Eerie 'serial killer' link that could finally solve the mystery of beloved news anchor who vanished into thin air

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

Investigators are continuing to probe a suspected serial killer in connection with the disappearance of news anchor Jodi Huisentruit, as they work to establish whether a compelling lead is a vital clue or just an incredible coincidence.
Huisentruit, 27, was running late to her shift at KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa, on June 27, 1995, when she was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment complex sometime after 4am.
Where Huisentruit was taken next - and by whom - remains a mystery three decades on. She was declared legally dead in 2001, but no arrests have ever been made and her body has never been found.
For years, police closely guarded evidence and leads, leaving her loved ones in the dark - fearful her disappearance would never be solved.
However, a new documentary, Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit, has pulled back the curtain on the case for the first time, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the investigation and revealing never-before-heard evidence.
One potential suspect profiled in the documentary is Christopher Revak, an accused killer first linked to the case in 2009.
Revak took his own life in jail the same year while awaiting trial for the 2007 abduction and murder of Rene Marie Williams, 36, in Missouri. He was also suspected of murdering Deidre Harm in 2006 after meeting her at a bar in Wisconsin.
In the years since, investigators have probed whether Revak could be tied to other deaths across the Midwest. To date, he's been tentatively linked to five homicides spanning 14 years, including Huisentruit.
Christopher Revak, who killed himself in a jail cell in 2009 after being booked on homicide charges, is being re-examined by cops
In December last year, Mason City Sergeant Terrance Prochaska traveled to Wisconsin to meet with investigators overseeing the Harm case and compare notes on Revak - a meeting captured in Her Last Broadcast.
The most compelling thread tying Revak to Huisentruit is the fact that Revak's first wife - identified only as 'Jennifer' - was living in Mason City in 1995, when the news anchor disappeared.
Stranger still is the fact that Jennifer lived in the same duplex as Huisentruit's close friend, John Vansice, who is believed to have been the last known person to see her alive and is a leading person of interest.
'This is one of the biggest coincidences in this case,' Prochaska said in the documentary.
According to Prochaska, Jennifer moved to Mason City from Wisconsin Dells after breaking up with Revak, who stayed behind in Wisconsin.
Jennifer moved out of Vansice's building three months before Huisentruit disappeared. She told police that Revak, then 23, never visited her while she was living there.
However, law enforcement's working theory is that Revak may have traveled to Mason City to come looking for Jennifer and began surveilling the address, unaware she'd moved out.
The night before Huisentruit disappeared, Vansice claimed she came to his apartment to watch a recording of a surprise party he'd thrown her weeks earlier.
'If Revak was looking for [Jennifer] or found her and was stalking her to see if she was living here, the chances of him running into Jodi are very high...it gives me chills,' said Prochaska.
Like Jodi, the remains of Revak's only confirmed victim, Rene Williams, were never found - but traces of her blood discovered in his car pointed to his guilt.
In the documentary, investigators say Revak's method was to target women he'd just met, often approaching them late at night in parking lots, in Midwest towns where he had connections - akin to how Huisentruit was abducted.
Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase, who investigated Williams' murder, said the coincidence of Revak's ex living next to Vancise is too great to overlook.
'I've been in law enforcement for 32 years, and I do not believe in coincidences,' said Degase.
'I believe in my gut that he killed Jodi. What are the chances of his girlfriend living next door?'
Prochaska is trying to put Revak in Mason City on or around June 27, 1995 - the day Huisentruit's trail went cold.
Records place Revak in Wisconsin on June 17 and on July 9, 1995, but his whereabouts between those two dates are unknown.
The investigation into Revak remains ongoing.
In a statement to FindJodi.com last year, Wisconsin Rapids Lt. Scott Goldberg said his department and MCPD 'wouldn't be doing Jodi justice' without reexamining Revak.
John Vansice is also extensively investigated in Her Last Broadcast.
Vansice, Huisentruit's closest male friend in Mason City, was more than 20 years her senior. He had a boat he often took Huisentruit out on, which he'd christened 'The Jodi' in tribute to her.
He quickly became a person of interest after turning up outside her apartment, telling police he was likely the last known person to have seen her.
According to Vansice, then 49, she stopped by his home on the evening of June 26 to watch a video of a surprise birthday party he'd thrown for her weeks before.
The last person to speak with Huisentruit was her producer at KIMT-TV, Amy Kuns, who called her at 4am the following morning to let her know she'd overslept for work.
Husientruit apologized and said she'd be at the station within 15 minutes. She was due on air at 6am.
However, Huisentruit never showed. Somewhere between leaving her apartment and trying to get into her car, she was attacked by an unknown assailant.
In the documentary, it's revealed that Vansice called KIMT-TV early on the morning of Huisentruit's disappearance, and asked her producer, Amy Kuns: 'Hi, is Jodi there? It's John.'
Kuns, who was about to go on air in Huisentruit's place, said she informed him she wasn't, to which Vansice responded: 'Well, where is she? Why isn't she at work?'
According to Kuns, that call came in before she was aware that anything grave had happened to Huisentruit, and before police came to KIMT to report her abduction.
'That stood out in my memory as very odd,' Kuns said, 'because I don't remember him calling on any other day.'
Later that morning, Vansice drove to Huisentruit's apartment with two others to speak with police.
One of those two people appeared in the documentary anonymously and claimed Vansice's first words that morning were 'Jodi's gone' - before the news had broken about her suspected abduction.
Sergeant Prochaska said that in the immediate aftermath, Vansice made himself almost too available to investigators. He was incredibly forthcoming but suddenly stopped cooperating when certain, unspecified details stopped adding up, Prochaska said.
Fellow anchor Amy Johnson, who worked for KGAN-TV at the time, claimed that Vansice would call her station religiously asking for the latest 'scoop' on the investigation.
'He did all the things the perpetrator of a crime would do,' said Johnson.
Vansice also allegedly called KIMT after undergoing a polygraph test to tell them he'd passed and would be 'popping champagne' in celebration, which those who knew Huisentruit found odd.
Prochaska declined to comment on whether or not Vansice passed his polygraph, adding only that he's never been ruled out conclusively.
Vansice quickly left Mason City for Arizona, where he died in December 2024 from Alzheimer's. He maintained his innocence until his death.
Her Last Broadcast reveals that MCPD is taking a close look at another person of interest, Brad Millerbernd, the ex-husband of one of Huisentruit's closest friends, Patty Niemeyer.
In the series, Niemeyer describes how, after watching an ABC 20/20 special on the case three years ago, she got a gut feeling that her ex-husband may have been involved.
Niemeyer claimed Millerbernd always had an odd preoccupation with Huisentruit.
Millerbernd has not been accused of any crimes related to Huisentruit and has denied any wrongdoing in his conversations with law enforcement. He declined to speak in the latest ABC documentary, and the Daily Mail's attempts to reach him have been unsuccessful.
At the time Huisentruit vanished, Millerbernd was living three hours from Mason City in Winstead, Minnesota, property records show.
He often commuted to Iowa for work, driving a white Ford Ecoline van.
Millerbernd's van stood out to Mason City detectives.
Several witnesses reported seeing a mysterious white Ford van parked outside Huisentruit's apartment moments before she was abducted.
Identifying the owner of that vehicle has long been seen as the key to cracking the case.
According to Prochaska, Millerbernd also matches the description of a man who was spotted lurking around Huisentruit's apartment building two days before she disappeared.
In 2022, Prochaska quizzed Millerbernd over the phone about his memories and interactions with Huisentruit. According to the detective, Millerbernd admitted to taking Huisentruit out to dinner in the fall of 1994, picking her up in his white van.
Niemeyer also claimed Huisentruit reached out to her on June 5, 1995, to inform her that Millerbernd had 'tried to contact her.'
Millerbernd was interviewed by Prochaska again in October 2024.
He agreed to submit DNA voluntarily and undergo a polygraph, but the results of those tests have not yet been released.