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Jody has worked as a professional writer — from full-time staff writer to freelancer — for the past 22 years. Her published credits include more than 400 feature stories and articles, the book One Way: Bumps and Detours on the Road to Adulthood, the Amazon Short, Pull, an Iowa Cold Case series (which eventually branched off to its own website), an author interview series, and many other writing/editing projects including both original and commissioned screenplay adaptations.
Her Sioux City, Iowa, cold case series led to her developing the Iowa Cold Cases website, which Jody launched in 2005 and continues to maintain. In addition to her writing, Jody has worked on numerous political campaigns, ran for the Iowa legislature in 2002, and has served as county chair for four presidential candidates.
 Hope and Earl Thelander |
On August 28, 2007, her stepfather of 25 years, Earl Thelander, sustained second- and third-degree burns over 80% of his body in an explosion caused by copper thieves and died four days later in an Omaha burn unit.
Six days after his funeral, Jody's mother Hope was diagnosed with Stage III, Grade 3 invasive breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Hope has since successfully undergone chemotherapy and radiation and is in remission.
Earl's case eventually went cold, and in 2008 Jody added him to the Iowa Cold Cases website.
Jody says her mother Hope has always been her role model and continues to serve
as her greatest source of inspiration. She credits her mother's strength
for her own determination to make a difference in the lives of others
through her writing, political activism and cold case work.
