Authorities announced this week that a man who was previously considered a person of interest in the disappearance of Iowa news anchor Jodi Huisentruit was responsible for the 2006 murder of a Wisconsin woman and may have committed other murders.
The Wood County Sheriff’s Office announced that Christopher Revak was responsible for the death of Deidre Harm, officially resolving a case that had remained unsolved for almost two decades.
On Oct. 20, the Wood County Sheriff’s Office posted a letter from District Attorney Jonathan Barnett on Facebook, stating that he would have filed charges against Revak if he were still alive.
“I deem this case closed,” Barnett wrote. “I believe I had sufficient evidence to charge and, if Mr. Revak were still alive, to win at trial.”
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Harm, a 21-year-old single mother, went missing after a night out at a Wisconsin Rapids bar downtown on June 10, 2006. Her remains were found five months later by hunters in a wooded area near Seneca, approximately five miles from downtown, according to WSAW.
“This may bring some closure for many, but it won’t bring Deidre back,” the Wood County Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin Rapids Police said in a joint statement. “Our thoughts and prayers will remain with Deidre’s family.”
Revak, a Wisconsin native and former EMT, committed suicide in a Missouri jail cell in July 2009, one day after being charged with second-degree murder in the death of Rene Williams, 36, a mother of three from Mansfield, Missouri.
Williams was last seen on March 13, 2007, at the Eagle Lodge bar in Ava, Missouri, where she was employed. Revak was also present at the bar that night, according to FOX 9.
In 2024, KCCI Des Moines reported that investigators from Iowa and Wisconsin were reexamining Revak, who had been suspected of multiple violent crimes prior to his death for a long time.
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According to a recent documentary, police have considered whether Revak might have been connected to as many as five different homicides over a 14-year period, including Huisentruit’s disappearance.
Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase, who investigated Williams’ case, previously told Fox News Digital that the confirmed link between Revak and Harm’s killing heightened his concerns regarding the former EMT’s violent history.
“When I began working on the Christopher Revak case, he was my suspect in Rene Williams’ murder,” Degase stated. “I didn’t believe it was his first attempt.”
Degase informed KY3 that forensic evidence linked Revak to Williams’ disappearance.
“We found his DNA at the crime scene. Her DNA was inside his truck,” he mentioned. “I believe the primary issue was the inability to locate a body. There were no witnesses who could confirm her death.”
Despite the absence of a body, investigators charged Revak with Williams’ murder based on DNA results. Degase mentioned that his interest in similar crimes led him to uncover disturbing parallels.
“It wasn’t Revak’s initial attempt to abduct a woman in Ava,” he stated. “In fact, shortly after his arrest, I performed a Google search for ‘women abducted from bars’ in all the towns where he had resided. Upon searching for Wisconsin Rapids, Deidre Harm appeared.”
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That discovery led Degase to contact Wisconsin investigators, sharing his discoveries and aiding in connecting the cases.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” he stated. “I contacted the authorities there and provided them with the information I possessed.”
Degase, who is featured in the documentary discussing the case, noted that both Williams and Huisentruit remain missing, a detail that still affects him. He did not dismiss the possibility that Revak may have traveled to Iowa.
“While [Jodi] wasn’t abducted from a bar, I found it peculiar,” Degase said.
He added that Revak “possessed a dark side.”
“We are potentially dealing with a serial killer,” Degase told KY3. “During the day, he contributes to society by helping and saving people, but Chris Revak had a dark side.”
Revak had also been a person of interest in the 1995 disappearance of Huisentruit, a 27-year-old morning anchor for KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa.
Huisentruit disappeared around 4 a.m. on June 27, 1995, after calling a colleague to inform them she was en route to work but never arrived. Police discovered indications of a struggle outside her apartment, including a pair of high heels and a bent car key near her vehicle.
She was legally declared dead in 2001, although her body has never been found.
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At the time, Mason City Police stated there was no evidence connecting Revak to the case. However, in 2024, investigators from Wisconsin and Iowa reconnected to compare information about him, according to FindJodi.com.
Authorities had also investigated whether Revak’s former wife had once resided in the same house as one of the last individuals to see Huisentruit alive, but determined she had moved out six months prior to the anchor’s disappearance.
Despite three decades of fruitless leads, then-Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley stated in June that the department continues to receive and investigate leads year-round.
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“We have not abandoned this, we have continued working, we have not stopped pursuing leads and information,” Brinkley informed FOX 9 at the time.
In 2024, officers searched a property in Winsted, Minnesota, based on a tip, but no new evidence was discovered. Earlier this year, a portion of a 2017 search warrant was also unsealed.
“We remain hopeful that the case will be resolved and justice will be served — regardless of the time it takes,” Brinkley stated.
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Huisentruit’s family continues to hope for closure.
“The pain and suffering experienced by us and all who loved Jodi are immeasurable,” her family wrote in a statement on the Jodi’s Hope Facebook page. “True peace will only be achieved when Jodi is found and justice is served. We continue to hope that it will occur soon.”
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A $50,000 reward remains available for information that leads to answers regarding Huisentruit’s disappearance. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Mason City Police Department or the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.
