An Iowa judge is expected to decide soon whether to open a sealed 2017 search warrant and affidavit Mason City, Iowa, police used to seek GPS data from two vehicles connected to a deceased person of interest in Jodi Huisentruit’s 1995 abduction. (The vehicles were not manufactured at the time the news anchor disappeared on her way to anchor the morning news at KIMT-TV.)
The request to make the document public came from attorneys for a private investigator who say they want to lift a cloud of suspicion off of John Vansice and his family. Vansice, who was a friend of Jodi’s, passed away last December. He was never charged with any crime connected to her disappearance and always insisted he had no involvement in Jodi’s abduction. The Mason City Police Chief said no useful information was obtained in the search, during a 2018 interview with “48 Hours.”
The Cerro Gordo County Attorney is opposed to making the search warrant and affidavit public, arguing it would be harmful to the ongoing investigation and that it contains information from the day Jodi was abducted in the parking lot next to her Key apartment. Jodi’s family also doesn’t want the document unsealed.
FindJodi, Inc. has heard a fair amount of confusion and speculation about what could be contained in the sealed document. While, obviously, we aren’t privy to any specifics about its contents, here is what we can say, in general, about search warrants and the process police use to obtain them:
The way it works, police must first reach out to a judge or magistrate to request a search warrant. They must outline the basic facts of the crime and evidence in a an affidavit attached to the search warrant. This is how the investigators help convince the court they have the required probable that a crime occurred and why evidence they seek could be found in their search of a specific location, device or property. The affidavit often includes information about a person of interest in a case.
The affidavit will also typically include the investigating officer’s background, credentials and training, statements from witnesses and confidential informants and possibly some of the investigating techniques that were used in the case.
Senior Judge James Drew conducted a court hearing on Mach 3rd on the motion to unseal the GPS search warrant and affidavit. He said at the time he would make a decision within thirty days. His options include keeping the document sealed or making all or parts of it public.
Anyone with information on Jodi’s case should contact the Mason City Police Department at (641) 421-3636 or email Iowa DCI Special Agent Ryan Herman at rherman@dps.state.mn.us. You can always reach out tous at FindJodi.
