A man once named a person of interest in the disappearance of Iowa news anchor Jodi Huisentruit has now been found responsible for the 2006 killing of a Wisconsin woman — and investigators believe there could be more victims.
Investigators in Wisconsin say Christopher Revak, a former emergency medical technician who died by suicide in a Missouri jail cell in 2009, would have faced charges in the death of 21-year-old Deidre Harm if he were still alive.
Wood County District Attorney Jonathan Barnett wrote in a letter shared by the sheriff’s office on October 20 that he believes there was sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial.
“I consider this case closed,” Barnett wrote. “I believe I had enough to charge and, if Mr. Revak were still alive, win at trial.”
Harm, a single mother from Wisconsin Rapids, disappeared on June 10, 2006, after a night out with friends at a downtown bar. Her remains were discovered five months later in a wooded area about five miles away.
The Wood County Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin Rapids Police Department said in a joint statement: “This may provide some closure for many but won’t bring Deidre back. Our thoughts and prayers will always be with Deidre’s family.”
Deidre’s family also released a statement, which reads in part, “First and foremost, words will never heal our hearts that have been forever broken, nor will they lessen the grief or the emptiness we feel every single day without her.”
“To the person or people responsible for the death of our beloved Deidre Christine Harm, I want these words to be heard and felt. You did not just take a life; you shattered countless others. Deidre was a daughter, a friend, and a light in this world whose absence is felt by everyone who knew and loved her,” the added.
Revak, a Wisconsin native, was visiting family in the area at the time of Harm’s disappearance.
Authorities now say he was “responsible for her death,” formally closing a case that had remained unsolved for nearly two decades.
But Revak’s violent history stretches across several states. He had been charged in 2009 with the murder of Rene Williams, a 36-year-old mother of three from Mansfield, Missouri, who vanished in March 2007 after her bartending shift. Revak was also at the bar the night she disappeared, according to FOX 9. He died by suicide in jail one day later.
Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase, who investigated Williams’ case, said the link between Revak and Harm deepened his fears about what investigators may be uncovering.
“We’re dealing with what’s possibly a serial killer,” Degase told KY3. “During his day, he’s doing his deed to society and helping people and saving people, but there was a dark side to Chris Revak.”
Degase said forensic evidence tied Revak to Williams’ disappearance – her DNA was found inside his truck, and his DNA was recovered at the scene.
“When I started working on the Christopher Revak case, he was my suspect in the murder of Rene Williams,” Degase said. “I didn’t think it was his first go-around at it.”
After his arrest, Degase began searching for other similar cases.
“I Google searched ‘women abducted from bars’ in all the towns that he had lived in,” he said. “And when I searched Wisconsin Rapids, Deidre Harm came up.”
That discovery prompted Missouri and Wisconsin investigators to compare notes – and eventually link Revak to Harm’s murder.
Connection to Jodi Huisentruit
Revak had also been previously identified as a person of interest in the 1995 disappearance of Jodi Huisentruit, a 27-year-old morning anchor for KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa.
Huisentruit vanished around 4 a.m. on June 27, 1995. She called a producer to say she was on her way to work but never arrived.
Police later found signs of a violent struggle outside her apartment, which included a mess of high heels, earrings, and a bent key left near her car.
She was declared legally dead in 2001, but her body has never been found.
Mason City police had said there is no direct evidence linking Revak to the case.
In 2024, however, Iowa and Wisconsin investigators reexamined his potential connections, given similarities between the her case and his confirmed involvement in other crimes.
A statement shared with FindJodi.com by Mason City Police Captain Mike McKelvey clarified: “Nothing has been found that shows Christopher Revak was in Mason City around the time Jodi Huisentruit was abducted, but he remains on a list of persons of interest in her unsolved case.”
Investigators had previously explored whether Revak’s former partner once lived near one of the last people to see Huisentruit alive, but determined she moved out months before the anchor’s disappearance.
Douglas County Sheriff Degase said he still found the overlap troubling.
“He had a girlfriend that lived right around the corner from Jodi,” he told KY3. “That’s the only connection we have to it. I’ve done this for 32 years. I don’t believe in coincidence. I don’t believe you have a guy who’s a serial killer who lives in Ava, Missouri, and commits a murder. He kills Deidre Harm in Wisconsin Rapids and now we have a place where he was at and right next door to where his girlfriend was at we have another person that was murdered.”
Despite no confirmed link, the renewed focus on Revak has reinvigorated attention on Huisentruit’s cold case, which remains one of Iowa’s most haunting mysteries.
“We haven’t put this down. We haven’t stopped working. We have not stopped pursuing leads and information,” former Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley told FOX9 earlier this year
In 2024, officers searched a property in Winsted, Minnesota, following a tip, though no new evidence was found. A $50,000 reward remains in place for information leading to answers in Huisentruit’s disappearance.
Earlier this year, Huisentruit’s family said in a statement on Facebook: “The pain and anguish felt by us and all who loved Jodi are immeasurable. True peace will only come when Jodi is found and justice is served. We still choose to hope that one day soon it will happen.”
Following the news of the update in Harm’s case last week, they responded, offering their thoughts and prayers at a difficult time.
“Our thoughts & prayers are with Deidre's family, friends, and all who loved her during what we are sure is a very difficult time. With this news, please keep the focus on them in this moment as they process and continue to grieve,” they said.
A pattern of violence
Revak’s double life – respected EMT by day, violent predator by night – continues to haunt those who investigated him.
According to a letter from District Attorney Barnett, Revak’s former partner Johanna Revak confirmed the couple had traveled to Wisconsin around the time Harm vanished.
She told investigators that Revak became more aggressive after drinking, and a former classmate described him as violent when rejected by women.
“During his day he’s doing his deed to society and helping people and saving people, but there was a dark side to Chris Revak,” Degase said.
As of now, authorities in multiple states are reviewing old cases for possible ties to Revak.
“As I was working on the Renee Williams homicide, I did not believe that this was the first time Chris Revak had committed a murder,” Degase said.
For Deidre Harm’s family, the official closure offers peace amid years of pain.
“We live every day with the pain of her loss, but we also live every day determined to keep her memory alive,” they said in a statement.
“To speak her name, to share her story, and to remind the world that her life mattered.”
