Podcast 006: We tracked down Jodi’s Mazda Miata

Note: Jodi’s car has always been a mystery to us. We have heard dozens of rumors of how it was obtained, what evidence it may hold, questions related to how it was processed, where it ended up – the list simply goes on. We decided to get to the bottom of the mystery. And we were surprised with the findings (along with just how great of shape the car is in nearly 30 years later!  – Josh

One of the most unforgettable images from the crime scene at Jodi Huisentruit’s abduction site is her red 1991 Mazda Miata convertible being processed by investigators, then towed away from her Mason City, IA, apartment complex.

Jodi was attacked on June 27, 1995 as she was getting into the car parked just a few feet from the Key Apartment building. She was heading to KIMT-TV to anchor the morning and noon newscasts.

Her bent car key was found on the ground nearby and a front mirror was pushed back. Additionally, police obtained an unidentified palm print on the vehicle (which may or may not be connected to the crime.)

Listen to “Jodi’s Mazda Miata” on Spreaker.

Jodi had owned the car for just a few weeks and it was still registered to the previous owner, a local businessman. His license plates were still on the car, according to a search warrant executed on it by police. At the time, car owners were allowed 30 days following a sale to transfer title, and this time had not yet elapsed.

Some media reports and online crime forums speculated that the way Jodi acquired the car might somehow be tied to the abduction, or that the car might have been a gift.

FindJodi decided to examine Jodi’s acquisition of the Mazda Miata. We just wanted to get the facts and get beyond speculation.

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Getting answers to this mystery within a mystery was complicated by the fact key people with direct information about the Mazda Miata transaction are deceased. Additionally, motor vehicle privacy laws limit a lot of information available publicly, and some of the car records no longer exist.

After multiple interviews with Jodi’s family, friends, and people in the car business, along with document searches, we could find no evidence the Mazda Miata had anything to do with Jodi’s abduction.

What we’ve learned about Jodi’s Mazda Miata

Here is what we have learned, so far: (and we welcome any additional verifiable information, please reach out to FindJodi here)

• The former owner of an Iowa car dealership told FindJodi the car was sold to Jodi by one of his longtime salesmen, who is now deceased. He said the sale was a private, consignment-type transaction that did not involve the dealership. The former dealership owner (who did not want to be publicly identified since Jodi’s case is unsolved) said the car’s previous owner was a personal friend of the salesman. He estimated the car’s value at the time at $10,000.
• We also reached the son of that car salesman. He told FindJodi his late father was shocked when he heard about Jodi’s abduction, saying “I just sold her the car!” The son also told us his father helped Jodi’s now deceased mom with transactions involving the car which was eventually sold to a Minnesota car dealer.
• The original owner of the Mazda Miata told a CBS “48 Hours” crew that he met Jodi only once, to turn over the keys to the vehicle. We have tried unsuccessfully to reach him directly for this post.
• The son of another Mason City area car dealer remembers Jodi stopping by their business when she was shopping for a new car to replace her 1988 Honda CR-X.
• Jodi wrote about the Mazda Miata in several notes to friends and in her private journal. She never described it as a “gift”.
• On June 25th, just two days before she was abducted, Jodi wrote to a Minnesota friend, saying she’d recently bought a Mazda Miata, but had not transferred the title yet. Jodi mentioned that as she explained why she had been unable to drive up to Minnesota that weekend for a birthday party.
• On June 13th, just over a week after her 27th birthday, Jodi wrote in her private journal, “I bought a new Mazda Miata, simply love it.” ( That reference was part of her journal released publicly after a former Mason City police chief’s wife mailed a copy to the Globe Gazette newspaper. Our Episode 2 podcast has more on that unusual twist in the investigation.)

In our search for answers about the Mazda Miata, we also tracked down all of the people who have owned Jodi’s car over the past 25 years, since she disappeared.

Our investigation eventually led us to Wisconsin. That’s where we found the 29-year-old car is still out on the road, has just 53,000 miles on the odometer, and is in very good condition. All of the car’s prior owners we talked with said they primarily drove the convertible in warm, summer months.

The current owner is the third since Jodi’s mom traded the car in in 1998 to a Minnesota dealer. That dealer is no longer in business and doesn’t have any of the car’s paperwork. The dealer told us, however, that he would not have been able to buy it, then resell it, if all of the vehicle’s documents weren’t provided to him by Jodi’s mom, a longtime customer.

The former dealer sold it to a Staples, MN, woman who owned the Mazda Miata from 1998-2002. She told us she knew it had been Jodi’s car but she didn’t tell many people about that fact, out of respect for Jodi and her family.

The car was next purchased by a couple from the same town. They kept it for 14 years and eventually sold it to the current owner.

All of the owners since Jodi was abducted say they continue to follow her case. They hope Jodi’s family will someday get answers to what happened to her as she was getting into the car she owned for just few short weeks.

Does the Miata have any forensic value?

Over the years, there have been questions whether Mason City police should have held onto Jodi’s car for evidence, and whether it could still provide any clues 29 years later.

A 2018 “48 Hours” episode on Jodi’s case included an interview with the current police chief on the possible consequences of having released the car the summer that Jodi disappeared.

Chief Jeff Brinkley answered questions from CBS senior correspondent Jim Axelrod:

Axelrod: “Was that car given back too quickly?”

Chief Brinkley:{nods his head} “Maybe.”

Axelrod: “Because the evidence that could been in that car, especially given the technological advances since then, could be important today.”

Chief Brinkley: ” Right.”

Axelrod: “But you don’t have that evidence.”

Chief Brinkley: “We don’ have it…But we just have to live with what we got, and try to do as good as we can with that.”

Since the car has been out of police custody for 25 years, and handled by multiple people since then, outside investigators we consulted said the car would no longer have forensic value to Jodi’s investigation.

One detective said if he were assigned to such an old case today, he’d be very interested in seeing the vehicle in person just to help reenact the crime, since he would not have been at the scene back in 1995.

That was one of the reasons FindJodi’s Scott Fuller recently traveled to Wisconsin. Scott met the current owner and spent to time looking at the car that was front and center at the Huisentruit crime scene.

Scott shares his impressions in Episode 6 of our latest FindJodi podcast.