Jodi Huisentruit
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Hey guys, in today's episode, we're going to discuss the Jody Husentruth case, which was featured in the first episode of the Up and Vanished TV show. If you haven't seen the show yet, don't worry. This episode will still cover the case pretty thoroughly. But it's not too late. You can stream the episode right now from the Oxygen app, whenever you want. As a refresher, and for those of you that haven't seen the show yet, here's a timeline for Jody Husentruth's case.

On June 27, 1995, 27-year-old news anchor Jodi Husentruth didn't show up for work at her news station in Mason City, Iowa. Mason City is just a small town in North Iowa. People don't even lock their house doors, much less their vehicles. Quiet community. Everybody knew everybody. Everybody knew Jodi. Magnetic personality. People were just drawn to her.

She was a great young gal with a bright future. When we would go out in Mason City, everybody knew who she was. Around 4:00 AM, when Jody was late for her usual slot on the morning news, her colleague called to check in. Jody answered the phone, said she'd overslept, and she'd be there as soon as possible. But by 6:00 AM, Jody still hadn't shown up. Around 7:00 AM, the news station called the Mason City police.

The police arrived at Jody's apartment complex to find her things scattered by her car in the parking lot. Her car key was bent and Jody was nowhere to be found. There were drag marks. Never thought in a million years that she would be abducted. Did Jody ever mention having a stalker? Yes. I don't believe police have investigated the theories that have been put forward. Can we just stop for a second? I'm trying to find the truth.

The following is an extended interview from the Jodi Husentruth case. My name is Amy Koons. And how did you know Jodi? I was her assistant producer in the morning. We worked at KIMT in Mason City, Iowa. My job was to go in at 2 a.m. and Jodi would follow shortly after at 3, and I would do all of the producing for her and editing and get her ready for the show. And what is Mason City like? Mason City...

I knew I'd cry. I hate talking about this. I absolutely hate it. Mason City is just regular small town North Iowa. It's kind of the biggest town in all of North Iowa, so it's kind of the hub for like retail, shopping, things to do, things like that. The surrounding area is mostly rural. Could you describe the morning that Jodi went missing?

And what happened? It got to be about 3 o'clock, and Jodi still wasn't in. And she and I both had kind of an unspoken agreement that if one of us overslept, we'd just give the other one a call, and we'd be in as soon as we could. So it wasn't uncommon for her to oversleep. It happened quite frequently. So I called her at about 10 after 3, and I had obviously just woken her up.

I mean, she sounded groggy and, "Oh, sorry, Amy, I'll be right in." And usually when that happened, she'd be in within 20 minutes. You know, she'd shower quick and come in with wet hair and no makeup on and just hurry up and get into work. But by 4:00, she still wasn't there. And I called again and no answer. So I just had to hurry up and produce the show because we went on the air at 6:00.

So I hurried up and got everything done, and I went on the air. And then the next person who came through the building at 6, I told him, I'm like, Jodi's not here. Go to her apartment, call the police, whatever you need to do. But she's not here. We need to check on her. So Jodi was supposed to be at 3. Uh-huh. And when it was a little past 3, you just called her? And what time did you kind of expect she would end up showing up? Like 3.30ish, 3.30 a.m.

So when did things strike you as odd? When it got to be 4 o'clock and I called her again and there was no answer. But honestly, all I thought was like maybe she slipped and fell in the shower. We need to get her an ambulance. Or maybe she fell back asleep and didn't hear the phone. I never thought in a million years that she would be abducted. That never crossed my mind. Right, of course, why would it? No, why would it?

So you had to do everything and go on the air. Had you had to do that before? No, that was the first time. I was very stressed and scrambling to get the show on the air. You know, we couldn't sit in black or we'd both be fired, you know? And were there other people at the station at that time? Nope. It would have just been you and Jodi? Just me and Jodi and the master control person. Wow, so it was really just you and that other person? Yes. And do you know what time...

Someone went to her apartment? No. It was all out of my hands at that point because I was on the air. I thought she had fallen back asleep or slipped in the shower and we needed to get her an ambulance. Honestly, that's all I thought. What did Jodi sound like when she picked up the phone? She sounded groggy like I had just woken her up. About how long did you guys talk? Just a few seconds. Jodi, you're late. Where are you? Oh, sorry. I overslept. I'll be in. That was it. Short conversation.

How does that feel, like, being the last person that spoke to her? It's really hard to deal with. I think over the years I've had to deal with some survivor's guilt. You know, like, oh my gosh, if somebody was watching her and stalking her, that could have been me. You know, I didn't know if they were after her or if it was just a random act or whatnot. But, um...

And also over the years I've had to deal with some post-traumatic stress just because it was one of the most traumatic things I've ever had to live through. So when did you find out that Jodi was missing? Later that morning. I think I was live on the air from 6 to 7 and then I came up to the newsroom and that's when they told me we think Jodi has been abducted.

And then I still had to go on with my morning and do the 725 cut in and the 825 cut in and do the noon show. I had to just go on like it was another day. And those were things that Jodi would normally have done? Yes, those are things Jodi normally would have done.

Well, I guess I take that back. I would have normally done the 725 and the 825 cut-ins. She was the daybreak show and the midday show. So you have to go on the air, and you're already kind of stressed about that, but now you know maybe something bad happened. What did that feel like, to have to carry on? It felt wrong. It felt...

I seriously felt like somebody had punched me in the stomach and knocked the wind out of me, is what I felt like. It was very hard to carry on. Could you describe Jodi a little bit? It's okay, take your time. Jodi was, she was very up on life. I mean, it wasn't uncommon for her to stand up and clap her hands and put her arms in the air and say, I love life! And then she'd sit down and get back to work. She just, she was very gung-ho about her TV career and her friends and...

I just remember leaving after my shift was over and the entire block was surrounded by satellite trucks. You know, other media who had come into town for the story. So it was weird to go from being in front of the camera to being part of the story. How did you feel that the police dealt with this case? I'm disappointed. I feel like they let some things slip by. You know, it's...

not an everyday occurrence in North Iowa that somebody is abducted and I think it really took them by surprise as well. But there were a few details like John Van Syce, one of Jody's friends who was a person of interest, actually called that morning shortly before I went on the air at 7:25 and asked if Jody was there.

He never did that ever before. It was the one and only time he called. So that stuck out of my mind as very suspicious. And I told the police that and they just seemed to blow me off. And that was maddening. I don't even know if it's in the official police report.

So that morning, right before you're about to get back on the air, he called you? He called the newsroom. It just rang on one of the phones in the newsroom and I picked it up and it was John. I had met him before but we weren't like friends or good acquaintances or anything. I just knew who he was. Had you heard Jody talk about him? Yes. But he just asked, "Is Jody there? Can I talk to her?"

And I remember saying, "John, Jodi never made it into work today." And he said, "Well, is she sick?" I said, "John, I don't know. Jodi just isn't here today." "Well, what's wrong?" And he wouldn't let it go. And I'm like, "John, I don't know. I have to go." It was very strange. Really odd. Uh-huh. And then so you felt that the police didn't take that account seriously enough. Yes. The FBI did get involved.

And they had me go to Jody's apartment and just kind of rummage through things and see if anything was out of place. It didn't look like the person had been in her apartment at all. It looked like normal. And they wanted me to try and figure out what she may have been wearing that day. And I narrowed that down for the police and the FBI. And that was about it.

I would think if there was something that they wanted to revisit, they would call me and talk to me about it and recast details, but they've never ever done that. Not since she went missing? No. And John had never called the station before that? No. That was the one and only time. Have you ever had a gut feeling about what happened? I do.

My gut says it was John Van Sise. He had just thrown her a birthday party, a big, huge birthday bash. I did not attend that evening, but I heard it was a big soiree. He threw that birthday party for her, and she told me that she had told him that she just wanted to be friends, and he was pretty upset. And then he called the morning she disappeared, which seemed very odd to me.

And then another incident happened. I lived in an apartment in Mason City and used to do my laundry on the 12th Street, a laundromat. And John one day came in with black garbage bags full of clothes and stared at me while I was doing laundry. He scared the hell out of me. I grabbed my wet clothes and hightailed it out of there. And it was just, he wanted to make me feel uncomfortable. And he did. He scared me.

Shortly after Jody disappeared, he moved to Arizona. He just kind of slipped away. And I still remember vividly there was a candlelight vigil at one of the churches in Mason City. And John made an appearance, but he walked in late so that everybody saw him walk in that church. It was very inappropriate. And are there any other theories in your mind that are even plausible? Nope. Just that one? Just that one.

The FBI had me go to her apartment a couple days later to try and figure out what she was wearing. But I did not make it there to see her, I think it was her hair dryer, brush, some other things that were scattered around her car that had fallen out of her bag. You know, I never saw any of that. I think whoever did it, they were just very, very careful and covered their tracks.

And whereas John was a person of interest, the police say they couldn't pin it on him for sure without a reasonable doubt. They just couldn't do that. - Do you think that the Mason City Police are just not, they weren't prepared for a case of this magnitude or a case that's complicated? - That's exactly what I think. I think it's just a small town police department. And to my recollection, nothing like that had ever happened.

here before and I think they were just really unprepared. And that's why the FBI got involved because they just, I mean to me it felt like they were just kind of floundering and they didn't know what to do. - Do you think that Jodi is a victim of foul play? - Yes. You know somebody out there has to know something whether it was John or somebody else. They've mentioned it to somebody and people are just keeping super quiet about it.

You know, I always hold on to a little bit of hope that someday this case will be solved. It's sad to me that Jodi's mom died without ever knowing what happened to her daughter. You know, I'm a mom now and I can't imagine not knowing what happened to your child. So that breaks my heart. Sorry. It's okay. Oh, there is one other thing I'd like to say. Sure.

It's just so hard being a journalist and answering the who, what, when, where, why every day for every story. And we still don't know what happened to Jody. That's frustrating as hell. And someday I would like to be able to say, I know who did this, I know why, I know how, and be able to put it all behind me. That would be good.

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You can do more without spending more. Learn how to save at Cox.com slash internet. Cox internet is connected to the premises via coaxial cable. Cox mobile runs on the network with unbeatable 5G reliability as measured by UCLA LLC in the U.S. to age 2023. Results may vary, not an endorsement of the restrictions apply. The Up and Vantage team sat down to discuss our experience with the case. I think what we keep coming back to is some sort of admirer, someone that

either knew her well and admired her from close by or didn't know her at all and admired her from afar because she was kind of a local celebrity. And I feel like in our investigation, we talked to

People that thought it could be the serial rapist Tony Jackson. It could be someone that no one knows that was just a fan of her on the air, kind of too much of a fan. And she herself even filed a police report against a stalker at one time, even though the police say they don't know. They don't have those files anymore. They can't find that.

But anyway, Tony Jackson, an obsessed viewer. And then the other admirer we kept hearing about was Jon Van Syce. Yeah, like some form of a friend who someone that she knows that may want to have a different type of relationship with her that's more intimate than what she's willing to have with them. Which I think speaks to an earlier point that we made in talking about this episode that this feels more like passion or rage than...

which to me would indicate someone that she knows and that knows her. So I never really completely bought into the Tony Jackson theory, you know, serial rapists who happen to be operating in the area and she became a victim. He's actually in prison now. There is no real...

outside of that complaint that there was a stalker or there's no identification of who that stalker was. But there are a couple people that we came across, John Van Sykes being one who has a history of, you know, being friends with Jody, but maybe...

had some advances towards her that she didn't appreciate. And I think also there was another man who was someone who owned a sock factory and he was like pretty well to do. And he also had had romantic intentions towards Jodi. I'm not even sure. I think that she might have been entertaining those. We kind of didn't fully figure out their history, but he allegedly gave her a Miata.

He gave her a car, gifted her a car, and it was not too long before she went missing, too. Yeah, and this is the car she had at the time she went missing. She was actually abducted while trying to get into that Miata. Yeah, we never talked about it on the show, but there was another boyfriend figure, another man. I think he wasn't really considered as a person of interest for some reason, but he was in the picture. He did give her a car, and honestly...

There was some talk about, you know, was another man being in the picture giving her a car. Did that annoy somebody else? Did that make somebody else angry and jealous? Right. There's another theory that we presented in this episode, which was that Jodi was following a potentially dangerous story. Her friend, Billy Pruin, was killed. Seemed like it could have been murder. It kind of seemed potentially dangerous.

dangerous drug lord related stuff yeah i mean related yeah it's like a drug basically a big drug case that was being worked on in that at that time that jody was covering yeah and that or that jody could have been about to expose something on that's the idea and that she got too close to the answer and then she herself was taken out of the picture so that was another um

theory that we explored and that had to do with Dirk Chablonski, Dustin Honkin, and Billy Pruin. Payne, what are your thoughts about that theory? I mean, well, separately, some of those points that we brought up in the show, they sound interesting. They sound like they could mean something bigger or more. It just, altogether, it sounds like a movie plot to me. It's a little overreaching, I think, to

put too much weight in that theory as a whole. I think there's other places to look at, other directions to look at in Jody's case, other persons of interest that we should take a closer look at other than Dirk Jablonski and this whole idea that Jody was doing a story on some drug dealer or something and that turned out bad. I just don't think it... I just don't think that's what happened. I think that is...

too far left field to be the truth. Now, we don't know what happened, but, you know, if you're going to ask me, I would put my chips somewhere else. I think that theory as a whole is just a little too much to swallow for me. Yeah. One thing that's interesting, I think, is the abduction site. This is one of the only cases that we

looked into that actually has a clear abduction site. You know, Crystal's case, it's not clear. Molly Miller and Colt Haynes, it's not clear. Jennifer Kessie even, it's not clear. But in Jodi's case, there's items scattered in the parking lot, a broken key. And it kind of begged the question when we were looking into this, like, did anybody hear anything and then not report it? We kind of talked about that. There was even some

You know, people that came forward later and were like, well, I thought I heard something. You know, I thought I saw this color van. I thought I saw a white a white van. You know, I might have heard a scream, but nothing was reported close enough to really do anything close enough to the event to really do anything with that. Yeah. What do you guys think of the abduction zone? Yeah, I agree. I mean, there's there's not only a clear abduction site, but a clear way of how it went down. You know, it was it was forcible.

There wasn't a, did she go with someone voluntarily? That's out of the picture in this one, which is unique in comparison to the other cases. I don't know how much it speaks to who would have done it based on, it just speaks to how it was done. But I think just other evidence has pointed towards suspects that we felt were more likely

and roads that we could actually go down. You know, it's very difficult to go down a road of following a drug case and a potential murder that happened

But there were other suspects that really felt more involved and had more motive. Those are the rules that we chose to look deeper into. I think it's doing due diligence, look through all the different scenarios. But we kind of focused in there towards the end of the episodes on really one person and that person being John Van Sise. Yeah. So John Van Sise, when we first heard about him.

It was kind of like, here's a friend, someone who's very close to Jodi, who clearly cares about her. And the interesting thing was, the night before...

Jodi goes missing, she supposedly goes over to John's house to watch a videotape of her birthday party that he made for her, and he also helped throw the party. It was really like his party that he organized for Jodi, made this videotape of it, and apparently the night before she went missing, she went over to his house to view that. What do you guys think about that? The going over to his house to watch a videotape? I mean...

I've never heard of that before, where you invite someone over to watch the tape of your own birthday. I mean, I don't know. Not that that means anything. I just find that to be... It definitely sounds odd. It just sounds weird. But anyways, I think that they, according to John, they were clearly together that night. And technically speaking...

John Van Syce is the last person to see her alive that we know of. Because if it wasn't John, if someone else saw her alive, if someone else was an abductor or murderer of Jody, we have, you know, we don't know who that person is. So as far as we know, John is the last person to see Jody. And obviously in every case that is always significant, I think especially in this case, and like I said earlier,

There is a very clear spot on the map in this parking lot where Jodi went missing because the evidence points to that. But, you know, that's where the evidence points. But just to play devil's advocate, it looks that way. Is it supposed to look that way? I mean, just saying. I mean, it's sure she may have been abducted right there. At least it definitely looks that way. So who knows? But...

Either she she was abducted right there or it was made to look like she was right right there. Yeah. Yeah. I talked to Amy, which was Jody's producer the morning that Jody didn't show up for work. She had called Jody. She'd gotten Jody on the phone. Jody had said, oh, my gosh, so sorry. Like, I'll get ready and I'll be right there.

So Jodi had slept in. She had actually touched bases with her and heard her groggy voice. She was at home. That's where she got her. And she was going to be there, you know, in under 30 minutes to get on that morning news. She never shows up. Another phone call that Amy had that morning was a phone call she received from John Van Sise. Amy, Jodi's producer, says that John Van Sise called that morning and said, can I talk to Jodi?

And then Amy says, Jodi's not here. And he says, why? Why not? Is she OK? Is everything OK? And this is before the news broke that Jodi was missing. This is in the first couple of hours where people don't really know what's going on. And Amy, the person that found out she wasn't at work, had touched bases with her and who hadn't seen her yet that morning, was probably the person who knew the most at this point in time.

And John was calling to talk to Jodi.

and kind of frantically asked where she was and if everything was okay. And the thing that was interesting to me is that Amy said that he never called. He never called the station. That was the first time that he had ever called the station looking for Jodi. And it happened to be the morning, early morning, that Jodi hadn't showed up. Yeah, 100% Jon Van Sise was the first person alarmed by Jodi's quote-unquote disappearance or the first person to even consider that she may have disappeared.

Again, going back to what I was saying, like I've said before, not even looking at this as an isolated incident. Okay, it's strange that Jon Van Sise...

calls in concerned about Jody's whereabouts before anyone else is concerned at all. You just saw her last night. Everything was fine. Why are you all of a sudden worried about Jody? Yeah, not even worried, but like you said before, it's about pattern, right? He doesn't call normally, and now he decides to call on the day where something actually is wrong, and he has no way of knowing that something is wrong yet. But also one more thing. Okay, let's give him a pass on that. You don't know how people...

act when they think something is wrong or, you know, a tragedy is happening in real time. People act differently. So let's give him a pass on that. Flash forward hours, days later, John's tune is completely different. He's like, oh no, Jody's going to come back. Right. Jody's coming back. Why were you the first person worried about her whereabouts, concerned before anyone else even knew she was missing? And then all of a sudden,

Oh, no, she'll come back. She'll come back. You change. His behavior changed. That's what I'm noting here. I'm not passing judgment on any particular one of those incidents. I'm just kind of highlighting that he changed his tune. Why did he change his tune? When did he say that? When did he say, oh, she'll come back? In a news interview. Looking for answers in the disappearance of Jodi, who's intrude, requires walking on a road well-traveled.

Authorities investigated many theories and persons of interest. One person they looked at was considered to be one of Jodi's closest friends, John Van Sise. We're all praying and hoping that she's okay, and we just have to keep praying and keep hoping, and I think she'll come back. I really do.

Yeah, very, very odd, very, you know, stark difference from the first time he was very alarmed, really when no one was as alarmed at that point. And now everyone's alarmed and he's cool. So how was it trying to talk to John Van Sysepain? I mean, impossible, basically. We went there and knocked on his door immediately.

The first time, because we actually went there twice. Right. And this is in Arizona. We're all the way across the country now. Yeah, we flew out here just to talk to John. And I get there the first time, knock on the door, no answer. It was pretty clear that no one was home. So we went back and just kind of waited for a few hours and then tried again later that day. And we came back a second time. I knocked on the door and...

No one answered again, but there was a car, I believe, there or something. I think there was a car in the garage, which was different from the first time I was there, so someone was clearly home. And so I kind of walked around to the side of the house on the sidewalk there, and I heard people talking in the backyard. And through the fence crack, I could kind of see what was going on in the backyard, and I saw John Van Sise next to this sort of camper trailer, and he was...

working on something, had half his body hanging into the camper, and he was talking to his new wife, and I just kind of shouted over the fence and was like, hey, John, can I ask you some questions, or you want to talk? You know, the answer was no. I was pretty disappointed that he kind of hid behind

Or he let his wife do all the talking for him. He didn't just even in his own words shout over the fence like, you know, I'm not interested. Like he kind of let his wife do all the talking like an attorney would or something. And I wanted to have a one-on-one conversation with him about something one of his friends told me, which would obviously be important to him.

But he wanted nothing to do with it. And it was, you know, I'm kind of annoyed because you can't really hear too much of what they're saying on the other side of the fence. But after his wife came out and talked to me and she pulled her,

phone out or something. She was, she was filming me, you know, saying to get off their property. I wasn't on their property. I was actually just on the sidewalk. It's totally fine. And I was still leaving anyways. And she went back inside the fence and I had like one more word for John, you know, I can't remember what I can't remember what I said. I was just like trying to have one last shot at talking to John about this. And I was looking at him through the crack and

And I said one more thing to John before I got in the car. And he was kind of walking towards the camper, ignoring what I was saying or not paying any attention. And I said this, and about two seconds later, all of a sudden, he just burst into this rage and was like, I told you to get off the property. Like, it was literally instantaneous. He went from just like,

Maybe he can't hear me. Maybe he's hard of hearing to just instant rage, like, get the hell off my property. And I was like, whoa, maybe that's the thing that Jim Clemente is talking about. Maybe that part of John, whether it makes him guilty or not, I'm not even saying that. I'm just saying that I witnessed with my own eyes a instant temper change in John Van Syse.

That to me was notable. A side of John that you don't see in the news clips. And I don't think that it was, I think that it was on accident. I think that a little bit of rage came out. And I just thought that was pretty interesting. I'm telling you stuff that should be important to you. One of your friends is...

adamantly defending you and I'm giving her the platform to essentially do that and I want to talk to you about those things and you have no interest I'm sorry

That doesn't make sense to me. Can you go back a second and talk about the friend that was adamantly defending him? What was the piece of information that she said that she got all flustered about in the interview? Why did you go to John Van Zyce in the first place? What did the friend tell you that opened the door for that being something that you felt you had to do? And who told you that? He wishes to be unnamed, but I spoke to him in person. Okay. I don't want to say anything on camera about that, but I do know.

that that's not true. - Do you know who that person is? - Mm-hmm. - Why would you make it up? - Well, I don't wanna speculate. - So is there any way that this walk happened at a slightly different time? - Nope. - So all these events could have happened? - Nope, absolutely not. So the person you're talking about is

Yes. So what's the deal with this guy? So, John, we get done walking. I get in my car and I leave. It's got to be at least 7.30, if not quarter to 8. And ****** is the one that comes over to John's house. And he's the one that told John that Jodi's missing. It's the other way around. It's the other way around. But how do you know this? Because John told you this. Yes. So ******.

Why would...

built this narrative. To put it onto John. That's actually a huge deal because she's saying that John has made a statement that he's never made before in all of these years. He's saying that this guy told him this story, that the story is reversed. Well, he's never told police that. The thing about LaDonna Woodford, John Van Sise's friend, was that she had this alibi story and it was...

just super vague as to how long it took. It just conveniently took however much time it needed to take for John Van Sise to not look guilty. And she would really stress this walk happened, but like the walk only matters if we know the exact times of the walk, but she literally could never really even tell me that. It's like,

You can't just generalize this like, no, there's no way John could have done it because we were on a walk that morning. Okay, well, back up. Exactly what times were your walks? Or exactly what time was your walk? And like from that point, should we go to a different detail? And just classic kind of ignoring the question and evading the only details that matter, really. So it seems like here, I mean, okay, let's say they did take a walk.

The bottom line is that the timeline is so screwed up that somebody is lying about being with John at some time or John's lying about being with people. That's what it seems like. It seems like no matter what, something is not... You can't do all of those actions in the morning. And at some point in time, you have to find out that Jodi is missing. But also, I'd like to point out that Amy said when John...

Called the station. He didn't know she was missing. He just wanted to ask her something He wanted to talk to her and that's an important detail because he could actually have said, you know Someone told me she was missing. So then I called the station. That's not what he said he just called the station looking for and then you know, then he Said that what he said he said she was he said she was missing he said, you know, he was like, where is she? Is something wrong? Is she sick?

Yeah, I think the main takeaway for me is that either Jon Van Syce is lying or two other people are lying independent of one another. It's the lying about the time that he called the station and also lying about this friend who claims that Jon told him that Jodie was missing. Those both are lies, right?

Or one guy's lying and that's John Van Sise. So yeah. And to add to that, those two people you're talking about are not persons of interest in this case. Right. They're not persons of interest and they're not related. So they're two independent lies. They really have no, they're not leading towards anything. There's nothing for them to hide. Actually three because somebody else says they were with him that morning too. And that person also was with him in the morning hours and

And that person uniquely, separate from the other two women we were talking about, that person says that John knew she was missing when he met up with him. So in the morning, we have three different people that supposedly were with him or heard from him, two of which said didn't know that she was missing, one of which said definitely did. That's a lot of

information for John to get and a lot of people to be in contact with and none of them have a similar story. So something is something's off.

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After you visited John Van Sise, he hadn't talked in, you know, over 20 years about this case. And then all of a sudden he released an article with an, he teamed up with a journalist and released an article, Steve Ridge, the journalist. And all of a sudden there was this article where John Van Sise was talking about the case. How many, you know, weeks after when you went to visit him, did this happen? Yeah. After our brief and uneventful conversation in Arizona, uh,

just a few weeks later, all of a sudden, he makes contact with some local Mason City journalist and releases through him some official statement of sorts. So for whatever reason, you could definitely draw the conclusion that he was prompted to do that by me showing up. Maybe not. Maybe that's just a complete coincidence. But I just thought it was odd that he would do that because, again...

behavior that contradicts itself. When I was there, you could make the argument that, hey, this is someone who doesn't want to talk because they had nothing to do with this and leave that person alone. Well, that's not really true then because this person actually wants to talk. This person is going to another journalist. He knows nothing about me at all, but he chooses to make a statement, to try to control the narrative, to go an extra step

He told me that he wants nothing to do with this. Well, if that was the case, then why a few weeks later are you having something to do with this? Again, it's just like behavior that contradicts itself. That's what liars do. They say one thing and they really mean another. Or they say one thing and they do another. And that's what he did here in my opinion. He said he wanted nothing to do with this, but really he did or does.

Yeah, it is odd timing. I think bottom line here, he has a strange story that doesn't seem to fit. No one really can say what John was doing that morning and not have it be refuted by somebody else. But I think it would behoove him to probably talk on record. Even in this article that we have pulled up here, it's really all told from Steve Ridge, Steve Ridge's point of view.

of how John is doing in his life now, post the trauma of his friend going missing. And it does seem like he genuinely cared about Jodi. So that's why it's so odd. I mean, remember we heard reports of him naming his boat after her? In this article, he says he never did. Almost everyone in Mason City said his boat was named Jodi.

I thought John himself said he named his boat after her. In that interview? Yes. That's what I thought too. Yeah, I think he did. I think it's just been a long time and John doesn't remember exactly what he said. Yeah, what he said to everyone. Well, basically what the article says is that he clarified that it was never...

emblazoned onto his boat saying Jody that he just referred to the boat casually as Jody as a sign of like his admiration for her but that don't worry it was not officially named Jody so he named it after but he didn't write it on the side of the boat he said her name he said it was in referred to informally as Jody it's like look John that that's not the detail that we're honing in on that's not why we think this is weird

That's just one more thing, but I haven't mentioned that once. So like, hey, I want to get there. I want to set the record straight. I never really named that boat Jody. It's like, OK, great. But why did you call Amy Coons that morning? Or no, that wasn't you. And it was your friend. Well, well, damn, it's been two decades. Why are you just now saying this?

Or is that not really what you think? And that was just convenient at the time. And you told LaDonna that and LaDonna slipped up and told me that. And now it's a big deal. You know, it's interesting in the article, he says he had a steady girlfriend the entire time that he knew Jodi, but that they were never seen in public in Mason City out of the interest of her safety, allegedly because people in Mason City didn't

Thought John was dangerous? It doesn't really make sense. Also, if you watch the videotapes of Jodi's birthday party, I don't think I would like to be John's girlfriend if that's how he was dancing with another woman. It's just odd. The name of that other girlfriend, what he told LaDonna her name was? What? Joanie. Joanie? His other girlfriend that wasn't Jodi was actually named Joanie. Someone that no one knew. This can't be a real person. Right. Right.

That that sounds like something you make up on the fly. She said that off-camera. Joanie. Is that even a name? I don't I mean Maybe it's true, but here's the problem like I think that sounds ridiculous. Maybe it's true Maybe maybe Jon Van Syce actually had some other secret girlfriend who didn't tell anybody about named Joanie And he had nothing to do with Jody's disappearance But like hey, dude, you had your chance to set the record straight and

the fact is you never set the record straight before it's not like you've really been hounded for that many years this case was really big and then it went away and you haven't talked about it in decades and her family still doesn't know what happened to her and you were the last person to see her it's very unfortunate but it's your obligation to help out i'm sorry it really is it's like it's your obligation

If you're innocent and you just happen to be this close to this tragedy, it's your responsibility now to help figure out what happened in some capacity. And all we're saying, all I'm saying, is that have a real conversation. You clearly want to talk. You clearly want to defend yourself, even though I'm not even pointing fingers at you because you went and talked to another journalist to defend yourself.

It just seems like you want all the control. You want nothing to do with it when it's convenient. And you want everything to do with it when it's up to you. And you get to decide exactly how that story is told. You know, it's really interesting. In this article, Steve Ridge wrote that John Van Syce says the national media has also continued to pursue him. Mr. Van Syce says 48 hours recently showed up at his home unannounced and knocked on his door with cameras rolling and lights going.

Firstly, I've seen that clip. Yeah, that's a different clip. Oh, that wasn't recent, though. If he's thinking that Payne was with 48 Hours, that was recent. The other 48 Hours was a long time ago. No, he says later, Mr. Van Zy says a crew of 13 people in four vehicles from a national filmmaker showed up unannounced.

Did John literally sit there while I was trying to talk to him and point his finger and start counting heads of who was in the cars? I mean, that's impossible. Ridiculous. Yeah.

Steve Ridge writes in this article, Finally, let me emphatically restate that John Van Sise does not intend to make any further comment of any kind to the media. Mr. Van Sise asked me to convey that he will not be giving interviews to the news media under any circumstances. Mr. Van Sise asks that the media not attempt to contact him in person by phone, by mail or email. It seems like a direct response to us attempting to contact him.

The next episode in the Up and Vantage TV series airs this Saturday at 7, 6 central on Oxygen, where we cover the case of Karina Malinowski and Annette Sager. Next week, we'll have a follow-up podcast on the same case. So tune in then. Thanks, guys, and see you next week. Executive produced by Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. Additional production by Mike Rooney, Meredith Stedman, and Cooper Skinner. Voice narration by Rob Ricotta. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set.

A big thank you to the crew and everyone we spoke to during filming. Check out the show this weekend, only on Oxygen. If you have any questions about the cases covered by the Up and Vantage TV series, please call us at 770-545-6411. Again, that's 770-545-6411.