Inside Jodi's Apartment

The abduction of Jodi Huisentruit on June 27, 1995 occurred in the parking lot of her apartment complex, according to all available evidence.

But questions have persisted about the INSIDE of Jodi's apartment.

On this episode, FindJodi team members Caroline Lowe and Scott Fuller discuss what might be learned from Jodi's life, and abduction, from what is known about her apartment unit.

If you have any information on Jodi's case, call the Mason City Police Department at [phone] or the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) at [phone].

You can also reach us anonymously at FindJodi: (970) 458-JODI or via email at [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Before sunrise on a mild summer morningin June nineteen ninety five, a twenty
seven year old television news anchor namedJody husten Trutz hurriedly left her apartment in
Mason City, Iowa, headed forwork, but she never arrived, and

(00:26):
her disappearance has never been solved.In two thousand and three, two television
news reporters created Find Jody dot Com, a website dedicated to preserving Jody's memory
and keeping her case alive. Thisis the official Find Jody Podcast. Welcome

(00:55):
back to the Fine Jody Podcast.I'm Scott Fuller. On this episode of
the podcast will be taking a virtualjourney inside of Jody Who's Intrude's apartment complex.
The abduction of Jody Who's Intrude onJune twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five,
by all available evidence, occurred inthe parking lot outside of her apartment
complex. But over the years,and now more recently, with the airing

(01:15):
of a twenty twenty special covering Jody'scase, questions persist about the inside of
Jody's apartment, what glimpses of herlife and perhaps her disappearance can be gleaned
from where Jody lived. Find Jodyteam member Caroline Lowe joins me for that
discussion coming up next. Caroline,one of the major response points that we've

(01:44):
received at Find Jody's since the airingof the twenty twenty special. It's now
been just about a month since thataired on ABC. I think it was
interesting, a little bit surprising tome that one of the things people want
to know more about and talk moreabout is the apartment, inside of Jody's
apartment itself and what is known orwhat's not known about that. Obviously,

(02:04):
the abduction, from all evidence,happens outside the apartment, in the parking
lot very near by the front door, but inside Jody's apartment unit. Actually,
you thought it would be good torevisit that as a post in a
podcast, to tackle a bunch ofthese different things at once, So that's
what we'll do in this episode.Sure, one of the first things that
people bring up about the apartment isvideo that was shot originally by the CBS

(02:28):
affiliate in Minneapolis St. Paul,where you worked for many years, WCCO.
A reporter and a cameraman gained accessto Jody's apartment, and that video
is online. But there are acouple of very important things to know about
that fifty five seconds of video.We know it's inside of Jody's apartment.
We know it was taken relatively soonafter Jody disappeared. But it's worth noting

(02:51):
exactly when that was taken to givepeople an idea. It's not like this
video that we see online. Thatsixty second clip was taken the day after.
Exactly as you said, it's afifty five seconds of video. And
I recently spoke with a photographer whoshot the video. WCCO was given access
about September of nineteen ninety five.They were working with a PI working on
a story for WCCO that aired laterthat year, and they did get permission

(03:15):
to go in the apartment. Infact, the narration you're hearing is actually
the reporter with the key opening thedoor, walking in, describing what he's
seeing in the apartment. I thinka lot of people who have seen that
video, which was posted after theforty eight Hours show three years ago,
mistakenly thought is crime scene video.Some people think it's an investigator walking in
taking you through, to see,if you will, what an investigator saw.

(03:38):
It's not that at all. Again, it's video that was shot months
probably three months, two to threemonths after Jody was abducted, after many
people including a police, Jody's friends, family, one co worker we interviewed
some time ago, Amy Coon's mentionedthe investigators had her come in and go
through Jody's a closet trying to findout what outfit Jody was likely wearing that

(03:59):
day, what was missing from thatcloset. So number of people were in
that apartment after the police were donewith processing it, so that video has
taken a couple of months later.We have no idea how many people have
been in and out of the apartmentsince then. Obviously police, investigators,
friends and family you would assume aswell. And when you look at that
video, it is useful in certainways. Here's the layout of the apartment.

(04:21):
Here's where basically furniture was. Obviouslysee some of Jody's possessions still mostly
probably where they were. But weneed to constantly keep in mind with that
brief video, there are things thatwere there that are not there now,
and we're also probably seeing things thatare there that weren't there then. Well,
just one small example, we've heardfrom the number several people about the

(04:42):
pepsi can that you see by thesink, and joe An, Jody's sister,
said Jody didn't drink pepsi, andpresumably that can with somebody who'd been
through and had not tossed it.So things like that, I think people
tend to hyper focus, thinking againthat it's probably crime scene video, that
this is the way it looked thatmorning June twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five,
when Jodie was last there. Thatis not the case. Yeah,

(05:04):
you can't draw firm conclusions based onthat. There are other cans in the
kitchen area. There's another pepsi canyou see when police are processing the scene
on that morning in June twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five. Another example of
this is some of the officers areholding pepsi cans themselves as they're going through
the parking lot. But we don'tknow if that's evidence. We don't know

(05:25):
if they're drinking pepsi and just happento have one there exactly. I think
the significant thing police can get frombeing in the apartment initially obviously is looking
for any clues as much as here'sa whole crime occurred in the parking lot.
You look for any clues that couldtell you were there any messages,
there were there any notes? Whatis in there that might be related to
the crime and bigger picture, Thepolice do what we call victimology. You

(05:48):
try to get to know a person'slife in death. And part of what
you do there is you go throughphoto albums. You look for cards,
notes, try to piece together whothis person was. Is there anything in's
life that could be connected to whatmay have happened. Recently, I went
through copy of Jody's photo album again, and what struck me when I first
looked at the photo albums last summerwith Joanne is Jody kept so many photos

(06:12):
and she had very detailed notes onthe back of the photos. She had
dates, comments, Oh what afun time, that kind of thing that
was very much Jody. So I'mwondering what kind of things that investigators may
have gleaned from that was we talkedabout before. I was surprised in the
photo going through the photos to finda picture of a young man who was
visiting Jody. According to Jody's notesin February nineteen ninety five, just a

(06:36):
few months before she disappeared, hewas wearing a Wisconsin University of Wisconsin Stout
sweatshirt. Nothing more there about him, but he's sitting there on account's plant
in the background that we've seen somany times where Jody is at Who is
this guy? Did they learn anymore about him? Other things we learned
looking through the photo albums is oneguy is there throughout the years, and

(06:58):
that was her boyfriend, jody boyfriendin high school and college. He's the
only person we consistently see in thereappearing to be in a romantic relationship with
Jody. Again, that photograph wasin one of Jody's photo albums. It's
dated, As you mentioned, Jodytakes very detailed notes sort of on the
back of her pictures, so it'sdated February of ninety five. You mentioned
the sweatshirt UW Stout. But what'sotherwise interesting about this guy, I guess

(07:23):
is we still don't know who heis now. We've shown the picture to
several friends and nobody seems to beable to identify him. But there are
other things there. You came acrossthe message of the note regarding Jody's hair
appointment that was for that day.Maybe you can elaborate on that. Yeah,
the video as it's walked through bythe cameraman and the reporter in Jody's

(07:44):
apartment. It's focusing on things thatthey as they're walking through seem interesting to
them, like the golf clubs andsome of her athletic gear. And then
it zooms in on the phone messagethe answering machine and there's an appointment card.
And years ago I tracked down usingthat video. Actually I found the
stylist, Jodie's hairstylist who was inclear Lake and didn't want to be interviewed

(08:07):
or speak on the record, buthe did confirm that there was to be
an appointment on the twenty seventh.Later on that day and my recollection,
he told me the first he heardthat anything was wrong that day is when
Jody missed her appointment. The appointmentwe think probably would have been for the
wedding that she was going to goback home and attend that weekend. Right
she was heading up we believe,on Thursday too Long Prairie for one of

(08:28):
her best friend's weddings, so presumablyshe was getting her hair done in preparation
for being a bridesmaid. And speakingof the video, the CBS video of
the apartment in what the camera zoomsin on. At the very end of
the video, it zooms in ontoothbrushes, and there are multiple toothbrushes in
the bathroom, and the implication bythe photographer there almost seems to be this
doesn't make sense. There are multipletoothbrushes in the apartment of a woman who

(08:52):
lived alone. We have to wonderwhy they're they're what we're looking at exactly,
So what are some of the possibilitiesof those toothbrushes, because we want
to assume, obviously those are Jody'stoothbrushes, and why are there so many
of them? She lives by herself. I think this is one of those
examples where seeing something doesn't necessarily giveyou a clear answer. Were those toothbrushes?
And some people think they see twobrushes, others think they see three.

(09:15):
Were they jodies? One would expect, certainly nowadays, that they investigators
would have taken those brushes with themto test potentially for DNA saliva that kind
of thing. So we don't knowif they're jodies. And now I've talked
to other friends at Jody's who saidthat she was very conscientious about her oral
hygiene, that she was not unusualfor her to have toothbrushes. Hard to
know. Could have been somebody visiting. Could there have just been a couple

(09:39):
there for guests. We just don'tknow. But I think it's so tempting
to jump in again thinking this isthe crime scene, this is what Jody
had that morning. We don't know. And they may be Jody's toothbrushes,
and they may not have been takenas evidence. That's possible. If they're
not Jody's toothbrushes, who else couldthey belong to? And one maybe possibility
is in those months after Jody disappeared, there's the you know, there's the

(10:03):
looking for her, and then she'sgot an apartment full of possessions too,
So friends and family would have beendown to the apartment from the Socks Center
area of Minnesota. It's a fourhour drive, so maybe that was an
overnight trip. That's a possibility toright in front of you as video.
It's like here she had three two, three toothbrushes. We can't even take
that for granted in this case exactly. Or there's also the possibility she had

(10:26):
two and one that she used asa travel brush. I know I've done
that one that I take for overnightsand I keep it there, So really
should not overly zero in on whatthat means, because we don't know.
Since the twenty twenty episode a monthago, especially because it's mentioned there again
in the episode. It's been broughtup a lot. Investigators say Jody's toilet
seat in the bathroom of her apartmentwas in the up position when police entered

(10:50):
the apartment or was found up byinvestigators. This was first revealed by Frank
Stearns, who's now retired Mason CityPolice Department, who made that claim for
the first time to my knowledge,in two thousand and nine on an episode
of the Disappeared series, and it'sbeen very well mentioned, very often mentioned
in Jody's case since then, becauseof the obvious inference there that a raised

(11:13):
toilet seat must mean that a manwas very recently in the apartment. And
you and I have talked in episodespast about other possibilities for that, possibly
Jody being sick, possibly Jody cleaningthe toilet less likely to me, but
also somebody after Jody disappears, maybean officer, somebody raising the seat and
leaving it up, and a differentinvestigator finds it up. It's really kind

(11:37):
of a mystery to me why itfinally came out. You know, a
lot of information has kind of dribbledout over the years, but it's not
something that came out in the firstfourteen years. It was fourteen years after
Jody disappeared before a Mason City investigatorpublicly put that information out there. What
we don't know is if they dustedthe toilet seat for prince. Presumably if
a caught retension, they would havedone something like that. We don't know

(12:00):
if they took the toilet seat offto do more testing. It's one of
those things that they The investigator mentionedit. I was mentioned again in the
recent special, but we don't knowwhat happened with it, just as there
was also a couple of wineglasses mentionedthat were in Jody's sink. We don't
know if they were tested. Evenin the twenty twenty special. I believe
the investigators said they don't know ifthey were from two different days. Jody's

(12:22):
sister said she wouldn't be surprised ifJody wasn't using them to drink water,
if she'd used up her other glasses. But that's certainly something that intriguing doesn't
mean she had company. We alsohad a quote years ago from a police
chief at the time saying there wasno indications she had had anybody at the
time. So granted, things sometimeschange over the years, so what the
police chief and investigators might have saidin those first few days certainly could change

(12:45):
as they get more information. Butit's another one of those kind of intriguing
clues that may or may not meananything. Another thought I had when watching
the twenty twenty special on the wineglassesis investigator per Haska of Mason City Police's
currently the lead on the case forthe agency down there. He says for
the first time confirming beer cans andwineglasses in the sink, which had been

(13:07):
long rumored but never really officially official, and that he does say, as
you mentioned, we don't know ifJody drank from them on that night or
on different nights. And this mightbe an overread on my part, but
I thought, wait a minute,does that mean they know that she drank
out of both of them? Butwell, I would hope that they would
have explained that a little more clearly, which they did not, because we

(13:28):
do know from day one that practicallythat they told us that there was a
partial pompret taken from the car.Why not if they did obtain something,
why not say that versus we foundthese Or is it because they weren't tested
back then? It's hard to sayhow processed it was. Again, the
focus was on downstairs, its outsidein the parking lot, twelve feet from
Jody's building. That's where everything pointedin terms of a crime occurring. At

(13:50):
the same time, another investigator mentionedon a podcast a few months ago,
someone not related to this case,said he would have hoped that they would
have dusted Jody's door in case somebodymight have gone up and listened in her
to her door. Did they dustthe door, did they dust any walls,
anything in the hallway that somebody mighthave touched. But in all these
questions that we got about the apartment, I went back for the first time

(14:13):
in a while and looked at thatfifty five second video, and it's amazing
how you can look at things whoknows how many times and miss certain things.
For example, there are in Jody'sliving room area there are picture frames
that are empty of pictures. Itlooks like you can't really see anything in
high depth. Certainly in that videofor ninety five, but to me it
looks like they're newly bought picture frames, and Jody would have had an idea

(14:35):
if she put them there, whatshe wanted to put in those new frames.
But there are no images in theframes. There's no photos in the
frames, which certainly seemed like somebodywho was still decorating. I mean,
at the same time, we knewfrom her journals she was hoping to get
out of there when her contract expiredin the fall. She was hoping to
move to a bigger market. Atthe same time, we saw these frames

(14:56):
still with the sort sticker on them, indication she planned to put probably plan
to put something in there. Andthe other thing I noticed from that video
and watching it again, the videois shot in such a way where it's
not a seamless walk through their differentcuts to different rooms. But I realized
that the phone, the telephone thatzoomed in on next to the hat rack,
is not next to Jody's bed.And maybe because of the TV reenactments

(15:20):
over the years and how Amy Koonshas told her story about waking Jody up
and we've all kind of half sleepilyreached over and answered the phone. The
phone is not in Jody's bedroom,at least the phone that's on the video
of the phone, I believe isby the front door, next to the
hat rack on a white credenza,which is where the answering machine is.

(15:41):
But it's most definitely not in herbedroom. We don't know from the video
quite enough of Jody's bedroom to sayshe didn't have a second extension in her
bedroom. Can't quite rule that out. But the phone that's on the video
anyway, is by the front door. And you and I've seen that video
probably a hundreds and it just neveroccurred to me that the phone wasn't in

(16:03):
the bedroom. What that means,if anything, who knows, could very
well just be nothing. But it'sa great reminder in this case, especially
of the material that is out there. You know, you look at things
differently, or maybe it's right therein plain sight, you know, the
whole time. I mean, youdon't realize it just because of your assumptions.
The thing that the photographer and thereporter who's since passed away told me
what stood out about the apartment tothem, and granted this was probably about

(16:26):
September nineteen ninety five, is hownormal. It looked. It just looked
like a young woman maybe going towork that day. Just looking around at
a young, a very active woman, seeing the golf clubs, her clothing.
That was how normal it all felt. And to think that this was
somebody who was at the center ofthis very disturbing mystery that's still unsolved and
was twenty seven years later. AndI think we've mentioned before Amy Cohon's,

(16:48):
for example, was brought in bypolice to say what's missing in an effort
to maybe see what Jody was wearing. And you raise a great point about
what Jody might have been wearing thatmorning. Because she has red high heels
are found in the parking lot,it's probably not going to be a bright
green top and then so maybe ared outfit something like that. Also from
the video, you see this isan aspiring news anchor who has a big

(17:11):
wardrobe, a ton of hats,but she's got this very small space to
live in. It underlined for methis was a stepping stone for her.
This was a temporary situation. Shewas hoping to move on to a bigger
market. One of the other thingsthat appeared to be missing we didn't see
in the video, and we don'tknow if to this day, if they've
located. Is that Annie Cruise,Jody's good friend, told me that Jody

(17:33):
had two phone books, a newerone and an older one, And when
investigators met with Annie, they hadthe old one that they had retrieved from
the apartment at the same place wherethey also retrieved Jody's journal, And to
this day we don't know if theyever were able to find that new one.
And Annie was only aware that therewas a newer one because she had
seen it when they had gone onthe water skiing trip that weekend right before

(17:55):
Jody disappeared. So where is thatother phone book? When you say phone
booking address like contact address book exactly, address books just personal wanted. But
the address books are always so keyin terms of investigators going through again the
victims, anybody they knew, anypeople they might want to talk to.
And as they said, Annie saidshe was struck by no, this is
not the phone book that she sawJody had in her possession as they were

(18:18):
going on the water ski trip.And some of the items in the apartment
that aren't in the video, obviouslywe're taken by police, and we know
one of those was the journal sortof along the lines of seeing things a
hundred times and not realizing it.But this is actually outside the apartment.
But as police are processing scene andthe newspaper photographer for the Globe Gazette is
across the street taking pictures, inthe background, you can see a fence

(18:41):
that's on the west side of theproperty, up against the adjacent campground right
next to the apartment complex. Andin the photo it looks like the fence
isn't in the process of being painted. Half of it appears to be one
color and half of it appears tobe a different color. Is a very
minor detail. We've been trying toanswer the question who has access to Jody,

(19:02):
and part of that are people thathave business being at the key apartments
who don't live there exactly. Andpresumably investigators contacted anybody who was a regular
maintenance worker, but you know,it could be somebody who maybe was brought
in to do a day job orsomething. We just don't know, and
maybe that person could have made anobserved Jody. I know when you and
I were down in Mason City thisfall, we spent quite a bit of

(19:25):
time at the apartment complex, andremember ourselves observing a maintenance worker who was
just in for a specific assignment,and he came up and approached us.
He was looking for the manager ofthe building. And that really reinforced to
me, who is this person?Could there be a person like that back
then, who at some point inthe weeks leading up to days leading up
to Jody's disappearance, had observed her, knew the building, knew how to

(19:47):
get access. Remember the building wasnot locked. Could it be somebody like
that who's never been on the radar. And I don't think until we know
whatever evidence is out there, untilsomebody's charge, I don't know how we
can not rule out that as apossibility. If a white for a kind
of line van type van is involved, as Randy Linderman says he saw at
about that time on that morning,that could go on line with a contractor

(20:08):
or a company truck something like that. Also, a Building B resident who's
now deceased, Vick Koenigsberg, hassaid that he came home about three o'clock
in the morning of the twenty seventh. He had odd hours as a railroad
worker, and he had a noteunder his door in Building B that they
were going to do work on hisfurnace filter. They're going to change his

(20:30):
furnace filter. So, and thatwould have been on Tuesday or Wednesday,
according to Vick Koenigsberg. So it'san apartment complex. There's maintenance that has
to be done year round on apretty regular basis, and to pinpoint that
work being done twenty seven years lateris pretty difficult for us now exactly.
And we've talked before about the apartmentcomplexes there tends to be kind of an
anonymity, whether it's residents not knowingeach other, as well as well as

(20:53):
people coming and going that might haveworked on the place. And I don't
you have to wonder if there's anypossibility somebody like that could have anything to
do with what happened to Jodi,aside from things like the diary that police
took in probably your obvious things.But when you think of inside the apartment,
what does it mean to you interms of importance in the case or
any possibilities that you'd want to share. I think we won't know the importance

(21:15):
of what we've seen until we knowwhat happened. You can look at things,
they might be meaningful, they mightbe irrelevant. But it's really hard
to know what any of it means. And I think it's really important for
anybody looking at that specific video thefifty five seconds to know it's captured somewhat
Jodie her lifestyle, but it certainlywas not the complete picture. And remember

(21:36):
that was not crime scene video.This was TV news video from WCCO in
Minneapolis, probably three months later.In terms of somebody being in her apartment.
Aside from the toilet seat, andaside from whatever inferences people want to
draw from toothbrushes or whatever's in thatvideo, that was two months after the
fact, there's no indication that Jodyhad a guest of any kind that night

(21:56):
exactly. One of the things that'scome up from time to time is the
fact that Jody's bedspread was pulled up, and some people have taken that to
mean that Jody's bed was made inthe morning, and why would she make
her bed in the morning. Ijust want to reinforce from talking to Rose
Tobin, her apartment manager, andothers, that there's no indication Jody totally

(22:17):
made the bed. It was probablythe covers pulled up as she's running out
the door, and I don't findthat unusual. Some people have found it
like, why would she take thetime if she's running late to do that.
I don't find it unusual at allto think, you know, it's
myself running late, that i'd pullthe covers up just because I do that
before I go to work, soI wouldn't read into that. But many
people have done that. I thinkit's something significant. Another item from the

(22:40):
video that I noticed was the golfclubs being by the front door, by
the credenza, by the telephone,and Jody had just used those golf clubs
obviously earlier in the day, Andthat only stuck out to me because I'm
an avid golfer, or try tobe, and during once my clubs are
in my car for the summer,I try to keep in there because you
never know when you might be ableto sneak off and you don't have to
haul them around. But we don'teven know if Jody removed them from the

(23:03):
trunk that day. Have always wonderedif she took the time when she came
home from the golf tournament to changeclothes, came home the first time before
she went to the social event atthe country club, if she would have
taken the time to open the trunkand bring her clubs inside, and the
video might answer that question. Butyou pointed out to me that maybe the
clubs were taken from the car afterit was taken as evidence by police,
and they were put back in theapartments of the family could have access to

(23:26):
them later on exactly. And wealso don't know exactly how many months after
Jody was abducted that her car wasreturned to her family. One of Jody's
friend's moms drove the car back infacts. He said she had to drive
it all the way back to LongPrairie without the key because it kept the
key, as you remember, thebent key for evidence, so she had
to go all the way to LongPrairie. I would think that they very

(23:48):
possibly took the golf clubs out andleft him in the apartment, but again
we don't know. So when itcomes to that video, it's tough to
trust because there's missing items that policewould have taken their in that video that
we're not there on June twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five. We know that
for sure, and I think whatwe want to get across when it comes
to the toilet seat potentially very importantwhen it comes to the beer cans and

(24:10):
the wine glasses. You know,we only know about these things what police
have said. And when you lookat that video, this is not a
detective filming the scene. This istaken by media months afterwards. Right.
I think the main thing you getis a little bit of a glimpse into
a young woman's apartment. This iswhere Jody was. These were her clothes,
these were her golf clubs, somevery basic things. But beyond that,

(24:32):
I don't think you can make anymore safely make any more assumptions that
they mean anything or have anything todo with what happened to her. And
we welcome your thoughts and opinions andfeedback on this. In every podcast episode.
We'll post the email address for thewhole team in the show notes for
this episode. Just hope someday wehave the answers, and it will be
interesting to go back and look atthe video again when we do know what

(24:52):
actually happened, and if there's anythingyou see in the video that said has
anything to do with what happened toJody. Find Jody as a nonprofit run

(25:15):
by volunteers with a mission of keepingJody's unsolved case in the spotlight. Anyone
with information about Jody's case can reachout to the Mason City Police Departments.
Information can also be provided to theIowa Department of Criminal Investigations. You can
also contact find Jodi anonymously if youprefer don't sit in silence. The time

(25:37):
to talk is now for the entireFinds Jodi team. I'm Scott Ford.
Thank you for listening.