Report: Police serve search warrant connected to Jodi Huisentruit cold case

Mason City police are looking into two vehicles that may be connected to the disappearance of an Iowa news anchor 23 years ago, according to a new report.

Jodi Huisentruit was a 27-year-old anchor at KIMT-TV in Mason City on June 27, 1995, when she failed to show up for work to anchor the 6 a.m. broadcast. She hasn't been seen since.

FindJodi.com, a site dedicated to Huisentruit's case and run by journalists and retired police officers, reported Friday that the Mason City Police Department executed a search warrant on March 20, 2017, for GPS data on two cars related to John Vansice.

Vansice, now 72 and living in Arizona, was a friend of Huisentruit's who may have been the last person to see her before she vanished.

Online court records show police were seeking GPS data from a 1999 Honda Civic and a 2013 GMC 1500. Vansice is listed as the interested party on the warrant, which is under seal.

Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley told FindJodi.com that the warrant is connected to the department's investigation into Huisentruit's disappearance.

"As you know, we continue to actively work Jodi Huisentruit’s missing persons case from June 27, 1995. The search warrant you are referring to is part of our ongoing investigation. We do not have any public comment at this time about the content of the search warrant or the person(s) named in it. We would ask that anyone with information about Jodi’s disappearance contact the Mason City Police Department," Brinkley told the website.

A Des Moines Register article from Aug. 12, 1995, reported that Huisentruit stopped by Vansice's house on the evening of June 26 and that the two watched a videotape of a birthday party friends had thrown for Huisentruit.

"She was in good spirits when she left here," Vansice said at the time.

Vansice told the Register in 1995 that police interviewed him and gave him a lie detector test, which he passed. But that didn't stop accusations from some in the community.

"I have been crucified by this community. ... I have been crucified by the media," he said at the time. "I have friends who won't talk to me."

Investigators have long believed someone grabbed Huisentruit shortly after 4 a.m. as she went to her red car in the parking lot of her apartment complex. Neighbors said they heard a scream around then and saw a white van in the lot. Police found her red high heels, blow dryer, hair spray and earrings strewn across the lot.

Her bent car key lay on the ground near the car, and police believe she was unlocking her car door when she was taken. An unidentified partial palm print was found on her car, but there was no other substantial evidence at the scene.