About Jody

Jody Ewing is an author and cold case journalist based in southwest Iowa. She began writing at age eight, both penning and illustrating her dog-napping short story, “The Mystery of Kalo’s Disappearance.”

She went on to work as a correspondent for The Sioux City Journal and a staff writer for the arts and entertainment newsweekly, Weekender.

She launched the Iowa Cold Cases website in 2005 after working on a Sioux City cold case series for the Weekender.

Two years after launching the website, Jody’s stepfather of 25 years — Earl Thelander of Onawa, IA — died from burns sustained in a house explosion caused by copper thieves. She added her stepdad’s name to the ICC site in 2008 after officials announced his case had gone cold. It remains unsolved today.

A website that began as a handful of victims from the Siouxland area has grown to include 750 cases from across the state — a few dozen still queued up to add. Iowa Cold Cases was incorporated as a nonprofit in April 2010.

Jody is the author of One Way: Bumps and Detours on the Road to Adulthood, a collection of humorous and inspirational essays about childhood and growing up. A typewriter aficionado, she wrote and finished several manuscripts and screenplays on a desktop Royal and an Olympia International.

When not researching/writing about cold cases, she is steadily shaving chapters from her 120,000-word memoir; she found the story’s ending.

Jody graduated magna cum laude from Iowa State University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies (concentrations in Communications, Social Science, and Professional Studies) and a Criminal Justice Studies minor.

In early 2015, she partnered with the Iowa Newspaper Association (INA) in a year-long “Gone Cold: Exploring Iowa’s Unsolved Murders” series, and in September 2015 was named a “Friend of Iowa Newspapers,” an honor conferred by the INA board members to those who’ve made significant contributions to the newspaper industry in Iowa.

In November 2015, international grand reporter Karen Lajon of Paris profiled Jody’s work in a special “Women of the World” series featuring five women from around the globe who chose unconventional career fields and succeeded by inspiring others to get involved and make a difference.

In March 2017, Siouxland News presented Jody with a Jefferson Award Foundation medal, an award given in recognition of outstanding public service. That same month, Jody received her Private Investigator’s (PI) license through the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

Her work with cold cases is featured in Silvia Pettem’s 2017 book, The Long Term Missing: Hope and Help for Families.

Jody is a breast cancer survivor and chose not to renew her PI license while going through treatment, though she never stopped working on cold cases.

She has three grown children, enjoys reading, bicycling, exploring parks, and has loved dogs her entire life.