00:37:53
Speaker
Those are not things we often get in the cases Maggie and I cover. I only pray that this family and the families in all of our cases can find that peace, that closure one day. And that one day can only happen if we prove they can trust us.
00:38:16
Speaker
They put their trust in us to tell any and all information we may have that might help solve these cases. They put their trust in law enforcement to inspect every clue, to question every suspect. Trust
00:38:34
Speaker
and honesty. The traits we value so much in others are the very things needed for closure. I can only hope as the honest tea social experiment tried to prove that those traits are more common than what we might expect.
00:38:57
Speaker
Anyone with information about Jodi's case is asked to call the Mason City Police Department at 641-421-3636.
00:39:12
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
00:39:42
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.