Kriti Mehrotra
Jodi Sue Huisentruit was a news anchor in Mason City, Iowa, when she suddenly disappeared without a trace left behind. It was early in the morning of June 27, 1995, when she was last heard from, telling a colleague on the phone that she had overslept and was running late for work. However, as explored on Hulu’s ‘Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit,’ she never came in, and when her coworkers asked the police to do a wellness check on her, they found evidence indicating she’d been abducted. It’s been nearly 3 decades, but sadly, she has never been seen or heard from, yet her family, especially her elder sister JoAnn Nathe, continues to hold onto hope.
JoAnn Nathe Admittedly Didn’t Want Jodi Huisentruit to be an Anchor
It was on June 5, 1968, when Jodi was born to Maurice Nicholas Huisentruit and Imogene “Jane” Huisentruit as the youngest of the family. Since she was the baby, the youngest of three girls, her father often even referred to her as his “Little Jane.” As for her siblings, she had two elder sisters, JoAnn and Jill, with the former actually being 18 years her senior. Because of the big age gap, JoAnn was practically a second mother to Jodi, a bond that they developed over years of closeness and worked hard to maintain. That’s why, when Jodi decided to be an onscreen reporter, JoAnn made it clear that she didn’t like the idea purely owing to privacy reasons, but she was still supportive.
As years passed, JoAnn started a family of her own, a family in which Jodi played a big part despite evolving into a well-known anchor for KIMT in Mason City, Iowa. She was extremely close to her niece, Kristen, too. According to the aforementioned show, though, JoAnn worried about her baby sister because while she was proud of everything she was achieving, she worried for her safety. She actually thought her bubbly, extroverted sister often went too far with sharing details of her personal life and activities on air, which she told her.
Jodi did start taking precautions after a scare in late 1994, but she still remained quite open. Little did anybody know that JoAnn’s worst fears would be realized in the early hours of June 27, 1995, as her sister was seemingly abducted right from outside her home while on her way to work. She subsequently worked with officials and friends to start searching for her sister, but sadly, to no avail. She even got to know about Jodi’s friend John Vansice through this, and his claims of being the last person to see her alive. However, she admittedly did find it strange that he was so “obsessed” with her sister and even named his boat after her despite their 22-year age gap, but alas, not only has Jodi never been found, but also no charges against anyone have ever been filed.
JoAnn Nathe Continues to Fight for Her Sister
Over the years, even though the police have been careful about what information to release to the public, JoAnn Nathe has always taken every possible opportunity to keep Jodi’s case in the limelight. Whether it be via appearances on true-crime podcasts, news channels, or newsmagazine shows, she has and will continue to partake in them all. She and her daughter Kristen both believe that someone out there knows what happened to Jodi, so they hope they will come forward and finally bring them some closure. After all, what they really want is to find their missing family member so as to be able to give them a proper resting place and then fight to get them justice.
In the past three decades, JoAnn has even organized/attended several vigils, been a part of most of the public tributes to her, and traveled to Jodi’s last known residence to celebrate her 50th birthday. The family even supports the work of the organization FindJodi in every way they can, meaning they remain actively involved in efforts to find answers about the anchor’s disappearance. In fact, on the 30th anniversary of when Jodi went missing, on June 27, 2025, the family even released a statement to FindJodi, both expressing gratitude to the community for their continued support and appealing to the general public for some much-needed answers.
This statement read, in part, “The pain and anguish felt by us and all who loved Jodi are immeasurable. True peace will only be given to us when Jodi is found and justice is served for her. We know it is hard to have hope for resolution after so many years, but we still choose to hope that one day soon it will happen… We implore you – if you know something, SAY something. Help us finally bring Jodi home.” Coming to JoAnn’s personal standing, she actually prefers to keep her personal life away from the limelight so as to focus primarily on her sister’s case. Therefore, all we know is that she still likely resides in her hometown of Long Prairie, Minnesota.
Read More: Jodi Sue Huisentruit: What Happened to the KIMT-TV News Anchor?
