Frozen Truth

For those of you who have followed along with our Season 3 investigation, I wanted you to be the first to know this news.

On New Year's Eve, a billboard in Mason City meant to raise awareness of Jodi Huisentruit's unsolved 1995 abduction was vandalized.

Two men were involved in spray painting the name of a former Mason City police officer and the words "machine shed" on the billboard.

Was this a random act of vandalism?

Or does it have something to do with the case?

Jodi Huisentruit's name has appeared in local media quite a bit lately, mostly due to the research of consultant Steve Ridge.

In this update episode, Steve joins me to discuss his newly public work on the Jodi case and topics ranging from a video taken of Jodi the weekend before she vanished, to the drug scene in Iowa at the time.

(Here is the mentioned article Gary Peterson wrote in 2008 about Billy Pruin's death: https://www.findjodi.com/death-case-possibly-connected-to-the-huisentruit-case/ )

Stay listening through the end of the episode for a preview of an excellent new podcast from Wondery and the L.A. Times, "Detective Trapp"

Anaheim investigator Julissa Trapp is not like other detectives. She’s the only woman on the homicide squad, and a skilled chameleon: undercover cop in vice stings, crime-scene commander, patient confidante of killers. A master interrogator, she invokes her personal experience – and deepest griefs -- as a tool to elicit confessions. When a young woman’s body is found at a trash-sorting plant, Trapp learns the murder may be linked to the disappearance of three other women in nearby Santa Ana. Trapp embarks on a dark journey that brings her face to face with a man who takes “a little piece of her soul.”

Listen now at Wondery.fm/TrappFrozenTruth

More than 100 people lived in the apartment complex where TV news anchor Jodi Huisentruit disappeared in June 1995. I've been in the process of trying to locate as many of them as possible - now 25 years later - to ask them what they remember about the days and weeks leading up to her abduction.

You'll hear from two of those neighbors in this episode.

For years, nobody knew about LaDonna Woodford.

Nobody knew that, after Jodi Huisentruit disappeared and while speculation swirled about the possible involvement of John Vansice in the case, LaDonna was called to testify before a grand jury.

Her testimony to the grand jury was a secret she'd been keeping from nearly everyone since the morning of June 27, 1995:

She knew where John Vansice was on the morning Jodi disappeared.

In this episode, you'll hear LaDonna's story.

I'm happy to resume our coverage of Amy Wroe Bechtel's disappearance from Lander, Wyoming in 1997. New Season 1 episodes are on the way! Over the next weeks and months, we'll dive even deeper into Amy's case, speaking with the people who knew her and the case.

In this episode, I speak with Amy's brother Nels Wroe. He shares his concerns about Amy and Steve's relationship, and recounts what it's been like to search for answers to what happened to his younger sister 22 years ago.

(By the way, my full conversation with Nels is available right now to Patreon supporters: www.Patreon.com/FrozenTruth)

And please stay tuned to the end of the episode for a special preview of a new podcast I'm listening to from Wondery...

What is it like to be famous before you’re famous? What is it like to walk in the shoes of another person? Each episode of Imagined Life takes you on an immersive journey into the life of a world-famous person. It’ll be someone you may think you know, even admire -- or maybe the opposite. You’ll get clues to your identity along the way. But only in the final moments will you find out who “you” really are. So sit back, let go, and -- imagine your life, with our hosts, Oscar nominated Virginia Madsen and celebrated voice actor Robbie Daymond. From Wondery, the network behind Dirty John. Listen now at www.wondery.fm/frozen

Natrona County, Wyoming District Attorney Dan Itzen has announced that his office will continue to pursue the death penalty against convicted murderer Dale Wayne Eaton.

In 1988, Eaton abducted and killed 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell as she drove from Colorado to Cody, Wyoming. He was not connected to the murder until his DNA was matched in 2004, leading to his arrest and conviction. A jury subsequently sentenced him to death.

Eaton, 74, has been appealing his conviction and sentence for the past 15 years.

In 2013, the the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office in Lander, Wyoming announced information they’d received that may implicate Eaton in the 1997 disappearance of Amy Wroe Bechtel.
Frozen Truth covered Amy’s case in Season 1.

In this episode you’ll hear from Candy Host, Chairman of the Board of Jodi’s Network of Hope, which is is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation founded in 2005 on the 10 year anniversary of Jodi’s abduction. The group promotes positive educational opportunities for students and supports safety training and awareness.

In this episode you’ll also hear from Joe Vigil, who worked with Jodi at the campus television station when they were attending St. Cloud State University together, and then in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1992.

I spent this last week of March 2019 in Mason City, where I was able to speak with some of those most closely involved with the Jodi Huisentruit case.

The only witness in the case isn’t really an eye-witness to the crime at all. Randy Linderman was driving to work early that morning Jodi disappeared. He says he saw a white van appearing to idle in Jodi’s small apartment parking lot sometime before she disappeared. You’ll hear Mr. Linderman’s account of that morning in this episode.

My thanks to Chief Jeff Brinkley and the Mason City Police Department for their time and accommodation during my time in Iowa this week.

Additional thanks to KETV reporter and anchor James Wilcox for his assistance in this episode.

Thank you for listening to Season 3 of Frozen Truth. We’re not quite done yet; we will have one more regular feed episode to release next week.

What is yet to be discovered about the disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit from Mason City, Iowa in 1995?