Jody Huisentruit Remains Found?
Maggie
Last update: July 15, 2004 at 12:07 PM
Iowa police investigate remains Terry Collin and Randy Furst, Star Tribune
MASON CITY, IOWA -- More than nine years after the disappearance of TV news
anchor Jodi Huisentruit, investigators in Mason City descended on a house in a
rural area Wednesday after workers discovered what authorities said appear to
be human remains behind the house .
The Cerro Gordo County Sheriff's Office made no mention of Huisentruit in a
short news release. It cordoned off the area as reporters and photographers
watched from a distance.
The Sheriff's Office said deputies were called to the house shortly before noon
after receiving the workmen's report.
"We are not going to speculate on anything further," said Chief Deputy David
Hepperly, saying the remains still have to be tested and analyzed. A news
conference is scheduled in Mason City at noon today.
Jodi Huisentruit
Hepperly said that deputies at the scene said the remains appear to be human,
but he declined to give any information on whether anything else was found with
the remains or exactly where or how they were found.
The beige, two-story house is about 3 miles northeast of downtown Mason City. A
row of television satellite trucks and news vehicles was parked in front of it
Wednesday night.
The Sheriff's Office was being assisted by the Iowa Division of Criminal
Investigation.
Human remains were found behind this house.
Kyndell Harkness
Star Tribune
Huisentruit, 27, who grew up in Long Prairie, Minn., disappeared about 4 a.m.
June 27, 1995, from the parking lot of her apartment building in Mason City.
She was on her way to work at KIMT-TV.
Pete Hjelmstad, executive producer for the station and its principal anchor,
said he was waiting with mixed emotions. He said he was "just very cautious,
just very anxious to hear what they found." Hjelmstad was the sports director
at the station when Huisentruit disappeared in 1995.
Jane Huisentruit, Jodi's 80-year-old mother, who lives in Long Prairie, said
she learned about the latest developments from a television newscast.
"I'm ready for it to be solved some way or other," she said. "Every day I think
of her."
Huisentruit graduated from Long Prairie High School and later from St. Cloud
State University and has family members living throughout Minnesota. She worked
at a TV station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1991 and 1992, then went to KSAX-TV
in Alexandria, Minn., before moving to Mason City in November 1993.
Authorities have speculated from the beginning that she was abducted. They
found some personal items in her apartment building parking lot near her car,
including a pair of shoes, car keys, earrings and a hair dryer she would have
taken to work to prepare for her morning news broadcast.
Co-workers called police three hours after she did not show up at work.
Several people reportedly heard screams that morning, but no one called police.
There have been a number of leads that did not pan out. Early in the case,
authorities gave lie-detector tests to two men -- a pilot and local businessman
-- whom Huisentruit had been with before her disappearance. Authorities also
investigated tips that she was stalked by an obsessive fan, was harmed by
someone with a romantic interest or had been abducted by a drifter.
In 1997, an 18-year-old Iowa man was questioned after he told a 21-year-old
woman whom he was accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting that he was
involved in Huisentruit's disappearance. He later told authorities he had lied
about it.
Authorities also had looked at another possible suspect, Tony Dejuan Jackson,
in prison in Minnesota for rape convictions.
Wendy Mahoney, 46, who lives three houses from the site where the remains were
found, said she did not know Huisentruit, but "I have prayed long and hard that
she will be found and this can finally be put to rest."
She said she did not know who lived in the house, but said they had moved there
after Huisentruit disappeared.
The writers are at tcol...@startribune.com and rfu...@startribune.com.
Maggie
"Nancy, if you were 8 1/2 months pregnant and I was married to you, I'd be
going fishing Christmas Eve." -- Mark Geragos, to Nancy Grace on LKL
tinydancer
td
New Information on Human Remains
Justin Foss
MASON CITY, Iowa (KIMT)
Thursday, July 15, 2004
It started around noon on Wednesday when a person found bones and clothing
sticking out of the soil on this site, North East of Mason CIty.
The Cerro Gordo County Sheriff's office and the Iowa Division of Criminal
Investigation were called in to investigate.
Sheriff Kevin Pals tells KIMT Newschannel Three, "No cause or manner of
death could be determined by the way the body was found."
Immediately many people thought the remains could be those of former KIMT
Newschannel Three anchor woman Jodi Huisentruit.
Police believe she was abducted in June of 1995.
But Thursday's press conference put that rumor to rest.
Pals says, "Preliminary results indicated the remains belong to a caucasian
adult male. "
Steve Martinson is the KIMT General Manager, and says, "It's somewhat of a
letdown. I mean, you'd like to put some closure to it, and uh, you'd like
Jodi's family to be able to put some closure to it. But somewhere out there
there's another family that has a loved one missing, and maybe this will
help them."
Now that investigators know they found a caucasian male, they have to find
out just who it is. For starters, they are cross-referencing the Iowa
Missing person's list. Currently there are nine North Iowan's on that list.
Pals says, "Any person found dead, whether killed or died out in the country
and nobody knows where they are, is a very large case for any law
enforcement agency. So we take it very serious even though it's not Jodi
Huisentruit."
As for the investigation into Jodi's disappearance, officials say they
haven't yet received anymore leads because of this incident.
http://www.kimt.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=KIMT/Page/IMT_FrontPage
Phoenix
tinyd...@nowhere.com says...
> No, the remains are that of a white male.
> td
Well shit. I've been hoping they'd find Jody for a long,long time. Who
knows why this case stuck with me, but it has.
bel
Michael Snyder
Sorry, when I read the subject line, I thought of
"Generalissimo Francisco Franco -- still dead."