New Break in Search for Missing Anchor?

May 9, 2006 — -- Investigators hope an Iowa man's suspicions will lead to a break in the case of a television anchorwoman who disappeared almost 11 years ago.

Police have wondered what happened to Jodi Huisentruit, who worked for CBS affiliate KIMT in Mason City, Iowa, since she did not show up for work on June 27, 1995. They have pursued several leads, but a breakthrough in the investigation has been elusive.

They hope an Iowa farmer will be able to give them new clues in the search. Duane Arnold owns a cabin near Eagle Lake, Iowa, and 10 years ago, he said, he reported seeing what he believed was a grave near his cabin. Investigators found nothing, but Arnold remained convinced they had dug in the wrong area.

"I really, truly believe she's right there somewhere," Arnold said. "I gotta know. I gotta know. It's just eating me up, lost a lot of sleep. You can't get it out of your mind."

In April, Arnold paid an engineering firm $2,000 to survey the land around his cabin to see whether the earth had been disturbed around the time of Huisentruit's disappearance. Using radar, the firm said that it had found something that could be a body.

Jared Lampe, spokesman for National Ground Penetrating Radar Services Inc., said the area looked like a grave site.

"It has the shape and boundary characteristics of a burial," he told ABC News' Austin, Minn., affiliate KAAL.Arnold hopes local authorities will dig in the area again later this week and put his mind to rest.

"It's up to the Hancock County sheriff now. They got a backhoe. I can't do it by hand," he said.

Sheriff Scott Dodd said he was analyzing the new information and would make a decision on digging up the area in the next few days.

The search for Huisentruit was one of the largest in Iowa history, with police officers interviewing more than 400 people and tracking down at least 1,300 leads.

Reward money in Huisentruit's case offered by KIMT and other contributors went unclaimed and became the core of a scholarship fund at her alma mater, St. Cloud University in Minnesota. Each year a small scholarship in her name is awarded to a journalism student.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts or information regarding the disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit, please call Mason City Police at 641-421-3636, the FBI, or your local law enforcement agency.