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[Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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00:01:54
beat up by an old man he is the captain yeah put him in a body B back Johnny it's good to be seen and it's good to
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[Music] crime [Music] um she has not been seen since uh last night however they did talk to her this
00:03:45
morning a little after 4:00 a.m. and I want to stress that what we're doing at this point in time is we're working from
00:03:52
the apartment and we're working our way out and we are at about a quarter of a mile right now we'll be extending that
00:03:58
search probably to about half a mile or so and I don't think I want to comment any further about that we'll be doing a
00:04:04
neighborhood canvas those houses that would front streets that would be that would have access to the apartment
00:04:11
complex we'll be getting hold of those residents and asking them if they saw or heard anything area about 1 qu of a mile
00:04:18
from the U apartment complex was searched along the riverbank and out extending from the
00:04:26
riverbank and there were a number of hits uh along the riverbank however we have not confirmed whether those would
00:04:33
be something that we would follow up on or not uh we are back at the riverbank with
00:04:39
the uh Kines and we are going to check to see if there is additional hits along the
00:04:57
river on Wednesday June 28th 1995 the police in Mason City Iowa were still searching for a missing woman Judy hen
00:05:07
Tru age 27 apparently was abducted early on the 27th as she left her apartment for work she is the morning and noon
00:05:16
producer and television anchor at Kim Mt TV jod grew up in Long Prairie Minnesota
00:05:25
she was a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines for a few years before going into a career in television and one
00:05:32
thing looking into this case right away you're going to see that jod was well-liked and she was a popular
00:05:38
individual jod is this upbeat friendly outgoing very lovely person this is uh according to Ray go now Ray was her
00:05:47
former band director at the Long Prairie High School where she twice was a member
00:05:53
of the state champion High School golf team as well you always knew when she was in the room he said jod graduated
00:06:01
from Long Prairie High School and later from St Cloud State University she worked at a TV station in Cedar Rapids
00:06:10
Iowa from February 1991 to April of 1992 and then went to Alexander's ksax TV to be a reporter and morning
00:06:21
anchor until November of 1993 when she moved to Mason City Iowa her former station manager at Alexandria
00:06:30
said it has become common for TV news women to receive unwanted attention from men who become obsessed but police say
00:06:40
they are not aware that who's and true had any such problem now jod hen trueu is well known in Alexandria Area and the
00:06:50
ksx TV they started Fielding calls very quickly after The Disappearance and these calls were coming in from friends
00:06:58
and viewers ERS seeking information or wanting to pass along their concerns Mike Burgess who hired her at
00:07:06
Alexandra said she is one of those very nice people who come from small towns she works hard and is always willing to
00:07:14
Marshall a parade speak at a breakfast cover a news event someone you could really count on well it's kind of
00:07:21
interesting because we met so many people from at crime con from Minnesota and jod had that Minnesota accent and
00:07:32
they actually told her at some point that she should try to get rid of it and I think she was looking and working
00:07:37
towards losing that accent or at least was being encouraged to do so which was kind of funny though Captain because
00:07:44
everything that I found from people that she worked for and worked with they would always say uh you know her charm
00:07:51
was that she was this Minnesota girl from a small town that was her charm and it came like blaring through the TV and
00:07:57
that's why people just loved watching watching her and loved listening to her yet they they made her wanted to kind of
00:08:03
lose that a bit anyway regarding the television officials becoming increasingly concerned about unwanted
00:08:11
attention that some of the women in TV news were getting according to her former boss Mike he stated that what
00:08:18
from what he saw usually was not what he would call stalking it was typically men
00:08:24
would get some kind of fixation on a reporter or anchor who was coming into their house every day through the
00:08:31
television and he stated that in bigger markets it seems like every station has one of these guys but it's usually just
00:08:39
some unwanted phone calls and letters and and maybe a driveby once in a while but it's but sometimes I guess it could
00:08:47
be more serious and that could be the case here now according to the Mason City Police Captain Mike harlson he
00:08:55
states that they considered this to be an abduction a possible abduction right away now he was the he was heading up
00:09:03
this investigation and he admitted that from the GetGo that we really don't have
00:09:09
any other possible theories about what happened and we don't like what we found at the crime scene so we have a bunch of
00:09:17
good information here Captain so let's start with the timeline of her disappearance and the Investigations out
00:09:23
shall we on Tuesday June 27th 1995 Jo H and Tru does not report to work between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. her
00:09:34
this is her regular arrival time as the morning and noon anchor and producer at kimt TV okay so let's pour through this
00:09:44
first just so everyone has a good understanding jod is on the 6 o'cl morning newscast so typically they would
00:09:53
like for her and the other anchor and other co-workers to be there at the station at 3:00 a.m. by most accounts it
00:10:02
sounds like this may have been not such a hard and fast rule because by most accounts they refer to
00:10:12
starting time as 3: to 3:30 a.m. and it also sounds like that it may not have been terribly uncommon for her or other
00:10:20
employees to be late right now Amy Coons who is also a producer at the TV station
00:10:27
she does arrive for work that day at 3:00 a.m. as scheduled now at 410 a.m. jod hen tro receives a phone call at her
00:10:38
apartment and this is a telephone call from Amy Coons jod picks up the phone Amy Says
00:10:45
jod are you coming into to work today jod does not know what time it is she asks Amy you know what time is it Amy
00:10:53
says it's 4:10 a.m. Amy says nothing about the phone conversation was strange this was was jod asking the normal
00:11:01
questions and normal answers no commotion in the background you know nothing to trigger that this is a
00:11:08
strange phone call well this is the normal you overslept are you coming to work call yeah yeah she got the
00:11:16
impression that she had woke her up MH that she had overslept so uh 20 minutes go by and there's no jod then 30 then 40
00:11:25
minutes still nothing now the key apartment complex where jod lives is only about a 5-minute drive to the TV
00:11:32
station producer Amy Coons and others continue to call jod when she failed to show up but Amy had to fill in for her
00:11:41
on air at the 6:00 hour M she has said that at the time frankly she was angry at jod for not coming in and after the
00:11:51
hourlong TV show The Station staff decided to call police who would perform a welfare check on jod at her apartment
00:12:00
mhm which is just like we said about a mile or so away now when they get there the police they clearly see that
00:12:08
something was a Miss there was something wrong from the get-go so the welfare check takes place around 7:15 a.m.
00:12:15
officers find her red Mazda Miata in the parking lot of of the downtown Mason City Apartment Complex also found at the
00:12:25
scene where a pair of red women's dress shoes a blow dryer a bottle of hairspray
00:12:31
car keys and earrings now these items are found scattered beside her car police began a missing person's
00:12:40
investigation immediately officers searched a park next to the apartment complex and along
00:12:47
with the uh the Winnebago river that runs through the park about 20 officers and several trained dogs searched a half
00:12:56
mile area around her department Mason City police chief Jack schleeper says that his department has no concrete
00:13:05
leads this is on the first day of her disappearance at her apartment they found the apartment to be in order there
00:13:13
was no evidence of anyone else having been there but jod so jod doesn't show up to work we have a coworker calling
00:13:20
her to wake her up sounds like she woke her up seems like she got ready to go to
00:13:26
work she went down to the parking lot with items to go to work she seems like she was attacked on some level we have
00:13:36
no disturbance in the apartment and then we also have reports of uh female scream
00:13:42
roughly around this same time yeah some of the Neighbors in the apartment complex would later tell police that
00:13:48
they had heard a scream or screams around 4:30 a.m. but unfortunately nobody called police when they heard
00:13:56
that they they didn't report this into until they were later asked did you hear anything strange see anything strange
00:14:02
now the following day on Wednesday June 28th Agents from the Iowa division of criminal investigation and the Federal
00:14:09
Bureau of Investigation joined local officials in the search schleeper says that he suspects Foul Play but says that
00:14:17
there are few clues that have been discovered on the 29th of June this is just two days into the investigation the
00:14:24
police chief says investigators have interviewed more than 100 people but no one is considered a suspect at this time
00:14:31
and also on this day a prayer service is held for Jodie at the Mason City Church
00:14:38
I I I think they should just always make the statement that at this time everybody's a suspect yeah yeah you're
00:14:45
right I think like keep people on their toes well and I think that on July 1st you know just about five or six days
00:14:54
into this investigation I think unfortunately this is when it's really going to start to sink in for friends
00:15:01
and family that that she is gone that something terrible possibly could have happened this is when the police chief
00:15:08
says that her disappearance is being treated as an abduction and he says people that day had saw a white van in
00:15:16
the parking lot of her apartment complex and also this is when it's first reported about the screams that were
00:15:24
heard around the time that she had vanished also on this day captain and this is pretty sad but jod hen tro was
00:15:31
supposed to be a bridesmaid on this Saturday this was when her best friend Stacy Wagner um from back from Long
00:15:39
Prairie Minnesota she was getting married now on that same day as well the reward fund reaches
00:15:47
$11,000 the next day which is a Sunday the who's and tro friends and family join other worshippers for a Sunday
00:15:55
service at a Mason City Church on July 3rd late in the day police call off the ground and air search for who's in Tru
00:16:04
but say that they'll continue to conduct interviews on July 6th a m a Mason City
00:16:11
martial arts instructor says that who's and true attended a self-defense course that he had taught in March of that same
00:16:19
year now the instructor says that who's and TR told him that she had an incident
00:16:26
a few months back and that she wasn't comfortable with it and this was her reasoning for taking the classes mhm on
00:16:34
July 10th schleeper says that FBI Behavioral scientist is trying to determine if who and truth's case is
00:16:43
linked to other disappearances of young women in the region he also says that investigators have received more than
00:16:50
700 tips at this time but they have no significant leads on July 25th schleeper says about
00:16:58
800 people have been interviewed at this time but again no solid suspects so we're seeing a a constant pour in of
00:17:07
tips and we see help from outside agencies however still over a month later no solid suspects no significant
00:17:17
leads on September 8th the who's and tro family um from Minnesota they say that they've hired a private investigator
00:17:25
Mason City police continue to investigate leads and rumors surrounding the case the who's and Tru reward fund
00:17:32
at the Mason City bank now has reached $30,000 in November this is on the 10th police say A man was questioned about H
00:17:42
who and truth's disappearance he has been charged with stalking a television anchor in St Louis
00:17:49
Park Minnesota but Mason City police say that the man is not considered a suspect
00:17:54
in the who's and TR case they are just questioning him this is Charles Allen Davidson his name hasn't ever come up
00:18:03
again in the investigation as far as I could find newspaper article so I have to assume that they took a look at him
00:18:10
and there was either nothing there or he was cleared but there's no public statement that this man was cleared on
00:18:17
November 13th members of The Who and tro family say that they flew to California
00:18:22
and taped a session with three psychics for the television show psychic detectives the psychic said that who's
00:18:29
intrudes kidnapper was someone who saw her on TV and had become obsessed with her family members say three private
00:18:37
investigators have found nothing to identify their suspect right so they go to these psychics well they were
00:18:44
probably offered to go out there and you know how it is and and and we do take a
00:18:47
little bit of flak on this Captain as you know that we'll get some flak from people that go why did you mention
00:18:53
psychics we also get Flack for why do you mention lie detector test or polygraph test the reason being is
00:19:00
they're part of the story okay and we here we have a victim's family that when you're talking about almost half a year
00:19:08
later they start grasping at straws right and when you get a phone call that says hey would you come out to
00:19:13
California tell us your story or tell us what you know about the story we have these people here they could be total
00:19:20
frauds you know that when you deal with the psychics they could be total frauds well you you know that dealing with
00:19:26
anybody that's true but you know how the family is that at this point they need anything that they can latch on I'm not
00:19:34
going to apologize for bringing up psychics because detectives use them all the time so why I care yeah so they
00:19:42
these but that we also have the interesting thought here of the statement that the the family has now
00:19:47
hired three private investigators that have also produced no leads in this case well the thing that I was laughing about
00:19:55
is you know they I I don't mind talking to psychics but sometimes they come back with the
00:20:02
the obvious answer and then you go okay well this person's probably a a bunch of
00:20:08
malarkey yeah yeah and and to be honest with you that single statement there of a TV you know someone saw her on TV and
00:20:16
became obsessed with her that was kind of the general Public's thought all along that it was either somebody that
00:20:21
was stalking her or somebody that knew her now in June of 1996 this would be the one-year anniversary of the
00:20:28
abduction many newspapers ran stories featuring the case her best friend had the following to say now when I say best
00:20:36
friend I'm talking about her best friend at the time remember she had moved away
00:20:40
from friends and family to pursue this career MH she said that to think that somebody would want to hurt her I try to
00:20:49
block it out because I can't picture that this is Annie Cruz who was 29 years old during the course of this interview
00:20:57
she's a feel F representative for the American Heart Association she had met jod in 1993 at a benefit golf tournament
00:21:06
and ever since they were inseparable now they said that they enjoyed bicycling boating inline skating
00:21:13
so they had a lot of shared Hobbies now Cruz says she can't bring herself to watch
00:21:20
KT TV uh since the abduction she hasn't been on her bike since jod disappeared and she said that she would be driving
00:21:31
down the road and just start wondering did this really happen like it started to feel like a movie to her did
00:21:38
she really know her was the last year really real that her friend had disappeared and this investigation is
00:21:45
ongoing and she said it's just a real bout with reality stating that I just can't see her being raped and hurt my
00:21:54
hope is instead that someone is keeping her maybe in a basement or an attic and that they're are feeding her because
00:22:00
they think that she is in love with them as well and and that she is their girlfriend now let's go through some
00:22:08
details Captain because there were some strange details that didn't come out right away in this investigation and for
00:22:13
whatever reason most reports only scratch the surface but when you dig a Little Deeper you find some interesting
00:22:19
particulars about the abduction now I say abduction and you and I have had this conversation before we turned on
00:22:27
the mics today abduction not disappearance you know when we've talked about Mara Murray and
00:22:33
Brian schaer there were things in those individuals backgrounds that point to things where they they may have wanted
00:22:40
to walk away from their life there were things found at this crime scene and things that found in uh jod hen tru's
00:22:47
life that didn't suggest that she walked away and the crime scene shows that she
00:22:52
was taken away so we'll just refer to this as an abduction going forward now her apartment While most reports state
00:23:00
that nothing was out of order there there was a big Todo and rightfully so about the toilet seat yes so the toilet
00:23:09
seat was found in the up position in her apartment yes now I cannot overstate the
00:23:15
significance of this fact enough you know this many people have gone on to discuss this now police stated flat out
00:23:23
that it led them to believe that a man had been in her apartment either the night before or the morning of which is
00:23:30
possible the other possibility is that she had some drinks and got sick yeah that's interesting that's interesting so
00:23:38
you have to wonder if there was a man there then is it likely that he killed her you know and why the why would there
00:23:46
be the crime scene in the parking lot was this some kind of argument that might have spilled outside of the
00:23:54
apartment mhm well but we know who she was was hanging out with the night before well we believe so and we'll get
00:24:02
into that but we also don't have any of her friends stating that she had any sleepover buddies let's call it right
00:24:08
but she might not have been telling them about a sleepover buddy okay so alternatively like you said either a guy
00:24:16
would be there or maybe she got sick um she was known to tie one on from time to
00:24:23
time nothing wrong with that we know that she overslept that day was she sleeping one off and got sick that
00:24:29
morning or the night before MH was it just she was doing a little light cleaning and didn't put the
00:24:36
seat down yeah or she had a guy friend that she's been hanging out with that people didn't know about and she got
00:24:42
sick in the morning one thing I wonder too Captain is is there a possibility that and we've heard of this it's it's
00:24:49
rare but it does happen is there a possibility that maybe one of the police officers used the
00:24:56
restroom I want to put it past them left the seat up and failed to fess up and then this is just hey Cliff hold on I
00:25:03
gotta take a leak and this is just some kind of you know red herring that that there's nothing to do with anything here
00:25:10
yeah but there's also some beers found in her uh apartment as well that weren't consistent with beers that she normally
00:25:18
would drink yeah and I find this to be a little more of a valuable clue and I think it puts more weight to the toilet
00:25:24
seat situation like you said she was known to drink a specific kind of beer and I I I don't have it in my
00:25:33
notes but if memory serves me right it was either Kors or Kors light mhm that that was her preferred bqu of beers beer
00:25:41
of choice and there were some Bud Light 16 o cans that were also found in her apartment that were had been consumed so
00:25:50
there's some thought there that she could have went to a party or something and they had left over beers and she
00:25:56
just took those instead of taking cores I mean just because you you know I like to drink Guinness but not every time you
00:26:03
come over do you see Guinness in my refrigerator mhm yeah I know types that drink the same beer all the time you
00:26:10
know whenever they're drinking they have the same beer you and I obviously very different than that a lot of our
00:26:15
listeners very different that than that the other thought would be how many times have even the people
00:26:21
that state that they only drink a certain kind of beer well if you're at a party and that beer Runs Out you very
00:26:28
quickly drink whatever is left in the refrigerator were these beers that had been brought over at a previous date and
00:26:35
just left in her refrigerator and she decided to consume them the night before yeah if you drink enough beers they all
00:26:40
start tasting the same that's especially if you're talking about Kors Kors light Bud Light those
00:26:47
but so just to be clear the while I'm unsure of what her preferred beer was this what are regarded as the strange
00:26:55
beer cans are bud light 16 o cans were found consumed in her apartment and some believe that that might have been from
00:27:04
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that cheers to you Captain cheers to everybody out there I want to give a cheers to all of our Stitcher listeners
00:29:08
as well yeah for all of our old episodes they're available for free on the Stitcher app and also our show off the
00:29:16
Record which I think episode number three was released yesterday and that's only on
00:29:23
Stitcher premium so check out Stitcher premium.com truecrime garage all right Captain where we left off we were about
00:29:30
to talk about what I think might be one of the more important items found at the
00:29:36
crime scene and that is we're talking about Jody's keys so one of the keys the key to her red Mazda Miata MH was bent
00:29:48
it was found to be bent now but it was bent in the door handle okay so I have a few different reports of that and I
00:29:56
think you're right there there I that seems to be the what is reported most often that the key was found bent and
00:30:03
still in the lock you know somebody was in the process of unlocking the door or had unlocked the door opened the door
00:30:11
and the key was bent mhm other reports state that a bent key was found near her car giving the impression that maybe it
00:30:19
had been on the ground I would like to know if it was a factory key or a replacement key cuz a replacement key
00:30:27
would be easier to bend but a factory key I mean you're talking about some pressure that you're going to have to
00:30:33
put on that key to bend it well so I want to give a little background on the car and her apartment before we go too
00:30:40
far into what this could mean so her her Miata was a 1995 so it was a very new vehicle and in
00:30:51
fact she had purchased it shortly before her abduction now I don't have an exact
00:30:56
date on that I believe that it was months before her abduction so that would lead me to believe that it's more
00:31:03
of a factory key that came with the vehicle itself um one thing that's been highly speculated and I think it should
00:31:11
be is that the vehicle had keyless entry so you putting the key in the car door is not required where a lot of people
00:31:20
that's where that's where the argument comes into play of well okay I read that it was found near the vehicle and
00:31:27
somebody else says well I read that it was found in the car door then the people that are of the belief that it
00:31:32
was found near the vehicle say well there was keyless entry so it's more likely that it was found near the
00:31:36
vehicle and not in the car door my argument against that thought would be I think we're putting too much thought one
00:31:44
into whether was found in the door or near the car I think the important thing is that it was in fact bent um some
00:31:52
people have suggested that the key was very thin and would have bent just by falling to the ground I disagree with
00:31:59
that a million times over I had I had an 89 Mazda and while it was not the same vehicle not the same set of
00:32:08
keys I didn't find that those keys to be frail at all and I dropped them several
00:32:13
times and none of them were ever bent and like I said it was an older vehicle there was more opportunity for this key
00:32:18
to be bent the the other thing that I think is interesting here though Captain is we are talking about a young woman
00:32:29
that was woke up by a coworker this is an oh [ __ ] moment for her she picks up the
00:32:35
phone are you coming to work today what time what time is it you know that's an you know that's an oh [ __ ] moment when
00:32:42
the first response is what time is it right and you find out that it's 4:10 that you are already more than an hour
00:32:49
late for work and we I believe this there is some speculation could that have been somebody else on the phone
00:32:57
could somebody else at at jod apartment have answered that phone that day I don't think that's likely
00:33:04
because she says well I'll be there in 20 minutes well and she has a very distinct voice as well yes thank you for
00:33:13
pointing that out but here's the thing Captain what I'm thinking about is have you ever been running late for somewhere
00:33:20
in P this would be an important place for her she loved her career she was work she wanted to advance her career
00:33:27
not only with this station but to get into bigger markets have you ever been running late for somewhere and you
00:33:32
realize you're rushing and you're panicking and in the course of that you're doing things that don't make
00:33:38
sense and you're actually causing yourself to be increasingly more late MH I've never been invited somewhere
00:33:45
important well what I what I mean is is there a chance that this car was relatively new to her it had keyless
00:33:53
entry maybe the vehicle she had before she did not have keyless entry and in the midst of being running late to this
00:34:01
important job of hers she just hurried out to the car and came what was natural and stuck the key in the car door even
00:34:08
though that it had keyless entry well what I'd like to know is was their batteries in the
00:34:15
remote because if those batteries were taken out then maybe somebody knew this is how they're going to attack or
00:34:21
somebody that knew her closely could say okay well I know that she leaves for work around this time to this time I'm
00:34:28
going to be waiting I'm going to take the batteries out of her remote when those don't work right and buy you you
00:34:35
you some more time to get her before she gets in the car we should paint a picture of the parking lot in the
00:34:43
apartment complex so people have a good idea so Bob Ross it up her Miata was parked it I've I've read several
00:34:51
different statements mhm that it was parked only about 7 to 10 or 12 to 15 Steps from the apartment complex door so
00:35:01
regardless of who you want to uh believe there it's still a very short distance from the apartment complex door right
00:35:09
now her apartment was on the second floor and it's one of those apartments where you would walk in and there's a
00:35:16
big shared hallway and everybody that lives in that building would access the door to their apartment from that
00:35:23
hallway yeah hers is on the second floor the stairs to get downstairs is inside that shared hallway so she would come
00:35:32
out of her apartment door walk down the steps and then still be in the hallway and exit the door there before walking
00:35:39
the 7 to 15 Steps to get to her car so what does that mean that means that if she was attacked by somebody that was
00:35:51
outside waiting for her yeah they have a very short very brief time per period to
00:35:57
see her react attack and then successfully abduct her from that spot yeah and the other thing here is that
00:36:05
she was running late so if somebody was waiting for her on a regular time they were waiting
00:36:12
longer in anticipation of her coming out yeah and that's wild too because like you said this person would have waited a
00:36:20
considerable amount of time more waiting on her mhm and the whole time you're waiting you're adding to the risk level
00:36:28
that you are taking to perform this abduction you're talking about somebody that would be waiting an additional 70
00:36:34
to 100 minutes for jod to come out well when they say it was a white van I always wondered could that have been a
00:36:43
news van H because you know one of the angles of this case is that she worked in a pretty Cutthroat industry people
00:36:52
are trying to get ahead I mean we've all seen Anchor Man so we we know the battles that happened yeah before we get
00:37:00
into the van though Captain I want to kind of go through some of the things that were found at the crime scene as
00:37:07
well so we have like we mentioned before there were several items that she was going to take to work with her and the
00:37:15
captain has pointed out that these were items that her friends and colleagues had said that she would always carry to
00:37:21
work these were not items you know these were F found in scattered in the parking
00:37:26
lot m it's the hair dryer a pair of heels hairspray earrings these were found at the crime scene these were not
00:37:33
items that she was taking because she was late that day these were items she took every day they were in a tote that
00:37:40
she it appears she was planning on placing the tote in the passenger side uh car seat right in the passenger seat
00:37:48
and then she would walk around get into the driver seat and drive off to work now like you said though something
00:37:55
happened before that the from most reports that I read regarding about the the key being found
00:38:02
in the car door state that the key was found in the passenger side car door so it could just been as simple as the
00:38:12
remote didn't work on the passenger side door it could be something as and she goes to open the door somebody comes up
00:38:19
from behind incapacitates her there's enough force on that key to bend it but leave it in the blck right now regarding
00:38:28
blood at the scene was there any blood at the scene now contrary to many many rumors that are out there the police
00:38:36
have constantly and consistently denied that any blood was found at the crime scene also we have a palm print to
00:38:44
discuss there's a partial palm print that was found on or in the car now police have never said where on the
00:38:51
vehicle that they found this palm print it's probably on the outside they my my initial thought here is that they
00:39:00
must be convinced that it came from the perpetrator of this abduction because it
00:39:05
seems that at times they have relied on this palm print to rule out potential perpetrators well so we have this palm
00:39:13
print we have our items scattered everywhere but we also have these drag marks that were found in the dirt close
00:39:20
to her car yeah this leading the police to believe that jod had been incomp capacitated and then dragged to a
00:39:28
waiting vehicle this must be you know we have these other items that that are upsetting to find and of concern to find
00:39:37
and I think this would be the icing on the cake when they stated immediately that we are working this as a possible
00:39:43
abduction it's because everything at the scene is pointing to exactly that now one interesting piece of
00:39:51
evidence and I don't know how much value this can have but it must have some something because there was a hair found
00:39:59
at the crime scene as well and this is something that we are not told about for many many years after the crime this is
00:40:06
Frank Sterns of the ncpd I'm sorry mcpd he told this to Nancy Grace on her show in 2013 so we're talking about
00:40:16
almost 20 years later that they state that we found hair at the crime scene they did not say you're saying that they
00:40:24
found hair at crime seen what they wouldn't say is if they had found DNA on this hair I can see her now so you
00:40:34
wanted to get into the suspicious vehicles and I say suspicious Vehicles because there's been a couple of
00:40:39
different reports about vehicles of suspicion that morning the first being the obvious one the white van and a lot
00:40:47
of people have referred to this as a possible or likely Ford Econoline van that was seen by a neighbor this is
00:40:55
Randy Linderman in the parking lot of the apartment complex that morning he spotted this vehicle around talking very
00:41:04
early morning he he spotted this vehicle around 4:00 a.m. MH uh he said it was parked there with either its running
00:41:10
lights or its breake lights on now a lot of effort went into finding this van but
00:41:16
police were never able to I want to point out a couple things here some people will think well maybe Randy
00:41:22
Linderman might be a person of interest because why would he take notice of this
00:41:28
van if he was unaware that something important was going to happen that day now he stated later that the only reason
00:41:36
why he noticed the van was from when he first spotted it he actually thought it was a police vehicle and he was of
00:41:44
concern cuz he might have been speeding in the parking lot at the time he took notice of it slowed down and then what
00:41:51
is he doing in the parking lot um I I don't just driving home cuz that's it's really early in the morning well no no
00:41:57
no I should I guess I should be clear I the parking lot is very near a road obviously I don't know if he was
00:42:03
traveling on the road or if he was traveling in the parking lot what I do know is that he states that he took
00:42:08
notice of it because he thought it was a police vehicle and he thought that he had been exceeding the speed limit at
00:42:15
that time he slowed down looked at the vehicle and we've all done this when you think that you're when you think that
00:42:22
you're speeding and you see a police vehicle you slow down and then you look to observe to see if in fact it was a
00:42:28
police vehicle and if it was are they going to pull out of that spot and follow me I speed up and turn off my
00:42:33
lights he is the one that was the eyewitness to this white van now I I want to bring something up here
00:42:42
because this is something that I've seen in a couple of different cases regarding
00:42:46
this white van this white van in reports it's stated it's a white van mhm there are other reports that state a light
00:42:55
colored van where I think that we run some risky business here when we really specify things that might not be known
00:43:03
at the time mhm was this a white van or was it a light colored van because under
00:43:08
the cover of darkness and in a parking lot where it's lit by street lights you could get the impression of a different
00:43:15
color than what the actual color of that van is now remember he states that he saw this vehicle around 400 a.m. or so
00:43:24
we know that she was abducted around 4:30 a.m. that day the sun did not rise until
00:43:31
5:35 a.m. that day so it still would have been dark at this time we would have the light would have been provided
00:43:37
for from Street lamps there's a good chance this was not a white vehicle not a white van and just a light color could
00:43:44
be yellow I mean how many people have seen a yellow or a gray van at night and it appears to be lighter colored than
00:43:51
what it is yeah I it's also interesting to me because yes we have a lot of things now now um we'll have restaurants
00:43:58
we'll have fast food chains we'll have grocery stores that are open 24/7 that wasn't very common in
00:44:06
1995 so you're talking about a time period between 4: and 4:30 a.m. where you're talking about a very small
00:44:15
percentage of people that are even going to be awake right and then as far as suspicious Vehicles go we also have that
00:44:22
incident that jod had reported in the past you know that took place just a few months before her abduction that her
00:44:29
family said had scared her enough to to the point where she even reported it to the Mason City police this took place
00:44:37
when she was rollerblading one day she says that she believes she was closely followed by a black pickup truck with
00:44:44
dark Windows her family says that she was so upset enough to run into a house and
00:44:51
asked to use the phone she called her mom very upset and reported it to to the mcpd police escorted her to work a few
00:45:00
times to and from work a few times after the incident yeah this this is where it
00:45:06
gets weird for me because there is rumors that she talked about threats that she felt threatened that she was
00:45:13
concerned about this she was concerned that somebody would try to attack her or abduct her and then there's rumors that
00:45:19
she wasn't that concerned but if you're calling the police and they're escorting
00:45:23
you to and from work seems like you're taking that part pretty serious my guess is
00:45:29
that this is something that she often found herself into com in conversation regarding and depending on her mood one
00:45:38
might get a different thought of of her opinion of what was going on I don't know that she received any
00:45:46
threats per se but we do have this incident with the vehicle that she believed was following her and like you
00:45:52
said to the point where she gets a police escort they probably recommended the police escort she receives this a
00:46:00
couple of times the police actually even ran Mason City black pickup registrations against criminal records
00:46:08
to see if there were they could cross reference anything but nothing came yeah and but again and I think I
00:46:15
think you're more right than some of these other thoughts and opinions because not only did she get that police
00:46:22
escort but she also took a few self-defense classes according according to the U the instructor there right also
00:46:29
her colleague Amy Coons this was the the woman that called her because she was late that morning and filled in for her
00:46:36
because she didn't arrive she says that it was very obvious to her that Jodie was in fact wory about uh some things in
00:46:46
particular she was worried about leaving for work alone in the middle of the night you know she's supposed to be
00:46:52
there at 3:00 a.m. we also have the item the thought that there might have been some screams
00:46:59
heard that that morning so well she if she's attacked get in into her car I'm assuming if she took defense classes one
00:47:10
of the things they tell you is to Make Some Noise try to get people's attention so I I believe that those screams
00:47:17
definitely were were jodies yeah and there's people that have said that the screams came around 4:30 a.m. it's too
00:47:25
much of a coincidence I think captain that that time period lines up with the very most likely time that she was
00:47:32
abducted for people to hear these screams the there's a couple of I mean not only is it concerning that
00:47:39
nobody called 911 but there were a lot of those windows from those apartments that
00:47:46
looked down into the parking lot nobody nobody looked outside to see if they could see anything so this while we
00:47:55
while this really only backs up the fact that they might have the time right of when she was abducted it provides us
00:48:01
with little to no other leads there are some rumors well and it's sad too because like like her co-worker said you
00:48:10
know we she didn't show up and then we called the police afterwards which maybe if they would have called the police
00:48:16
earlier that they maybe they would have seen something or seen a vehicle yeah um
00:48:21
so there's all these little things that had to happen just right for us to really not know and the thing though too
00:48:27
is we have there's rumor and I want I want to say that the reason why I'm stating that this is a rumor is because
00:48:34
the only place that I found this was it came from it came from legit news sources
00:48:43
however I could not find at any time an actual officer on record stating this uh
00:48:49
whether it be a detective or somebody involved in the case yeah but the rumor was that during the course of hearing
00:48:55
those screams that one or maybe more people heard a name shouted out or a name screamed out now whatever that name
00:49:05
was was never released I couldn't find anywhere where they're saying Oh it sounded like a woman was yelling the
00:49:12
name Todd right or Tim or anything like that um so then the news outlets went on
00:49:21
to speculate further that police must believe that the perpetrator was someone known to her because after she's
00:49:29
attacked or before she's grabbed she's shouting out their name you know no no Todd don't do this or Tim let me go you
00:49:37
know something to that effect the problem I have with this is I I don't know you know I'm on the fence here
00:49:43
because this seems like something that the police would either a hold back because they they need to hold on to
00:49:50
that name right but it also seems to me doesn't it seem to you Captain if if they really believe that it was somebody
00:49:55
that that knew her we're not talking about a woman that had a huge circle of people in the sense that of close
00:50:03
friends and family in the area yeah but if they know what that name is Right mhm
00:50:09
so then they have a pretty good idea like if we have a couple let's call them ear witnesses that say yeah we heard
00:50:16
this scream around 4:30 and we also think that we heard a name and the police know that name but the
00:50:23
perpetrator doesn't know that the police know that name and so that would be to me information that if it's a person
00:50:33
inside her Circle you would not want to release that name because you're going to try to get the upper hand on them
00:50:38
you're going to try to catch them in a lie mean I totally agree the only issue I take with that is that you at the same
00:50:45
time you have the newspapers and uh the media stating that a name was heard and the police are aware of that okay right
00:50:53
but then my my other argument for not keeping it close to the chest is if that person is not in that Circle and that
00:51:00
name isn't known to you within a couple days of looking into her life then maybe
00:51:05
you'd release that name just to have anybody say oh well you know this lady that went missing she was screaming
00:51:12
Timmy or whatever and and I know a Timmy and he was acting weird for a couple days my my other thought though is that
00:51:20
maybe we only have one earwitness stating that they think they heard a name and what what was reported to the police
00:51:28
was it oh it could have been Todd it could have been Tim it could have been John it could have been you know what I
00:51:33
mean or are they the only ones saying it definitely was a Todd I heard a Todd and
00:51:38
then the police are going well wait a second we don't know how much Mak sense we don't have much weight to put into
00:51:43
this The credibility of this and do we lose the Public's help MH in the course of this investigation which we very much
00:51:52
need at this point do we lose their help or Miss guide them because now they think we're looking for a Todd and only
00:51:59
a Todd just like I said that I think that the white van description is a little irresponsible does it mislead the public
00:52:07
that we are now only looking for a white van yeah well we did a good job captain
00:52:12
of talking about the abduction what could have happened that day and the investigation that ensued afterwards but
00:52:20
I think it's important to address her life before the abduction as well now we state that police suspect that she was
00:52:28
abducted they say that the roots of that abduction May lie in the overwhelming ambition her dream to be on television
00:52:37
who's and tro pursued her media dreams at Minnesota St Cloud University where she studied mass
00:52:44
communications professors say she stood out at a time when more and more college
00:52:50
students were drawn to the television Spotlight now after college who's in TR aspirations to break into commercial
00:52:58
television led to a job as an intern at kga in Ceda Rapids Iowa her colleagues remember her as a hardworking energetic
00:53:08
and friendly young woman and say jod was a fast learner after only a year she left Cedar Rapids for a bigger job in a
00:53:18
smaller television market this is Mason City Iowa a farm and family oriented community of 30,000 within months after
00:53:28
having arrived in Mason City who and Tru was a celebrity a local celebrity and a
00:53:34
growing audience for her Morning News show reflected her popularity in the Autumn of 1994 who and
00:53:43
Tru feared one viewer was taking that sense of intimacy too far she was convinced that a suspicious black pickup
00:53:51
truck was following her now a little more on this was that friends had stated that I'm so
00:53:59
I believe this was her sister I apologize stated that jod had got very very nervous and was even crying and
00:54:05
eventually called her mom on the phone and her mother was telling her you need to take more
00:54:11
precautions so she was nervous enough as we had said to file a police report the
00:54:17
police helped her out thank God during this tough time for her they say there was no further problems now on her 27th
00:54:24
birthday this was on June 5th now this situation didn't take place on her 27th birthday
00:54:33
but her 27th birthday would have been about 3 weeks and a day before she was abducted MH Jody's friend and one-time
00:54:40
neighbor this is John Van he threw a surprise birthday party for her this is at a bar and invited were Jody's friends
00:54:50
and co-workers there will be a lot of Suspicion surrounding this man later but I wanted to make sure that we brought up
00:54:58
things that were going on in her life leading up to the abduction many people out there have long suspected that John
00:55:04
Van ciss was having having abducted her and killing Jody now some believe Jon was infatuated with her JN in 1995 was
00:55:15
about 20 years older than jod now they met when he lived at the Key Apartment Complex in
00:55:23
1994 reportedly the two of them spent a lot of time together they had similar Hobbies they Golf and I and he had a
00:55:31
boat yes and John described his relationship with her as friends and as a father daughter type
00:55:39
relationship and as you had said they shared several of the same Hobbies Jody's Family reported that there was
00:55:45
nothing romantic about the two's relationship and there is actually nothing out there to suggest that
00:55:53
anything otherwise well and Jody was was a very positive person and so I think she came into his life at a time where
00:56:00
maybe things weren't going so great but she was somebody that was you know upbeat and positive about things so he's
00:56:07
it changed his outlook on his life MH and so I think he very very much valued their friendship well about 10 days
00:56:14
before the abduction Jody in what I would suspect to have been Jody's best friend at the time or at least someone
00:56:21
she seemed to spend a lot of well a great deal of time with this is Tammy Baker the two were Fast Friends sharing
00:56:28
the same interest uh they were roughly the same age according to tamy Jody and her spent much of the weekend together
00:56:37
so this is the weekend 10 days before her abduction now the following weekend let's go to Friday June 23rd 1995 the
00:56:45
weekend before jod was abducted Jody with her good friend Tammy Baker they go and they spend a day on the lake water
00:56:54
skiing with Jody's friend John Van who we had me mentioned earlier and his son Trenton vanze now after a full day the
00:57:06
ladies stayed the night in an apartment on Iowa city in Iowa City I'm sorry this
00:57:12
is Trenton's apartment so John Van's son this is his apartment right and as you had mentioned when they were out on the
00:57:20
water they spent that day on John's boat they they were going to stay there for a
00:57:26
full weekend but rain cut that trip a little shorter than they had planned so they returned home now Monday the day
00:57:37
before the abduction this is after work jod goes to a charity golf tournament there she is accompanied by the TV
00:57:46
stations news director but even though they're accompanied by one another they according to him they only see each
00:57:53
other brief during this event and anybody that's ever played in charity golf tournaments know that you kind of
00:58:00
paired off with a group of people you spend the majority of the day with them you see the rest of the people in
00:58:05
passing now 8:00 p.m. following the golf tournament so she left the golf tournament approximately at 8:00 p.m.
00:58:12
that night the gray area here is what was going on with jod between 8:00 p.m. that night and then the following
00:58:21
morning when she takes the phone call from her coworker at 4 4 10: a.m. so at 8:00 p.m. that night she leaves the golf
00:58:29
tournament according to John Van Jody then went to his apartment they were going to view a videotape of the
00:58:38
birthday party from a couple of weeks before mhm he says that she left his apartment around 1 p.m. that night now
00:58:47
he told news reporters that jod you know he was very specific about her leaving he's like I watched her walk down the
00:58:52
stairs she turned around the corner and she must have got in her car and drove home there's there's a couple of issues
00:58:59
here and does she call once she gets home cuz normally like if I'm hanging out with a friend guy or girl and we
00:59:06
leave a bar or they leave or if I'm at their house and I leave their house like I'll text when I get home hey made it
00:59:12
home um especially if you had a couple drinks the last he saw her according to John Van SI was her walking down the
00:59:20
stairs from his apartment and turning around the corner to go to her vehicle there's a couple of conflicting reports
00:59:27
out there and we can get we'll dive more into this in tomorrow's episode because
00:59:32
we're we're running out of time here but I do want to point out that there was a
00:59:36
phone call that there was in fact a phone call that was made that night the timing of that phone call is slightly
00:59:43
unclear and we'll get into that again tomorrow's show but there was a phone call that was made from jod to a friend
00:59:50
and we know that this came from jod because it was made from a landline inside her apartment and this would be
00:59:57
to her friend Kelly Torgerson now Kelly lives in Mississippi when Kelly was not home when
01:00:05
Jodie called but the phone was answered and jod spoke to Kelly's husband who she
01:00:12
knew well she knew him well the husband would later tell reporters and police that on the phone jod sounded happy she
01:00:21
didn't sound like anything was troubling her um he simply told her hey look Kelly's not home take a message I'll
01:00:28
have her call you back the two didn't speak okay there was never any return call before she was abducted now as we
01:00:37
know likely the last person to speak with Jody was Amy Coons and Amy was actually Jody's assistant at the time we
01:00:46
had said her colleague her title was associate producer or assistant producer of this TV station now so jod
01:00:55
technically was her boss whether the two were actually friends were were more than just co-workers is a point of
01:01:03
debate in an interview Amy had the following to say to be honest I almost dread the anniversary coming around
01:01:11
every year it's dredging it's the dredging up of all the old feelings and all the unanswered
01:01:19
questions almost an eerie feeling you always have those questions in your mind you always wonder if you could have done
01:01:27
something more there's almost a guilt I have to live with wondering if something
01:01:34
could have been done now Coons who was the associate producer of the early morning show that who's in true anchored
01:01:41
said the two had discussed the what if possibilities in terms of having to leave from work I'm sorry from home for
01:01:49
work in the early morning Darkness each day she said that we had talked about it
01:01:54
we had conversations that went so far to ask if someone if something would happen
01:01:59
to one of us who would know saying we had a PCT that if either of us was late we would call each other well that's why
01:02:08
she called her that morning and Coons worked very closely with police in the days following who and tru's
01:02:16
disappearance she went with them to Jody's apartment the police wanted her to see if anything looked out of place
01:02:23
now she would later say that nothing did then she had to go through Jody's clothing they wanted her to figure out
01:02:31
what possible outfit she might have been wearing at the time of her abduction mhm
01:02:36
after 5 years [ __ ] said that she had finally come to grips with the idea that something terrible probably had happened
01:02:42
to jod saying that if she's dead I hope she didn't have to suffer that's the hard thing to think about I just hope
01:02:49
she didn't have to suffer now [ __ ] said that she called remember going back to
01:02:53
that morning [ __ ] said that she had called who's and Tru around 4:10 a.m. that morning and spoke with her who's
01:03:01
and TR had said that she had overslept and that she would be heading to the studio shortly this has been a hotly
01:03:07
debated issue online now we should mention that Amy Coons also left a phone message and then another phone message
01:03:15
for Jodie after she had spoken with her on the phone she has said in an interview that she called again around
01:03:22
500 a.m. and left a frantic message for her stating that honestly at the time at
01:03:29
first she was really mad because Amy was going to have to edit and write the show
01:03:34
and put everything together at the last minute yeah now we mentioned that the show went on air at 6:00 a.m. at this
01:03:40
time who's and Tru had still not shown up Amy Coons had to fill in go on air for her and when there was still no sign
01:03:47
of who and TR by the shows end at 7 a.m. this is when the police were called now
01:03:54
Amy has been questioned by many people over the years of why didn't you do something more why didn't you call and
01:04:00
call again why did you wait so long to call the police and her answer is very simple stating I don't know why I didn't
01:04:08
call the police and so many people have ask me that time and time again but I just didn't think that anything could be
01:04:15
wrong I really didn't a lot more to get into tomorrow but in the meantime check out our store Page we
01:04:30
got a limited edition shirt that we made uh it's girls don't like boys girls like
01:04:37
True Crime garage and murder documentary so check out it's a tank top and a t-shirt until next time be good be kind
01:04:45
and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on
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Angie to tackle your dream kitchen REM model connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well
01:05:33
inside to outside repairs to Renovations get started on the Angie app or visit angie.com
01:05:40
today you can do this when you Angie that