Mason City, IA, Unsolved Cold Cases:
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Graciela (Grace) Esquivel
Reported Missing: June 1983
Esquivel, 25, the mother of a six-year-old daughter, Angie, was reported missing in June 1983. She lived at 1619 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Mason City.
Her daughter spent the night of June 10 with her grandparents, Manuela and the late Armando Esquivel, while Grace said she was going out with friends.
According to reports, her bed was found turned down as if someone was ready to go to bed and her wallet and driver’s license were left behind. Her social security number has never been used since her disappearance, according to Lt. Ron Vande Weerd of the Mason City Police Department.
Manuela Esquivel moved to Missouri several years ago.
Description of Grace: height: 4 feet, 11 inches; weight: 140 pounds; Hispanic female with brown hair and brown eyes.
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Rodney J. Olsen
Mason City, IA
October 18, 1986
Olsen, a rural Mason City farmer, was 32 when he was reported missing on October 18, 1986. Olsen was the father of a young son and farmed northeast of Mason City. He had moved from his native Britt area not too long before he disappeared.
He reportedly left his rural home at 1 a.m. to visit someone and has not been seen since.
Several months later, Olsen’s car, a black 1978 Pontiac Sunbird, was found in a Forest City trailer park. No clues were found to indicate what happened to Olsen, according to reports at that time.
Twenty-one years later, Olsen’s family still thinks of their lost son.
“You always want to know,” said his father, Myrlen, who lives in Britt. “We always have hope.”
Myrlen believes that Rodney, one of his three children, “went off in the middle of the night by himself — and after that, we just don’t know.”
Rodney Olsen’s son today lives in California, Merlyn said.
Myrlen Olsen keeps in contact with the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Department, in hopes new information about the case can be developed.
Description: height, 6 feet; weight, 210 pounds; white male with brown hair and brown eyes.
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Jodi Huisentruit
27 YOA
600 North Kentucky Ave.
Mason City, IA
June 27, 1995
At
approximately 4:30 a.m., CBS affiliate KIMT-TV morning
and noon anchor woman and producer Jodi Sue Huisentruit
was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment before
leaving for work that Tuesday morning. Police officers
found at the scene a number of Jodi's personal
possessions including her hair spray, hair dryer, key
ring and red high heeled shoes strewn about the parking
lot. DNA testing on blood found on the passenger side
rearview mirror and in the parking lot indicated a match
with that of Ms. Huisentruit. Despite 11+ years of
investigative efforts by the FBI, IA
DCI, MCPD and several private investigators, no
evidence of Jodi Huisentruit or her whereabouts has ever
been found and the case remains unsolved.
Anyone with information on the Jodi
Huisentruit case should contact Mason City Police at
641-421-3636.
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Homicide:
Gerald Best
50 YOA
4 N. Madison Ave.
Mason City, IA
December 30, 1999
Gerald Best was found stabbed
to death on Dec. 30, 1999, in his apartment at 4 N.
Madison Ave. in Mason City. His throat had been
slashed.