Jodi Huisentruit disappeared on June 27, 1995 from Mason City

Jodi Huisentruit is one of Iowa’s most well-known missing persons. The 27-year-old was abducted an hour before dawn on Tuesday, June 27, 1995 from the parking lot of her apartment at 600 North Kentucky Avenue in Mason City. She was leaving for work at a local television station.

Her disappearance was featured on “Unsolved Mysteries” and “America’s Most Wanted” and was the subject of the pilot episode of “Psychic Detectives.” An entire website — www.findjody.com — is devoted to her case. Queries, tips, and comments about her come in regularly to the Mason City Police.

The apartment complex where Jodi was abducted.

What is it about Jodi and her disappearance that still fascinates Iowans after 15 years, that makes us pause when we see her photograph and wonder?

The answer lies with Jodi herself. A pretty, petite blonde with brown eyes, Jodi was appealing and memorable.

She was the morning and noon anchorwoman at CBS affiliate KIMT-TV, which reaches a wide area of northeast Iowa and southern Minnesota.

Viewers woke up every morning to her pleasant smile and friendly manner. She was there while they had coffee in their kitchens. She sat across from them in their living rooms like a friend who came each day for a visit.

Locals often saw her — single and carefree — cruising around Mason City in her 1995 red Mazda Miata sports car.

Women envied Jodi’s slender figure and beautiful hair. Men found her attractive. Older viewers wished she were their daughter or granddaughter. She was the woman everyone wanted to be or to know.

But her high profile may also have attracted someone with less wholesome motives. Jody may have been taken by a stalker lurking at the edge of her celebrity, driven by obsessive thoughts and fantasies about a relationship with her.

Jodi was declared dead in 2001; but her friends, fans, and family push on for answers and never give up hope of finding her.

Jody Huisentruit