News anchor’s mysterious disappearance was crime of ‘jealousy’: private investigator

Jodi Huisentruit, a 27-year-old Iowa news anchor, went missing nearly 30 years ago. While authorities continue to search for her remains, one private investigator believes her mysterious disappearance was a crime of “jealousy” and “passion.” 

Huisentruit, a native of Long Prairie, Minnesota, was on her way to work as a morning anchor at KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa, when she disappeared in the early morning of June 27, 1995.

“It is one of those cases that just kind of stands out,” licensed private investigator Steve Ridge told Fox News Digital. 

“Jodi was a young, vivacious anchor on television, very photogenic, very charismatic, and I think that even people that don’t know her felt a certain attraction to her. The community as a whole, Mason City, is a very tight-knit, somewhat inbred community, and they really embraced Jodi…this case haunts them and hangs over them with a very, very dark shadow.”

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Ridge has been investigating Huisentruit’s case pro bono since 2019 but has been following it since 1995, when news of her disappearance broke. He has put up a $100,000 reward for anyone who can lead police to her remains. 

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“I just can’t stop. I mean, I, I just feel driven to get to the bottom of this,” Ridge told Fox News Digital in a detailed interview on the case. He said Huisentruit began her journalism career at a station not far from his home, and despite being such a public personality, she was very approachable to locals in her area. 

“Mason City is such a small town, and Jodi was so accessible. I mean, she was everywhere…she loved to go to the local pubs and enjoy herself and talk to people,” Ridge explained. “That’s so different than most television anchors in most larger markets where there’s, you know, there’s a pretty big disconnect, really, between the individual you see on the air and their in-person, you know, facade… she was just an exception, and the town just adopted her and loved her.”

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Ridge believes he may have figured out exactly what happened to Huisentruit, but he did not share the identity of the individual he believes is responsible for her disappearance with Fox News Digital, so as not to “compromise any potential indictment or arrest.” 

“I had narrowed the list of suspects in my own mind or persons of interest to four people,” he said. “So I can tell you without a doubt, I know that one of those four people was responsible for Jodi’s disappearance. Which one is my favorite, if you will? I have not disclosed, and I won’t disclose.”

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Ridge said he has interviewed nearly a thousand people about Huisentruit’s case over the years, including two persons of interest and others who he believes had valuable information. He has also supervised several search efforts based on tips to find her remains. 

“Those were private searches, and in some cases on private property where I had to secure permission from the property owners,” he said. “I am actually still working on about a half dozen very specific avenues of exploration…almost like branches on a tree. You go out one branch, and it develops into three more and into three more and into 10 more. So you can drill down on each of those and pursue each of them.”

Huisentruit’s disappearance was ruled an abduction, and her belongings – including a hair dryer, a red pair of shoes and a bottle of hairspray – were found next to her car at her apartment complex, with police finding signs of a struggle. A witness also reported seeing a suspicious white van and hearing a scream, Fox 9 reported. 

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Ridge disclosed his leading theory about events leading up to Huisentruit’s possible abduction. 

“Jodi had a very secret sort of last minute fling… the 10 days prior to her disappearance,” he shared. “She met a man on a Saturday night in a bar. They became fast friends and they golfed together. They dined together. They drank together. She was at his residence… I believe that that budding relationship created a great deal of jealousy and that ultimately this crime was a crime of passion.

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“The individual involved in her abduction, I believe, was intending to confront her, to discuss it, and that things got out of control and that ultimately she was abducted from that location and probably her remains were deposited within about a 26-mile radius of the Key Apartments.”

The news anchor was declared legally dead in 2001. Ridge said it will take “an extreme amount of manpower” to locate her remains. 

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“Where and how the body was disposed of is the main obstacle,” he said. “I believe that her body was carefully weighted down with a specific type of weights which would cause it to sink very deeply in any water area…there are many, many areas of water in and around that particular part of the state, and so…it’s kind of a needle in the haystack.” 

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However, the private investigator said he will continue to work on various leads and is determined to help police solve Huisentruit’s case. He is in regular communication with her older sister, JoAnn Nathe, and said that the investigation continues to consume her. 

“She says, ‘I just want to live until, you know, I know what happened to my sister, my little sister,’” he said. “I hope one day that I can give her the peace of mind that she and her family and Jodi’s friends and the community of Mason City, which this hangs over like a cloud, that I can give them peace of mind.”