Man tied to Iowa anchor case behind Wisconsin mother’s 2006 murder

Authorities revealed this week {that a} man as soon as named an individual of curiosity within the disappearance of Iowa information anchor Jodi Huisentruit was chargeable for the 2006 homicide of a Wisconsin girl and will have been chargeable for different killings.

The Wooden County Sheriff’s Workplace introduced that Christopher Revak was behind the dying of Deidre Hurt, formally closing a case that had remained unsolved for practically twenty years.

On Oct. 20, the Wooden County Sheriff’s Workplace shared a letter from District Lawyer Jonathan Barnett on Fb saying he would have filed fees towards Revak if he have been nonetheless alive.

“I think about this case closed,” Barnett wrote. “I consider I had sufficient to sue and, if Mr. Revak was nonetheless alive, win.”

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Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase spoke with Fox Information Digital about his experiences investigating the Christopher Revak case. (Wooden County Sheriff’s Division)

Hurt, a 21-year-old single mom, disappeared after an evening out at a bar in downtown Wisconsin Rapids on June 10, 2006. Her stays have been found 5 months later by hunters in a wooded space close to Seneca, about 5 miles from downtown. according to WSAW.

“This may occasionally present some closure for a lot of, however won’t carry Deidre again,” the Wooden County Sheriff’s Workplace and Wisconsin Rapids Police stated in a joint assertion. “Our ideas and prayers will all the time be with Deidre’s household.”

Revak, a Wisconsin native and former EMT, died by suicide in a Missouri jail cell in July 2009, simply someday after he was charged with manslaughter within the dying of Rene Williams, 36, a mom of three from Mansfield, Missouri.

Williams was final seen on March 13, 2007, on the Eagle Lodge bar in Ava, Missouri, the place she labored. Revak was additionally on the bar that night, according to FOX9.

By 2024, KCCI Des Moines reported that investigators from Iowa and Wisconsin have been taking a contemporary take a look at Revak, who had lengthy been suspected of a number of violent crimes earlier than his dying.

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Investigators by no means discovered Jodi Huisentruit, who was declared legally lifeless in 2001, the Related Press reported. (ABC Information Studios)

Based on a latest documentary, police investigated whether or not Revak could have been linked to as many as 5 completely different murders over a fourteen-year interval, together with Huisentruit’s disappearance.

Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase, who investigated Williams’ case, beforehand informed Fox Information Digital that Revak’s confirmed hyperlink to Hurt’s homicide exacerbated his issues in regards to the former EMT’s violent historical past.

“After I began engaged on the Christopher Revak case, he was my suspect within the homicide of Rene Williams,” Degase stated. “I did not assume this was his first try.”

Degas told KY3 that forensic proof linked Revak to Williams’ disappearance.

“We had his DNA on the scene. We had her DNA in his truck,” he stated. ‘I feel the most important factor was that they could not discover a physique. They’d no witnesses who got here ahead to say she was lifeless.”

Regardless of the dearth of a physique, investigators charged Revak with Williams’ homicide primarily based on DNA outcomes. Degase stated his curiosity about comparable crimes led him to find chilling parallels.

“It wasn’t the primary time Revak tried to kidnap a lady in Ava,” he stated. “Actually, shortly after his arrest, I did a Google seek for ‘girls kidnapped from bars’ in all of the cities he had lived in. And after I searched from Wisconsin Rapids, Deidre Hurt got here up.”

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That discovery prompted Degase to contact Wisconsin investigators, share his findings and assist join the dots between circumstances.

“I do not consider in coincidences,” he stated. “I referred to as the authorities and gave them the knowledge I had.”

Degase, who seems within the documentary discussing the case, stated each Williams and Huisentruit are nonetheless lacking, a element that also haunts him. He didn’t rule out the chance that Revak may have traveled to Iowa.

“Evidently, [Jodi] I wasn’t kidnapped from a bar, however I simply thought it was unusual,” Degase stated.

He added that Revak “had a darkish aspect.”

“We’re coping with what could also be a serial killer,” Degase informed KY3. “Through the day he does his deed for society and helps folks and saves folks, however there was a darkish aspect to Chris Revak.”

Revak had additionally been an individual of curiosity within the 1995 disappearance of Huisentruit, a 27-year-old morning anchor for KIMT-TV in Mason Metropolis, Iowa.

Huisentruit disappeared round 4 a.m. on June 27, 1995, after calling a colleague to say she was on her method to work however by no means arrived. Police discovered indicators of a battle exterior her house, together with a pair of excessive heels and a bent automobile key close to her automobile.

She was declared legally lifeless in 2001, though her physique has by no means been discovered.

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Jodi Huisentruit was a TV presenter earlier than she disappeared in 1995. (Findjodi.com)

On the time, Mason Metropolis police stated there was no proof linking Revak to the case. Nonetheless, in 2024, researchers from Wisconsin and Iowa reconnected to match notes on him. according to FindJodi.com.

Authorities had additionally investigated whether or not Revak’s ex-wife had ever lived in the identical home as one of many final folks to see Huisentruit alive, however decided that she had moved out six months earlier than the anchor’s disappearance.

Regardless of three a long time of lifeless ends, then-Mason Metropolis Police Chief Jeff Brinkley stated in June that the division continues to obtain and pursue leads year-round.

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Flyers publicizing Jodi Huisentruit’s disappearance are seen exterior her office, KIMT-TV, on July 3, 1995. (Steve Kagan/Getty Photographs)

“We have not put this apart, we have not stopped working, we have not stopped on the lookout for clues and knowledge,” Brinkley informed FOX 9 on the time.

In 2024, officers searched a property in Winsted, Minnesota, following a tip, though no new proof was discovered. Earlier this yr, a part of a 2017 search warrant was additionally unsealed.

“We’re nonetheless hopeful that the case will probably be resolved and justice will probably be served – irrespective of how lengthy it takes,” Brinkley stated.

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Huisentruit’s household continues to hope for closure.

“The ache and anguish that we and everybody who beloved Jodi feels is immeasurable,” her household wrote in a press release on the Jodi’s Hope Fb web page. “True peace won’t come till Jodi is discovered and justice is served. We nonetheless select to hope that someday it will occur quickly.”

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A $50,000 reward stays in place for info resulting in solutions in Huisentruit’s disappearance. Anybody with info is urged to contact Mason Metropolis Police or the Iowa Division of Prison Investigation.

Stephanie Nolasco of Fox Information Digital contributed to this report.

Stepheny Value covers crime together with lacking individuals, murders and migrant crime. Ship story tricks to stepheny.value@fox.com.