Having known about this case, like everyone else, and living in Iowa, I read Beth Bednar's book and have some of the following ideas/questions.
Has anyone kept a comprehensive list of the areas searched and who searched them?
It seems that, from what I have read, they only searched in the Cerro Gordo area. Following the timeline, I would think the abductor(s) had a fair amount of time to go anywhere they needed, but I would think they had an area ready to either hide out for a while, or an area outside of Mason City. I don't think they stayed in Mason City, but did anyone look at the surrounding immediate towns, Nora Springs, Manly, Rudd, Osage or anything within about an hour radius. When looking at Google maps, it seemed the least populated areas and therefore less policed roads would have been going towards Osage and Lime Springs, also in that area towards the border is the Forestville Cave Park. In this area of the map are a lot of small wildlife Access Areas and Lake Louise Park. It may seem like a stretch, but if someone were planning this ahead of time, they would know that the Major Highways would be the first place LE would think to watch, so back roads and as few towns as possible would be the route to go. I think that trying to hide out in Mason City would have maybe been an option for a short amount of time while the vehicles were switched and than they left MC before the news broke and a major effort ensued. So I would think that they would have stayed in MC for about 1 -2 hours tops and than left for another predetermined location, probably not very far away as they would know by late afternoon/evening everyone would be looking in MC and all the roads in and out would have some form of monitoring.
As for the abduction itself, I think the idea of it being a "drug hit" could be wrong. Even if Jodi saw something at the Golf Event, what was she going to do, go on TV that morning and say what she saw? She would need a lot of evidence to back such a story and as soon as she starting accusing people of stuff on air, she would have been cut off and probably fired and sued. Also, wouldn't the "hit" of been at a very inconvenient time, people in MC do work in the morning and for someone to plan this hit, they would of more than likely picked her up at night or did something at a bar she frequented. Or, if it were some kind of message, couldn't they have staged a botched robbery or car jacking where she was killed rather than taking her and enduring years of investigation along with the number of people involved who could of have talked at any time and as we see with the book, more evidence came out about people involved in different crimes because of Jodi being a missing person.The key to most criminal activity is to not draw any unneeded attention to it.
So I would have to go with the stalker or obsessed person(s) theory. The thing everyone says is to look at sex offenders and police records, but maybe this was done by someone who had no record, thereby knowing that they would never be suspected , or knowing Jodi was involved with so much else, they knew the LE would spend all their time investigating those leads that they could carry out their plan with little worry.
If it was such a person(s) they must have been the one that the joggers saw following them in the pick up, they had probably did practice runs, or maybe never planned on going through with an abduction. But, as we see on news reports, these type of people usually start small, maybe running in to her at a bar, "accidentally" running into her when she was running errands or something, but then they start parking outside her apartment or following her and her boyfriends around at night. But, someone started planning this and since they had known her patterns and knew the North Iowa area, were able to do whatever they did and not get caught.
One of the psychics said that one of the people involved was dead, did she know a name or look at any obituaries to try to figure out who the person was, since the person probably had to of had 1 or 2 other people to help, LE might be able to make a connection. Also, the issues with the vehicles seems to be strange. Aside from colors, everyone seems to agree there was a pick up and at least 1 or 2 other vehicles in the area that morning. With the pick up, couldn't someone look at DMV records in Cerro Gordo and see if any were either black or white and than see who owned them and where these people lived in proximity to either KIMT or the Key Apartments. Also, if the truck had tinted windows, maybe there would be a record of someone getting a ticket for tinted windows, I remember that a lot of people would get pulled over by the MCPD to check if the tints weren't too dark and they did give out tickets if they were too dark. Also with the vehicles, it would seem very risky for 2 to 3 people to use their own cars to pull this off and using stolen plates and driving around at 3 or 4 in the morning would also be very risky, although some criminals don't think too much about these things. But, could the vehicles have been from out of state or maybe someone had access to different vehicles, maybe from a car lot or salvage yard, and they were able to switch vehicles around without them having to be registered or anyone missing them.
Sorry this is long winded, but watching so many crime shows made me think of these things. I would like to know if any of these topics were already covered and what may have been said about them.
So basically, my theory is that it was an obsessed person (s), this still does not rule out any of ex boy friends as that's possible too. They probably had no previous criminal record, at least not felony level. They could of lived in different areas, 1 person in MC and the other 1 or 2 outside of MC, so that there was a place to take her and not worry about looking suspicious such as renting a hotel or parking by some wooded secluded area and having the vehicle spotted. I don't have any theory as to if they kept her alive for a time or if she was killed early in the abduction. The person(s) somehow had access to different vehicles, or maybe they did actually use their own but that seems to go against all the supposed planning, but since there is never mention of anyone looking up records or registrations of pick ups, maybe they sold the vehicles shortly afterwards.Without knowing where was searched, it is hard to say what could of happened o how far away these people got that day. Hopefully someone will come up with something and help Jodi's family have some peace.