Minnetonka Author/Barista Hopes to Shed New Light on News Anchor's '95 Disappearance

Jodi Huisentruit was supposed to show up for work at KIMT in Mason City, Iowa at around 3:30 a.m. on June 27, 1995. A coworker called Huisentruit's apartment around 4 a.m. to ask of her whereabouts. The phone call apparently awoke Huisentruit. She apologized to her coworker for being late and said she would get to work as soon as she could. 

However, Huisentruit never made it in to anchor the morning newscast that day. Mason City police believe that someone abducted Huisentruit around 4:30 a.m. from the parking lot of her apartment complex. Police found some of her belongings spread around the parking lot, and her key was found bent in the lock of her car. 

She was never seen or heard from again.

That's the story as told by barista Beth Bednar from the along Highway 101 and Minnetonka Blvd. But this barista does much more than make lattes. For 20 years, she was, herself, a television news personality—the main anchor at KAAL in Austin, MN.

Now, nearly 16 years after Huisentruit's disappearance, she's come out with a book that takes another look at the case and talks more about Jodi Huisentruit's life. 

"As a former television reporter, I mean, I was shaken to the core," Bednar recalls of the 1995 incident. "I think a lot of us were [in the industry] and I thought about it for years."

Bednar's background in TV news and interest in the Huisentruit case inspired her to dig deeper. Thus began the process of writing Dead Air: The Disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit.

Over the course of two years, Bednar combed through stacks of public records; spoke to friends, family members, private investigators and anyone else associated with Jodi Huisentruit or her case, all in an effort to compile information for the book.

"I didn't answer what happened to her because nobody knows," Bednar said. "I mean, she was kidnapped and presumably murdered. Her body has never been found. A suspect has never been arrested."

When Dead Air is released on May 1, Bednar hopes it encourages people to come forth with information that may answer some of the many questions about what happened to Huisentruit early on that summer morning. 

"I would really like it if somebody came out," Bednar said. "I think a lot of people were quiet at the time because they were fearful of the guy or guys coming after them. I would really like to see somebody come forward with some really credible information."

Whether that happens remains to be seen. But something Dead Air will do is ensure that the case remains in the public's consciousness, even 16 years after Huisentruit's disappearance.