Jody Ewing

Iowa Cold Cases Founder, President

Jody is an author and freelance writer based in west-central Iowa. She began writing at age eight, both penning and illustrating her dog-napping short story, "The Mystery of Kalo's Disappearance." She has worked for The Sioux City Journal and Weekender, and has more than 400 published feature stories and articles.

She is the author of the book One Way: Bumps and Detours on the Road to Adulthood — a collection of humorous and inspirational essays about childhood and growing up — and has several other books-in-progress including both fiction and nonfiction.

Jody launched the Iowa Cold Cases website in 2005 after working on a Sioux City cold case series for the Weekender. A website that began as a handful of case summaries from the Siouxland area now has expanded to include more than 300 unsolved cases from all across Iowa, cross-referenced by city and county.

Two years after launching the site, Jody’s stepfather of 25 years — Earl Thelander of Onawa, IA — died from burns sustained in an explosion after copper thieves burglarized the Monona County home he and his wife Hope were preparing for a renter. Jody added “Dad Earl” to the site in 2008 after officials announced his case had gone cold. It remains unsolved.

Jody is a graduate of Iowa State University, where she earned her Bachelor's degree in Liberal Studies (Communications/Social Sciences) and Criminal Justice Studies.

She is the mother of three children — Bill, Jennifer, and Rhett — and shares her 100-year-old home with longtime partner Dennis, son Rhett, dogs Cocoa, Bear, and Hagan, and an African Gray parrot named Clyde who thinks he's a WWII pilot.

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