One of the billboards in Mason City seeking information on Huisentruit’s disappearance.

Founders of the website FindJodi.com held an event in Mason City today to mark missing former KIMT TV anchorwoman Jodi Huisentruit’s 50th birthday.

They held the event near one of the billboards that have been recently put up in the city which say: “Someone knows something…is it YOU?, ” in an effort to raise awareness of her disappearance back in June of 1995. John Shine was the general manager at KIMT at the time of Jodi’s disappearance and read a statement on behalf of Huisentruit’s family, saying they know if she was here today they’d be together marking her milestone birthday.

“Jodi was known for her creativity in planning events, and she would have mostly likely planned something spectacular for this occasion. However instead of celebrating, we are left still agonizing over what happened to Jodi almost 24 years ago,” Shine says. “Not a day goes by where we do not think of Jodi and wish she were still with us today. We need answers, and Jodi deserves justice. We hope that these billboards will help in finding both.”

Gary Peterson is one of the founding members of FindJodi.com and hopes the final pieces of the puzzle can come together soon. He says, “This has got to come to a screeching halt, as my father-in-law would say. If we can get together, do this job, get it done right, I’d be very happy and I think everybody else would be too.”

Jay Alberio is a former Woodbury Minnesota police investigator who now is part of the FindJodi team. Alberio hopes a tip to law enforcement, even if it’s an anonymous one, will bring the case to a close. “Quite often people aren’t comfortable going to law enforcement and giving them information. They’ve had Crime Stoppers, for years they had anonymous information come in,” Alberio says. “With 27 years of law enforcement experience, I’ve found that people will give information anonymously, and that typically will break the case.”

Alberio feels the billboards could be an effective tool to get someone to speak out about the case. “Hundreds of people are driving by seeing these billboards. If you’re the person who has a piece of information, whether you feel it’s not important or not, we encourage you to come forward to the local law enforcement. If you aren’t comfortable with them, come to FindJodi.com,” Alberio says.

There are three permanent billboard featuring the message and another rotates in on a digital billboard near the North Iowa Events Center.

(Story and photo by Bob Fisher, KGLO, Mason City)