This is Jodi Huisentruit, a 27-year-old TV news anchor who vanished on her way to work one summer morning in Iowa.

On June 27, 1995, Jodi called her producer at 4 a.m. to say she had overslept but was on her way in. She never made it. Hours later, police found her car still in the apartment parking lot. The key was bent in the lock. Her high heel, hairspray, earrings, and a hairdryer were scattered on the ground, signs of a sudden struggle. Drag marks near the car suggested she was taken quickly, without a chance to scream.

Jodi had told friends she felt like someone was watching her in the weeks before she disappeared. A white truck was spotted near her place, and she’d started taking self-defense classes. But whoever grabbed her that morning left almost nothing behind.

No trace of Jodi has ever been found. She was declared legally dead in 2001, but the case remains open, haunted by suspects, theories, and dead ends. Thirty years later, her disappearance is still one of Iowa’s darkest mysteries, a story frozen in time at the edge of a parking lot.

 

Opinion of a local resident.

 

Jake Whitehurst:

I’m from here and there never seemed to be an effort into the investigation. Especially back then in the summer of ‘95. There are some things to consider this. If I’m not mistaken, at or around that time period, there was some investigation or something going on with the MCPD and corruption. I can remember reading about it in the paper. A local civil rights activist was involved with it. This individual was going after the police for being crooked and corrupt. In what manner, I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure all those officers who were involved with the investigation are still on duty. There was a story I read not too long ago about how they all pretty much went to the top with promotions and what not since this happened. Also at the time of this, the post read that they had confidential information that lived in the same apartment complex as Jodi. Not sure if it was the same building or not, but it for sure was the same property that would have shared parking lots. Evidently, the department paid for the apartment and let their snitch do his thing. Parties and I’m sure a lot of people coming and going all day and at odd hours after dark. Has anyone ever questioned the police officers who were around in that day who would have had contact with the snitch?