Transcript of VANISHED: Jodi Huisentruit

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Hey, guys. It's Payne Lindsay. For almost eight years, I've been making true crime podcasts. Investigating cold cases, unsolved disappearances, murders, wrongful convictions. I've sat face to face with serial killers, stared evil in the eye, and I've met countless families whose lives have been shattered by unimaginable loss. These experiences have shaped who I am today, and they've lit a fire in me to keep fighting for justice, for truth, and for those whose stories have been ignored for far too long. Since the first season of Up and Vanished in 2016, where we uncovered the truth about Tara Instead's disappearance and helped bring her killers to justice, I've spent years investigating and telling stories just like hers. Along the way, thousands of tips, stories, and cases have poured in, each one carrying the weight of unanswered questions and unimaginable heartbreak. I've decided these stories can no longer just sit in the shadows. They need to be told, and we need to bring them into the spotlight. That's why we created Up and Vanished Weekly. Each week, we're going to explore a new unsolved case, missing persons, murders, and even wrongful convictions. This show is about shedding light on these stories, giving a voice to those who need it most, and most of all, trying to find answers.

Every week, I'll be here to guide you through these stories, taking you through all the twists and turns of an unsolved case. But this is far from a one-person operation. This is a team, and I've brought in my good friend, journalist, activist, and overall badass, Maggie Freeling, to take the helm. Each week, Maggie will lead thoughtful and candid discussions examining these cases, sitting down with victims' families, talking to expert guests, and members of our own Up and Vanished team, breaking down the details that matter most, and enlisting your help to try and solve them. This show is about awareness, action, and the overall pursuit of the truth. I'm beyond grateful to have you on this journey with us, and I want to personally thank you for your support as a listener. I'm proud to present to you Up and Vanished Weekly.

This podcast discusses mature and sensitive content, including descriptions of violence that may be triggering for some audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

It's early afternoon on Tuesday, June 27th, 1995. As the coolness of morning fades, the news team at KIMT, peaks outside a window of the station. A circus of reporters and trucks are gathering, and the sun seems to spotlight the frenzy. Kimt is a local news station in Mason City, Iowa, so this type of scene is common, but today is different. There's a notable change in the air. As various other news crews circle the station, an unsettling feeling grows amongst the colleagues. They feel a pit in their stomachs. Earlier that day, Jody Huy's intrude, the station's morning news anchor, didn't show up for work. As the team scrabbled to produce the show in her absence, Her coworkers went from thinking she'd simply overslept to now fearing something far worse had happened. Over the next few hours, they would learn the shocking reality of what had actually transpired that morning. In Jody, Mason City's beloved morning news anchor was about to become the day's top story. From Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta, I'm Payne Lindsay.

And I'm Maggie Freeling.

And you're listening to Up and Vanished Weekly.

Hey, all. Welcome to Up and Vanished Weekly. I'm Maggie Freeling. I am so thrilled you're joining us for our debut episode. I'm sure you're here because you already know and love pain, and some of you may know and may love me. But for those who don't, I hope you get to know me and you want to stick around. To start, besides being a fanatic cat mom, my entire identity is as a journalist. I need to know the who, what, when, where, why of everything. It's truly insufferable for everyone around me and myself. Lucky for you, though, that's why I'm here today. I want to get to the bottom of every mystery and find out the facts of every matter. This first case, I feel particularly connected connected to because Jody was also a journalist. And she was young. She had her entire career ahead of her. And I remember that point in my life, landing my first big job, scrambling to prove myself and get the story. When we get lost in the shuffle like that, it's so easy to be blindsided by what we're least expecting. Joining me today to talk about Jody's case is Meredith Steadman, a producer at Tenderfoot, who has worked closely with Payne and the team on the Up and Vanished series.

Meredith, I am freaking stoked you're here. So good to see you.

Thanks, Maggie. I'm honestly really excited to be here. It's been a while since I've been in the Up and Vanished universe.

Yeah. So, Meredith, I know that you've worked with Payne and the Up and Vanished team almost from the beginning, and you work on the Tenderfoot Horror Series, Radio Rental, a favorite of mine, as well as hosting Rattled and Shook. But I'm curious, how did you meet Payne and the team in the first place?

Wow, yeah. I have been around since the early days. I got into working at Tenderfoot. Actually, went up and Vanished first came out. It hadn't really blown up yet. The case hadn't broken. This is season one, Tara Grinstead's case, and I was following it. I'm a writer, and I just cold-emailed and offered writing assistance. Then Payne needed more help, and I just joined the team full-time, and then I've been here ever since.

Wow, that's the dream, just following a case and having the person working it be like, Hey, come on.

I did not expect it. I'll never forget the first blurb I wrote, I think Payne was like, Hey, can you help me write something about the town of Ocilla. I remember I hadn't been there yet, so I was looking at Ocilla and trying to describe it.

Wow.

Crazy. I haven't thought about that in a while.

You also worked with Payne on Jody's case for the Up and Vanished TV series. When you first looked at overview of the case, what stood out to you about Jody?

Of all the cases that I've worked on since working at Tenderfoot, this is one of the cases that has really stuck with me the most. I think it's because I felt I related to Jody a bit more maybe than some of the other cases that we have covered. I think that's because she was this journalist. She's an anchor. She had all these dreams of working in that space and making her way up to the national rankings and being on national TV. I think I similarly got into this career because I was interested in journalism. When I went to school, that was what I initially tried to study. I think I just related to her dreams. It was so scary to think that someone so public-facing with so much promise disappeared like that. I also felt a sense of kinship with her. It's stuck with me all these years.

Yeah, it's so interesting because that's exactly what stuck out to me, right? The young journalist, I just was like, yeah, I could see myself going to my 3: 00 AM public radio shift and being ambushed is horrifying.

Yeah, and there's so many options for who could have done it because she's so public-facing. You can see from all the videos of her, she seems like such a light. I can just imagine how in this smaller town, she could be an object of fixation for a lot of people. But yeah, the fact that she was doing such a service for the and was so beloved but then had so many weird interactions with obsessive men. It just makes me sad. It really, I think, is another reason that it stuck with me. It doesn't seem fair.

It's been almost 30 years since she disappeared, and we have no answers. When you covered this for the TV show, you didn't just retell the story. You guys actually took a real deep dive, retracing steps of the original investigation and following up on investigative leads. Can you tell me a bit about some of the things that you did?

Yeah. I think that's maybe why of the Up and Vanished TV Show cases, this is probably, for lack of a better word, my favorite, because we really did try to look into a lot of different angles, some of which I think are more possible. Some are just to cover all bases, to look into every single thing that was mentioned to us. But we really went to that town. We went to Mason City, Iowa, where Jody was the anchor. We went to her apartment complex We talked to her co-anchor, the woman that was at the station at the time. We even talked to some people that were anonymous tipsters or people that gave us new information that they tried to give the police prior and felt they weren't heard when they deliver that information. We really were talking to a lot of people that hadn't spoken in years and years about things that they heard and saw around those days when she disappeared. If you saw the show towards the end of that episode, Payne actually We tried to speak with one of the main persons of interest, and it was honestly a pretty interesting interaction.

Yeah, and I want to get to that. But first, I want to go back and start with the morning that Jody vanished because we learned some critical information from a really small window of time. Here's Pain with more.

As an early morning news anchor, Jody had a strict routine. On day she was on the air, she arrived at the station at 3: 00 AM, preparing for the 6: 00 AM broadcast. This meant she usually went to bed early the night before. But leading up to her disappearance, in the early morning hours of June 27th, several details seem to indicate that her normal routine wasn't followed. Here's what we know. Around 2: 00 AM that Tuesday, Jody's producer, Amy Coons, arrived at KIMT. She started the process of preparing the crew for the day's morning segments. Before long, Jody's usual 3: 00 AM arrival time came and went. It wasn't until 4: 00 AM that Amy looked at the clock and realized she hadn't heard from Jody all a warning. So she called to check on her. The phone rang, and Jody picked up. She was groggy, and it was clear that Amy had woke her up. When she realized what happened, Jody apologizes apologized, stated she'd overslept, and she'd be right in. But a short time later, there was still no word from Jody. Amy tried calling Jody again, but this time, there was no response.

This few hour period, it would later be determined as the window when Jody disappeared. But at that time, Amy couldn't have known that Jody was in danger. She just assumed that Jody had fallen asleep again. The morning rolled on, and after two hours of not hearing from Jody, Amy began to grow more concerned. At 6: 00 AM, someone from the station went to Jody's apartment to check on her, and still, no answer. It was at this point, they decided to call the Mason City Police Department to perform a wellness check. Police arrive at Jody's apartment complex at 7: 30 AM and immediately find something very out of place. Next to Jody's red Mazda Miata, they saw different items scattered across the parking lot. Authorities identified a high-healed shoe, a hair dryer, hair brush, hairspray, and other belongings that looked to have fallen out of a bag. As concerning as the scene looked, they became more alarmed when they found a bent car key. The police noticed that Jody's car mirror was bent backwards and found what looked like drag marks in the area, moving away from her vehicle. At this point, it was shaping up to look like much more than an accident.

Police canvas the area but found no other evidence. They did some knocks on doors in the complex and got some early tips from neighbors. A few residents said they heard voices and potentially screaming in the early morning hours. Authorities also noticed a pile of beer cans in an area of the parking lot that had a clear line of sight to Jody's apartment. Were these mere coincidences? Or potential clues painting the picture of what happened to Jody? The evidence in the parking lot showed signs of a struggle, but it was not enough to give police a full story. So the investigators shifted their focus to Jody's apartment. While they didn't find anything that pointed to forced entry, they did find some used wine glasses and something interesting in the bathroom. Apart from her normal personal items, authorities noticed that the toilet seat was left up. What's normally a pretty clear sign that a man had been there at some point recently. Suspitions were mounting, and it became clear that authorities needed to learn more about who may have interacted with Jody that morning.

So first, we need to just talk about the scene, the evidence that the police found at Jody's complex. You have this high-healed shoe. I think it was red. A hairdryer, a hairbrush, hair dryer, a hair brush, hairspray, and a couple other belongings. But it literally looks like a woman was just dragged away from this car, and they do find potential drag marks and a bent key as if she was going to put it in the door. To me, this seems like clear signs of struggle took place. What do you make on this whole scene?

Yeah, I'm glad you phrased it that way. It appears to be a crime scene, but we don't know if a crime took place there because I remember feeling like, Is there a chance this was staged? The pictures look almost like a bad student film. But do I think it's likely that the crime took place there, that the abduction took place there? Yes, I do, because what I've always found super unique about this case is that there's a very clear time frame for when this took place. This probably happened somewhere between 3: 30, 3: 45, somewhere in there. It's rare, I think, to have such a really exact time frame where this probably happened. If we hadn't had that phone call from Amy, who knows what could have happened? It'd be the whole night would be a possibility. But now we know it's just this early morning time when she usually would be rushing to her car. It does seem pretty likely that that's the crime scene.

Right. There's some red flags that when you start digging come up that maybe there was something going on in Jody's life. She mentioned she was being followed when she was out running. She was taking self-defense classes. Of course, back then, her number and her address were publicly available.

Wow.

What do you make of some of this? Do you think there was something going on in her life?

Yes, I definitely do. There is the option that this is a random crime of opportunity, and that was definitely explored in our Up and Vanished episode about it. But I think also from everything we heard, there were several people that may have been infatuated with Jody. She'd had a stalker in the recent past before she went missing. I think it's pretty safe to say that though a random crime of opportunity is possible, there is so much evidence pointing towards a crime of passion that I don't think that can be ignored.

Our discussion continues after a quick break. Random crime makes headlines, but how common is it really?

A 2022 article by News Nation with the same name offers some insights.

Site. Citing statistics from 2020, they found that 25% of crimes are committed by a total stranger, 24% of crimes are committed by someone related to the victim, and over 50% of crimes are committed by someone the victim knows but is not related to. So while many people think that crimes are most often incidents of opportunity committed by strangers, statistics seem to show otherwise.

Any crime should be taken seriously.

If you're the victim of a crime, call 911 to report it immediately.

If you have information about a crime, call Crime Stoppers USA at 1-800-222-Tips.

All right, Now, back to our case. We were just talking a little bit about why this case resonates with us because we're both producers and we both wanted to be journalists. Jody really made it. She was a local celebrity. Back then, being on TV, there was no TikTok, nothing like that. Jody, she was in the limelight. How much of this do you think is related to that?

Oh, I think a lot. I do. I don't think that only people in the limelight can be obsessed over, stalked. However, I think you're absolutely right. Mason City, Iowa, it's not a huge place. I think you're right. No TikTok, no social media, no other celebrities live there except for the people on the local news. I think that she was a really hot commodity in the area, and I'm sure that made people feel a parasocial connection with her. Maybe she was seen as a trophy, like a goal. If you could be friends with her, if you could be in her circle. I think that a lot of the stories we've heard pointed towards that, too. A lot of people wanted to be around her. Also, that's terrible, what you said about her phone number and address being public information. It just makes me squirm. It makes me so upset.

Right. I mean, the white pages or the yellow pages. I mean, 1995, it's like, yeah, our addresses are out there now, but it's so interesting because as a producer, when you're trying to find someone, you get 50 different addresses and who knows which one it is. It's AI aggregating your data with your mom's and your dad's. But back then, it was like, you find her last name and there is her most recent address. That's terrifying. There's speculation around whether Jody may have had someone in her apartment the night before she disappeared, and that person may have been the last person to see her alive. Thankfully, some crucial details about the hours before her disappearance were about to be revealed. Here's pain with more.

On the evening of June 11th, just a few days before she went missing, Jody's friends and coworkers threw her a 27th birthday party at a lounge in nearby Clear cake. Everything was captured on video. You can see red balloons, party hats, and streamers. A big banner reading Party Hardy Girl hung above the cake with a figurine topper of a skier. A nod to Jody's love for the outdoors. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, especially Jody. You can see her smiling wide and laughing hard as she dances on the table, singing all of her favorite songs. It seems like the night you'd remember for a long time. But in the video of the party, it also shows Jody dancing closely with a man. It's a party, so that's not out of place. But you can't help but notice a few odd details. First, there's a significant age difference. Jody turned 27, but the man she was with looked a lot older, about 20 years older. Secondly, the vibe seemed off, like he's much more into Jody than she's into him. So the question became, who is he? His connection to Jody and his interaction interaction with her, and the hours leading up to her disappearance, will answer several burning questions, but also raise many more.

Last night, new information on the case was released in a two-hour program on the Oxygen Network.

Happy birthday to you. For the first time.

Happy birthday, dear Jody. The video of Jody Hussentruth's last birthday party is made public as part of Up and Vanished, a two-hour show airing on the Oxygen Network.

The FBI and Mason City Police have both told Karelevan News the video is evidence in the case of the missing news anchor.

I want to talk about this infamous video of Jody dancing at her birthday party with a friend of hers. This man is named John Van Sys. The age difference between the two of them is quite visible. He is older, she is very young. A lot of people say there's a weird vibe when you study the video.

Yeah. Speculation is hard. However, if you're just asking me how I feel, the video is weird. The video is super weird. The whole thing about the video is weird. Jody had had a birthday party very recently before she went missing. Her friend, this man who I think she had a 14-year age gap with or something like that, had apparently thrown her this party and had asked his friend to video it. If you watch the video, it's like John Van Syce, the man who threw this party, is hamming it up. I mean, he is like, life of the party. They're dancing a lot. He's touching her constantly, picking her up, sweeping her up in his arms, bridal style. He's pressing their cheeks together. He's getting on the table and pumping his fist. And there's also a few moments where she's dancing with someone else, and he is just staring at her.

I've only seen clips of the video because when I see this, I'm like, I don't know. It's a drunk guy having fun.

But yeah, it does look like that.

The clip does. But maybe if I saw more, I would think otherwise.

Well, I think what it would be is you'd either be like, Oh, Oh, they are best friends, or, Oh, they're in love, or they're dating, or, Oh, my gosh. He must be some really significant figure in her life. But the thing is that they'd met six months prior. They weren't dating, and at least that's what her friend told us, that they had met six months before. That's why I'm like, he threw this party. He's clearly pulling out all the stops. She looks like she's having a lot of fun at the party. Arguably, he almost looks like he's having more fun.

Yeah. And he's really important because the night before she went missing, he is allegedly the last person to see her, and he comes forward and says that the night before Jody went missing, Apparently, John Van Sys, he's the one who said this, he's the one who put this out there, said that she came over to his house that night, the night before she went missing, and that they watched the videotape together.

On the Up and Vanish show, we actually talked to someone who anonymously claimed that the following day when Jody had gone missing and it was just starting to be figured out that John Van Sys made some weird comments along the lines of being like, I have the video. I have the video of the birthday. I can prove it. It almost seemed like he was desperate to prove that they had a good connection. Now, that's coming from this anonymous source who I did see in Mason City, Iowa, that I did pain Donald and I, the whole team, met this person, but we can't verify that. However, I do think now that I'm telling you that they met within six months, it is strange, right? It's like now that you know that and you've seen the video or at least clips of it, you're like, Oh, they seem like they'd be so much closer. The police report initially had gone into just the facts of what they could verify. That was that that day before she went missing, Jody had gone to a charity golf tournament, had left around 8: 00 PM had gone home, and then there was a phone call to a friend on her call log.

Then it's a question mark until the next morning when she's called from the station and they're like, Jody, you're late. She's like, Huh? Oh, I'll be right there. That is all that is there on paper from my understanding. Then, John Van Sys entered the picture and offered up information that Jody had gone over that night and they had watched the video tape of her birthday party together. Then within the next couple of days, John went on the news and made some strange comments. One of the comments that he made publicly is that he was the last person to see Jody alive, which is really odd because no one said she was dead. Why would you say you're the last person that saw her alive? She's missing. People at that time still had hope that she would be found.

It's also a weird statement to make because you don't know that unless you're the one that did something with her and she's no longer alive. I wouldn't be like, Oh, I'm the last one to see that person. Even if I say alive or not, how do you know you're the last person to see her?

And why would you want to be? I wouldn't want to be the last person to see anybody. Even if he has nothing to do with it, it just feels like a possessive remark to make. He just wanted everyone to know that they were very close and that he was the final person that she saw before she went missing. Honestly, to say that publicly, too, it's like, well, everyone knows it was at night, the night before, I think he had a fixation on making sure people knew that they had a maybe romantic connection, or maybe it could turn into that or something like that.

Yeah. And I also want to point out that we don't really know who went to who's house. If Jody went to John's house to watch the video before she disappeared or if he went to her house. This was just his word of what was happening that evening.

Unless the police have some other evidence that we haven't seen, I've never heard that was verified. However, in recent years, they got a warrant for GPS information about John Van Syce's car that day and around Jody's disappearance. They got a warrant to look into that, and they sealed that warrant. So we can't tell what was the information that they had that convinced a judge that they had enough information to go get that GPS information. Then nothing came out of it. So it's like, presumably, they didn't find anything damning, but they did have something that was enough to convince a judge to approve the warrant. So that's interesting.

Yeah, and there's still a lot of unanswered questions about what happened to her the night before she disappeared and whether John's account of things is true or accurate if she went to his house. I want to get into the discussion of theories with you and pick your brain a bit about what you think happened. One of the theories that we've touched on is that she had a potential stalker And again, Jody had mentioned she had been followed when she was out for runs and reported this to authorities. What are your thoughts on her being stalked?

The stalking one is interesting because I totally believe she was stalked, but I don't know if there's evidence that it was always the same person or if it was the person who may have been in the parking lot that morning because there was some alleged report that someone saw a van in the parking lot that morning.

I want to just make that connection. She had a ludge being followed by a white van. Then there was a witness who lived on the same street as Jody He drove past her complex every day, and he said that morning he saw a white Ford Econoline van parked in her apartment complex facing the street. He didn't see a driver or anything. What do you make of that?

I think it's very possible that that van in the parking lot that morning was related to the crime, especially. I think they said that would have been around 4: 00 AM, which fits the time period of when Jody would have been abducted.

The police determined that none of the other residents in the apartment complex were registered to a similar van. So it does seem like this van was potentially out of place.

Yeah, potentially out of place. Whether it was the same one as when she was jogging, unsure, but it could have been. It definitely could have been.

So some suspect she may have been a victim of a serial typist. And there was a couple that were actually active in the area at the time. Tony Jackson had four victims that were similar build and description to Jody. He lived two blocks from the news station. And Thomas Corscaden assaulted multiple women, including one at Knife Point. He did have a van similar to the one seen in the parking lot at the time of her disappearance. And allegedly, he was trying to get tickets to an event Jody was planning to attend. Do any of these names ring a bell for you?

We definitely looked into that. I think Tony Jackson, in particular, the one thing that was weird, or I remember about his case, apparently he bought a car the day before she went missing. Also, someone in jail that was in jail the same time that Tony Jackson was in jail for other victims that he had stalked and raped. Someone in jail at the time with Tony said that he told them that he had killed an anchor, allegedly. Now, can we verify this? No. You know what I mean? It's like that's hearsay from jail. It was passed on, finally got to us as a tip is like, Tony Jackson said this. It's hard to say because Tony Jackson was interviewed and Tony Jackson said, I never met Jody, who's I only know her because of the local news. Tony Jackson was looked into, and he was eventually cleared by the police. However, it's unclear why he was cleared because he didn't have an alibi for that night. He apparently stalked people, and it doesn't really seem like he was really investigated deeply, so I don't know why they cleared him other than he didn't seem to have a expressly deep connection to Jody.

Then this other guy, Thomas Corscaden, allegedly had a van similar to the one seen in the parking lot, and he's just another dude that's a freaking creep and assaulted multiple women, including one at Knife Point in the neighborhood. I think the point just being like, yeah, it's really possible that there's a lot of people that could have hurt Jody.

Yeah, and There was also Dirk Chablonsky. He was another man who apparently had a record of stalking women, and he briefly lived in the same apartment building as Jody. He was at the golf tournament, allegedly, that she had been to the day before. Someone we talked to said that they sent in a tip about him, like look into him, and they didn't believe that the police had ever done it.

We'll be right back after a quick break. You're listening to Up and Vanished Weekly. Hey, everyone. Before we get back to the episode, I want to take a second to bring attention to something unique about Up and Vanished Weekly. When Payne and I created the show, we knew we wanted to bring awareness to late-breaking missing persons cases, a way to highlight disappearances where authorities are desperately looking for tips and information about sightings to help track down missing persons who may still be in danger. Each week, we'll bring you one of these cases in what we're calling our critical missing segment. Here's our producer, John with more.

Hey, Maggie. So this is a really interesting one. At 10: 41 AM on January 18th of this year, a black 2016 Ford Fusion with North Carolina tag Juliet Lima Sierra 6635 entered the long term parking lot at the Charlotte Airport. It's believed the vehicle is registered to 32-year-old Alexander González from Mooresville, North Carolina. The following day, Alexander's brother received a text from Alexander's phone around 8: 45 PM. Then around 10: 19 PM that night, the phone was pings in Grapevine, Texas, and a second ping at 11: 38 PM shows the phone was either off or disconnected. From what we know, Alexander hasn't been heard from since. Alexander is of Hispanic ethnicity and has a height of 5'10 inches and a weight of 175 pounds. He has shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes, and he was last seen wearing brown leather boots and darkwashed jeans. Alexander has a tattoo of a Japanese-style mask on his forearm, as well as a tattoo of a standing frog also on his forearm. He also has a scar on his forehead above his eyebrow. So, listeners, if you know any information about the whereabouts of Alexander Gonzales, please contact the Morrisville Police Department at 704-664-3311, and you can reference case number 2025-000-36.

3-9-1.

Okay, now let's get back to the show. Just as we discussed, a very strong theory is that Jody could have encountered a stalker or a serial rapist or murderer. But the other leading theory is that John Van Syce may have had something to do with her disappearance. Obviously, he's been the main person of interest since the beginning. You guys also really focused on him. After she went missing, he did a couple of media appearances, and then he moved to Arizona, and that's where you guys found him. Tell me about John Van Syce, and this is who I think is your main person of interest.

This is where we spent a lot of the time of our investigation on Jody Who's Intrigued's case because there was so much weird about John Van Cys as a person of interest. I think there's a reason why he still to this day hasn't been cleared by the police publicly. His alibi is that his friend Ladonna, she called him at 6: 00 AM to work out or go on a walk with her. She called him and he was really groggy. She was like, he was definitely asleep. He was like, no, no, let's work out. That they worked out most days together. Again, don't know how you can verify that. But they went on a walk together and he didn't say anything about Jody, except for in our interview with her, she said that she was like, John, you look like hell this morning. John was like, Oh, well, I mean, all I did last night is Jody came over and we watched the videotape of the party and we had a good time. Okay, a weird alibi. The alibi is that not at the time she really went missing, but before the cops found out she was gone, at least not at the time I think she went missing, because I think she went missing somewhere around 4: 00 AM.

That even leaves 5: 00 AM open. But at 6: 00 AM-ish, he had a friend call him, and then they went on a walk, and he didn't seem to know anything about it. That's the alibi. However, we also talked to another man that said that they would have been together around the same time that this walk would have been taking place, and that they actually met up every morning. Honestly, that was the man I believed. We can't say his name. He was anonymous. But I don't think that this woman, Ladal, LaDonna was telling the truth. I don't think that they worked out every day together. I don't really know why she would say that. However, I think the most likely thing is if they did go on a walk, I actually think there's a possibility that John called Ladonna to work out or go on a walk that morning, not the other way around. Somehow, he got her to eventually say that she called first by saying maybe that people would think it was suspicious or could she help him out? It would help because he's innocent and yada, yada. However, if they did go on that walk that morning, it still is 6: 30, 6: 45 or something that she claims they finally met up.

To me, that doesn't really seem like an alibi. Right. That seems hours before It's before the police got to the crime scene because I think the police didn't get there until closer to 7: 38. I think they were called at 7: 30 in the morning after the morning news shift had ended. But still, I don't know why we're assuming that Jody went missing at 7: 00.

Right. That's what we keep saying alibi, but it's pretty clear she went missing sometime around 4: 00 AM. She's late for work, so she's going to be rushing to work. If she had left that area around 4: 00 AM, she would have been at work by 6: 00 AM, so she didn't. So he needs an alibi for 4: 00 AM.

Yes. I guess the only alibi you can have is sleep, and that's fair enough. However, here's the real thing that sticks with me. Amy Kuhn, so I mentioned a bunch of times, was the assistant producer at the Mason City TV station. She says that that morning, John Van Syis called to ask if Jody was there, and can I talk to her? That morning, early in the morning, that had to be around the same time, supposedly, that he was on this walk with LaDonna. I believe Amy Cunes. I really do. She was the one that talked to Jody that morning. Firstly, no reason to lie, seemed really upset about it, and very intense about Jody's case. She's the last person that we know talked to her. She says that John Van Syis called sometime after to ask if Jody was there and can I talk to her? Then Amy Kuhn said she didn't show up for work this morning. Then he said, Well, is she sick? Was really insistent about, Why can't I talk to her? Where is she? Amy said she thought it was suspicious, and she told the police, and she said that she didn't even know if it made it into the official police report.

How would he know she was missing? Exactly. Why and how, I guess, in theory, he could have Well, the thing is that I think Amy was saying that he called asking, Oh, can I speak to Jody?

Not that he knew that she was missing, but Amy said he never called before to her knowledge just to talk to Jody that early in the morning before her news coverage. To me, it sounds like you're trying to make an alibi, Oh, how would I have known she was missing? I tried to talk to her. Right.

A very obvious person of interest.

Yeah. I know, obviously, you do a lot of wrongful conviction work, and I know there's people zero in on suspects that seem really likely. It happened with Tara Grinstead's case and her boyfriend, too. I'm sure it caused him a lot of heartache. I do think you got to be sure about these things. However, the stuff that happened with John Van Sijs is really, really, really weird.

When you guys recorded the Up and Vanished TV show, Payne tried to reach out to John Vansize to sit down with him and get his take on what he believed happened to Jody. John ignored the outreach, so Payne and the team flew to Arizona and actually approach John at his house. I want to play a part of their interaction and get your take on it.

He's in the backyard.

There he is right there, Payne. So when Payne shows up at John's house, they spot him in the backyard. Pains on the sidewalk, public property, and he calls over the gate at John to try and get his attention.

Stay up out, not good. Do not bother us. I'm asking you.

Okay. Can I ask you a question before I leave? Sure you can. Why does he not want to talk?

Because he has- His friend has been helping. Something he didn't do for 20 years. That's why he told you he does not want to talk to you. Very simple, okay? If you think that a man does want to talk to you, that makes him guilty- I didn't say that. Whatever your ideas are.

If you were me, though, and you talk to his good friend who's defending him, who is crying about this, who's really upset, and she encourages me to go talk to him.

I know who it is.

What am I supposed to do?

He didn't ask ask you to talk to him. Okay?

How do you know that? Because you talked to La Donna.

I know. I found out. Okay? But here's the point. The point is this. This man has been hounded for 20 years. 20 years. I understand. On proposition, an innuendo, and he's done. The truth will eventually come out. Period.

How will it come out? If no one's talking anymore.

You'll find out. How?

Is there evidence that I don't know about? I'm just trying to help I really am.

John refuses to talk with Payne and starts yelling cursing at him as Payne gets back in the car.

You said she'd come back. She never did. I'll never understand, John. I'll never understand.

What are your thoughts on this whole scene?

Well, confronting someone involved in any case is a bold move and will yield varying results. I think that there are very logical reasons that John wouldn't want to talk after years of this case being in the limelight. We talked previously about how wrongful convictions happen. Sometimes the cops can zero in on the wrong person. That's always a possibility. I know I said it is weird that he left so quickly from Mason City. However, maybe he did just lose everything, and the tension was too much, and people were zeroing in on him too much, and it just caused him to need to leave. I can see how these things could be true. At the same time, I do think there are a lot of pretty reputable people in Mason City that seem to have strange stories of things John did or said after Jody went missing. Of course, he's the last person by his own admission, to maybe have seen her alive. I think there's good reason to want those questions to be cleared up. What's interesting about this interaction, though, is that after Payne went to John Van Sys' place, John Van Sys I believe days later, reached out to a journalist himself and made a final statement to the media.

He basically had this guy named Steve Ridge write up this piece being like, This is my final note to the media, like, Leave me alone. I have nothing to do with this. I hope Jody's found. That's pretty interesting. You can check that out.

What do you think his motive would have been?

Well, she did tell someone that she had rejected his ultimate romantic advances, that I think that he wanted them to be together, and that she had said, I just want to be friends. That had happened very shortly before this. There's something to all the theories here, and that's what makes this case so puzzling, truly.

Yeah. I have a theory that I think is pretty good, too. There is this drug theory, and I think it's linked to Billy Pruin. Billy Pruin was a friend of Erodes, and he died shortly before she disappeared. From what I understand, his mom went to his house to look for him back in 1995. And when she found him, he was dead from a gun wound, and she found a revolver on the ground a few feet away. Initially, they said it was suicide, but they never found any gunshot residue or anything on his hands, so it is now undetermined, his death. The other interesting thing is, if it was a suicide, he's left-handed. He doesn't have a thumb on his left hand, so how would he have held the gun?

Oh, my gosh.

To me, this seems like a pretty clear homicide, not suicides, with a Question is, why would someone kill Billy Pruin?

Billy was looking into a meth problem in the Mason City area. Originally, his death was ruled a suicide, and then they rolled that back and said undetermined. They didn't quite say homicide, but I do think rolling back on a suicide determination is a little strange. He was looking into this, and there was a theory that Jody was looking into Billy Pruin's death because she's a journalist and was interested in covering these hard-hitting stories, actually. She was looking into it, and there was a theory that basically she might have gotten too far into it and had discovered some of these names. There's a theory that a couple of those people came after her and disappeared her because she was getting too close to this drug, linchpin operation in the area.

Yeah. I think the name that you guys talked about was Dustin Honken. He was a person of interest. He was a meth kingpin in the area. He was a person of interest in five disappearances around 1993. He was actually charged with those five murders in 2001 when they found the So I think, to me, this seems like a really good theory. A journalist friend is what I would consider murdered, and she starts looking into it. At least she thinks it's suspicious, and she's looking into it, and maybe she was getting close. Maybe they were like, We can't have her looking into what's going on here, and they got her, too. Looking into that, where do you lean?

I mean, I think it's something that couldn't be entirely ruled out when we looked into it. I guess I wondered, all right, back in the day, there probably would have been a lot of handwritten notes. If she was looking into this, I feel like we would have found a paper trail. But I wonder, maybe that was there. If that was the case, I think I would feel more strongly about the Billy Prune option, about her looking into some drug lords and getting too close. I'd actually love to see if there's anything like a paper trail that exists for that option.

I don't think they ruled out Dustin Humkins. That's something they could potentially still be looking into, as with John Van Syce.

I think that's where this case is left. It's like, they never could rule out John Van Syce. They never could rule out this meth drug lord, Justin Hunkin. They did eventually rule out Tony Jackson, but actually, it's not exactly clear why. That is why it is hard for me to be like, Oh, which way do I lean? I just remember how really bizarre the alibi was from John Van Sys and how many people brought him up when we were there. Now, as you well know, people do love the local favorite theory. There There is that element. But it was overwhelming when we were there in Mason City. It felt like the John Van Cys energy was overwhelming, and some of the people we talked to brought up alternative theories. But yeah, Dirk Jablonsky being another one of them. I do remember that one, he was stalked women and lived in her building and never really amounted to any noticeable investigation.

More of our discussion after a quick break.

Hey, it's John from the Up and Vanished team. If you're enjoying this episode, then you should check out the Tenderfoot original series, Culpable. Now, fair warning, I helped produce the series, so I may be a little biased, but hear me out. In 2018, my good friend Dennis Cooper came across the case of 21-year-old Christian Andreakio, who died under mysterious circumstances in his Meridian, Mississippi apartment. After a 45-minute investigation, his death was ruled a suicide despite evidence of potential foul play. Then we investigated the shocking death of Brittany Stikes, a 22-year-old pregnant mother who was gunned down on a busy highway in Rural, Brown County, Ohio. Even after a decade-long investigation, her killer is still at large. The common thread in each of these cases is the looming question of culpability. Where does the blame lie in each of the victim's deaths? Listen to all episodes of Culpable Seasons 1 and 2 wherever you get your podcasts, or Binge ad free, exclusively on Tenderfoot Plus. Now, back to the show.

If you had all the resources in the world, what would be the first thing you did with this case?

I think I'd want to see what was in that sealed warrant that the judge approved to see the GPS information related to John Vancis' car. I'd want to see all the interviews, and I'd want to know, did they put Amy Kuhn's statement in there about Ron VanSize calling that morning. Maybe it would help me rule them out more, too. But those things are just behind closed doors, so now you're only getting people talking about them, talking about how they had reported it to the police back then. The problem with this case is I think this Mason City, Iowa has had four sheriffs or police department heads since this case happened, maybe five. With all that turnover, who's really keeping track of the details? I think that they weren't prepared for a case of this magnitude They thought she was going to turn up. Then too much time passed and too many hands passed over the case, and now everyone's like, What are we going to do about it? Everyone's scattered. Some people aren't even alive anymore.

That's what gets so frustrating in these cases. The facts after so long, just get jumbled.

So much hearsay, and it does really jumbly. You're even like, Well, in the police files, is that even the correct thing? Is that even all that was said? Because we heard a lot of people doubting that police got the right accounts down. I don't know. It's all very hard to do. As someone said, actually, in the Up and Vanished episode about this, it's really hard to solve a case without a body. I think that's super true, because if there was a location, if anything else was found, it would be easier to know who to link that to. But, yeah, it's just such a question mark.

It is. Meredith, thank you so much for talking with me about this case. There's so much that I learned just from speaking with you and the deep dive that you guys did. I really appreciate it.

Oh, thanks, Maggie. I mean, you're the queen of deep dives, so I appreciate that. That's a lot coming from you.

If people want to find out more about what you're working on, where should they go?

I mean, I work across a lot of the true crime shows at Tenorfoot So usually you can at least hear my voice doing the disclaimer. But I'm in the background on a few true crime shows that will be coming out in the next year, I'd say. Then more regularly, I also work on our horror shows, Radio Rental and Rattled and Shook, which is the one that I co-host. So, yeah, if you like horror and true horror, you could check out those. And if not, I'll be doing more true crime. So I'll be around.

When I decided to cover Jody's case, I also reached out to Payne to catch up with him and get his thoughts on her investigation. Here's what he had to say.

It's just a bizarre mystery to me. I feel like it's a case that should have already been solved by now, and it's worth revisiting in hopes to maybe help do that. It just seems odd that it hasn't been solved yet. For my curious brain, it just makes me wonder, is it something that the police missed early on? Have they always had their suspicions, but there's just not enough physical evidence to actually bring charges and put someone behind bars. My biggest bone to pick with law enforcement when it comes to unsolved missing person's cases that are decades old is just plain and simple. If it's been 20 plus years, clearly, whatever methods you're using, whatever leads you've had, whatever you've been doing isn't working. I think it's just common sense to try something different. There's always a fear with law enforcement where maybe there's this one piece of evidence that only the killer could know, and you don't want to put that out there. But you could do that for 100 years, and it never means anything. At a certain point, I think you have to take the risk of releasing that because you don't know what that might do.

Maybe that piece of information that only the killer would know, somebody else knows, too. And then you find the killer. I think that all these years later, if we're here still talking about it, we got to try something new here. And if you're withholding information, if you got the keys to the castle, give them up, or tell us that you don't have anything.

If Amy Coons had known that the 4: 00 AM call to Jody would be the last time anyone would speak to her before she vanished, I have no doubt she would have ran from the station. A few years ago, Amy sat down with a local Iowa news station to discuss Jody's disappearance, which is still weighing on her.

It changed who I am. It has shaped who I have become. For many, many years, I was just really, really afraid of life.

It's been decades since Jody aird her final segment at KIMT. In all these years, authorities have been unable to uncover what really happened to her. But those close to Jody, including Amy, continue to be vocal about where they stand on it all.

My gut says it was somebody she knew, and I think the person thought If I can't have her, nobody will.

What I believe is that there's too many people in this woman's world that could have done this to her, and that is terrible. Terrifying. Any one of these people we presented could have found a moment to take advantage of a young woman in a vulnerable situation. And now Jody has been gone for almost 30 years. Jody's mom has since passed away, and she never got the closure of knowing what happened to her daughter. But others close to Jody, like Amy, are keeping her story alive until the truth about what happened in the early morning hours of June 27th, 1995 comes out.

I want to tell Jody's story, which is my story. If I can find a purpose behind all of this and help, even if I just help one person, Mission accomplished.

Jody Huzentrutt is described as being 5'3, 110 to 120 pounds, with brown eyes and blonde hair. She has no known identifying marks. She would now 56 years old. If you have any information about Jody Huzentrutt's disappearance, call the FindJody tip line at 641-999-1109, or email team@findjody. Com, or submit an anonymous tip at findjody. Com, or contact the Mason City Police Department at 641-421-3636. You all, thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Up and Vanished Weekly. Be sure to tune in next Friday as we dig into another new case. Until next time.

Up and Vanished Weekly is a production of Tinder TV in Association with Odyssey. Your hosts are Maggie Freeling and myself, Payne Lindsay. The show is written by Maggie Freeling, myself, and John Street. Executive producers are Donald Albright and myself. Lead producer is John Street. Additional production by Meredith Steadman and Mike Rooney. Research for the series by Jamie Albright, Silesia Stanton, and Caroleyn Talmage. Edit and mix by Dylan Harrington and Sean Nerny. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Artwork by Byron McCoy. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media & Marketing, and The Nord Group. For more podcasts like Up and Vanished Weekly, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app, or visit us at tenderfoot. Tv. Thanks for listening.