Longtime police investigator Jay Alberio retired from the Woodbury Police Department in 2012, but he never gave up working.

Alberio, who retired at the rank of commander, spent his retirement volunteering with a team of journalists and retired police officers — called FindJodi.com — dedicated to finding abducted Iowa news anchor Jodi Huisentruit.

Alberio continued to work with FindJodi until just a few weeks before his death on Tuesday at his home in Cottage Grove of complications related to kidney cancer. He was 66.

The organization reported last week that investigators from Mason City, Iowa, recently searched an area in Winsted, Minnesota, on a possible lead in the case. Huisentruit was abducted June 27, 1995, while getting into her car in her apartment parking lot on her way to work at KIMT-TV in Mason City.

Alberio was hired in Woodbury as a patrol officer in 1986 and spent most of his 27-year career in law enforcement working in the east metro suburb.

“He just wanted to help people,” said Judy Alberio, his wife of nearly 40 years. “It was about helping people and just trying to give the community a sense of order and doing the best you could to serve the community. He really believed in serving the community.”

Alberio’s tenacious personality made him well-suited for police detective work, Judy Alberio said. “Any task you give him, he wants it done right,” she said. “He was extremely tenacious. There was a little bit of perfectionism in him, too, and he was very competitive. … He had to win the case, if you know what I mean, but you always had to follow the rules, whether you liked them or not. He believed in people’s constitutional rights to the end of the day.”

Alberio was “the kind of detective you’d hope would be assigned to the case if someone in your family was missing or the victim of a violent crime,” said former WCCO-TV reporter Caroline Lowe, who worked with Alberio on the FindJodi.com team.

“He was the perfect detective because he would be relentless in his pursuit of tracking down whoever committed the crime — and he would also be compassionate,” Lowe said. “He would communicate with you along the way. He was just the best. He brought so much to our team because we could get off and running on something, and he would give us the law enforcement perspective. He was just invaluable, and he was so upbeat. We had so many, you know, ups and downs in our roller coaster, but he just had positivity and just kept us going.”

Even when hospitalized, Alberio continued participating in FindJodi.com meetings and calls, Lowe said. “He was just unstoppable and so caring,” she said. “He refused to let his failing health stop him from talking about our latest investigative activities.”

“That’s what was so incredible about him,” FindJodi co-founder Josh Benson wrote in a post on the site. “He was relentless. He had that innate capacity to dig on a tip or a lead with great detail. And he wouldn’t quit, even up to the end.”

Huisentruit’s niece, Kristen Nathe, said her family is grateful for Alberio’s work. “I think it says a lot about who Jay was as a person that he would volunteer his time and energy in retirement to help solve Jodi’s case,” she wrote in a post shared on FindJodi.com. “Our deepest condolences to his wife, Judy, and all who loved him, and our eternal gratitude to him for all his work to help find Jodi.”

Grew up in Bloomington

Alberio grew up in Bloomington, graduating from Bloomington Jefferson High School in 1975. He served in the U.S. Marine Corp from 1975 to 1979, stationed in Camp Pendleton, Calif.

He graduated with an associate degree in law enforcement from Normandale Community College and later received a bachelor’s degree in organizational management from Bethel University. He got his start in law enforcement as a reserve with the Minneapolis police and later served on the Washington County Special Response Team for more than 10 years, attended the FBI National Academy and completed firefighter training.

In 1983, he met Judy Boll while working as a manager overseeing disc drive production at a subsidiary of Control Data. She was working as a security guard, and the two started talking, she said. “I checked his badge and thought he was very handsome,” said. The two got married in Bloomington in 1985.

After they retired, the couple spent 10 years wintering in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., where they built their beach home, Corgi Cottage.

Jay Alberio enjoyed playing golf and got a job working at the Eagle Valley Golf Course in Woodbury after he retired. “He formed many close friendships through golf, loved his time on the course, and took many golf trips with his dear friends,” his obituary states.

In addition to his wife, Judy, Alberio is survived by his mother, Joy Smith; a brother, Joe Alberio; sisters, Julie Springer and Juanita Peterson, and many nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Alberio’s life will be 11 a.m. Friday at Five Oaks Church in Woodbury, with visitation one hour prior.

Neptune Society is handling arrangements.