New Suspect In 31-Year-Old Disappearance Of Jodi Huisentruit

It's been nearly 31 years since anyone has seen or heard from a former Long Prairie woman. Jodi Huisentruit, who was a news anchor in Mason City, Iowa, when she went missing on June 27, 1995. A news station in Arizona this week spoke with a private investigator who claims to have a new suspect in the case.

Jodi's Been Gone For Nearly 31 Years

Before we get into the new suspect, if you aren't familiar with the story of Jodi Huisentruit, here's a quick recap of what happened on June 27th, 1995.

Jodi was a morning news anchor at KIMT in Mason City, Iowa, and on June 27th, she never made it into work. Jodi was woken up that morning by a co-worker calling her, and Jodi responded that she had overslept and was on her way in. When police were asked to do a welfare check, they discovered signs of a struggle outside her apartment near her car, which led investigators to believe she had been abducted. Despite extensive investigations, no definitive clues to her disappearance were found, and she was declared legally dead in 2001.

New Suspect?

Phoenix's Fox 10 recently had on a private investigator, Steve Ridge, who turned over to Iowa investigators evidence that he had been gathering. It included statements from a woman, who told Ridge "she was dating a suspect or person of interest in the case" who "confessed" in her presence, while being "tailed by authorities up in Minnesota" to taking Jodi.

According to the interview, Ridge stated that the suspect pulled over and, while hitting the steering wheel, the man was saying "I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it," but did finally state, according to the witness, "I did it."

According to the female witness, after the statement "I did it" was made, they looked at each other briefly and continued on their way.

Ridge Not Sharing Who That Person Was

Later on in the interview, Ridge was asked if he would reveal the identity of the person who supposedly confessed, but he responded that he "operates under the guidance of innocent until proven guilty" and he doesn't know if the individual would ever be found guilty in a court of law.

Ridge offered up that he felt like the Iowa Department of Public Safety could administratively close the case and make an announcement, but he wasn't willing to comment on who the person was.

For years, the suspect was John Van Sice

A friend of Jodi was the main suspect in the case, John Van Sice, but other than a search warrant for GPS data on his car in 2017, nothing came from it, and Van Sice died in 2024.

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Friday, June 5th, would have been Jodi's 58th birthday. It would be nice for not only Jodi's family and friends but for all of us if there were closure to this 30-year-old case.

You can watch the full interview below.

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