ST. PAUL (AP) — Jackie Folkerts, a 19-year-old woman who was fatally stabbed in her Iowa home, told relatives before her death that a man told her he was involved in the disappearance of television newswoman Jodi Huisentruit, KSTP-TV in Minneapolis reported.
Huisentruit, an anchorwoman at KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa, disappeared four years ago, and authorities believe she was abducted as she was on her to way to work for the early-morning shift at the station.
Folkerts, a waitress, was found dead in her Britt, Iowa, home Jan. 25 by a co-worker and customer who had gone to check on her when she did not show up for work.
Britt is 30 miles west of Mason City in northern Iowa.
Folkerts’ aunt and uncle, David and Olivia Mitchell, said Jackie told them a man approached her about three weeks before her death at the Colony Inn where she was working and talked about Huisentruit, KSTP reported Friday night
“Some man had came in and was talking to Jackie about he was the one who either kidnapped Jodi Huisentruit or had something to do with it, ” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said his niece was upset by the incident.
The man then showed up at the restaurant a second time, and Folkerts got the man’ s license number. After her death, the Mitchells said they turned the number over to the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation.
Blake Dietrich, Britt’ s police chief, told KSTP that he only recently became aware of the information and intends to follow up on it on Monday.
