CHILLING crime scene pictures show red heels, a hair dryer, and a bent car key left behind by a news anchor who was abducted 30 years ago.
Jodi Huisentruit, 27, disappeared while rushing to work at her local TV station on June 27, 1995.
Despite extensive investigations spanning decades, the news anchor remains missing after her belongings were discovered abandoned in a parking lot near her residence in Mason City, Iowa.
She was declared dead in 2001, despite her body never being recovered. No one has ever been charged in her disappearance.
Now, ABC News Studio has released Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit, exploring her case in a new three-part Hulu docuseries.
She was widely recognized for anchoring the morning news for CBS affiliate KIMT in Mason City, where she was expected to arrive for her shift by 3:30 am each day.
Her co-workers became worried when she hadn’t arrived for work and called her at around 4 am that day.
Huisentruit answered the phone, telling her producer she had overslept and would be there shortly.
She was never heard from again.
When she still hadn’t shown up by 6 am, her colleagues called the police to check up on her at her home.
Huisentruit lived alone at an apartment complex about a mile away from her job.
Upon their arrival at the parking lot, officers discovered unsettling clues indicating that Huisentruit might have encountered a struggle with someone as she attempted to get into her car to head to work.
Huisentruit’s belongings were scattered around her red 1991 Mazda Miata, which she had just bought a few weeks earlier.
Her car keys were bent and lying on the ground near the car.
Personal items, including her earrings, high heels, a blow dryer, and hairspray, were spread out across the parking lot.
Cops also found apparent marks in the parking lot dirt, indicating she had been dragged.
An unidentified partial handprint was also left on her car.
A neighbor later reported hearing a scream in the parking lot at around 4:30 am.
“Things went from we’re just looking for somebody missing to we’re looking for somebody that was abducted,” a Mason City Police Department officer said in a trailer for the new docuseries.
Police quickly began to investigate Huisentruit’s last days before she went missing.
While several persons of interest were interrogated during the investigation, the man who saw Huisentruit the night before she disappeared was the biggest lead in the case for years.
JOHN VANSICE
John Vansice, Huisentruit’s friend, told investigators that she came over the night before she vanished to watch a birthday video.
Vansice was never considered a suspect and never charged in the case.
He provided DNA, fingerprints, and palm prints for the FBI’s investigation.
“I hope she’s OK and I hope she can come back soon,” Vansice told 48 Hours in July 1995.
Vansice died in December 2024, according to Iowa investigator Steve Ridge.
Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit is streaming now on Hulu.
