Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / MISSING TV ANCHOR'S SECRET FLING WITH MYSTERY MAN BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARS?

Transcript

MISSING TV ANCHOR'S SECRET FLING WITH MYSTERY MAN BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARS? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stores with Nancy Grace.
0:07
Speaker 2: Did a missing TV anchor have a secret fling with
0:11
Speaker 2: a mystery man just before she disappears? Clues left behind
0:16
Speaker 2: a hair dryer and a pair of red high heels.
0:20
Speaker 2: Good evening, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank
0:23
Speaker 2: you for being with us.
0:25
Speaker 3: We never, you know, anticipate anything like this ever happening.
0:29
Speaker 3: We thought Jody would be safe in Mason City. It
0:33
Speaker 3: wasn't that big of a community, and she just she
0:36
Speaker 3: took a lot of safety courses and stuff, and she
0:41
Speaker 3: she was careful, she really was. She wanted to have
0:43
Speaker 3: a good reputation in the community. And yeah, we were
0:47
Speaker 3: just stunned. We were on a bus trip up north,
0:50
Speaker 3: my mom and aunt just oh with the group of ladies,
0:55
Speaker 3: you know, and we were going to this casino.
0:59
Speaker 4: It was going to be.
0:59
Speaker 3: Any and so we were up in Walker, Minnesota, and
1:04
Speaker 3: then they asked us to come to the room when
1:08
Speaker 3: we got there and that there was an emergency phone call.
1:11
Speaker 3: It was shortly after we arrived, and so we came
1:14
Speaker 3: in and they said it's from Mason City and roy away.
1:17
Speaker 3: My mom said, oh, no, Jody, and we thought maybe
1:20
Speaker 3: she'd been in a car accident, that's right, and she'll
1:23
Speaker 3: be okay.
1:23
Speaker 2: Jody Hugh's in truth seemingly vanishes in thin air.
1:28
Speaker 1: All the left behind a few clues, a pair of
1:30
Speaker 1: red high heels, a hair dryer.
1:33
Speaker 2: Signs of potentially a scuffle near her car where she
1:38
Speaker 2: parked at the studio. Typically she had an early early
1:43
Speaker 2: morning shift on air, but she never made it. What
1:49
Speaker 2: happened to Jody? Just then, you were hearing Jody's sister
1:53
Speaker 2: describing going on an all girls trip to a casino
1:57
Speaker 2: when they were told they had an emergency phone call,
2:01
Speaker 2: and they went and we're told something has happened to Jody.
2:06
Speaker 2: They naturally, oh, dear, there's been a car accident. But
2:12
Speaker 2: there's more.
2:13
Speaker 1: Listen.
2:13
Speaker 3: Halverson said, oh, she's missing, Joanne, are you sitting down?
2:18
Speaker 3: And I said missing. Well, we'll find her, you know,
2:21
Speaker 3: there's some mistake. Why would she be missing, you know.
2:25
Speaker 3: But then we got pretty nervous and about it all,
2:30
Speaker 3: of course, and we left. They provided a vehicle for
2:33
Speaker 3: us to go back to Long Purrie. They brought us.
2:37
Speaker 3: It was quite a drive too, but yeah, it was
2:40
Speaker 3: very hard. And then we got back and nobody had
2:42
Speaker 3: found her, you know, by the end, of the day,
2:44
Speaker 3: and so then we were getting very worried, but we
2:47
Speaker 3: thought it'd be that it was some kind of a mistake,
2:50
Speaker 3: that she would be found and she'd be okay.
2:53
Speaker 2: What happened to Jody? First, I want to go out
2:56
Speaker 2: to former Angler reporter k I M t is the
3:00
Speaker 2: station where Jody was on air, Tarah Getman joining us. Tarah,
3:08
Speaker 2: thank you so much for being with us. What do
3:11
Speaker 2: you recall around the time that Jody disappeared?
3:15
Speaker 5: Everybody that was a close friend of hers had to
3:19
Speaker 5: put on their journalists had and cover the abduction and
3:23
Speaker 5: disappearance of their friend. It was a very bizarre time.
3:27
Speaker 2: I'm thinking through what could have happened to Jody, who's
3:31
Speaker 2: in truth this as we were learning about claims she
3:35
Speaker 2: had just started a fleeing with a mystery man just
3:40
Speaker 2: before she goes missing. But what facts are actually left
3:44
Speaker 2: behind at the scene. Tarah Getman joining us, formerly reporter
3:50
Speaker 2: kay I Empty Where Jody worked?
3:54
Speaker 1: What time of the day or night it was Jody
3:57
Speaker 1: on air?
3:58
Speaker 5: She was a morning news anchor at the time, and
4:01
Speaker 5: it was not uncharacteristic of her to come into work
4:05
Speaker 5: running late. You know how that goes for those morning
4:07
Speaker 5: shifts in small town TV networks or markets. Rather, so
4:12
Speaker 5: the producer was not incredibly alarmed when Jody never showed
4:17
Speaker 5: a bit and jump into the role of filling in
4:20
Speaker 5: for Jody, so as we know when you're under resourced
4:23
Speaker 5: in those small market newsroomly so, there just was not
4:26
Speaker 5: a sense of urgency, knowing that was so rare for
4:29
Speaker 5: something like this to happen, that a lot of time
4:31
Speaker 5: was lost where the police weren't called until ultimately about
4:35
Speaker 5: four hours after she was potentially abducted, joining me.
4:39
Speaker 2: High profile lawyer and prosecutor Wendy Patrick. She's the author
4:43
Speaker 2: of several books, Red Flags, Why Bad Looks Good, and
4:49
Speaker 2: Reading People, Wendy. Jody had to be at work at
4:55
Speaker 2: six a m. Now, listen to this that morning she
4:59
Speaker 2: actually spoke to a producer on the phone and said
5:03
Speaker 2: she would be there in time for the six am broadcast.
5:06
Speaker 1: So when we're saying morning shift.
5:08
Speaker 2: A lot of people think of a nine to five,
5:11
Speaker 2: nine o'clock in the morning. No, she had to be
5:14
Speaker 2: on the air at six am, which means she probably
5:18
Speaker 2: had to be in the studio somewhere in the building
5:22
Speaker 2: by four to be in here in makeup, to read
5:25
Speaker 2: everything she had to read to know about what had
5:28
Speaker 2: happened that morning in the news and the overnights she
5:31
Speaker 2: had to get there. I would say around four am
5:33
Speaker 2: to prep. So when we're hearing about the morning shift,
5:37
Speaker 2: what does that mean to us? Wendy Patrick evidentiarily it
5:43
Speaker 2: means she's up around two thirty or three in the
5:46
Speaker 2: morning in order to get to work by four. There's
5:50
Speaker 2: nobody around the streets. Everything is dark in a less
5:56
Speaker 2: populated area.
5:57
Speaker 1: There may not be street lights.
6:00
Speaker 2: There's nobody idling at a red light or an intersection.
6:04
Speaker 2: They're no witnesses, That's what I'm getting at. And a
6:08
Speaker 2: largely abandoned parking lot. It's not like you're pulling into
6:13
Speaker 2: Kroger at high noon where it's packs right, there's nobody there.
6:19
Speaker 2: So getting to her car, getting in her car, getting
6:24
Speaker 2: to the station, getting out of her car, going into
6:28
Speaker 2: the station. For a stalker, this is prime hunting time
6:33
Speaker 2: because nobody is around, right.
6:37
Speaker 1: But that leaves me a little.
6:38
Speaker 2: Bit further, Wendy, go with me, and then I want
6:41
Speaker 2: to hear your analysis. Who and the hay would be
6:44
Speaker 2: up at that time of the morning other than somebody
6:49
Speaker 2: that was stalking her.
6:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's exactly the way I was going to tie
6:53
Speaker 4: it up. Thank you for that. Yet, you think about
6:55
Speaker 4: who would basically keep those types of hours. It would
6:59
Speaker 4: have to be somebody that not only knew that Jody
7:02
Speaker 4: was on at six, but also knew the routine involved
7:04
Speaker 4: to be on at six. Unless you're in the business,
7:07
Speaker 4: sometimes people underestimate the amount of prep time, the time
7:10
Speaker 4: it takes to drive somewhere. But Nancy, there's more to
7:13
Speaker 4: this particular story that struck my eye. She overslept, so
7:17
Speaker 4: she wouldn't have been walking to her car at the
7:19
Speaker 4: time she normally did. In addition to that, the lighting
7:23
Speaker 4: would have been different. So there's a couple other factors
7:26
Speaker 4: that make this morning different.
7:28
Speaker 6: Okay wa wa white wait wait wait wait wait, okay,
7:33
Speaker 6: hold on, I'm with you in that she overslept, but
7:37
Speaker 6: she was alive that morning.
7:39
Speaker 2: But she spoke to the producer and said she would
7:41
Speaker 2: be there in time for her six a m. Broadcast
7:44
Speaker 2: and to be on the air. As you well know,
7:46
Speaker 2: you don't just show up a minute, five minutes, ten
7:49
Speaker 2: minutes before you go on air. It's a process. You've
7:52
Speaker 2: got to be prepared and ready. You have to read
7:55
Speaker 2: your scripts, if you're someone that has to have scripts,
7:58
Speaker 2: you've got to read the news. You've got to be
8:00
Speaker 2: with your research. You've got to know the game plan,
8:03
Speaker 2: the drill for the production. You don't just come and
8:05
Speaker 2: flop down in a chair and start talking. It doesn't
8:09
Speaker 2: worry that way. So when you say she overslept, she
8:12
Speaker 2: assured them should be there in time to make the
8:15
Speaker 2: six am hit, right, which means she would have been
8:18
Speaker 2: there by at least five.
8:20
Speaker 1: But we know she was alive that morning.
8:22
Speaker 2: So when you're saying she was late, who was talking,
8:25
Speaker 2: Whoever was talking her, wouldn't have seen her come out. No,
8:28
Speaker 2: I guarantee you they were perched somewhere waiting, and they
8:32
Speaker 2: may have been ill. They may have looked at their
8:34
Speaker 2: watch a couple of times. But what you're saying the
8:38
Speaker 2: kidnapper was inconvenience, You know what, I know what I'm
8:41
Speaker 2: he and I guarantee it's some man waited on her.
8:44
Speaker 3: Right.
8:44
Speaker 4: What I'm saying is, if you do have that mindset,
8:47
Speaker 4: whether or not the routine is deviated from even by
8:51
Speaker 4: a little bit, you're gonna wait. If you are there
8:53
Speaker 4: and that's your intention, you're going to wait it out
8:55
Speaker 4: and whenever she comes out, you're going to be ready.
8:57
Speaker 4: But let me also say that the small town aspect
9:00
Speaker 4: of this crime also caught my eye, because sometimes people
9:03
Speaker 4: are more situationally aware in areas that are notoriously dangerous.
9:08
Speaker 4: This wasn't an area that was notoriously dangerous. Small Town
9:12
Speaker 4: atmospheres often mean familiarity breeds complacency in some sense. You
9:18
Speaker 4: have the same routine every morning, your guard tends to
9:21
Speaker 4: be down, nothing has happened so far. You do the
9:23
Speaker 4: same thing in the same way. You walk across the
9:25
Speaker 4: same parking lots, you take the same route. That can
9:28
Speaker 4: be dangerous if you have a stalker like this gorgeous
9:31
Speaker 4: young woman might have had, who is able to easily
9:35
Speaker 4: learn the routines that she has become so comfortable with.
9:45
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
9:51
Speaker 2: You know, it's curious even now, the population is below
9:56
Speaker 2: thirty thousand in this area Mason City, Iowa. But at
10:01
Speaker 2: the time that Jody, Who's in truth, went missing, the
10:05
Speaker 2: population was in the mid twenty thousands that year, right,
10:10
Speaker 2: And that means so much forensically joining me in addition
10:15
Speaker 2: to Wendy Patrick really a prolific author and instructor and
10:20
Speaker 2: Tara Getman, who worked at the same station as Jody
10:23
Speaker 2: Hou's in trut Steve Ridge is with us private investigator extraordinary.
10:31
Speaker 2: You're very well versed in the disappearance of Jody Houston truth,
10:35
Speaker 2: Steve Ridge. Just a four mile a distance between where
10:39
Speaker 2: she worked at the station and her apartment, just four
10:44
Speaker 2: point one miles she had to drive in the morning.
10:47
Speaker 2: That's less than a five minute drive at three o'clock
10:49
Speaker 2: in the morning.
10:50
Speaker 7: Steve, that's right, And I think you're also right that
10:54
Speaker 7: someone was perching and waiting. There is no doubt, based
10:58
Speaker 7: on the work that I've done on this case five years,
11:00
Speaker 7: that there was an individual that intended to confront Jody
11:07
Speaker 7: that morning. And we don't know whether the confrontation was
11:11
Speaker 7: meant to be an abduction or not, but it certainly
11:14
Speaker 7: turned into an abduction.
11:16
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that, Well, I think this.
11:19
Speaker 7: Is a crime of jealousy. If you want me to
11:22
Speaker 7: kind of cut through where I am on the case
11:25
Speaker 7: at this juncture, I think there's little doubt that the
11:28
Speaker 7: individual that did this had asked personal aspirations of a relationship,
11:35
Speaker 7: long term relationship, and had been rebuffed along the way,
11:42
Speaker 7: and was determined.
11:43
Speaker 2: Hold on just a moment. Hold on, you've got me
11:45
Speaker 2: drinking out of the fire, hyd gest. Steve Ridge is
11:47
Speaker 2: a very well known private investigator, and he sees the
11:51
Speaker 2: fingerprints of a rebuffed mail all over this. I'm very
11:57
Speaker 2: curious about your thinking joining me, Doctor Jeff Klashwski, and
12:02
Speaker 2: I'm not disagreeing with Steve Ridge at all. I'm intrigued.
12:08
Speaker 2: I want this case solved like everybody else. Doctor Jeff Klishevski,
12:12
Speaker 2: forensic psychologist. You can find him on YouTube a doctor
12:16
Speaker 2: Jeff Kalishevski, forensic psychologist. Doctor Jeff explain to me why
12:25
Speaker 2: this has the hallmarks of a stalker, and how a
12:30
Speaker 2: kidnapping by a stalker would then be exacerbated and escalated
12:35
Speaker 2: into a potential murder. And if you really want a
12:39
Speaker 2: relationship with a woman, why would you confront her outside
12:43
Speaker 2: of her car when she's trying to dash in.
12:45
Speaker 8: Well, a couple of things here. I know a lot
12:47
Speaker 8: about this case. I was a graduate student at the
12:49
Speaker 8: University of Iowa when this happened, so I followed this
12:52
Speaker 8: case over the years. One thing that strikes me my
12:56
Speaker 8: knowledge of the case is there wasn't a lot of
12:59
Speaker 8: overt eye obvious evidence left behind. So not that I
13:05
Speaker 8: would disagree with Steve, but I wonder and I think
13:09
Speaker 8: about this as obviously a very well planned and well
13:13
Speaker 8: executed abduction, and I would argue that this was probably
13:18
Speaker 8: done by someone who's done something like this before, rather
13:22
Speaker 8: than an impulsive act by a deranged fan.
13:26
Speaker 9: Jody was at her car and it appears that she
13:31
Speaker 9: was attempting to put the key in the door lock
13:34
Speaker 9: to open the door to her car when she was grabbed,
13:39
Speaker 9: more likely from behind, because there's indications or the key
13:43
Speaker 9: that she had was bent, which tells me that she
13:47
Speaker 9: had to keep in the door lock when she was grabbed,
13:49
Speaker 9: So the force of somebody grabbing her pushed her towards
13:54
Speaker 9: the front of the car, possibly and bent the key.
13:57
Speaker 9: The driver's side on the door was also bent forward,
14:03
Speaker 9: and again that indicates there's a struggle taking place and
14:07
Speaker 9: the perpetrator has grabbed her and has taken her towards
14:11
Speaker 9: the front of the car away from her apartment building.
14:14
Speaker 1: So what do we know.
14:15
Speaker 2: The driver's side mirror on the door was also bent forward.
14:20
Speaker 2: That indicates a struggle taking place outside of Jody's car.
14:25
Speaker 2: Does it suggest the perpetrator grabbed her and was taking
14:28
Speaker 2: her toward the front of the car and away from
14:32
Speaker 2: her apartment building.
14:33
Speaker 1: What more do we know the key, the key to
14:37
Speaker 1: the car was bent.
14:39
Speaker 2: Back to Steve Ridge, private investigator who has closely studied
14:43
Speaker 2: Jody's disappearance, tell me the significance about the key, Well.
14:47
Speaker 7: I think it's clear that the key was at least
14:50
Speaker 7: partially engaged in the door, or that it was all
14:54
Speaker 7: the way in the door lock, and that as the
14:58
Speaker 7: individual spun Jody or her hand came out and the
15:04
Speaker 7: force of her body being moved upward toward the rear
15:08
Speaker 7: view mirror would have potentially bent that key and then
15:12
Speaker 7: dropped it on the ground.
15:13
Speaker 2: But would you agree, see Ridge, And I'm not saying
15:16
Speaker 2: that's not how it happened, but the key could have
15:19
Speaker 2: been bent in any number of ways.
15:23
Speaker 7: That's true. Although I think having gone through this in
15:28
Speaker 7: great detail and looked at where all of the other
15:31
Speaker 7: items were found laying and the bent mirror and a
15:36
Speaker 7: palm print that was found on the car, you know,
15:40
Speaker 7: we've come to the conclusion that it probably was bent
15:44
Speaker 7: partially while it was engaged in the lock.
15:47
Speaker 1: Question where on the car was the palm print?
15:50
Speaker 7: Steam it was behind the This is a small Masdamiata
15:56
Speaker 7: with just a single door, and it was just behind
15:59
Speaker 7: the door on the upper part of the car. So
16:03
Speaker 7: it was in an area.
16:05
Speaker 1: Where oh no, wait wait wait wait, wait right, wait.
16:08
Speaker 2: Wait, okay, we've got a Miata, which, yes, is small.
16:12
Speaker 2: When you say a single door, there's a single door
16:14
Speaker 2: on either side on each side, and you're saying it
16:17
Speaker 2: was above that on the driver side.
16:20
Speaker 7: Well, it was actually behind the door on the upper
16:24
Speaker 7: panel of the car, so more in the area where
16:28
Speaker 7: you would typically see a side gas tank mounted on
16:31
Speaker 7: a car.
16:32
Speaker 2: That's more the reason on the driver side is my question.
16:36
Speaker 2: That's correct, Yes, you know all those things together. I
16:40
Speaker 2: don't know if you agree with me or not, Wendy Patrick.
16:44
Speaker 2: I think he's right. I think Steve Ridge is right.
16:47
Speaker 2: And the reason I'm focusing on this so much is
16:52
Speaker 2: I'm trying to determine who would have approached her on
16:56
Speaker 2: her side of.
16:57
Speaker 1: The car that early in the morning. What do you
17:02
Speaker 1: make of those clues.
17:03
Speaker 2: We've got the key bent as if it had been
17:06
Speaker 2: put in the in the car door. That makes sense
17:09
Speaker 2: to me, because a human could just bend it had
17:13
Speaker 2: to be in that lot to be pushed forward. You
17:18
Speaker 2: had to have some mechanical force to actually bend the
17:22
Speaker 2: key to the car. Then you've got the side mirror moved,
17:26
Speaker 2: and then you've got an unknown palm print.
17:29
Speaker 1: I don't know what that really means.
17:30
Speaker 2: Anybody could touch the car, but all of that being
17:33
Speaker 2: at the driver's door is significant, Wendy.
17:36
Speaker 4: It is significant, and it also is significant as to
17:39
Speaker 4: how fast this might have happened. When you figure out, well,
17:43
Speaker 4: how were we even going to start a search for subjects?
17:45
Speaker 4: The first question is would it have been somebody that
17:47
Speaker 4: she knew that would have approached her in that fashion
17:51
Speaker 4: and that quickly to have been the key to have
17:55
Speaker 4: been the mirror to have caused the dynamics of that
17:58
Speaker 4: car that appear to be more like a stranger rushing up,
18:01
Speaker 4: And then where did he come from? So the fact
18:03
Speaker 4: that this occurred on the driver's side of the door
18:06
Speaker 4: would also let investigators, which they obviously did, start looking
18:10
Speaker 4: at the dynamics of what's the lighting like in that
18:13
Speaker 4: in that particular parking lot, Where would they have come from?
18:16
Speaker 4: Who might have seen something? This is way before ring cameras,
18:19
Speaker 4: so they had some real old school, good investigatory techniques
18:24
Speaker 4: that they could start with just looking at those clues
18:27
Speaker 4: you've just mentioned.
18:28
Speaker 2: And joining me now is a special guest, Tammy Baker,
18:32
Speaker 2: a very dear friend a Jody's. Tammy, thank you for
18:36
Speaker 2: being with.
18:36
Speaker 1: Us, Thank you for doing the story. Tammy, tell me
18:40
Speaker 1: your recollections of Jody.
18:42
Speaker 10: I have so many great memor She was effervescent, She
18:49
Speaker 10: was very, very smart, very driven, could be very nian,
18:57
Speaker 10: which I sometimes reminded her that she needed to be
19:00
Speaker 10: more cautious with people. She was just a lot of
19:04
Speaker 10: fun and she was She didn't have a problem asserting herself.
19:09
Speaker 10: It was one of the things that I was really happy.
19:12
Speaker 1: Did you say she was naive? She was very naive,
19:15
Speaker 1: yet very naive she was.
19:18
Speaker 2: At the time that Jodie went missing. What did you
19:23
Speaker 2: think happened?
19:24
Speaker 10: You know, I had just spent the previous two weekends
19:26
Speaker 10: with her and saw her on Sundays. When I got
19:29
Speaker 10: home from work Tuesday evening, I had all these messages
19:33
Speaker 10: on my machine. It said what happened to Jodi? And
19:37
Speaker 10: I didn't know anything about it. So I went looked
19:40
Speaker 10: watch the news and I just figured somebody grabbed her
19:46
Speaker 10: because she was not the kind of person to be irresponsible,
19:51
Speaker 10: and she wouldn't just take off. And this was before
19:53
Speaker 10: knowing about the tati and the mirror and all that.
19:56
Speaker 10: But it just didn't make any sense, and I just
19:58
Speaker 10: I broke down immediately. I knew it was something horrible.
20:02
Speaker 2: But what did you think had happened? What was your
20:05
Speaker 2: immediate gut thought? Because Tammy, I found so often that
20:09
Speaker 2: those closest to the victims, their immediate thoughts are typically correct.
20:15
Speaker 1: What did you think had happened to her?
20:18
Speaker 10: My first thought was that somebody grabbed her. My first
20:21
Speaker 10: thought was that she was being stalked and at somebody
20:25
Speaker 10: ambusher when she was on her way to work early
20:28
Speaker 10: in the morning, because there would be no one around.
20:31
Speaker 2: Guys, you were hearing Timmy Baker, Jody's dear friend who
20:36
Speaker 2: was with her in the days leading up to her disappearance.
20:40
Speaker 2: You know, Steve Ridge joining me private Investigator along with
20:44
Speaker 2: Wendy Patrick, doctor Jeff and Tara Gettman. Steve, it does
20:51
Speaker 2: have all the fingerprints, the earmarks of a sexual stalker.
20:56
Speaker 2: And when I say sexual, I don't necessarily meane she
20:59
Speaker 2: was in a sexual lifelationship. I mean someone that cared
21:03
Speaker 2: enough to follow her to stalk her. That's almost always
21:08
Speaker 2: someone you know. There are very few random stalkings. It
21:13
Speaker 2: had to be someone willing to get up and be
21:16
Speaker 2: in that parking lot at say three or four o'clock
21:19
Speaker 2: in the morning, knowing her routine, who know her routine.
21:26
Speaker 2: All of this leads to someone that knows her did
21:31
Speaker 2: this to her.
21:32
Speaker 7: I think there's no doubt that it was someone that
21:35
Speaker 7: knew her, and that knew her very well. And I
21:38
Speaker 7: can tell you, without getting a lot more specific, that
21:42
Speaker 7: I have actually narrowed it down to one of four
21:45
Speaker 7: people in total who I believe make that list if
21:51
Speaker 7: you will. And that's why it's frustrating that people are
21:56
Speaker 7: not coming forward to talk about what they know. There
21:58
Speaker 7: are people out there that know more about this case
22:02
Speaker 7: than have ever been shared.
22:04
Speaker 11: What we know is there are a pair of red
22:05
Speaker 11: high heels, which would seem to suggest that Jody was
22:08
Speaker 11: likely wearing something with red or all read that day.
22:11
Speaker 11: We don't know exactly. As far as we know, what
22:13
Speaker 11: she was wearing has never been found. There is hairspray,
22:16
Speaker 11: there is a blow dryer, there are earrings, so the
22:18
Speaker 11: basics of what you would wear to go on the air.
22:21
Speaker 11: What's missing is a bag that she carried it in.
22:24
Speaker 11: We've never heard anything about whether that was located. Presumably
22:28
Speaker 11: Jody did not run to her car carrying all these
22:30
Speaker 11: things in her arms. Doesn't make sense.
22:32
Speaker 9: So where is that bag?
22:33
Speaker 2: To Wendy Patrick, joining US prosecutor and author of not
22:38
Speaker 2: one but three books, including Red Flags, and I'm focusing
22:42
Speaker 2: on that book of yours because out of all of them,
22:47
Speaker 2: I believe that directly impacts on this case. But first
22:52
Speaker 2: of all, since you're also a prosecutor, I want you
22:55
Speaker 2: to address the clues left behind the red she use,
23:01
Speaker 2: the high heels, I'm very curious, the blow dryer, hairspray,
23:09
Speaker 2: everything she would need to get ready to go on
23:12
Speaker 2: the air.
23:13
Speaker 1: But the bag is gone. What does all this mean
23:17
Speaker 1: to you? Indy?
23:18
Speaker 4: You know, when I first read it, I thought that
23:20
Speaker 4: sounds like the signs of a struggle. That there would
23:23
Speaker 4: have been a bag and there would have been some
23:25
Speaker 4: kind of a tussle outside the car. But you would
23:28
Speaker 4: have thought that would have created noise, and I would
23:32
Speaker 4: have thought there would have been neighbors that would have
23:33
Speaker 4: heard screaming or something that would have led them to
23:36
Speaker 4: believe there's an act of struggle. Going on in the
23:39
Speaker 4: parking lot. But because that wasn't the case, you wonder
23:42
Speaker 4: whether or not maybe those were the items that were
23:45
Speaker 4: taken without a bag. That was actually a thought that
23:48
Speaker 4: I had, when in combination with the fact that she
23:51
Speaker 4: was running late, that it wouldn't have been convenient to
23:54
Speaker 4: just have everything nicely ready to go. But one way
23:57
Speaker 4: or another, it also begs the question of you know,
24:00
Speaker 4: this couldn't possibly be somebody that already knew her. It
24:03
Speaker 4: sounded more like she was surprised and that these were
24:07
Speaker 4: the items that were dropped at the last minute as
24:09
Speaker 4: she struggled with an assailant. That's one of the reasonable
24:13
Speaker 4: interpretations I think of that property that was scattered at
24:16
Speaker 4: the scene.
24:17
Speaker 1: And there's more. Listen, she was dragged easterly.
24:20
Speaker 11: They saw marks in the silt, if you will, and
24:23
Speaker 11: they believed that that's what happened, That she was drigged
24:25
Speaker 11: easterly most toward Kentucky Avenue, which is the main road
24:29
Speaker 11: going by the Key apartments where Jody lived.
24:31
Speaker 2: So how could they tell how could they tell Steve
24:36
Speaker 2: Ridge she was dragged in an easterly direction.
24:39
Speaker 7: Well, it had been very rainy in that particular three
24:44
Speaker 7: day period, there are quite a lot of rain. In fact,
24:47
Speaker 7: it had actually canceled the golf tournament the day before
24:50
Speaker 7: that Jody was to play in, and so it was
24:54
Speaker 7: there was mud. Even in areas where there was grass,
24:58
Speaker 7: it was wet enough that the heel of a person
25:01
Speaker 7: being drug along the area would have made an indentation.
25:06
Speaker 7: I believe that she was probably wearing tennis shoes or
25:09
Speaker 7: some other type of shoe and was carrying not only
25:13
Speaker 7: the bag over her shoulder, but she probably had those
25:17
Speaker 7: high heels and the hair dryer in her arms and
25:21
Speaker 7: was in a hurry, and those were the things that fell.
25:24
Speaker 7: I think that she was actually abducted, that is, lifted
25:28
Speaker 7: off the ground or drug with the bag still attached
25:32
Speaker 7: up over her shoulder.
25:34
Speaker 2: Meg Too, Jody's dear friend, Tamar Tammy Baker Tammy, what
25:39
Speaker 2: does this mean to you? And yes, we're going through
25:42
Speaker 2: it in a meticulous fashion. We're looking at every single
25:45
Speaker 2: clue that's been left behind. What does it mean to
25:49
Speaker 2: you that the items she normally carried in that bag
25:51
Speaker 2: were strewn outside her car, that she apparently was dragged.
25:56
Speaker 1: What does it mean to you?
25:57
Speaker 2: Does it reinforce your opinion that she was being sexually
26:02
Speaker 2: stalked by someone.
26:03
Speaker 10: I believe that whoever it was came up behind her
26:08
Speaker 10: and surprised her. But I also know from being out
26:12
Speaker 10: with her on many occasions that if a stranger approached
26:16
Speaker 10: her and said, I've seen you on air, I love
26:19
Speaker 10: your show, she would always stop and talk to them,
26:22
Speaker 10: and it didn't matter who they were or where we were.
26:25
Speaker 10: And if a stranger, I've always thought it was a
26:29
Speaker 10: stranger because someone who knew her routine would know that
26:34
Speaker 10: something was wrong because she didn't leave at her normal time,
26:37
Speaker 10: and a stranger who was just stalking who would.
26:40
Speaker 2: Not know that, You know, Tara Getman, who former anchor
26:43
Speaker 2: at the same station, KIMT. That's a whole nother layer
26:48
Speaker 2: of JODI's disappearance. We keep saying it was a sexual
26:52
Speaker 2: stalking either someone that wanted to be intimate with her,
26:56
Speaker 2: had been intimate with her, had dreams of a relationship,
26:59
Speaker 2: But in fact that she's on TV that changes things, Tara,
27:04
Speaker 2: because so many people see you and can't imagine that
27:08
Speaker 2: they've got a relationship with you. It doesn't necessarily mean
27:12
Speaker 2: you've ever even met What about that?
27:15
Speaker 1: Absolutely?
27:15
Speaker 5: And as you know, Nancy, that TV News was appointment television.
27:19
Speaker 5: Everybody in that community watched Jody.
27:23
Speaker 1: They loved her.
27:24
Speaker 5: The list of suspects was over two hundred because she
27:28
Speaker 5: was popular, she was social, and everyone talked to her,
27:31
Speaker 5: and so to sort out all of these fans, if
27:34
Speaker 5: you will, was very challenging. Not to mention, we had
27:38
Speaker 5: no formal structure for capturing tips that would regularly.
27:42
Speaker 9: Come into the newsroom.
27:43
Speaker 5: I can remember countless times fielding calls from somebody that
27:48
Speaker 5: was at the Flying Jay truck stop in Omaha saying
27:51
Speaker 5: they think they just spotted Jody. So it was very
27:55
Speaker 5: challenging at that time with all of that information that
27:59
Speaker 5: was flooding in with like a fire hydrant, with no
28:03
Speaker 5: way to recording or turn it over to authority.
28:07
Speaker 2: To doctor Jeff Klshwski joining US forensic psychologist on YouTube
28:11
Speaker 2: at doctor Jeff Kalshowski forensic Psychologist, Doctor Jeff, that's a
28:16
Speaker 2: whole other layer to finding the purp because typically this
28:21
Speaker 2: does look like a sexual stalking someone that either does
28:24
Speaker 2: or wants to have a relationship or reignite a dead relationship,
28:29
Speaker 2: an intimate relationship.
28:31
Speaker 1: That's what it.
28:31
Speaker 2: Looks like, right, But I think we're discounting the fact
28:34
Speaker 2: that This gorgeous young girl is on TV for the
28:38
Speaker 2: entire morning.
28:40
Speaker 1: People see her all around the region.
28:43
Speaker 2: Do you know how many times female anchors have stalkers
28:48
Speaker 2: they've never even met or spoken to?
28:50
Speaker 8: Right, and again, what happens in this case is everyone's
28:54
Speaker 8: coming in with all different theories because there's just not
28:57
Speaker 8: a lot of obvious evidence. You've covered many abductions on
29:02
Speaker 8: this show. I've seen abductions in my clinical practice. There
29:06
Speaker 8: tends to be more evidence laying around. It gives you
29:08
Speaker 8: better places to start and better questions to ask. In
29:13
Speaker 8: this case, it's wide open, which from my perspective, really
29:17
Speaker 8: leads me to start to think that how well planned,
29:23
Speaker 8: how not much evidence was left behind, that this was
29:27
Speaker 8: someone who sort of knew what they were doing.
29:33
Speaker 12: About one quarter of a mile from the apartment complex
29:39
Speaker 12: was searched along the river bank and out extending from
29:42
Speaker 12: the river bank, and there were a number of heads
29:46
Speaker 12: along the river bank. However, we have not confirmed whether
29:49
Speaker 12: those would be something that we would follow up on
29:52
Speaker 12: or not. We are back at the river bank with
29:56
Speaker 12: the canines and we are going to to see if
30:00
Speaker 12: there is additional hits along the river. If so, we
30:04
Speaker 12: will then load the canines into a boat and see
30:08
Speaker 12: if we can do a grid search along the river.
30:18
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace Wendy Patrick, prosecutor and author.
30:28
Speaker 2: I think that we have rushed to a judgment here,
30:33
Speaker 2: and that is that the purpose has to be somebody
30:36
Speaker 2: that knows her and is a sexual stalker. I'm not
30:38
Speaker 2: saying that's not true, but we have to open up
30:41
Speaker 2: the field to other suspects since she's on TV every
30:45
Speaker 2: single morning.
30:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's absolutely true. And you know, if
30:48
Speaker 4: we narrow the focus too quickly, too early, then we
30:51
Speaker 4: may miss clues that would be of enormous relevance if
30:54
Speaker 4: we just kind of, you know, thought the big picture here. Yes,
30:58
Speaker 4: she's on TV, lots of people will know her. It
31:00
Speaker 4: doesn't need to be somebody that's pathological obsessed. It could
31:04
Speaker 4: simply be somebody that knows her routine, maybe even lives
31:07
Speaker 4: in the area or actually knows her socially. So when
31:12
Speaker 4: we broaden the range of suspects to include all of
31:16
Speaker 4: the above, it really allows us to think about other
31:19
Speaker 4: avenues to go in determining who might have been there
31:22
Speaker 4: that morning, who may have seen her within the last
31:25
Speaker 4: couple of months, who may live in that area, and
31:28
Speaker 4: it allows us to more objectively think about who are
31:31
Speaker 4: we going to suspect.
31:33
Speaker 2: For instance, a man twenty two years older than her
31:36
Speaker 2: with a seeming fascination with her.
31:38
Speaker 1: Listen.
31:39
Speaker 13: John von Seize, a man twenty two years older than
31:41
Speaker 13: Jody who's in Drew, develops a friendship with Jody. Some
31:44
Speaker 13: suggest he has romantic feelings for Jody that she does
31:47
Speaker 13: not reciprocate. Van Seis holds a birthday party for Jody's
31:51
Speaker 13: twenty seventh birthday, and the night before her disappearance, he
31:54
Speaker 13: invites her to come to his house and watch the
31:56
Speaker 13: video from the party. Van Zeiz tells police and the
31:59
Speaker 13: media he treats it's Jody like his own child, like
32:01
Speaker 13: a daughter, but some of Jody's friends suggest Van Seiss
32:04
Speaker 13: has deeper feelings for Jody. Van Seiss becomes a person
32:07
Speaker 13: of interest to police.
32:09
Speaker 2: He insists it is more like an uncle niece or
32:12
Speaker 2: father daughter relationship, but that is not born out by
32:16
Speaker 2: the facts. Listen.
32:17
Speaker 11: His name is John van Seiss, he was twenty two
32:20
Speaker 11: years older than Jody, and just two days earlier that weekend,
32:24
Speaker 11: he and several of Jody's friends had gotten together in
32:27
Speaker 11: northern Iowa to go on a water skiing trip. In fact,
32:30
Speaker 11: she writes about him in her journal. The last thing
32:33
Speaker 11: she writes about two days before she disappeared, talks about
32:36
Speaker 11: what a great time she had with John van Seiss
32:38
Speaker 11: her other friends Annie Cruz and Tammy Baker. So he's
32:42
Speaker 11: an older friend who has spent a lot of time
32:44
Speaker 11: with her in the last couple months before she disappeared.
32:47
Speaker 2: You are hearing our friend Carolyn Lowe, investigative journalist at
32:51
Speaker 2: Fine Jody dot Com Find Jody podcast to Tamara Tammy Baker.
32:58
Speaker 2: Did you know about this guy John Van Siss.
33:03
Speaker 10: Well, well, I was with Jody the two weekends prior
33:06
Speaker 10: to her disappearance, and John was with us both. So
33:10
Speaker 10: you know, he was very protective of Jody. He loved her.
33:15
Speaker 10: I mean, but everybody loved her. There was no way
33:18
Speaker 10: to not love her. She was just a great one.
33:21
Speaker 10: She was just a wonderful kind person. She was fun
33:25
Speaker 10: She was funny, and I did not ever see anything
33:29
Speaker 10: with him that indicated to me that there was an
33:32
Speaker 10: obsession of any kind. We also went down and I
33:35
Speaker 10: was sitting together. We stayed in the same house and
33:38
Speaker 10: I was sitting and you know, with John and Jody
33:42
Speaker 10: and some other friends, and I just didn't see it.
33:44
Speaker 7: Well.
33:45
Speaker 2: I believe he actually named his boat after her. And
33:49
Speaker 2: take a listen to her sister.
33:51
Speaker 3: I didn't know about the guy till this all happened.
33:55
Speaker 3: She had mentioned to my mom. My mom cautioned her
33:59
Speaker 3: that she was not really dating this guy, but he
34:01
Speaker 3: was a friend, you know and stuff. And my mom said, well,
34:05
Speaker 3: you better be careful because you know he might be
34:08
Speaker 3: getting romantically interested in you. Oh, we're just good friends.
34:12
Speaker 3: Jody would say, you know, and so but I after
34:16
Speaker 3: hearing about after it all happened, we know that he
34:19
Speaker 3: was quite obsessed with Jody. He wanted always be around her,
34:22
Speaker 3: and he wanted to.
34:25
Speaker 11: You know.
34:25
Speaker 3: He said he even named his boat after her, which
34:28
Speaker 3: was odd. And the friends knew that too. They cautioned Jody.
34:33
Speaker 3: They said, Jody, are you sure that John isn't more
34:36
Speaker 3: interested in you than you think? And it was just
34:39
Speaker 3: very obvious that he that he has been, was very
34:43
Speaker 3: interested in her.
34:44
Speaker 1: Chelas asky. I will never forget.
34:48
Speaker 2: Uh. I was working light. This is when I was
34:52
Speaker 2: in the scene in building at time Warner in New
34:55
Speaker 2: York that waiting for me late hours. I would work
35:00
Speaker 2: at Court TV all day long, then go over and
35:04
Speaker 2: do HLN headline news at eight o'clock. At nine o'clock,
35:09
Speaker 2: very often guest with Larry King or help guest host
35:14
Speaker 2: his show. So I wouldn't be getting off until late ten,
35:17
Speaker 2: and then I would speak, talk to the staff, what
35:20
Speaker 2: went right, what went wrong, and it'd be pretty late
35:22
Speaker 2: before I would leave.
35:23
Speaker 1: Little did I know waiting in the lobby all the.
35:26
Speaker 2: Way from I Think, Oklahoma a guy with a suitcase
35:31
Speaker 2: who wanted to work on our relationship. Unbeknownst to me,
35:37
Speaker 2: he had been writing the public email line site for I.
35:42
Speaker 1: Have no idea how long about our.
35:46
Speaker 2: Relationship and had come all the way across the country
35:52
Speaker 2: to meet and again work on our relationship. Well, I
35:57
Speaker 2: was floored. What I'm saying is is not unusual. It
36:03
Speaker 2: happens a lot, and that is just one instance. There
36:07
Speaker 2: was another guy that showed up with.
36:11
Speaker 1: Zip ties.
36:13
Speaker 2: A fold or full of newspaper articles about myself and
36:18
Speaker 2: another female colleague.
36:20
Speaker 1: I wasn't special.
36:21
Speaker 2: So it happens quite often, and I'd like to find
36:24
Speaker 2: out from you how that phenomena weighs into Jody's disappearance.
36:29
Speaker 1: Then, on the.
36:29
Speaker 2: Other hand, You've got a guy who names his boat
36:32
Speaker 2: after her that Jody's sister says was obviously obsessed with her.
36:37
Speaker 8: Right, If we go with the idea of a stalker fan,
36:41
Speaker 8: one thing that these folks do is they study the
36:44
Speaker 8: person in depth, and if this stalker fan, for example,
36:49
Speaker 8: is local, he may follow her, he may know her habits. So,
36:57
Speaker 8: just like the examples that you provided, these people get
37:01
Speaker 8: so wrapped up, sometimes actually delusional, believing that they have
37:06
Speaker 8: a relationship with the celebrity that they're following, and they
37:10
Speaker 8: can sometimes distort reality to the point where it becomes dangerous.
37:14
Speaker 2: Also, we're learning that apparently she had a fling with
37:19
Speaker 2: a mystery man Jutton, I'm not talking about Jean Vansiz.
37:24
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, he's never been named an
37:26
Speaker 2: official suspect in her disappearance. He's voluntarily taken two polygraph tests.
37:31
Speaker 2: He's taken a DNA test finger in PAM printing, which
37:34
Speaker 2: would have ruled him out of that palm print on
37:36
Speaker 2: her car on her Miata. He's now living in Arizona
37:41
Speaker 2: and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Who was the mystery
37:47
Speaker 2: man to Tammy Baker? Any idea with whom she was
37:51
Speaker 2: who she was seeing just before she disappeared.
37:53
Speaker 10: You know that we were out at a bar in
37:56
Speaker 10: clear Lake to the second weekend, the first of the
38:02
Speaker 10: two weekends, and she did meet a guy, dark haired guy.
38:07
Speaker 10: I mean, it's been so long, I don't remember more
38:08
Speaker 10: than that, but I do remember that he was pretty
38:11
Speaker 10: touchy feely with her when we were dancing. But she
38:16
Speaker 10: told me, I mean, we talked all the time. We
38:20
Speaker 10: went to Iowa City. We slept in the same bed
38:22
Speaker 10: and talked all night. She would have said something, and
38:26
Speaker 10: she didn't say anything about a guy at.
38:30
Speaker 1: All, isn't it.
38:30
Speaker 2: She cops put the so called mystery man under surveillance,
38:34
Speaker 2: even scooping up his trash to try to get possibly
38:40
Speaker 2: a DNA print the street side garbage for examination.
38:44
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's absolutely right. They did. And he confirmed for
38:47
Speaker 7: me that he put his trash out and that the
38:50
Speaker 7: police showed up early in the morning before the trash
38:53
Speaker 7: pickup happened, and the police, you know, took that trash away.
38:59
Speaker 7: He of so, did meet with them three times, went
39:03
Speaker 7: through all their questions. He did not take a polygraph test. However,
39:08
Speaker 7: they concluded that he was not involved other than perhaps
39:14
Speaker 7: the fact that others may have known about this relationship.
39:19
Speaker 2: There is a one hundred thousand dollar reward for information
39:24
Speaker 2: leading to the whereabouts of Jody Who's in truth. If
39:29
Speaker 2: you know or even think you know anything about her disappearance,
39:33
Speaker 2: please call an anonymous tip line six foe eleven zero
39:41
Speaker 2: nine repeat six four one one one zero nine a
39:48
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollar reward. Nancy Gray signing off, good
39:55
Speaker 2: night friend Bo