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Find Jodi Huisentruit
News 18

Jodi Huisentruit suspects: none of the above

By Caroline Lowe · On December 26, 2018

The recent 48 Hours special focused on Jodi Huisentruit focused on two possible persons of interests: John Vansice and Tony Jackson.

There’s been no sign of Jodi for more than 23 years since she was abducted from her Mason City, Iowa, apartment parking lot. She was running late to anchor the morning news at KIMT TV when someone grabbed her from behind at about 4:30 a.m. as she attempted to get into her Mazda Miata.

I’m frequently asked which man I think was most likely to have abducted Jodi. My answer remains the same: Both men clearly needed to be investigated, but it could turn out to be none of the above.

Mollie Tibbets (NBC News)

Documents just released on the Mollie Tibbett’s case are a revealing window into an investigation where four people were under suspicion. All were eventually cleared in connection with her murder.

The same thing occurred in the Jacob Wetterling case. A neighbor, Dan Rassier, was a police target for many years but had nothing to do with Jacob’s kidnapping and murder in St. Joseph, MN. in 1989.

As for Jodi’s case, her sister JoAnn Nathe said it best in her interview with 48 Hours, “It could be someone you least expect.”

Most of the time, victims are killed by people they know. That’s one reason Vansice was quickly up high up on the police list to be investigated.

Twenty-two years older than Jodi, Vansice told police he was the last person to see her alive. He claimed she stopped by his Mason City home the night before she disappeared to look at a video of her surprise birthday party he hosted earlier that month.

John Vansice and Ani Kruse went water-skiing with Jodi the weekend prior to her disappearance (CBS News)

Vansice spent a lot of time with Jodi in the weeks before she vanished. Beside the party, she and her friends joined him on weekend water-skiing trips. He even says he named his boat after Jodi. Vansice also said he passed a police polygraph.

Although he spoke with the news media and 48 Hours crew shortly after Jodi’s abduction, Vansice has consistently refused to do talk with reporters since then (I attempted to interview him in a restaurant parking lot in Arizona in 1998 after I did the WCCO I-Team report focusing on Jackson as a possible lead. Vansice told me the news media had done nothing but ruined him and drove off.)

If he were involved, Vansice would have had just 90 minutes to abduct Jodi and be home by 6 a.m., when a friend, LaDonna Woodford, said he answered his landline phone.

Woodford said she testified under oath for five hours before a federal grand jury in 1997 that Vansice answered her early morning call to confirm their morning walk. During the walk, LaDonna said Vansice didn’t seem anxious, and he told her Jodi had stopped by the night before to watch the birthday video.

Search warrants related to John Vansice

In March of 2017, Mason City Police executed a search warrant on two vehicles associated with Vansice. Details of the probable cause investigators provided to a judge to get a warrant remain sealed.

That brings us to Tony Jackson. Jackson was a serial rapist who stalked his Minnesota victims and lived two blocks from KIMT TV in Mason City at the time Jodi disappeared. Jackson broke up with his girlfriend, who looked similar to Jodi, five days earlier, and he hosted a talk show at a college in Mason City.

Jackson didn’t get on police radar until 1997 when he was arrested for four rapes in 18 days in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. He’s now serving a life sentence in prison for the rape convictions.

Tony Jackson

After doing a background check on Jackson, Woodbury police Commander Jay Alberio learned Jackson was living in Mason City in June 1995. That prompted Alberio, now a member of our FindJodi team, to send his rape case file to Mason City police, urging them to take a close look at Jackson for possible involvement in Jodi’s abduction.

After a 1998 WCCO I-Team report on Jackson, Mason City police said in a brief press release they had ruled him out as a possible suspect. In phone interviews I did with Jackson from jail, he repeatedly denied he’d abducted Jodi. He also insisted he’d never met her, something two people have disputed in interviews with WCCO-TV and Alberio. He also repeatedly denied being involved in the MN rapes he was convicted of committing.

Alberio, who’s now retired from the Woodbury Police Department, believes Jackson’s background as a violent rapist, who stalked his victims, precludes ruling him out as potential suspect in Jodi’s abduction.

Alberio shared more details about his investigation of Jackson in these earlier posts on FindJodicom, including the one earlier this week on Alibis. He’ll be providing more details in a future post on FindJodi.com.

Maybe Jackson or Vansice was involved. But until Jodi is found, or more evidence is revealed, my view remains the same: Don’t rule out the possibility Jodi’s abductor may be none of the above.

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Caroline Lowe

Caroline Lowe

Caroline Lowe is a veteran crime reporter and has an extensive background in covering cold cases. Her work has appeared on 20/20, Oprah, Court TV and Forensic Files. Lowe’s decision to join FindJodi.com came from her dedication to cold cases and her persistence to never give up in finding the truth.

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18 Comments

  • Tim says: June 1, 2019 at 10:12 pm

    Find jodi.com….. I would just like to know if Casey Fredrickson was ever a suspect in Jodi’s murder. I was in jail with that CREEP that killed Evelyn Miller in Mason City.

    Reply
    • Princess says: June 21, 2020 at 10:00 am

      Woah

      Reply
  • Toni Donahue says: June 2, 2019 at 4:17 am

    Did they ever check phone records about the pranks?

    Reply
  • Toni Donahue says: June 2, 2019 at 4:20 am

    Vansice was required to use a breathalyzer in his van… was it a white van? The records for the breathalyzer install have to be on police record somewhere. Witnesses saw a white van in the parking lot that early morning… was it his van?

    Reply
  • Moshe Pele says: June 2, 2019 at 9:39 am

    I saw the program last night, cannot stop thinking that probably her friend Ani Kruse May got something about Jodi disappeared, because some jealousies, specially when Mr John was between the two..

    Reply
    • Paris Merriam says: October 11, 2020 at 5:25 pm

      Exactly. You hit the nail on the head. Jealousy.

      Reply
  • Frankie H says: June 21, 2019 at 4:04 am

    The recent search warrant is rumored to be about GPS dats, but he couldn’t have owned either of those vehicles in June of 1995. What possible relevance could the information from those 2 vehicles have to Jodi’s abduction?

    Reply
    • Paris Merriam says: October 11, 2020 at 5:26 pm

      We will never know, unless John V is convicted.

      Reply
  • tbia says: June 25, 2019 at 1:55 pm

    I am wondering if they are looking to see if he visits a dumping ground.

    Has anyone ever looked at his son as a suspect?

    Reply
  • Carol O’Brien says: September 4, 2019 at 9:38 pm

    It just seems so obvious that it’s John Vancise. To announce to investigators that he was the last person to see her alive? How does he know that? He just seems so creepy and very much obsessed with her. The question is where did he hide her body?

    Reply
    • Paris Merriam says: October 11, 2020 at 5:29 pm

      Initially, probably in the basement of his house before he went for a walk with JoAnn.

      Reply
  • James L. McIntyre says: January 26, 2020 at 8:23 am

    The killer of Jodi Sue Huisentruit is

    Keith Dwayne Nelson
    Federal Inmate 07440-031
    USP Terre Haute
    U.S. Penitentiary
    P.O. Box 33
    Terre Haute, Indiana 47808
    Phone 812-244-4400
    Fax 812-244-4791
    Email THA/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV

    Use this address for in person visits.

    USP Terre Haute
    U.S. Penitentiary
    4700 Bureau Road South
    Terre Haute, Indiana 47802

    UNITED STATES V. KEITH D. NELSON
    UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
    CASE NUMBER 99 – 138H – 01
    Filed on October 14, 1999
    Thomas R. Crawford
    FBI Special Agent
    Kansas City Missouri FBI Field Office

    Sarah W. Hays
    United States Magistrate Judge
    UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

    Reply
    • Paris Merriam says: October 11, 2020 at 5:31 pm

      Nelson is dead as of August 2020. Lethal injection. And yes, another loser in America gets te death penalty.

      Reply
  • James L. McIntyre says: January 26, 2020 at 8:31 am

    Jane Doe # 1

    Jodi Sue Huisentruit 27
    Saint Cloud Hospital Morgue

    Dr. David L. Frederickson MD ME Retired
    Stearns County Medical Examiner Office
    P.O. Box 217
    Saint Cloud, Minnesota 56302
    Phone 320-259-3730
    Fax 320-259-3963

    Dr. Frederickson admitted the corpse personally.
    He has been patiently waiting for twenty four years for someone to return his phone calls.

    The hairstyle on the skull matches the hairstyle of the late Jodi Huisentruit.

    Reply
  • James L. McIntyre says: January 26, 2020 at 8:49 am

    Thomas R. Crawford FBI Special Agent Supervisor
    John Brunell FBI Special Agent
    Dirk Tarpley FBI Special Agent
    Federal Bureau of Investigation
    Kansas City, Missouri FBI Field Office

    Recovered 1985 Ford Econoline Van on October 14, 1999.

    Chocolate brown dress slacks, matching chocolate brown vest, white blouse with ruffle along front buttons and ruffled cuffs. Gold ring with Diamonds (chips) and knife used in murder.

    Set of Latent fingerprints of Adult Female – Jodi Sue Huisentruit recovered from van.

    KCMO
    City of Kansas City Missouri Vehicle Impound Facilty
    7750 East Front Street
    Kansas City, Missouri 64120
    816-513-0670
    The van has brand new tires on all four wheels and is parked along the back wall.

    Inmate Locator at time of arrest.

    Keith Dwayne Nelson 07440-031 34-White-Male Death Sentence Terre Haute USP

    Joann Nathe
    808 Ash Street South
    Sauk Centre, Minnesota 56378
    320-352-6207

    Reply
  • Brian C. says: February 17, 2020 at 11:30 am

    Was John Vansice’s son ever cleared? I don’t like the way John was grasping Jodi’s shoulder but only resting his wrist on Ani’s shoulder in the birthday picture. It shows a higher level of intimacy and control. As close as Jodi and Ani were, if anyone was harrassing Jodi, Ani would know. I assume the person(s) grabbing Jodi at her car had been coveting her for a while and it wasn’t a random abduction. If neighbors heard one scream, not enough to worry them, then the person(s) subdued Jodi quite quickly.

    Reply
  • Michelle says: March 26, 2020 at 11:50 pm

    I just watched Up and Vanished. When that friend of John’s said he kept asking weird questions in the morning like “are you working today?” I was thinking maybe he wanted to dump her body at the worksite.

    Reply
  • noahlyn says: November 8, 2020 at 2:54 pm

    While watching a 48 hour mystery about Michelle Martinko, this is what the man that killed her said to the detective : “JERRY BURNS: I just seen something about Jodi Huisentruit recently …
    In his interview with Denlinger, Burns randomly mentioned the name of Jodi Huisentruit.” If you look at the two side by side, they look quite a bit alike, same smile, face shape, hair color etc. They should run the palm print on the car with Jerry’s palm print. That was just too odd of a thing to say to a detective.

    Reply
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