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Enjoying the Twitter Feed but some questions
June 27, 2013
6:10 pm
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First, I want to give a shout out to the people doing the Twitter Feed, recounting the hours leading up to and following Jodi's disappearance. Very interesting. It's almost like it's 1995 all over again. Nicely done. However, I noticed a couple things in the Feed and I wondered if someone with more knowledge could clear them up.

1. What her boss said to her the night before at the charity event: \"Don't be late to work tomorrow,\" or something like that.  Did that really happen? Is that officially in the record, like in a police report or something like that? Because it's the first I've heard about it. I want to make sure it happened because I realize sometimes when people tell stories years later they tend to insert a fact (actually fiction) or a line to make the story seem even more ironic and more interesting to the listeners. 

    Because if he really did say that, it makes her getting up late the next morning even more bizarre. Just eight hours before, her boss was joking with her to not be late to work the next morning--so it's fresh in her mind, and she still woke up late?! I try to put myself in her shoes and my attitude would've been: I can do anything tomorrow--go to work without a shower, I can maybe mis-read the teleprompter, etc., but I cannot be late. But, without her disappearance, she was gonna be late. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's something. It's a fact (if it is a fact) that continues to push me in a direction of believing she wasn't alone in her apartment that morning, if only for the simple idea of me not wanting to believe she was that un-conscientious.

 

2. In the Twitter Feed it says her producer said \"phone just rings and rings,\" when she called back the second time. It leaves the impression that a machine never picked up. Is that true? Because I've also read somewhere that a machine picked up on the second call. 

For purposes of this post I'm going to assume the Twitter Feed is correct. So, the obvious question: Did Jodi not have an answering machine? If she didn't, I can accept that, although I find it strange because just about everyone did in 1995. Plus, she was a popular news anchor--the kind of a person who doesn't want to miss a call since it might be a big story. But, if she didn't--okay. Fine.

    But, if she did, and if the phone really did ring a long time before Jodi picked it up the first time, why didn't the answering machine pick up first? As I remember it, the most rings you could set a machine to back then was like 8--of course some machines were more fancy than others. Moreover, why didn't the machine pick up when the producer called the second time after Jodi had already left for work? Did Jodi leave the house without turning it on? In addition, why would she ever turn it off in the first place? I'm 42 years old and I remember the days of answering machines. And I remember one of the most popular reasons people turned their machines off back then was because they were getting strange messages on them from prank callers.

 

Answers to these questions would be helpful. Thanks. And great job on the Twitter Feed.  

 

January 25, 2014
6:02 pm
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Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? The administrator, an expert on this case, anyone . . . I know it's been several months since I submitted these questions but I'd still like to get firm answers to them. Did the boss really say that to her the night before? Did her machine not pick up that morning?

January 28, 2014
10:08 am
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Well, fasteddy, sorry no one has answered you, again.  I have left this alone hoping someone with more knowledge would.  I don't really know the answers.  I don't follow real closely, I just kind of look at this site now and then to see what is new.  I'm sure there is someone that has all the known information organized and knows the answer, so hopefully they will see your question.  Maybe Josh or Gary or Beth.kiss

January 28, 2014
11:19 am
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FastEddy and OldNews:

Thanks for continuing to post to the forum and sorry for the delayed response. FastEddy, the two details you as about came from Dead Air, Beth's book. And personally, in looking at them -- I don't see them as containing any hard-edge clues as to what may have happened. For her former boss to say 'don't be late tomorrow' could come from any boss knowing she's wasting valuable hours of sleep and has to be up early. And Amy Kuns spoke in numerous TV interviews and mentioned the phone ringing and ringing and making mention of the machine picking up (I believe).

The problem in this case is that details get foggy, stories start to change and interest decreases for many people. So I commend you on keeping the facts straight and reaching out. I will reach out to Beth and see if she can add a bit more information to these posts.

Dead Air (Page: 67): He recalls saying a few words to Jodi before he left the club shortly after dinner. Merbach teased her a bit, telling her not to stay too late and miss the early newscast. Then, he simply said, "see you tomorrow". That was not to be"

Dead Air (Page: 29): We know the second call went unanswered, when Kuns said the phone 'just rang and rang'.

 

Josh

Josh Benson | Co-Founder, Administrator | FindJodi.com, Inc | jbenson@findjodi.com

January 28, 2014
11:07 pm
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Hi FastEddy and Old News,

Very astute observations about a couple of troubling questions! I would tend to agree with Josh that they don't, in themselves, contain hard-edge clues about the case, but they do warrant discussion:

Jodi's boss Doug Merbach, in response to my questions, told me that he teased her a bit about not being late the following morning. He did not provide a quote, and I'm sure, if he had, it probably wouldn't have been word-for-word after all these years. You rightly note that you would do everything and anything to be on time after a comment like that. However, as part of my conversation with Doug that morning, he did mention (more than once) that Jodi had no intention of making her way as a "hard news" reporter, and that she really just wanted to be on TV. He also observed that she tended to use her charm at times to get out of doing certain stories or get out of tight spots. So, simply put, I don't think she was as concerned about being late (that morning or any other) as others might have been. 

As for the phone answering machine, I believe Jodi had one, as most of us did in 1995. As a matter of fact, Jodi's friend, Tammy Baker, on one occasion sadly remarked that she called Jodi's number a few times after the news of the disappearance just to hear Jodi's voice on the recording. However, Amy Kuns said, "The phone just rang and rang." Kuns did not say how many times it rang (maybe Amy hung up before the machine kicked in). 

On another note, Amy was quoted at one time as saying she did not believe that anyone was with Jodi in her apartment that morning (for what it's worth).

Hope this helps! Beth

May 16, 2014
3:59 pm
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Beth and Josh, thanks for answering my questions. Sorry it took this long to thank you--I've not been on here recently. If I my offer some follow-up comments . . . 

If what Doug Merbach says is true--Jodi not having any intention of being a "hard news" reporter--doesn't this really shoot a hole in the theory that Jodi knew something about a scandal--drugs, for example, was preparing to do a story on it and was abducted because of it? In other words, if Jodi did her best to avoid doing certain stories--giving the impression of not having her heart totally in the "news" side of the job, then she's probably going to stay away from anything involving a controversial story. Her attitude would be: That's a little too hardcore for me. Sure, she could've stumbled upon something but with the typing of each word I think the possibility gets more and more outlandish. Granted, I've always believed that people who pushed this "drug story" belief forward were trying to give Jodi's disappearance "meaning", despite there not being one fact to support the theory.

As for the Kuns' phone calls, I guess I'm still a little bit in the dark. Her job is to make sure the news runs smoothly. One of those components is making sure the host is on time. Given that, wouldn't she have let the phone ring for quite a long time before giving up? Sure, maybe she's frustrated since we now know Jodi had lateness problems. Maybe in the middle of the third ring Kuns threw down the phone because she'd had it with her host who was more interested in being on tv than actually doing real news. But I'm gonna take Kuns at her word that she let it ring and ring and ring because that makes the most sense--Jodi's not there yet even after the first call, Kuns is ticked, and she probably can't wait to give Jodi a piece of her mind. In fact, her letting it ring for a long time because she knows Jodi picked up the first time makes sense. If Jodi hadn't picked up the first time, and Kuns decided to try again, Kuns would be less likely to let it ring and ring because there was no answer the first time. But, being that Jodi answered the first time it would cause Kuns to stay on the line even longer because she has every reason to believe Jodi is still at home--because Jodi certainly wasn't at work yet. In addition, I'm wondering if Tammy Baker remembers how many rings it used to take before the answering machine picked up--that would be interesting to know. Because I'm left with a question: Who turned on the answering machine after Kuns' second call but before Tammy Baker started calling just to hear Jodi's voice?

Once again, thanks for the responses.

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