FindJodi

[MUSIC] And at this hour, investigators still have few clues about where Jody Hosentrut might be. >> The FBI is now involved in the case and they're beginning to concentrate their efforts. >> Search dogs turn up clues, but tonight it remains untested evidence. >> Where is she? Who knows something who hasn't come forward? >> Caroline Lowe is in Tiffin, Iowa with an update right now. Caroline? >> Well, Amelia, tonight there is a stained silo door. >> Being a journalist, I know what gets covered. And that's why we do things like billboards to try to get the attention. [MUSIC] >> We really wish we weren't here today. >> 23 years later, what happened to Jody is still a mystery. >> You are watching news channel 3D break. The time is 6 o'clock, 64 degrees. Some light showers falling in North Iowa. >> Jody grew up in Minnesota. Then she went to Mason City in 1993 to become reporter morning anchor. [MUSIC] >> This morning, our morning anchor, 27-year-old Jody, who's in fruit, apparently disappeared. >> She was running late. It appeared that Jody had been attacked from behind and then dragged away from her car. And her stuff is scattered behind. >> I called her and I talked to her. She was there. It sounded like I woke her up. Her first question was, what time is it? I said, Jody, it's 10 after 4, you need to come in. That was the last contact anybody has had with Jody. >> It's been 38 hours now since anyone has spoken to Jody, who's in fruit. >> Good evening, everyone. >> I had such a strange collision of emotions. >> Residents from all across North Iowa are in turn feeling the emotion and the desperation for Jody's safe return. >> And I thought, I know her so well. And all of these folks who are watching on TV right now feel like they really know her too. They had her in their home every morning and they loved her. >> Way to go, Kevin. >> She has a hard last name. >> Who's in fruit? After the 27th of June, she's Jody. Doesn't need a last name anymore. She'll always be just Jody. >> The clock was ticking. >> I'm John Shine from KIMT Television, Mason City, Iowa. We need your help. One of our news anchors is missing. >> It's been 42 hours since we last heard from our dear friend Jody. >> There are lots and lots of theories. >> How would you classify John that place? >> I would classify him as a friend. >> Jody spent more time with John van Seiss in the last month that she was in Mason City than anybody that we know of. >> And he said, I was the last person to see her. >> I interviewed him the next day. >> And the police indicated whether or not you were a suspect? >> No, they haven't even been an indication. They've interviewed me twice, but they haven't even been an indication that I'm a suspect. >> Is anybody alive? >> The Mason City police said they're now concentrating their efforts on 12 people. >> There's been no detainments. There's only been the people that have been interviewed. >> It could be somebody we least expect. >> Did she ever express concern that she was being stalked? >> Yes, yeah. >> This case is not going to go away. >> We'll never let you get out of this. >> It's got a couple of investigator jobs. >> We'll go back this way. >> These are phone and tips, psychic leads. >> We have never closed the case. It's never been a cold case for us. It's been an act of investigation since it happened. >> But we're 23 years in. >> Right, I'm not ready to quit yet. >> The more we keep this story alive, it might just unlock the puzzle. >> I may be walking around my king and maybe in a wheelchair, but I am staying on this until we find Jody. >> Somebody knows something, is it you? >> Relay us out of music. >> I'm going to send things right back to the studio. Thank you very much, Sarah. >> Are they or are they not? >> I think they're just being questioned right now. >> Here's a look at what we're working on for KIMT News 3 at 5. >> The yellow ribbon is still there. >> 23 years after anchor Jody Who's Intrude vanished on her way to work in Mason City, Iowa. >> I said earlier, there's no way they still have those old desk, but. >> And here it is. >> Here it is. >> Jody's old desk still occupies the same spot in the KIMT TV Newsroom. >> I'm certain it is. >> Doug Murbock was the news director back then. >> I've been back in 15 years. >> Robin Wolfram was also an anchor. >> It makes me sad to be right here for some reason. Sad and then peaceful, too. >> Jody was more than a colleague. She was a friend. What words pop into mind when you think of Jody? >> I think the first word that always comes to my mind is effervescent. >> Good, Thursday morning, welcome to Day of Reg June 15th already. I'm Jody Who's Intrude. >> 10 people would often describe her as bubbly. >> Kind of a bright light in the morning to get people started for the day. >> She was your cup of Joe. >> This was not going to be her last stop in Mason City. >> She always talked about being on national television. We always would have these conversations the two of us. She was beautiful. She was engaging. She was smart. The only thing she had to overcome was that Minnesota exit. >> President Clinton leaves this morning for the group of seven summit in Nova Scotia. >> She was working hard on that one. >> She was working really hard on that one. >> The Jody Who's Intrude's dream of making it big ended the morning of Tuesday, June 27th, 1995. The anchor of KIMT's 6am newscast, she usually arrived at work by 3.30 in the morning. >> If she's not there between 3.30 and 4, I give her a call so I hear you awake. >> Producer Amy Coons noticed nothing unusual when she called and woke Jody up about 10 after four that morning. >> She was asking about the show, she was concerned about the show and she said I'd be right there. >> But at 5.30, still no Jody. And this being a time before cell phones, Amy tried her at home again and got her answering machine. At 6am, Amy had a step up and delivered the news in Jody's place. >> She loves her show. She calls it her show, you know, she wouldn't miss it for anything. The police were called shortly after 7. When they arrived at Jody's apartment, she wasn't home. But they found her shoes, hair dryer and keys scattered on the ground near her beloved red Mazda Miata. Jack Sleeper was police chief then. >> We do have things that would make us believe that there could be foul play here. >> There were also apparent drag marks near her car, signs of a struggle. >> The vehicle was processed on the outside, we did process it for fingerprints. >> Police found someone's palm print on the car. Special canine units quickly began a search of Jody's apartment complex and the banks of the Winnebago River. This is News Channel 3's Evening Edition. >> Police are investigating the disappearance but aren't saying much else at this time. >> Good evening, K-I-M-T's lead story was the devastating news about one of its own. >> Jody who's in truth was and still is a very dear friend of mine as well as all of us here at K-I-M-T. And we're inviting all of you to join us and keeping her and her family in your prayers this evening. >> Toughest thing you've ever done in your career, Robyn? >> Probably. >> Yeah. >> I don't know what it looked like to the viewer, but I just know inside it was a mess. >> Police descended on the newsroom, searching Jody's desk for any evidence of an angry or obsessed viewer. Had Jody's natural warmth made her a target? >> Yeah, she went grocery shopping and it took her two hours because she talked to three people along the way and she always had time for everybody. >> Joanne Nathie is Jody's sister. >> She definitely was too trusty. >> I'm thinking that maybe some of those people watching her had their own potentially troubling ideas. >> Yeah. >> That's what I worry about that she was too personable. >> Way to go, Kevin. >> I'm getting there slowly. >> Way to keep me in check. >> Revealing too much, maybe what you did day to day. >> I live by a big swimming pool and I can hear the children swimming and splashing and yelling at someone. >> Everyone she met loved her. Do you know how many people think she was her best friend? >> Stacey Steinman and Kim Feist actually were Jody's best friends. >> Do you remember when she nicknamed us all stupid things and her nickname was Focus. She wanted us to call her Focus. >> They grew up together in the small town of Long Prairie, Minnesota. In high school, Jody lived up to her nickname. When she helped the golf team win two state championships. >> She just doesn't fail. >> How would she say about what she wanted to achieve in life? >> She wanted to be famous. >> She knew that in high school that she wanted to be a news anchor. >> The Twin Cities metro area is among the top 20 areas in the nation in total population. >> Jody pursued her dream at St. Cloud State University with a starring role on the school's TV station. >> Jody, I'm not cloning around when I say our show has to come to a close. She was just 25 when she landed the 6 a.m. and noon anchor slots at KIMT. >> Now she was gone. Jody vanished just days before she was to be in Stacey's way. wedding party, leaving Stacy to struggle with whether to go ahead with it. A good friend of ours was a priest and we're just like, what do we do? He said, now it's a good time to keep people together. This is when we need prayer and pray for her and don't cancel the wedding. It's been 38 hours now since anyone has spoken to Jodi, who's in truth. Our news channel 3, co-anchor disappeared yesterday morning. June 28, 1995. The investigation was expanding. We had to ask for the FBI to give us some assistance. And Jodi's story was national news. Fear is growing in one Iowa farm town. Someone is missing, not a face in the crowd, but one of the most familiar faces in town. It just struck me as so, I was so sad and I was just sick and I thought this is not what we meant about being on national news. Yellow ribbons there, yellow ribbons there. Everywhere you go. All along the road. News director Doug Murbock was overwhelmed by Mason City's show of support after Jodi disappeared 23 years ago. It really gives you a boost to know that people care. They really love Jodi. She was not just a person on TV every morning, she was our friend. Somebody's got to know something to bring her home. It's now been nearly two and a half days since the person who usually sits in this chair disappeared. June 29, 1995. Investigators say they've now narrowed their focus to around a dozen people they'd like to continue questioning. The police also revealed Jodi had reported a possible stalker. Nine months before she disappeared. We did find out that Jodi did make a report of an incident that occurred when she was out jogging. How long ago was that reported? I believe that is in October of 1994. She got shook up one day when she was out hiking or jogging on a trail and a black truck had followed her. But the police never got to the bottom of that incident and Jodi never reported another one. And now Joanne Nathie was pleading on TV for her baby sister's return. I just pray that whoever has her out there, they'll just remember she's so sweet and good she'd never hurt anyone, just let her go. It's been 84 hours now, Jodi, who's intruded the 27-year-old colleague of ours disappeared three and a half days ago, she was supposed to arrive. June 30, the Fire Department has intensified its search in the Winnebago River. In case a body is floated to the surface, it's a scenario no one wants to think about. I've never personally talked with Jodi, but myself and everyone else doesn't want to find Jodi this way. July 1st, this announcement. We are now officially pressifying this as an introduction. Several neighbors have told police they heard a scream around the time Jodi disappeared, but no one had called for help. This type of white van was also seen in the parking lot that morning. I couldn't even walk outside in the dark because I was so afraid of how it happened in Jodi's parking lot. You had a police escort home. Whoever took Jodi seemed to be familiar with her schedule. Could it have been someone she knew? To find out, investigators were piecing together the last days of Jodi's life. And this man popped up on the radar by declaring he'd been the last person to see Jodi alive. They've interviewed me twice, but they haven't given me any indication I'm a suspect. Jodi's friend John Van Seiss told Robin in an interview that Jodi had visited his home the night before she was abducted. She was laughing the whole time she was there and she laughed a lot of time she laughed. How did he strike you? Way too happy and gleeful and he wanted to be interviewed. She was like a daughter to me, she was just like my own child, I treated her like my own child. So who exactly is John Van Seiss? Drilling down into that question is complicated by the passage of time, but this certainly helps. 23 years ago, days after Jodi disappeared, 48 hours was in Mason City and we spent time with the man who had put himself at the center of the case. Honestly, she's alive somewhere, I just hope she's not hurt, I hope she's okay, I hope she'd come back soon. Back in 1995, we caught up with John Van Seiss and Jodi's close friend, Anni Cruz, Docside, where we learned the three often water skied off his boat. Van Seiss certainly wasn't hiding or acting like someone under a cloud of suspicion. She wouldn't want to sit around home and cry and sob, she'd want to be out having fun because that was her. It is her. It is. Everything is. It is. She's coming back, we'll be ready for her. In the days, directly after Jodi disappears, you're speaking in present tense. She was one of my closest friends, you know, she was coming home, I really thought that. Van Seiss, who was a seed salesman, was recently divorced. He had once lived in Jodi's apartment complex, but Jodi and Anni had met him at a bar. He offered to buy us both a drink and just started talking to him and didn't know how we felt about him and then we met him again and again. Although he was 22 years older than Jodi, he became part of her inner circle. Just a bunch of people are really along fine together and have a good time. Two weeks before Jodi disappeared, Van Seiss helped Anni throw a surprise birthday party for her. That's the water skiing cake. You know, when you look at the pictures and she's smiling, she's so beautiful and happy and she's in a prime. Van, the weekend before Jodi's abduction, she and Anni were out on Van Seiss's boat. This is news channel 3's Daybreak. On Monday, Jodi was back at work for the last time. Good Monday morning, welcome to Daybreak, it's June 26th, I'm Jodi Who's in Truth. That afternoon, she played in a charity golf tournament where she complained she'd been getting some prank phone calls. She told some people this golf tournament that she was going to have to change her phone number or do something or go to please. It was later that Monday evening that Van Seiss claims Jodi came over to his home to watch a video of that surprise birthday party. We watched the tape and we chuckled and we laughed, we giggled, we hauled, we did everything so we're going to cut this portion out of the tape and got this portion out of the tape and we laugh about it. The next morning, Jodi was gone. Would Jodi Van Seiss have a reason to harm her? Anni couldn't think of any. Not a doubt, I had no question that there's no possibility in my mind that he could have ever. The police were also asking Anni what she knew. The investigators are asking you about John Van Seiss and you're saying it couldn't be John. He's our friend. For me, I'm thinking, why would you hurt somebody that brought so much joy to your life? But Robin had long suspected that Van Seiss had feelings for Jodi that weren't mutual. I truly believe that he had very strong and deep feelings for Jodi. And something he told her back then sent chills down her spine. I will name my boat after because just because she's Jodi and you can't help another woman. You just can't help a lover. When he said I named my boat after her, that's when I said, that's an obsession. I remember holding onto the microphone and just feeling so ill it is and thinking to myself, I think you might have done it. In the fall of 1995, some three months after Jodi who's in truth disappeared, her family allowed a local TV reporter inside her apartment. Well, it's definitely a little strange being in here. There were no obvious signs of a struggle. Dishes were still piled up in the sink. Had Jodi taken the time to neatly make the bed before rushing to work? Other people had been in the apartment so we don't know for sure a message she never had a chance to retrieve. John Van Seiss remained under suspicion. 48 hours has learned Jodi befriended him during what seems to have been a turbulent time in his life. There was his recent divorce and he'd been ordered to install a breathalyzer device in his van. He had a series of arrests related to drunken driving. Did John's life improve just through his connection to Jodi? Absolutely. She brought so much joy into his life. And he didn't have a lot of friends, and you know, all of a sudden, now he's kind of accepted, you know, he's hanging out with us, we're having fun. Ani Kruz says Jody thought Van Syse understood the boundaries in their relationship. She knew, she knew he had an interest, but just blew it off, you know, he's like a father to me. She made that mention quite a few times. In front of him? Yeah, yeah. But some of Jody's friends doubted he got the message. The caution to her, he said, "Jody, there's going to come a point in time when he's going to want more." When she told us he named his boat after her, we go, "That was our, like, cage Jody." This is a little much. But she didn't see it as odd. No, she laughed. I think she was, like, honored, like, "Hey, it's kind of cool." Jody's sister Joanne and other family members met John Van Syse a few days after Jody's disappearance. You were a fun-loving group. We were, we had a blast together. We just laughed and laughed and laughed. 48 hours was there as Van Syse told them about his friendship with Jody. I just love watching have fun. Jody found his demeanor again. I tried to watch over, I tried to check on it once in a while, not all the time, just once in a while, so I should get home. In my mind, there's a good chance that he is linked to Jody's case somewhere or other. What makes you say that? It's just that he was so obsessed with her. They've been going to the apartment, they've been supposed to get mine. If I had a shirt she liked, you know, I'd wear it for a while, but I'd get it to her. But Ben Syse has never been arrested, he's never been named a suspect. I know, he hasn't. It's been 23 years. I know, if he is the one, let's get the evidence. But we have to be objective, we have to have an open mind, it could be somebody we least expect. Looking back 23 years later, Annie now believes Van Syse could have harmed Jody. When you think, maybe it was John, what would his motive have been? Maybe being rebuffed. Maybe finally saying to her, "I'm not your father, I want to be your boyfriend." That's the only thing I could think of. But the thing that has always puzzled me, like why in the morning and the parking lot? Could what was in that parking lot have had something to do with it? 48 hours obtained a copy of a search warrant for Jody's 1991 Miata, and learned it was not in her name when she vanished. It reads, "This license is listed to John Lassard, the previous owner, pen and title transfer." John Lassard is a prominent businessman. He told 48 hours, "The sale that Jody was arranged by a friend who was a car salesman." The friend is since died, but his son remembers the sale. She worked hard for that. She was proud of getting that car. She was excited about it. And that car seemed to be on John Van Syse's mind. His close friend, Ladonna Woodford, claims he told her the car was a birthday gift to Jody from a boyfriend. He said, "But she doesn't like want the car. She's going to give it back to him." She never said anything about a gentleman buying it or paying for it or anything like that. So I think that's hogwash. inconceivable to you. Yeah. Lassard says the only time he met Jody was to hand her the car keys. Ani says Van Syse had a history of jealousy when it came to Jody. If we were out somewhere, if she was visiting with somebody, he would come join the conversation. Just swoop in? Pretty much, yeah. You want to make sure that everybody knew Jody was his. But Ladonna insists Van Syse had no romantic interest in Jody and no reason to hurt her. When he talked about Jody, it was like, "I'm protecting her. She's like my daughter." What if on June 26th and then into the morning of June 27th? What if John Van Syse had picked then to share with Jody that he wanted to take it to the next level? And people always ask me that question and this is what I say. He would not do it or they think he did it where she was abducted. He used to live in those apartments. Everybody knows him. Ladonna feels Van Syse has been unfairly singled out by police and the community. It's just horrible what they've done to him. He lost his best friend and it's sad. It's really sad. And Ladonna says she knows where Van Syse was the morning Jody was abducted. He was out taking a walk with her. It was their routine. As you walked through this neighborhood, did he seem anxious? Didn't seem anxious, he seemed himself. And nothing seemed unusual when she called earlier to confirm their plans. I called John six o'clock in the morning. I say, "Hey, John, are we gonna work out today?" You felt when you called him that morning that he was up there sleeping? Yeah, absolutely. We didn't have cell phones, so I know he was home. And that is why Ladonna believes she is his alibi. I called her and I talked to her. She was there. Remember, Jody's producer spoke to her at around 4-10 a.m. Ladonna believes that Van Syse, even though he lived only five minutes away, would not have had enough time to abduct Jody, possibly dispose of her body, and be home by six a.m. I know the timeframe of when I called him, when I met with him, when we walked. It's almost impossible for him to have done this. Police finally confirmed in the fall of 1995 that Van Syse had passed a polygraph test, something he'd been telling friends all along. But he remained on their radar. And soon, another man would join him. Tony Jackson is a predator. You gotta look at this guy. Drink up, baby. Van Syse's football happy hour is here to get you wins and have some laughs. Matthew Berry here and my podcast, Van Syse's football happy hour, has the sleeper's bus and start-sit advice you need to win your league. We're diving into the tape, we're crunching the numbers to bring you sleeper's bus weekly start-sit advice, whether you're defending a title or desperately avoiding last place, I've got you covered every single weekday. The bar is open. It's Van Syse's football happy hour with Matthew Berry, wherever you get your podcasts. May 4th, 1996. We're gonna head down to the river. Nearly a year after Jody disappeared. Gary, this is Annie. Annie Cruz was holding on to a sliver of hope. Follow the river. That her friend could still be found. They said 18 and 19. We hope to find any type of evidence. Ooh, yuck, any type of clues, you know, earrings, purse, anything that we can find. She let a search party through woods. Start curving back here in the rivers over here. Two miles from Jody's apartment. (Sighs) It exercise, huh? Despite Annie's efforts, nothing was found. Two and a half years after Jody vanished. Someone else, someone 140 miles away, started her own search for answers. The test potential evidence in the Jody Hughes Intrude case. Caroline Lowe was an investigative reporter at WCCO TV in Minneapolis. She started reporting on Jody while covering a terrifying crime spree in the Minneapolis St. Paul area. I covered a serial rapist who was accused of raping four women in 18 days. The rapist was this man, Tony Jackson. He was arrested in 1997 after a routine traffic stop police found in his car. The tools of his trade. He's got rope, he's got handcuffs, he's got his gun, he's got duct tape. Basically, it's a rape kit. J.O. Barrio, formerly a detective with the Woodbury Minnesota Police Department, worked the Jackson case. All the victims that we know of, there is an element of stocking. Jay explored Tony Jackson's past. He learned Jackson was living in Iowa when Jody disappeared and not just anywhere. The background investigation puts him in Mason City. Two blocks from the TV station that Jody worked at. This is where Jackson lived. This is where Jody worked. Two blocks. It was like a bolt when you see that you go, wow. This guy may be involved in Jody's case. We need to get this information down to the Mason City authorities. Caroline visited the Mason City Police three months after Jay had sent them the Jackson information. She noticed the file didn't seem to hold much interest. Woodbury Police sent Mason City a fat file about the Twin Cities race, a file that has been gathering dust. I'm going to sort of set me a copy. That was really nice. Caroline was trying to get answers to questions about Jackson's past. he was once a promising college basketball player at Iowa's Waldorf College. (crowd cheering) - He was a star basketball player. Problem is he would do well and then he would snap and he would get into violent episodes with people and he was kicked out of the college. - Then a year and a half before Jody disappeared, he enrolled at North Iowa Community College in Mason City, where he showed an interest in broadcasting. - He does a couple of talk shows. And so is it your thought that to start watching the people in town who were on TV doing the news? - Sure, he's gonna watch them. See how they go about doing their job. - The time is 6'11, 62 degrees. - Jays theory is Jackson might have watched Jody on TV, known as Schedule and even Stockter. Caroline also learned something that troubled her. - When he snapped, he snapped. - She spoke with an ex-girlfriend of Jackson's who said they broke up five days before Jody vanished. - And it was very violent. I mean, it was a totally different person. It was like the devil stepped inside of him and just took over. - I sat in the living room with this group gal and she looks a lot like Jody. It was chilling. The woman did get back together briefly with Jackson until she says his anger took another scary turn. - And she described how he had tried to choke her and they took him in the custody. - Although Jackson was arrested for that attack, the charges were ultimately dropped when the woman moved away and declined to proceed. Four months later, he would go on to commit the Minnesota rapes. The verdict is guilty on all counts for a local man accused of being a serial rapist. - Jackson was sentenced to the equivalent of life in prison. Still, Caroline kept digging into any connection to Jody's case. - I wanna get this guy as bad as the police do or you do. - She learned about a former jail maid of Jackson's. - He says I abducted an anchor woman and killed her. - The man said Jackson boasted about what he'd done in a rap song, not wanting to forget the lyrics, the jailmate wrote them down. - Yeah, he said she's a stiffened around Tiffin and pilots a silage and a by-law low below. - Thinking that might mean Jody was buried in a farm. Neurosylo in the town of Tiffin. A few hours from Mason City, Caroline headed there. She brought law enforcement. - So this would be the entry. - And cadaver dogs will work this side and meet you in the back to search for human remains. - Two of the three dogs alerted, which was a sign that something had been there. And the boards that they found there were sent to the state crime lab. - But like so often in Jody's case, the lead led nowhere. - Any forensics, Tyne Tony Jackson and Jody? - None that we know, none. - On May 5th, 1999, the Mason City police issued the following statement. After conducting a thorough investigation, which included interviews, crime laboratory analysis, records review and polygraph examination, Tony Jackson is not considered at this time a viable suspect in the investigation. - Boy, I tell ya, I've wondered about him to he's on the list. - Jody's sister Joanne can't close the book on Jackson. He's a rapist and living in the area. But the police say no, that there was no way. And I don't know though. - 48 hours wanted to ask Jackson about Jody's case, but he declined to speak with us. He would not answer specific questions, but in a rambling email, wrote, "I stand firm in my integrity, regarding the Jody who's in true case." - I'm going right now. And so the hunt for clues crawls on, with another look at John Van Seiss. - Hey John, my name's Jim Axelrod. I'm with the CBS News broadcast for eight hours. (upbeat music) (dramatic music) - John Van Seiss' friend, LaDonna Woodford, says roughly two years after Jody's disappearance, she received a visit from an FBI agent. - And he said, "I have a subpoena for you to appear at the grand jury to testify for John Van Seiss. They're trying to indict him." And I was like, "Really? Like, are you kidding me?" - LaDonna is going public with this information for the first time. - I went into the grand jury and I just told my story, what I knew. - LaDonna says she was questioned about John Van Seiss for five hours. - What do they have on John? Why did I have to go to this grand jury? Why would they turn and indict him? - Because at the end of the day, you don't think it's going to be him. - I would be shocked. - Did you ever have any contact with the FBI again after that? - Mm-hmm. - There would be no indictment of John Van Seiss. Police continued to work the case and the mystery of who abducted Jodie remained. - So yeah, it was hard. You know, they weren't solving it. We weren't finding her. - On May 14th, 2001, now six years after Jodie disappeared, she was declared legally dead. Jodie's family was forced to make the tough decision in order to settle her estate. - That's like the end of the chapter. That's like the end of the book. But you still had hope even though you know realistically, your mind is saying, you know, she's probably not coming home. - And despite the hundreds of leads, detectives generated early in the investigation, over time, tips slowed to a trickle and fewer detectives were assigned to the case. That's when in 2003, journalists, Gary Peterson and Josh Benson created the website findjodie.com. They were later joined by a team of former reporters and retired detective, J.L. Barrio. - Who's gonna consistently look for Jodie if we don't do it? She's one of ours. Their goal, to keep Jodie's story alive and to crack the case. - Did you feel they were overmatched to the Mason City Police Investigators? - I think this is a very big case. I think this is something that they were not accustomed to dealing with. - From the beginning, Ani says she was concerned with how detectives processed the crime scene. - You know, I was very surprised it was not sectioned off. - The whole area wasn't police taped off? - Not first day or so. - But there's all kinds of evidence that could have gotten compromised. - That's what I thought. - And what about Jodie's car, a key piece of evidence? - That car was the only crime scene they have. This is a case with so little evidence until they find her body, they don't have another crime scene. That car is your crime scene. - But investigators didn't hold onto that car for very long. It was released to Jodie's family just a couple of months after she disappeared. - So if the car is your crime scene, why would they give it back to the family? - I think that's a question for the police. - Was that car given back too quickly? - Maybe. - Jeff Brinkley is Mason City's fourth police chief since Jodie disappeared. - Because the evidence that could have been in that car, especially given the technological advances since then, could be important today. - Right. - But you don't have that evidence. - We don't have it. - We just have to live with what we've got and try to do as good as we can with that. - Chief Brinkley says they do have some DNA samples and then there is that pump print. But police won't tell us exactly what other evidence they have. - Is Tony Jackson still a person of interest? - I'm not gonna comment on that. - Is John Van Sey still a person of interest? - I can't comment on that. - But finejodie.com broke the news that in 2017, John Van Sey's, who currently lives in Arizona was still on police radar. The Mason City police obtained a search warrant for GPS information on two of Van Sey's vehicles. - What'd you make of that? - Very intrigued because it's the first thing we'd seen in years of any kind of official document. - The warrant is sealed, but Caroline thinks police were looking for information that could have led to Jodie's body. We surmised that they must have been trying to see if he was leading, going to visit some site that he might have buried Jodie. - That piece didn't pan out like we'd hoped. No one was coming back from out of state to check out a potential body site. - We didn't get any information that was useful. - Whatever information the police may have on anyone, they're not sharing. - Why won't you talk about any specifics in this case? I don't wanna look at it out of the bag. I think it was still. In the bag do you not completely no no, I don't think we do yet, but I think that we're very close So does that mean we're talking about weeks months? I don't think it's fast. It's not fast. I don't think it's fast 48 hours traveled to Phoenix to ask John Van Seiss what he knows about Jody's disappearance Hi John, my name's Jim Axelrod. I'm with the CBS News broadcast 48 hours. How are you? We're conducting a investigation into the disappearance of Jody who's in truth. I don't want to ask you a couple of questions John On June 5th, 2018 on what would have been Jody's 50th birthday the finejody.com team Officially unveiled four billboards around Mason City It's time to bring Jody home Until then these are the last images of Jody And friends and family hold on to when I think about her I think about how the fun we had Welcome back to news channel three day work. It is she had a lot of sunshine to many people's world 64 degrees already abundant sunshine here in Mason City We're not giving up Find Jody's not gonna go away. I am staying on this until we find Jody Somebody knows something is it you plenty of happy farmers all through I'm sure with the rain You better find the tomato plants and lawns and all that stuff. Welcome to midday. I'm Jody who's in truth If you have any information about Jody who's in truth, please call the Mason City Police Department at six four one four two one three six three six Paramount plus is your streaming home for the NFL on CBS every Sunday With the most anticipated games and football's biggest stars Sign up for Paramount plus today. See you Sunday