• Home
  • About
    • The Team
  • Media
    • Podcast
    • Video Gallery
    • Jodi’s Tapes
    • Image Galleries
    • Upload Your Images
  • Forum
  • Contact
  • Donate
Find Jodi Huisentruit
Media 10

Is a serial rapist behind one of the biggest abduction mysteries of the past 20 years?

By Josh Benson @wflajosh · On June 25, 2015

(Via Daily Mail)

  • Police believe Jodi Huisentruit was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment building around 4am on June 27, 1995
  • The 27-year-old news anchor at Mason City, Iowa station KIMT had overslept and told a co-worker she would rush to get to work for her 6am broadcast
  • She was never heard from again
  • A retired police officer and journalist that continue to look into the mystery believe a serial rapist might be a person of interest in the case
  • Tony Dejuan Jackson was 21 at the time of Huisentruit’s disappearance, and living just two blocks from the KIMT news station
  • He is currently serving a life sentence for raping three women in 1997

As the 20-year anniversary of the disappearance of a young news anchor approaches, two witnesses are coming forward with testimonies that might finally help solve the mystery.
Jodi Huisentruit had overslept for her job as an anchor at Mason City, Iowa news station KIMT on June 27, 1995, when a co-worker called to check up on her.

The 27-year-old assured her colleague that she would rush into the station in time for her 6am broadcast.

She was never heard from again.

While Mason City Police continue to receive one to three tips about the case a month, Huisentruit’s disappearance has remained unsolved.

Image Source: North Iowa Today

Image Source: North Iowa Today

However, a journalist and retired police officer are putting forth a new theory about the Huisentruit mystery which is only strengthened by the memories of two potential witnesses.

WCCO-TV reporter Caroline Lowe and retired Woodbury Police Cmdr Jay Alberio want serial rapist Tony Dejuan Jackson investigated as a person of interest in Huisentruit’s abduction, since he has a pattern of violence towards women and was living just two blocks from KIMT at the time.

Jackson, who was then 21, is currently serving a life sentence at a prison in Rush City, Minnesota, for raping three women in 1997 and denies the claims, saying he never met Huisentruit or seen her in public.

But a former friend is now coming forward to fact check Jackson’s story.

The source, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Minneapolis news station KMSP that just before Huisentruit’s abduction, he became friends with Jackson since their girlfriends at the time were close.

He says that after playing basketball one day, Jackson asked him out to happy hour drinks, to a bar where he knew Huisentruit was a regular.

‘I always wondered, how would he even know that?’ the source said.

But the man went along for drinks anyway, walking a few blocks to a bar called the South Bridge Lounge, which has now gone out of business.

Entering through the back door, the source says they walked in and saw Huisentruit sitting at the bar.

Jackson allegedly walked right up to Huisentruit and started chatting her up, though the former friend says he was out of earshot to hear the conversation.

While living in Mason City, Jackson attended North Iowa Community College, where he developed an interest in broadcasting while hosting his own student talk show.

tony-jackson

Tony DeJuan Jackson (Older booking photo)

His friend figured that he was just trying to get career advice from Huisentruit, and didn’t think too much about why he wanted to seek her out that night.

Looking back though, he thinks that Jackson’s interest may have been a sign.

‘My gut tells me that he probably did it, after all the stuff he’s done since,’ the source said.

Assistant producer Amy Kuns was the co-worker who called Huisentruit the day she slept in for work. She says she called her a few times after that first call, but never got through to Huisentruit again. Instead she had to go on air herself, in Huisentruit’s place.

‘My first gut reaction was just to be mad,’ Kuns told the Pioneer Press. ‘I’m like, ‘Where the hell is she?’ … I thought she had just gone back to sleep and wasn’t answering her phone. Never in a million years did I envision abduction.’

Police believe Huisentruit was abducted in the parking lot of her apartment complex, as she was rushing to get to work on time, since they found the pavement littered with her red high heels, a blow dryer, hair spray and earrings.

Neighbors also reported hearing a woman’s scream shortly after 4am and a white van in the parking lot.

A partial palm print was smudged onto Huisentruit’s car, but investigators were never able to match it with a suspect.

Another witness though is adding details to the events of that morning.

The second witness, who also wishes to remain unidentified, says she used to run past Huisentruit’s apartment complex every morning around 4:30am. That morning, she says she was almost hit by a car zooming out of the complex’s parking lot.

‘I’m coming up to the apartments and a car comes out really fast, and it nearly hits me and then I have to jump onto the sidewalk and its headlights were off as it was speeding out,’ she said.

Key Apartments (FindJodi.com 2007)

Key Apartments (FindJodi.com 2007)

And just the day before – at the same time and place – she says a young African American man, perhaps in his teens, was riding a bike outside the complex. He then started biking right beside her as she ran, which she thought was weird for the time of morning.

Mason City police say that no link has ever been found between Jackson and Huisentruit.

Lowe and Alberio say they aren’t certain Jackson is the man behind the Huisentruit mystery, but they at least want investigators to look into him as a possible suspect, considering his criminal track record.

‘We don’t know if he is involved,’ Lowe said. ‘We, to this day, don’t know, but if you think of a person living that close who is capable of very violent stuff, he had to be investigated.’

However, there’s hope that the upcoming anniversary will spark new leads in the case.

‘We expect that with the 20th anniversary, we will get more,’ Mason City Police Lt Rich Jensen said. ‘It’s like any anniversary – it stirs people’s emotions. We’re waiting for the call. We’re hoping that there will be a day we’re in the courtroom, and somebody will be held accountable.’

Share Tweet
Josh Benson

Josh Benson

Josh Benson is the co-founder and website administrator of FindJodi.com, Inc. He has worked on the case since 2003 in an effort to uncover new details in the investigation.

You Might Also Like

  • Developments

    ’48 Hours’: Is Jodi’s case connected to a different 1979 Iowa murder?

  • FindJodi Podcast

    Podcast 001: Gone in Seconds

  • FindJodi Podcast

    Coming Soon: The official FindJodi podcast

10 Comments

  • Dee Ann Thomas says: June 26, 2015 at 9:34 am

    Jodi went missing more like in 1991 or 1992..Facts in this case seem to be quite confusing at best… She was abducted from an apartment complex on a fairly busy road and yet no one saw or heard a thing… Weird.. They found her belongs thrown around the parking lot so there was quite a struggle.. At one time there was a lead about a white van that morning, that lead was soon dropped.. Seems there have been a few leads over all these years but they seem to go to a dead end… I believe there is a wall of silence somewhere.. Until that is broken no one will ever know the truth.. But they Will pin it on someone just to say it’s solved and put it to rest…

    Reply
    • Josh Benson says: June 26, 2015 at 10:59 am

      Hi Dee Ann: Thanks for your comment. Jodi disappeared on June 27, 1995 from the parking lot of her apartment complex.

      Reply
  • Biff says: June 28, 2015 at 11:12 am

    Dee Ann your a dimwit.

    Reply
  • Starfyre7676 says: July 2, 2015 at 10:31 am

    I’d look long and hard into that serial rapist’s past because he may be involved or know something.

    Reply
  • Leslie says: December 24, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    Where was Donald Blom in June of 1995? Just wondering if he was anywhere in the area that Jodi lived? Was he ruled out?

    Reply
  • Carrigon says: January 28, 2016 at 8:13 am

    This is really one of those cases that haunt us. I get the feeling whoever took her probably crossed state lines and that’s why no one has found anything local. I wish someone would come forward or something would be found. She deserves to be laid to rest and her family needs closure. I’m not convinced this serial rapist did it. I think he might very well have been semi stalking her, but I just don’t get the feeling he acted on it. And someone really planned this out. They stalked her and knew her routine.

    Reply
    • B-Ree says: September 24, 2016 at 10:28 pm

      I have to agree. My gut feeling is that someone that had been stalking her and knew her routine. Consider that she was late to get up for work that day. The person in the idling van was waiting for her to eventually come out to her car to go to work. I find this case fascinating, tragic and so sad. You have to think that someone, somewhere knows something. Perhaps a family member, friend or co-worker in that area that seemed oddly infatuated with her when she was a news reporter? Or someone that seemed too overly interested in the story of her disappearance at the time? What happened to Jodi and disappearance of Jennifer Kesse are similar with the abduction occurring just outside the victim’s residence. As a woman that’s scary to me. Jodi deserves justice & her family deserves a resolution. The creep that did it needs to be punished.

      Reply
  • Mike Warden says: December 18, 2017 at 3:10 pm

    So sad…..and frustrating. Usually, by now, we would all know SOMETHING…
    But Jodi’s abduction is a real mystery. There hasn’t been a trace of her, zero, zip, nada. Nothing. Pray this case to be solved, and for all that knew her, finally know justice.

    Reply
  • Keith C. Kosiewicz says: June 26, 2019 at 10:37 am

    whether or not this particular negro was the culprit, which I believe is a strong possibilty, the abduction has all the “signatures” of a negro assailant. Also, there is a podcast on this case that plays part of the police interrogation of him, in which he denies even his rapes. It is worthwhile for all of you to listen to it so that you are more aware of how low-wavelength parasites (those who are electromagnetically galvanized under higher-wavelength magnetism/power) do not care or feel as you do. This is where the term ‘dindu’ came from. If power/magnetism is on them, that is reality/”right” by them. In fact, their fellow tribesmen elevate the most parasitic as their most-respected amongst the tribe. THAT is why they put their rapists and criminals above the host class/power.

    Reply
  • Tony Jackson: ‘I pray daily for the capture of Jodi’s abductor’ – Frozen Truth says: July 30, 2019 at 9:01 am

    […] Jackson was convicted of raping four women in Minnesota over an 18-day period in 1997. A fifth victim in Iowa was later confirmed by DNA. Reporting by Caroline Lowe for WCCO-TV revealed that Jackson and Jodi Huisentruit once lived near each other in Mason City. […]

    Reply
  • Leave a reply Cancel reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Help our mission

    Subscribe to The Bulletin

    Subscribe to our weekly newsletter 'The Bulletin' and get the latest on the case every Sunday morning. No spam, just the latest from FindJodi.com.
    • Popular
    • Comments
    • Tags
    • Interview with Amy Kuns

      March 14, 2011
    • Psychic discusses Huisentruit case on KDWB radio show

      August 13, 2013
    • Find Jodi Vandalized

      Find Jodi billboard vandalized

      January 2, 2020
    • ’48 Hours’: Is Jodi’s case connected to a different 1979 Iowa murder?

      November 6, 2020
    • Jodi Huisentruit

      Was Jodi being antagonized the day before her disappearance?

      March 8, 2017
    Gary Peterson Copper Dollar Dead Air The Team Beth Bednar Copper Dollar Murders Jacob Wetterling Mason City Police Department Maria Ohl Fade to Black Newton Media Terri Supino Spring Valley Mason City Debi Neville Caroline Lowe Iowa




    Search the Website

    Watch Fade to Black now!

    Like Us on Facebook




    • Home
    • Donate
    • Podcast
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Contact
      • Anonymous Submission

    © 2020 FindJodi, Inc. All Rights Reserved · Powered by: Joker Media