A Stranger is Watching: The Shocking Abduction and Murder of Jodi Sanderholm

True Crime Nightmares
13 min readJul 12, 2024
Jodi LeAnn Sanderholm

The Vanishing

In January of 2007, nineteen-year-old Jodi Sanderholm was a student at Cowley College in her native Arkansas City, Kansas, majoring in pre-pharmacy. Gifted both athletically and academically, she had been chosen as valedictorian of her high school’s graduating class. She was also a talented dancer who had served as captain of the university dance team — the Tigerettes — for two years. Intelligent, giving and kind, she didn’t have an enemy in the world. Unbeknownst to her, what she did have was an obsessed stalker who had been tracking her every move since she was a little girl.

At 11:50 a.m. on Friday, January 5, Jodi had phoned her mother, Cindy, to let her know that she had just finished dance practice and was heading to a local sandwich shop to grab some lunch. Afterwards, she was going to drop by the house for a quick shower before meeting up with a friend. Last on the agenda, she was planning to visit her older sister, who was expecting a baby. Even though she had a full day ahead of her, she had every intention of being home in time for dinner.

Later that afternoon, Cindy had decided to check in on her youngest daughter to see how things were going, but her calls had gone straight to voicemail. At around the same time, the friend that Jodi was…

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