The Megyn Kelly Show - Mysterious Disappearance of TV News Anchor Jodi Huisentruit 30 Years Ago - Crime Week Continues ｜ Ep. 1220

00:00:00.440 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

00:00:12.140 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and Crime Week, because nothing says Christmas like true crime.

00:00:19.920 The disappearance of Iowa news anchor Jody Husentrout has remained one of the nation's most haunting, unsolved cases for more than 30 years.

00:00:28.340 This happened just a few years before I got into news, and I remember finding this whole thing just so awful, so chilling.

00:00:35.520 She was just a couple of years older than I was, and she seemingly disappeared into thin air.

00:00:41.080 In the early morning hours of June 27th, 1995, think of where you were.

00:00:46.440 I was graduating from law school, and she was making her name in news.

00:00:49.780 She was running late for her early morning shift at KIMT-TV when she vanished from the parking lot of her apartment complex.

00:00:58.120 Her belongings, left scattered near her car, suggested an abduction.

00:01:03.100 No other trace of her has ever been found.

00:01:06.760 It's a case that has captivated the public and inspired many to continue following the tragic mystery, even some 30 years later.

00:01:14.280 There's an active Facebook page and community run by Jody's family.

00:01:19.440 It's facebook.com slash hope4, the numeral 4, Jody, J-O-D-I.

00:01:26.080 There's a website, findjody.com, run by journalists who continue to share her story.

00:01:32.540 You can find information about the disappearance and leave tips.

00:01:35.000 And another person who has spent years examining this case is private investigator Steve Ridge.

00:01:42.140 He's a persistent voice pushing for answers, and he joins me next.

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00:02:54.760 Steve, thank you so much for being here.

00:02:56.200 It's good to be with you, Megan.

00:02:57.420 Thanks for having me.

00:02:59.160 So tell us a little bit about Jodi, who she was.

00:03:02.360 This happened to her when she was in Iowa, but where was she from?

00:03:04.840 What was she like?

00:03:05.620 Well, she was from Minnesota, but she had an incredible amount of natural talent that manifested itself in a relatively short period of time.

00:03:16.060 She began as an intern in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she was for about a year.

00:03:21.060 And then she returned to Alexandria, Minnesota to work at a local TV station there.

00:03:28.580 And then eventually my company helped relocate her to Mason City, K-I-M-T, where we were coaching her on air ability and trying to eliminate some of that Minnesotan accent, if you will, to make her appeal broader. 0.92

00:03:46.340 So what role were you in at the time?

00:03:49.680 What?

00:03:49.880 What?

00:03:50.120 What?

00:03:50.360 I'm sorry.

00:03:51.520 What was your job at the time?

00:03:52.860 Oh, OK.

00:03:53.140 At that time, I was actually running Frank Maggett Associates, which was the largest media research and consulting firm in the United States.

00:04:02.940 And I was with that company for 37 years.

00:04:06.500 I knew of the case of Jody the whole time, but until I semi-retired, I was not in a position really to actively investigate this full time.

00:04:19.760 So she sent the resume tape in.

00:04:22.200 You saw the resume tape and decided, does this person have a future here?

00:04:27.220 And the answer in Iowa was, yeah, this is a good place for her right now.

00:04:31.420 Absolutely.

00:04:32.680 And so her resume tape was very good for the limited amount of experience that she had.

00:04:39.480 And I later came across that same resume tape when I was moving some materials.

00:04:45.740 I still have it on the shelf over here, which I keep as a reminder.

00:04:51.100 It's got her little business card on it, you know, with her name.

00:04:54.340 And as you know, early in television, I mean, you do your own editing.

00:04:59.040 I mean, you edit your own highlights.

00:05:01.940 And so sure enough, I mean, she had edited that tape and I still had it when I began digging into the case.

00:05:10.560 So I did share it with the Mason City Police Department and eventually the FBI and state police.

00:05:17.500 So she's up and coming.

00:05:18.820 She's young.

00:05:19.740 She's making it.

00:05:20.660 She's paying her dues, as most reporters do, going to the smaller markets.

00:05:23.600 And you hope to work your way up.

00:05:25.400 And she was doing well.

00:05:26.600 She was the morning news anchor, 6 a.m. show.

00:05:30.280 And one day she was supposed to go in for her early morning show.

00:05:35.240 And she normally got to the newsroom around 3 a.m., which is standard for people who are doing the first thing in the morning, that shift.

00:05:43.340 And she didn't she wasn't there by 4 a.m.

00:05:46.900 And one of her colleagues called her apartment and she did answer.

00:05:50.740 She was home.

00:05:51.800 She had overslept.

00:05:52.780 She's like, I'll be right there.

00:05:54.040 And that, as far as we know, that other than her abductor, that was the last person to ever speak with Jody.

00:06:00.600 That's right.

00:06:01.600 That's exactly right.

00:06:03.460 So what happened?

00:06:04.220 She didn't show up in the newsroom.

00:06:05.840 She said, I'll be right there.

00:06:07.020 She leaves at 4 a.m.

00:06:08.300 Or she gets called at 4 a.m., but she doesn't show up.

00:06:10.280 And then they sent somebody back to go check on her.

00:06:12.980 And it wasn't until around 7, my understanding is, that they got there.

00:06:17.200 And that's when they found this chaotic scene outside of her apartment building?

00:06:21.100 Well, that's right.

00:06:21.940 I mean, obviously, this abduction happened about 4.30, and they really weren't on the scene until closer to 7.30.

00:06:29.800 The fact of the matter is, I am now 100% convinced that Jody actually had an overnight guest.

00:06:37.400 And there's been a lot of speculation about that.

00:06:40.020 And I don't want to cast any aspersions here because it was, I think, a very innocent invitation.

00:06:47.680 She lived up a high flight of stairs on a second floor. 0.99

00:06:51.540 And I'm certain that she was entertaining her guests with drinks.

00:06:55.400 It would have been after 10 o'clock at night.

00:06:58.300 And I'm sure she simply offered the couch, which she did have at the ready there for that gentleman to spend the night.

00:07:06.240 And then I can quickly tell you that I believe what happened is her phone rang around 4 o'clock, and it awakened them both.

00:07:15.400 I think she went into the restroom, and after going to the bathroom, I think she got in the shower. 0.99

00:07:22.220 I think the guest went in the bathroom and raised the toilet seat, which is the way it was left, used the toilet, and then headed down to the parking lot.

00:07:33.340 So you think he used the toilet and then left?

00:07:36.780 Because there was evidence from the beginning that there were two wine glasses on her counter, like next to each other, and there was a fair amount of food in the apartment, and the toilet seat was up.

00:07:47.420 So there's been speculation over the years about whether there had been somebody staying overnight.

00:07:52.180 But her bed was made.

00:07:53.840 I mean, she could have just made her bed in the morning like many people do.

00:07:56.940 Do we have a theory of who that was, Steve?

00:08:00.500 Well, actually, I do.

00:08:02.120 I think it's one of two people, neither of whom have taken a lie detector test, and neither of whom have come clean.

00:08:13.060 And there are some reasons why they might not want to have that information be known.

00:08:18.460 But I think at this juncture, they have an obligation really to help solve this crime, because I think that what happened is they went down to the parking lot to scurry out of there.

00:08:32.020 And by the way, when this individual got in their little sports car and drove out of the parking lot, they nearly hit an early morning jogger who reported the whole incident.

00:08:42.000 And I think what happened was they went down to the parking lot, and there was a gentleman waiting down there that exchanged words with this individual and told them basically to get the hell out of here and don't ever come back.

00:08:53.800 And you think that individual is the one who took Jody?

00:08:57.100 You're not suggesting the person who hurt Jody is the person who was in her apartment that night?

00:09:02.520 That's correct.

00:09:03.160 I am, you know, I'm just more than certain of it.

00:09:07.200 And I've confirmed this with so many angles and little minute distinction of information that I think it's so crystal clear now that I actually think, you know, if I could work with somebody like you, I think we could have a circumstantial case built and ready to go in short order.

00:09:25.840 But that's not going to happen in Mesa City, Iowa.

00:09:28.440 Wait, you have a circumstantial case that she had a man in the apartment that night or that you know who the killer is?

00:09:34.580 That I know who the killer is.

00:09:36.720 Yes.

00:09:37.620 Oh, well, that's bigger than knowing who the man is.

00:09:39.660 All right.

00:09:39.820 Hold on, because we're definitely going to get to that.

00:09:41.500 OK.

00:09:41.920 Did she she was dating, dating, seeing friends with John?

00:09:47.560 Is it Van Syce?

00:09:49.700 That's correct.

00:09:50.340 John Van Syce was a very affable cornseed salesman, 22 years older than Jody, who moved to town.

00:10:00.080 He ordered he owned a water ski boat.

00:10:04.480 He loved to drink in the bars and celebrate and buy drinks for all the all Jody and her friends.

00:10:11.220 And they met fairly early on after he was divorced and moved to town and they hung out a lot together.

00:10:18.500 And it was very innocent for the most part.

00:10:20.780 I mean, Jody had no interest in him, really.

00:10:25.280 And but she enjoyed being with him.

00:10:28.180 He was fun.

00:10:29.440 He was entertaining.

00:10:30.860 And he bought all the drinks.

00:10:32.360 The there's a documentary out about Jody's case on Hulu right now.

00:10:38.460 It's called Her Last Broadcast, the abduction of Jody, who's in truth.

00:10:43.580 And they talk about John and how police did, of course, consider him as a possible person of interest when this thing first broke.

00:10:53.100 Here's a little of that from the documentary in SOT 54.

00:10:58.240 Detectives approached this man.

00:10:59.600 His name is John Van Syce.

00:11:00.780 He just throws out there that he has this videotape of a birthday party.

00:11:05.420 And I know that the officers that initially were confused, they wrote about this.

00:11:10.060 What does that have to do with anything?

00:11:11.460 What videotape?

00:11:12.580 He says, I am friends with Jody and I was just with her last night watching a videotape.

00:11:17.540 This is the first encounter we really had with anybody that knew Jody other than her own employees at work.

00:11:22.960 But John Van Syce consistently denied involvement.

00:11:25.960 He died last December and he took polygraph tests prior to his death, which I presume led nowhere because he was never arrested.

00:11:37.220 Has he been ruled out?

00:11:39.380 I mean, obviously, he's deceased now, but was he ruled out?

00:11:41.900 Well, he wasn't.

00:11:43.240 Because he was in her life.

00:11:45.080 He definitely seemed like he was into her.

00:11:48.060 Here's a bit more on John from the documentary.

00:11:50.300 Again, this is on Hulu and it's called Her Last Broadcast, the abduction of Jody, who's in truth.

00:11:56.440 John Van Syce has always been considered a person of interest in this case because she is, like, super close to John.

00:12:04.720 She's been such a big part of my life here lately and she just makes me feel so good and feel great about things.

00:12:11.800 That's Jody. 0.84

00:12:12.960 You can't help but love that woman.

00:12:14.500 You just can't help but love her.

00:12:16.280 I thought it was very odd and so did a lot of other people that he spent so much time with Jody and he was so much older than her.

00:12:23.060 Do you know, are you prepared to reveal the identity of the man who was in her apartment overnight, the one who drove away in a sports car?

00:12:29.760 Well, because it's two individuals, I think it's important that I not name either one of them.

00:12:35.680 But they are both people who she knew very well, had gotten to know, and had been friends with.

00:12:42.740 So it would have been very logical and appropriate for them to have possibly had drinks in her apartment and then for him to be awakened suddenly at four o'clock and then depart.

00:12:54.760 So you're saying when you say because it's two individuals, do you mean two individuals who might have been there or what do you mean?

00:13:00.540 I mean, it's one of two, okay?

00:13:02.560 So pinpointing which one was there, while important, is less important than the fact that whichever one it was, when they descended those stairs and went into the parking lot, there was a gentleman waiting to confront her.

00:13:18.700 And I'm quite confident that I know who that was.

00:13:22.140 Who?

00:13:22.240 Well, I had narrowed it down originally to four people, and then I had narrowed it to two people.

00:13:32.960 And now I believe that I've eliminated that second person, but I'm not prepared to name names today.

00:13:41.980 I'm sharing way more with you than has ever been shared publicly, but I'm very confident that I know who her abductor was at this point.

00:13:52.240 If I give you four names, will you tell me whether it's one of them?

00:13:57.100 Well, you can try.

00:14:00.980 Okay.

00:14:01.700 The four names I'm going to throw out there are John Vencees, Tony Jackson, Christopher Rivack, and Brad Miller-Burned.

00:14:09.140 Yes, I can tell you that I would eliminate three of those for sure, but you are not listing some of the names that were in my final four.

00:14:23.560 Only one, John Vencees, was in my final four.

00:14:27.900 So those other names, while interesting, and there's some reason for them to have been suspected, just don't, they were not involved.

00:14:38.660 And Tony Jackson, I know very well.

00:14:41.960 I've been to see him in prison multiple times.

00:14:44.720 I've been up and down, you know, through the whole thing.

00:14:47.460 I'm convinced he was not, even though he's a three-time convicted rapist, he was not responsible for Jody's demise.

00:14:57.640 Three-time convicted rapist who lived just two blocks away from Jody's apartment.

00:15:03.560 No charges ever resulted against him, but obviously convicted rapist living two blocks away would have to be on the short list of people they'd look at.

00:15:12.080 So you're saying you don't, that was a dead lead, Tony Jackson went nowhere.

00:15:17.140 This Christopher Rivack was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the March 2007 killing, so two years later, well, sorry, 12 years later, of Renee Williams, a 36-year-old mother of three.

00:15:31.240 Rivack died by suicide in a Missouri jail cell in 2009, the day after he was, the charges were filed against him.

00:15:39.960 And he had a girlfriend who once lived very close to Jody's apartment in a unit reportedly shared with John Van Cease.

00:15:49.560 So this guy's got a girlfriend who lives right by Jody, and he was charged with second-degree murder of a 36-year-old woman, and then he killed himself when he got arrested.

00:15:59.840 But you don't think it's him?

00:16:02.040 No, I pretty conclusively have ruled him out.

00:16:05.620 All right, now the man you said you've, he was not on your list either, is this Brad Miller burned.

00:16:12.360 And the documentary on Hulu spends a fair amount of time on this guy.

00:16:16.180 They talk to Brad's ex-wife, who's not a fan, and her name is Patty Niemeyer, and she called the cops on her ex-husband Brad,

00:16:26.300 whom she married in a mass ceremony at the Mall of America, which is never a good sign for a lasting marriage.

00:16:34.140 And indeed, their marriage didn't work.

00:16:36.180 But here she is in a soundbite from the doc, Sot 55.

00:16:40.060 Brad always talked about Jody.

00:16:42.320 He always would ask, what's she doing, where she's at?

00:16:45.140 Why do you always care where she's at?

00:16:47.160 That always bothered me.

00:16:48.220 But I guess I was naive, and I'm like, oh, it's nothing.

00:16:52.940 When you look at these, what do you see?

00:17:00.620 I see red and lumber.

00:17:03.280 Like, that couldn't be a more perfect sketch.

00:17:06.040 That is, that is...

00:17:07.220 She's sewing a composite sketch of the alleged perpetrator outside of Jody's apartment that day

00:17:13.420 to Brad's ex-wife, and she's saying it looks like Brad.

00:17:17.200 But Brad, he's revealed as a new person of interest in the documentary,

00:17:23.480 saying two different witnesses reported seeing a man acting, quote,

00:17:27.020 strangely near her apartment complex in the early hours before her disappearance.

00:17:30.720 And based on their descriptions, law enforcement created a composite sketch that does resemble him.

00:17:35.480 He also reportedly owned a white Ford Econoline van, similar to the one witnesses say they saw

00:17:43.780 near Jody's apartment building around the time she disappeared.

00:17:47.400 That does dovetail with your own reporting that while maybe the person,

00:17:51.360 the man who may have been in her apartment with her, left in a small sports car,

00:17:54.640 there was some sort of an interaction with a guy who was in the parking lot driving a van,

00:17:58.620 a light-colored van.

00:18:00.320 That's correct.

00:18:01.120 And in fact, one other new nuance that I will share with you today is only recently,

00:18:07.440 in recent days, I have interviewed at length a young woman who at the time was in her teens

00:18:16.560 who lived in the apartment building adjacent to Jody's.

00:18:21.140 And she and several of her apartment dwellers on the same hall heard a very loud noise,

00:18:27.780 probably a scream, in the parking lot.

00:18:30.880 And they came out into the hall and went to the end of the hall where a window overlooked the parking area.

00:18:38.300 And they debated, based on the loud noise they heard, calling the police.

00:18:44.420 And this was at 4.30.

00:18:45.860 If they'd called the police, this thing would have been solved.

00:18:49.960 They didn't.

00:18:50.780 They went back to bed.

00:18:53.440 And interestingly, this woman tells me that the following morning when she went out to retrieve her car,

00:19:00.900 that her car was parked perpendicular, directly across from Jody's car,

00:19:07.060 and that a police officer on the scene told her, in no uncertain terms,

00:19:12.920 that Jody put up a very good fight,

00:19:15.560 that she was able to escape her attacker briefly and weave between the vehicles that were parked in that lot.

00:19:22.620 And it eventually was overcome and subdued.

00:19:25.600 And that's different from the official story, right?

00:19:29.140 Isn't the official story that she was grabbed and subdued immediately upon getting to her car?

00:19:34.300 Yeah, that's what's been left out there.

00:19:36.680 But I guess that's why you always keep digging.

00:19:40.020 You know, Mason City is a town of 27,000 people.

00:19:43.780 It's a small, you know, all-American town, you know,

00:19:49.160 but it had a very, very dark underbelly, which was all the drug dealing,

00:19:54.980 a lot of drug dealing of marijuana and cocaine.

00:20:00.300 And eventually, it was where Dustin Honkin,

00:20:04.080 one of two mass murderers who murdered victims in the area who had information on his drug dealing,

00:20:13.200 he perfected meth so well that the government wasn't able to duplicate the high quality of that meth,

00:20:20.540 and the government nicknamed it the rocket.

00:20:24.200 So, but do you think that the drug scene and crime scene had something to do with her abduction and presumed death?

00:20:33.440 I don't directly, although I will say that I think there's one other mysterious component,

00:20:39.780 and that is a very good friend of hers, Billy Pruin, a farmer who was,

00:20:46.020 I believe he was murdered three months before she went missing.

00:20:50.220 Originally, they said it was a suicide, then they re-characterized it or reclassified it as undetermined.

00:20:56.440 And I think the fact of the matter is, it's pretty likely was a murder, and it could have been drug-related.

00:21:04.800 So, here's what I would say.

00:21:06.680 I think there were people in the satellite or the orbit around Jody who were involved in drugs,

00:21:15.500 and that's in no way to suggest that she was or had any interest.

00:21:19.140 I mean, she, God love her, she loved her beer, and she could hold quite a bit,

00:21:24.900 but I don't think that she was ever into drugs.

00:21:29.520 In my experience, having known a lot of on-air people, if you are into drugs, it will come out sooner or later.

00:21:38.100 It is very hard to maintain a drug addiction and be an on-air person.

00:21:42.420 It's hard to do it with alcohol, too.

00:21:44.140 So, I don't know.

00:21:45.020 There was absolutely not a hint of that in her case.

00:21:47.620 So, are you suggesting, then, that, well, let me ask it this way.

00:21:54.420 Do you believe that her abductor knew her?

00:21:57.820 Yes, absolutely.

00:21:59.160 Yep.

00:21:59.900 And she knew her abductor?

00:22:01.320 Absolutely.

00:22:01.980 And the two people that I had narrowed it down to both knew her as well.

00:22:06.220 In fact, all four of them knew her.

00:22:08.040 So, without a doubt, the person who abducted her was somebody she knew well.

00:22:15.100 So, this wasn't a stalker-type situation.

00:22:17.620 Sadly, I've had this in my own life where a viewer develops a very bizarre and dangerous fixation with you and thinks you're in a romantic relationship when you're not.

00:22:29.200 They can become obsessed.

00:22:30.300 It can turn very dangerous.

00:22:32.560 Then that was considered here.

00:22:33.980 But you're saying that that was not, in your view, what happened here.

00:22:36.420 Not a stranger, but I think, just splitting hairs a little bit there, I do think it was somebody that was more than infatuated with her.

00:22:45.800 I think this person genuinely was in love with her and would have liked to have made a life with her.

00:22:51.240 It just wasn't in the cards.

00:22:52.880 So, if that's the case, you're reporting that she was in her apartment with another man, someone other than this person, the night before she was murdered, may provide a motive.

00:23:06.020 Absolutely.

00:23:06.940 I mean, to me, it's kind of an open-and-shut case.

00:23:10.620 And I hate to say it that way, but, you know, I've had seven years to work on this.

00:23:14.860 I have 190 files behind me here on the case.

00:23:18.160 I've interviewed now over 1,000 people, and every little piece, I mean, you know this as an attorney and as a journalist, that every little piece of the puzzle can be kept, and you keep trying to refit it and put it together, and eventually you get a mosaic that makes a lot of sense.

00:23:38.000 And, I mean, I feel like I have this thing so nailed that I don't know what else to do.

00:23:44.500 I want to back up a little bit because, you know, the audience is still a little lost on exactly how this went down.

00:23:50.660 You, in the documentary, which we're going to rely on here because it was very interesting and had a lot of good evidence, they interviewed the Mason City Police Sergeant.

00:23:58.780 Here's what he said.

00:24:00.100 He's on, in the documentary, describing the timeline, the morning of her disappearance, just to set the scene.

00:24:05.360 Let's take a listen to it.

00:24:06.120 SOT 51.

00:24:07.580 At 7.13 a.m., the Mason City Police receives a phone call from KINT to do a welfare check on Jody.

00:24:13.720 We immediately dispatched an officer.

00:24:19.340 When the officer arrived, they found a lot of her belongings were scattered across the parking lot.

00:24:24.060 The mirror on her Mazda Beata was bent backwards.

00:24:27.360 They found the car keys laying on the ground, and the door key was bent.

00:24:32.120 They started to walk between the cars.

00:24:33.220 They started noticing more things.

00:24:34.400 Her hair dryer, there's an earring over here, and there's some paperwork here, and red high-heeled shoes.

00:24:39.400 You can see drag marks.

00:24:41.380 We've got a problem.

00:24:42.320 Jody's been dragged out of here. 1.00

00:24:43.720 Immediately, radio's first supervisor and additional units showed up, and a perimeter's then set.

00:24:50.800 So they knew right away when they got there, which wasn't until after 7, that she'd been abducted.

00:24:57.880 They could see that she'd been dragged.

00:24:59.080 There were drag marks, which were showing on camera here.

00:25:02.480 And then they went inside the apartment and found some of the things that you and I are discussing.

00:25:07.520 Let me roll that and start 52.

00:25:08.980 So not only were just wine glasses found there, there was other dishes found there.

00:25:13.700 There was multiple plates, items of food.

00:25:15.980 Things were fingerprinted, and things were photographed.

00:25:18.700 That was what you did.

00:25:20.560 Everything was fingerprinted.

00:25:21.740 DNA was just super brand new then, and it was basically unheard of in local law enforcement.

00:25:28.700 Those chemicals that the fingerprint dust is compiled of contain bacteria, which kills DNA.

00:25:34.980 There was some on those surfaces, like touch DNA.

00:25:38.380 Fingerprint dust is not good for touch DNA.

00:25:41.060 Do we still have items that we haven't fingerprinted?

00:25:43.720 Yes, we do.

00:25:45.180 Do we plan to send those in?

00:25:46.780 Absolutely.

00:25:47.220 So no DNA was the biggest headline out of that.

00:25:52.940 Absolutely.

00:25:54.140 Whatever may have been there has been destroyed by the fingerprint dust that they unleashed.

00:25:59.060 Because it was 1995, they didn't have, you know, as he said, DNA analysis was in its infancy.

00:26:06.080 So although it was out there, I mean, we had just watched the O.J. Simpson trial, which relied heavily on DNA analysis.

00:26:11.520 So I'm not sure exactly why things wouldn't have been preserved or would have been entirely spoiled.

00:26:16.000 All right.

00:26:16.180 So what do you glean?

00:26:16.840 What do you think is the most important piece of data from the crime scene?

00:26:20.860 Well, I think that they do have more items from the crime scene than they have revealed.

00:26:28.160 I think they're intentionally withholding what that information is because they think it could be

00:26:33.200 derivative in nature if someone were to come forward.

00:26:38.020 I think I have a sense of what that possibly is, but I'm quite certain they have more than they

00:26:45.800 disclosed.

00:26:46.800 Unfortunately, when they examined that automobile, because her key was found bent laying on the ground

00:26:55.540 and the car door was locked, they only processed the exterior of the car.

00:27:01.840 And then they towed the car and gave it back to her family before anyone ever had a chance to go in and process the interior of the car, which might have had some evidence.

00:27:14.860 I mean, to assume that no one had been in the car is just I mean, it just doesn't make sense that you wouldn't process the entire vehicle.

00:27:25.220 But this being 2000 or 1995, there wouldn't have been a bunch of surveillance cameras on every store and apartment complex and gas station.

00:27:37.320 It was just a different time.

00:27:38.300 We used to have privacy.

00:27:39.320 We used to be able to wander around without being on camera all the time.

00:27:42.720 No, no, you know, ring cameras on doorbells.

00:27:46.220 Like, was there anything of use that we know of that that may have caught somebody on camera?

00:27:50.640 No, absolutely not.

00:27:52.640 I mean, I think every angle has been looked at and there just isn't anything.

00:27:57.420 People have said this was somebody really clever.

00:28:00.520 I think this was somebody that was simply lucky because, you know, she was attacked at 430 in the morning.

00:28:08.940 A lot of noise was made.

00:28:10.280 There had already been loud voices between two males arguing.

00:28:13.500 Uh, the police were almost called.

00:28:16.720 Uh, I think it's sheer, uh, brazen luck that this individual got away with, uh, this abduction.

00:28:25.180 Do you believe that the man who did this to her is still alive?

00:28:30.460 I can't say.

00:28:31.860 I cannot answer that question.

00:28:34.380 Hmm.

00:28:35.120 Well, I mean, if he's not still alive, there can't be an arrest and there can't be a trial.

00:28:39.360 And this is all for not, I don't know.

00:28:41.760 You know, it's like, well, it'd be interesting to know who did it, but there's not, there's

00:28:44.480 no reason to keep the case file open or protect the integrity of the investigation.

00:28:48.360 Well, that was my point when I went and, uh, went to court to fight to get the, uh, search

00:28:55.140 warrant of John Van Syce's vehicle, uh, unsealed so that we could see what the evidence was against

00:29:01.220 John Van Syce.

00:29:02.280 Uh, and, uh, the county attorney fought it, uh, and, uh, we appealed to the state, uh,

00:29:10.220 and before the state, uh, did anything more, I said, essentially the state attorney general

00:29:15.900 then filed, uh, a motion to block it being reviewed or, or released.

00:29:21.340 It's, I think it's an administrative review is officially what they do.

00:29:25.360 Uh, I decided to withdraw the motion to appeal because my attorneys told me that, um, it was

00:29:35.020 very likely I was going to win because I had Iowa law on my side and the family by then had

00:29:40.460 said they did not want it released if it, uh, you know, could possibly jeopardize a prosecution.

00:29:46.740 So I thought, well, you know, I'm not going to get anything more from it.

00:29:51.100 I've got all I need.

00:29:52.340 I think I have more than this is the search warrant for, for John's car for his car.

00:29:57.820 Yes, actually not for the car he owned at the time.

00:30:01.360 This was for cars that he purchased after he moved to Arizona and dropped out, which is

00:30:08.080 where I tracked him down and found him living and talked him into talking to me.

00:30:13.520 I'm the only person in 24 years that ever talked to him.

00:30:16.540 And then I stayed in touch with his family until he died.

00:30:19.440 And I'm the one that announced that he died, but he had two vehicles.

00:30:22.740 What they did was they subpoenaed him, uh, to come in and give fingerprints again, which

00:30:30.000 meant he drove to Iowa in his vehicle, his newer vehicle.

00:30:34.720 They then put a device on his car to track where he went, hoping that he would take them

00:30:41.580 to the burial scene.

00:30:43.040 So that was their point.

00:30:44.640 That's what they attempted to do.

00:30:46.660 Uh, and they have since pretty much confirmed that they haven't officially confirmed it.

00:30:50.980 But once I put all the pieces together, I said, here's how, here's how this came down.

00:30:55.220 They were trying to trick him into going back to the crime scene and, uh, or to the burial

00:31:00.420 site.

00:31:01.260 John is getting very interesting.

00:31:02.920 Let's take another look at him from the documentary on Hulu, her last broadcast, the abduction

00:31:06.960 of Jody, who's in truth.

00:31:09.380 In 2017, I was able to compile a bunch of, of research I had done and obtain a grand jury

00:31:16.280 subpoena for John Van Syce.

00:31:18.100 I wrote a GPS return on his vehicle just so I could track him on his way here to do that.

00:31:22.520 And that was it.

00:31:23.520 The grand jury hearing did not result in any charges being filed against John Van Syce.

00:31:28.460 He died in 2024.

00:31:30.520 Since then, there have been efforts in court to get that warrant for the car unsealed, but

00:31:34.560 a judge ruled in March of 2025, that very little of it would be made public.

00:31:39.400 Was John ever in any other trouble with the law?

00:31:42.420 Well, he certainly was around a lot of trouble.

00:31:45.460 Uh, and he did comment to someone, uh, that he had been investigated and regard, uh, with

00:31:54.140 regard to a double murder sometime prior to, uh, uh, a double murder.

00:32:00.040 Yeah, actually a double murder.

00:32:01.760 It was a drug related double murder, uh, at the, uh, I'm going to say Silver Dollar Ranch,

00:32:09.680 I believe it was, but in, in, in another state.

00:32:13.000 Uh, and then, uh, also, uh, once John moved to Arizona, he and two other security guards

00:32:22.680 at a Walmart store were taking an individual into the back room, I believe, for stealing

00:32:28.720 a loaf of bread.

00:32:30.380 And they reported that this gentleman stumbled and hit his head and died.

00:32:35.640 So.

00:32:36.580 Oh boy.

00:32:37.080 Yeah.

00:32:37.460 I mean, I mean, yeah, John, you know, John, John was around a lot of rough stuff.

00:32:44.300 I mean, you know, but again, that, you know, innocent until proven guilty, right?

00:32:49.460 I mean, it just, uh, and, and look, he, he named his boat after Jody.

00:32:57.140 Like, were they, that seems like a remarkable thing to do if you're not like married to a

00:33:01.900 person, like what, what was their relationship?

00:33:04.720 Well, he said he was just so fond of her.

00:33:07.500 And in fact, he said, you couldn't help, but love her.

00:33:09.920 You just couldn't help, but love her.

00:33:11.400 She was so special.

00:33:12.480 And so he did name his boat, uh, by name.

00:33:16.620 He didn't, he didn't inscript it or inscribe it on the back of the boat, as some people

00:33:20.720 had speculated, but he did refer to his boat as Jody.

00:33:24.980 Uh, and, uh, you know, uh, in many respects, I, I mean, I think it's fair to say John, John

00:33:31.100 was in love with Jody.

00:33:32.340 There's just no question about it.

00:33:33.820 Were they, were they in a dating relationship or they like openly in a romantic relationship

00:33:37.800 or was he in the friend category?

00:33:39.560 He was in the friend category for her, but being a fair amount younger and a whole lot

00:33:45.580 more naive, I think that she did not see the danger in the relationship.

00:33:50.960 And she had many friends warning her that be careful.

00:33:54.580 This guy, you know, he's naming his boat after you.

00:33:58.500 He's taking you on weekends to go water skiing.

00:34:02.080 Uh, you, you're just, you can't be this trusting.

00:34:05.560 And Jody was just a very innocent, naive, trusting, you know, loving, but very vivacious and lots

00:34:14.180 of personality.

00:34:15.020 And she just didn't see it.

00:34:17.820 She just didn't have a blind spot.

00:34:20.540 Did John have any connections to the police or anyone in a position of power that might

00:34:27.120 have incentivized anyone investigating this case to overlook him or give him too much benefit

00:34:33.360 of the doubt?

00:34:33.960 No, absolutely not.

00:34:35.140 I feel very confident that, uh, the police department, at least as it related to John Van

00:34:40.760 Sise, uh, there was no other potential agenda.

00:34:44.000 When you went and interviewed John, did you make tapes of those interviews?

00:34:48.200 I taped part of it.

00:34:49.580 Uh, and, uh, I have, uh, uh, in fact, I'm going to review that again.

00:34:55.640 I had it all transcribed, uh, in addition to being able to, to take a look at it.

00:35:00.760 A lot of the video, he he's not on camera for all of the video because essentially I was

00:35:05.180 using it really primarily to record audio.

00:35:08.360 And, um, some time ago I did seek their permission and they both, uh,

00:35:14.000 both John and his wife signed a document giving me authorization to use it as I see fit.

00:35:21.000 So, uh, I do have that.

00:35:23.820 Doesn't sound like the act of a guilty man.

00:35:26.220 No, but here, and here's one other little thing.

00:35:29.560 He already, when I first met him was showing some signs of Alzheimer's and he was getting

00:35:37.160 certain people, certain names, and he was, uh, he was hell bent, you know, on certain facts

00:35:44.840 that, you know, I didn't do this.

00:35:46.500 I didn't find out until a friend of mine came to my house and got me that morning.

00:35:51.120 Well, that's not what happened, but to say that John, uh, is lying would be unfair to

00:35:59.860 John because I think he is maybe misremembering or imposing, you know, what he wants his memory

00:36:07.180 to be, but, but he went steadily downhill with Alzheimer's and, you know, eventually passed.

00:36:12.720 Hmm. Um, you said you had a couple, I mean, I think we're presuming John's one of them,

00:36:20.080 but then there's another one. Can you give us any sort of an outline of this other character

00:36:25.820 and why you found this person? You're not saying which one it was, but why this person wound up

00:36:31.740 in your final two. Uh, absolutely. And the reason I can tell you that is there are about four or five

00:36:37.740 people. Um, actually, believe it or not, that had their hearts set on Jody. They just, they,

00:36:44.060 they were around her a lot. They all drank together. Uh, she spent time with them. And so,

00:36:50.100 uh, to think about it, I mean, there were literally, there were, there were five people,

00:36:55.120 I guess you would say that pretty much fell in love with Jody. I mean, you know, maybe,

00:36:59.840 maybe some more, you know, strongly than others. And John would be one of those extreme examples,

00:37:05.660 but there was at least one other individual who, uh, did really have strong affection for Jody and,

00:37:14.060 and would have pursued a relationship. He also was older. So that's a reason why he,

00:37:20.440 you know, uh, it might not have been a potential fit or why he wasn't able to make a move.

00:37:26.380 Hmm. And have you interviewed this person? Yes, I have. Uh, he, uh, he spoke pretty openly to me

00:37:33.400 in my first conversation. Uh, and then he sent me an email and said, I have been to see the police.

00:37:42.620 And if you mentioned my name, I will sue you. So you don't mention his name. I, I see. I understand

00:37:49.980 that. Okay. Is he dead or alive? Uh, he, he is alive. Yes. And was he Jody's contemporary? Was he

00:37:57.380 her age? No, no, he was older. He was also older. Did he work in the newsroom? Nope. Okay. And so

00:38:05.380 you're, you won't tell us whether you've moved on from this person who's made this threat. Well,

00:38:09.900 everything that he told me, uh, I have been able to pretty much independently verify. So, and a lot of

00:38:17.800 it went against the grain of, uh, what John had told me, but bear in mind, it's his, uh, word against

00:38:24.540 his. And so maybe neither one, you know, maybe, uh, who knows which one was actually right. But,

00:38:32.060 uh, you know, and I, and I appreciate your attorney techniques. You're pretty good. You probably

00:38:37.320 should, you probably should come to town and we ought to get to the bottom of this.

00:38:41.100 Well, um, I mean, look, I'll say it, you don't have to say it, but it seems pretty clear. Your

00:38:46.320 suspect is John and he is dead. So he can't sue you for defamation, but you don't want to

00:38:53.860 say it's him if it actually turns out to be somebody else. And we don't want to disparage

00:38:58.200 a dead man, even though he can't sue us. Um, what we really want to know is who did it and why.

00:39:03.600 Yeah. And I guess I would also say a lot of it is out of respect for his wife, Jane, who is still

00:39:09.300 alive. And I, I've talked to Jane, you know, I announced his death. I've talked to her since,

00:39:16.400 uh, and I've told her I have not ruled John out, but I have not said a hundred percent. It's him.

00:39:23.380 Uh, so, you know, but I am sensitive to the family and in particular to Jane, who I got to know. I

00:39:31.040 mean, I was out in Arizona several times and sat in the backyard and drank beer with them and talked

00:39:37.600 about the case. So, uh, I'm just really trying to be sensitive to that fact. I've been talking a lot

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00:40:42.480 Hey everyone, it's me, Megan Kelly. I've got some exciting news. I now have my very own channel on

00:40:51.320 Sirius XM. It's called the Megan Kelly channel and it is where you will hear the truth unfiltered

00:40:56.160 with no agenda and no apologies. Along with the Megan Kelly show, you're going to hear from people

00:41:00.620 like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Maureen Callahan, Emily Jashinsky, Jesse Kelly, Real Clear Politics and

00:41:06.720 many more. It's bold, no BS news. Only on the Megan Kelly channel, Sirius XM 111 and on the Sirius XM app.

00:41:19.220 Do you think that when someone kills another person, how often do you think it happens that

00:41:24.700 they never kill again? Not very often. No, I think, in fact, I think it feeds on itself. You know,

00:41:33.660 this Dustin Honkin, the mass murderer, said that it only got easier. He said he fed on it. I mean,

00:41:39.860 he basically said, man, once you kill somebody, you're on your way. And he said, it just killing

00:41:45.180 more is just, it's easy. And he, in fact, he went and hunted down another guy and killed him after that.

00:41:51.520 And he was engineering a breakout of prison and planned to kill more witnesses and a judge and

00:41:58.580 police officers. The guy was, I mean, he was a ticking time bomb. And who was this? 0.90

00:42:05.340 This gentleman was the guy that was actually put to death for all this drug dealing and for the five

00:42:12.720 murders of those young people. There were two men and a woman. His name was Dustin Honkin. And he said,

00:42:19.780 he talked about them shooting a 10-year-old girl and a six-year-old girl in the back of the head,

00:42:25.740 said it didn't faze him a bit, didn't lose any sleep. Because I always just wonder, you know,

00:42:30.720 like in the case of BTK, for example, who went on and was living this like domestic life with a

00:42:36.840 daughter and a wife, you know, at what level does the family know? At what level do they,

00:42:43.860 are they willfully blind to what they're living with? Well, and I would point out that,

00:42:49.640 well, first of all, I would point out that his son, who I tried to, John Van Syce's son,

00:42:56.580 who I tried to interview, has refused and rebuffed every attempt to talk to him. And he would be

00:43:03.200 pretty essential because he did go water skiing with John and with Jody the weekend before she

00:43:09.460 went missing. So I really need to talk to him. But his wife, Jane, he had only been married to 11

00:43:17.160 years. So this. John's wife or the son's wife? John's wife. So he was remarried, see, well after

00:43:25.640 he moved to Arizona. So she would be completely oblivious to, you know, what may have happened

00:43:32.100 earlier in his life. Right, right. And by the time you're older and having, dealing with Alzheimer's,

00:43:38.800 everything's changed. Absolutely. Absolutely. And again, well, he was a wonderful guy. I mean,

00:43:45.380 you know, outwardly he was, I mean, he was fun to talk to. He had great stories. He was

00:43:50.500 entertaining. Uh, when I, in fact, I, I don't know if I should share this or not. I mean,

00:43:56.080 to be honest, so was Ted Bundy. Well, you know, he was good looking. He was a charmer and he was a

00:44:02.520 sociopath. He was a jokester. And when I came around back and just agreed to have a beer with him in the 0.80

00:44:07.740 backyard, it was getting dark and his motorhome was parked back there. And he said, so did you

00:44:13.240 think I was going to lure you into the backyard and murder you and cut you up to pieces and put 1.00

00:44:18.240 you in that motorhome? Oh boy. Uh, and. What? Uh, no, I, I was hoping you weren't. But that's 1.00

00:44:27.080 the humor. Yeah. Oh boy. I'm sorry. Well, you know how it is. Like they say in every joke,

00:44:34.000 there's like a nugget of truth, you know, like the, no, it might've, you might've been

00:44:38.760 lucky to get out of there. I do want to follow up on this. I care about this poor girl. And I've 0.88

00:44:44.740 thought about her a million times since she went missing and it just sort of vanished from,

00:44:50.360 from the news from, she vanished from the face of the earth. I feel like if that crime happened

00:44:54.580 today, the person would have been caught in an hour with all, you know, the modern day techniques

00:44:59.880 we have in the surveillance cameras. And I don't know, even back then, this seems like there would

00:45:04.380 have been prints. There would have been eyewitness. There would have been motive. There would have

00:45:07.600 been enough for the cops to, to zero in on somebody. I'm, I still remain a bit mystified as

00:45:13.520 to why they never did. I know that there's a reward posted for people who give information leading to

00:45:19.820 the, the discovery of her remains. I'd like nothing more than to write a check for a hundred thousand

00:45:25.060 dollars to have this resolved and bring peace to the family. And I'm not going to let go.

00:45:30.700 Eventually, I think I will leave a memo. If I ever leave this earth, I'm going to leave a formal

00:45:37.060 statement of what I, you know, precisely think happened because I think the public has a right

00:45:42.780 to know. And I think the family needs to know. Well, Steve, if you put a copy of that in the mail

00:45:48.320 and CC me, I promise you, I will make sure it hits air with the proper attention. All right.

00:45:54.480 Sounds good. Thank you very much, Meg. Good luck with your continuing show. I know it's very

00:45:59.680 popular. Thank you. Thank you very much. Take care. The Megan Kelly show reached out to Mason

00:46:05.540 city police following the taping of this segment. And they gave the following comments over the phone

00:46:09.860 quote, the investigation remains open and active. We continue to work with multiple partner agencies,

00:46:15.780 including the Iowa department of public safety and the FBI. And we have never stopped pursuing leads

00:46:20.840 as they come in. If Steve Ridge has new information to provide, the department is willing to review and

00:46:25.940 discuss it with him. That said, we cannot release case files or confirm or deny specific leads as

00:46:31.780 doing so could jeopardize the integrity of the investigation. While we strive to be as transparent

00:46:36.460 as possible, we also have a responsibility to protect that case. We welcome any new tips or

00:46:42.200 information that may assist our efforts. If you have any information regarding the Joe Jody,

00:46:46.720 who's in true case, please call the Mason city police at six four one four two one three six

00:46:52.540 three six end quote. And remember you can find out more at find Jody.com. Leave a tip and help share

00:46:59.840 her story tomorrow, a deep dive into the woman at the center of the Netflix hit bad vegan. We'll see you

00:47:08.060 then. Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

00:47:15.780 Every once in a while, something comes along that reminds us of the power of storytelling, something bold,

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00:47:29.580 Daily Wire based on the novels by Stephen R. Lawhead. In the series as pagan gods fall silent and empires

00:47:37.400 collapse. One man's faith lights the spark of a civilization reborn. It's a story about courage,

00:47:43.660 order, and moral clarity. It's the kind of story Hollywood does not make anymore. Through blood,

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00:48:00.340 22nd, 2026. Watch the new trailer now at pendragonseries.com.

The Megyn Kelly Show - December 31, 2025

Mysterious Disappearance of TV News Anchor Jodi Huisentruit 30 Years Ago - Crime Week Continues ｜ Ep. 1220

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