ICYMI: Murder Under the Friday Night Lights Recap for Devil Came to Dance

• Last week’s episode of Murder Under the Friday Night Lights is called Devil Came to Dance.

 

• Lori Legleiter-Virden remembers her best friend Jodi as being as close to her as a sister. They were on dance team together and they spent a lot of time together. The two of them even went to college together on dance scholarships.

 

• Cindy Sanderholm, Jodi’s mom, remembers her being filled with love and spirit.

 

• On January 5th, 2007, the girls had dance practice for a show they were doing the next day. Jodi had headed home to shower before she and Lori went out for the night. However, that meeting would never happen.

 

• Cindy had called Jodi that day and didn’t get an answer or call back. She then called her other friends, but nobody knew where she was, including Jodi’s sister Jennifer.

 

• Terri Schroeder, Jodi’s dance instructor, got word that Jodi was missing and went to help look for her.

 

• Jodi’s dad Brian also remembers getting word about his missing daughter and how they called the police, who immediately searched her house. Once they saw nothing was amiss, a search party began.

 

• Authorities, friends and family all began to look for Jodi.

 

• The possibility that she could have been visiting her boyfriend Colby was considered, as was the fact that he could have been involved in her disappearance. However, she was not with him….but he was brought in for questioning.

 

• Jodi’s loved ones recall her passion for dance and for life.

 

• There were similarities to Jodi’s case and the case of missing anchor Jodi Huisentruit, so it was briefly considered that the cases could be connected.

 

• The dance team members were also questioned, but they were soon cleared of any wrongdoing.

 

• Lori remembers that days before Jodi disappeared, there was a car that was acting odd and following her. She ended up going to the police station and waited until it was safe to leave. At first, she thought she was being paranoid, but a few days later, she saw the car again…right before Jodi went missing. Before long, she began to wonder if the person in the car was after her or Jodi, especially after Jodi disappeared.

 

• Several members of the dance team soon began to let authorities know that there was a male subject on campus that was following them. He was soon identified as Justin Thurber.

 

• Justin was brought in for questioning and claimed that he was with friends on the day of Jodi’s disappearance. He claimed that he was by the lake with the friends, but they had gotten into a fight so he left and called his dad to come get him. However, his friends claimed that they never saw Justin that night.

 

• Word soon got out that Justin might have been involved with Jodi’s disappearance. Lori remembered him as a creepy friend of her brother’s, while Jennifer just remembered him as a classmate from her graduating class.

 

• Two days after Jodi had gone missing, her phone was tracked to the lake where Justin had been. He also got tied to the case when it was revealed that Jodi had possibly been in the car acting strangely with a male subject.

 

• A search party immediately went to the area to try and find Jodi. Before long, they found footprints that matched the shoes Justin had been wearing that night, as well as one of Jodi’s shoes. Some of her other belongings were found at the toilet by the fishing lake, making it clear that she was killed. Her car was also found in the lake.

 

• Four days after Jodi went missing, her body was found in a pile of brush pile. Her loved ones were left in a state of shock.

 

• Evidence in the car connected Justin to the murder, leading to his arrest. It turned out that he had been stalking several women, including Jennifer and many dance team members.

 

• Justin was convicted on February 12, 2009 for the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Jodi. He had gotten the death penalty, but thanks to his appeal, it was postponed in 2018.

 

• Jodi’s death led to Jodi’s Law, which enables stricter enforcement of anti-stalking laws.