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Tonight three boys go out only two come home. My exclusive interview with the family 2020 starts right now. Hey, I'm George Wolf. I'm five feet tall. My home name is Jacob.
It's a case that just captures the imagination of everyone because they can all imagine that could have been my kid. They were frantic, kind of screaming. Rishel, Rishel, someone took Jacob. There's a man with a gun and he's got Jacob. You're worried about him getting hit by a car and he gets snatched by somebody? Who would take a child? That's all I kept. Who would do this?
He kept out alone. It's not fair. It's a crime. You're all riding your bike in your scooter from this way and you get to this area. What happens?
All of a sudden a man came out from this area over here. We saw some adult-sized footprints and smaller ones like child-sized footprints that look like somebody was pulling this kidda on. That search was massive. In my mind, the man that took Jacob was I was lurking around the corner and certainly could strike again. Were you thinking that there's a serial kidnapper on the loose?
On this country road an 11-year-old boy riding his bike is abducted just a half mile away from his home. The kidnapping of Jacob Wetterling would become one of the biggest mysteries in Minnesota history with an investigation that would last close to 30 years. And during that time a mother's unwavering hope would fuel the search to find Jacob and bring him home. Growing up in St. Joseph, Minnesota was like growing up in classic small-town America.
Nobody locked their doors at night. Kids were able to run and play. St. Joseph, Minnesota is known as St. Joe.
You have a lot of the lakes that people enjoy. It's a rural community, so there's lots of farmers and farm businesses in the area. Jerry was a chiropractor. He liked the feel of the small town, especially when you're building a practice. What was life like for you at that time when you think back to the 80s?
It was kind of nuts. Kids were in different sports, dance. It was just a really wild time. You can think that four kids. It was pretty busy. Yeah, it was like that.
But they were fun. Look at those smiles. My stairs down. It was two with their ages. Yeah.
In 1989, Amy was 13. Jacob was 11. Trevor was 10 and Carmen was eight years old. We bought this house in the woods. It just felt very peaceful here. I grew up right next door to the Wetterlings.
Jacob had all of the siblings in the Wetterling family. Had a very close relationship. I was a stay at home mom. We just played. It was fun. Trevor, you gotta get down low.
So it'll be... I think the favorite video is when Jacob portrayed me reading the newspaper. And then Trevor comes back up again and says, Dad, I forgot to tape the game. And Jacob goes, what? You forgot to tape the game.
I saw a game. You're drowning for two weeks. It was pretty funny. That's this Jacob. He looks so much like you. Yeah. Wow. He's cutie.
And what does this say about him? He loved playing hockey and when he decided to be goalie. But he was really good. He had a really good balance. If he stopped it, it was a great save. If it went in, it was a great shot.
What made him special to you? He just had a really good spirit. Sweet innocent. Very real. A light. A light of a room.
I am Aaron Larson. Jacob Eileen was my best friend. They were kind of that family that was willing to try anything. It looked like you had just really kind of all laid out very nicely. We did. We were happy. Everybody was busy.
We can see busy in this calendar. And this is 1989. 1989. This is January. I mean, every month.
This one is jammed. Yeah, this is school. Back to school. So you've got everything going on. And then this is October. Now this is the month that you'll never forget. October 22nd.
Pretty much everything stops. It goes to nothing. It just stopped. October 22nd, 1989 is a very vivid date in my memory. It was a Sunday. We didn't have school the next day for some reason.
Jacob and I went fishing near my lake. He had been practicing for a hockey tryout. And he was just crazily having trouble staying on his skates. It was just really bugging him. So I suggested we go fishing. It was a really nice time fishing. And came back around noon time.
We all met in here to watch the Vikings game. Come on. How many markets? That's really crowded. That particular night we were invited to a dinner party.
You were going out to dinner with friends. And the kids were going to stay here. And we asked Jacob if he minded babysitting. Amy was staying at a friend's house. We were just going to be gone a little bit.
And he was in sixth grade. He said, you're no problem. Can Aaron come over? I remember being super excited because we actually get hangout and we don't have school the next day. We left. We got to our friend's house called home to give them the number. This was pre-cell phone. You have to remember.
They asked if they could ride the bikes to the store and rent the video. I initially said no. It was starting to get dark. Being little boys, you kind of come up with not taking no for that first answer. They've ridden to the store a million times, but not at night.
Where we lived in a kind of a little cul-de-sac wooded area to the town is a straight road. But cars can go fairly fast on that road. I was just concerned that they would be visible. Trevor said, let me talk to dad. He had it all figured out. He said that Jacob was wearing my reflective running vest.
Aaron had a white sweatshirt on and Trevor was carrying a flashlight. They had everything taken care of. So, okay. Go and then come right home. But then they called the third time. These are responsible children and they said,
Carmen doesn't want to go with, is it okay if Rochelle comes over to babysit? So then I went over to the Wettling house as a parent. We were in direct contact with them and everything felt fine. Let you down everything right that you could possibly do. It is a five minute, ten minute max bike ride. It's not far. It's a mile.
We left. It probably closed around 8.30. I was actually on the scooter and then there on their bikes. We weren't in a big hurry. We were just cruising down the road.
Then we went into the Tom Thumb that convenience store and we got the Naked Gun in the movie. And I remember also getting blow pops, just some suckers. And then we just headed back the same way we came down. They were just like getting really close within a half mile of their house and all of a sudden this guy stepped out of the shadows and said stop. I have a gun.
A guy wearing a mask took your son. It would take a child. It was inconceivable. That evening the weather was perfect. We just headed back the same way we came down. It was very dark.
It was one of those nights where the moon wasn't out. There's no stars and you couldn't see anything unless it was in our little circle of light from our little flashlights. A man came out from the left hand side. There's a little gravel driveway that leads back to the farm. And it's one of those grains where it comes out and turns off your flashlights and I have a gun.
I still remember my first reaction was I think I let out a laugh almost because I thought this must be a joke. And it became real pretty quick. It seemed like they weren't gone very long at all when all of a sudden Trevor rushed into the house, followed pretty closely by Aaron. And they were frantic. Kind of screaming, Rochelle, Rochelle, someone took Jacob.
There's a man with a gun and he's got Jacob. To have a man jump out and abduct an 11 year old boy. It was inconceivable. I ended up calling my dad. He just came right over.
You both are having your dinner. Then you get a phone call. I suspect you'll never forget. So he answered the phone and it was Rochelle's dad. He asked for me and says, the boys went to the Tom Thumb and a guy wearing a mask took Jacob.
A guy wearing a mask took your son. You're worried about him getting hit by a car and he gets snatched by somebody? Are you thinking? I'm not thinking. He changed. Jerry came back to the table and grabbed my arm and said we got to go.
I said, you know what happened? Aren't those boys back yet? He said two of them are. Somebody took Jacob. It's like, what? It was unimaginable. I grabbed my purse and we left.
I know in one emergency. If I need to see Jerry, what? I've read the letter. Some of their boys went down to Tom Thumb Thumb two way back. Someone stopped him.
And uh... Okay, where did he pick up the vehicle? Second, I'll ask boys. Was there a vehicle there? Or was he a liquid? They didn't see a vehicle.
Okay. Did they see the individual at all? Yes they did. Did they see the individual at all? He had a mask on.
He had an nylon stocking over his face where he couldn't see the eyes or any of his features. Maybe that's why the voice stands out to me more. It was a very gruff, gravely voice. Hold is the individual that has not returned. Hold is the...
11. Okay, Jacob? It's Jacob, right? Yeah, Jacob, where are they? The other dad, this is actually a noise dispatching the squad to where you're at right now, okay?
I'm Bruce Bechtold and I was the first officer on the scene. I was a brand new deputy at the time. I get a call from dispatch that it sounded like a boy had been abducted. And in my mind, that can't be true, but I activated my lights since I ran and drove pretty quickly this way. It must have been the longest ride of your life. It was. It would take a child. That's not like a...
Who would do this? It's about a 20 minute drive or so, uh... Trying to figure it out. We had no idea what we were walking into. It's one of those things that you just can't even fathom could actually happen in small town Minnesota.
You have to drive past the abduction site to get to the wetterling home. And it's in this location where we're standing now. You're all running your bike in your scooter from this way and you get to this area. What happens? All of a sudden the man came out from this area over here. He said stop, I have a gun and told us to turn off our flashlights.
It's basically where all your ears and everything gets real very fast. He ordered them to put their bikes down in the ditch and then to lay down, face down, each one of them. And this is the spot, Aaron, as far as you know? Yeah, like right in here. So we were laying with our heads, basically that way, like on our stomachs.
And then he told us to look at him and asked us how old we were. And so at the time, Trevor was 10 and myself and Jacob were both 11. And then he started with Trevor at first and he told him to run as fast as he could into the woods. And then he told me to get up and run as fast as I can to look back or else I would shoot. Trevor and Aaron ran off to the woods back here. And then they ran from the corner of the woods here,
dangling across the fields where a gap in the trees is. That's where the wetterling house in the neighborhood is. When Aaron finally caught up to Trevor and they were brave enough to look back, they just didn't see Jacob. He was gone. Nobody was there. That was a matter of how fast can we get to somebody to help us because we had no idea what's going on.
You make your way back home and you hear from the other boys, Trevor said this man. There was a man with a gun and he told us to get off our bikes and lay down in the ditch or he'd shoot. Do you have any recollection of what was going through your mind that night? Fear? Just frantic fear, I guess I would say it.
The detectives were asking for all kinds of personal. They might have taken Trevor's hockey jacket because they both played for the same lead. So it's his hockey jacket. He was wearing this. He was wearing this when he was kidnapped.
Then they asked for a picture of Jacob. This is the photo that you gave? This was the yellow sweater photo. This was heartbreaking. You take it down. But it was so hard because I had three of the kids school pictures on the wall and then there's this blank frame.
It was just one of those heart wrenching moments. That first night was just a lot of chaos. You know, the sheriff was concerned that maybe he's tied to a tree or something. He can't break free. We're going to find him.
Law enforcement are searching and searching the abduction site. Then key pieces of evidence and a witness emerge. A car turns around in the evening really fast and it takes off. This show is sponsored by Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID. On June 25th, 2011, 31-year-old Angel Harris was found murdered in Gainesville, Florida.
More than 15 years later, her case remains unsolved. But on the new podcast, Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID, host Sarah Kalen travels to Florida to uncover what happened to Angel and who may be responsible. Retired Gainesville Police Detective Courtney Roberts joins Sarah to review evidence. That includes surveillance footage showing Angel with an unidentified man shortly before her death and then the same man walking away alone. Soon the search for answers in one murder turns into an investigation of five unsolved homicides. Who Killed Angel Harris?
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October 12 by 5 feet tall. My home name is Jacob Erbumbur. I'm a favorite from the steak. A favorite color of blue. The best friend is Aaron Larson. He's a sixth grade teacher.
She had videotaped all of the kids and had them tell a little bit about yourself. What do you want to do when I grow up as a football player? It was him just his face and sharing all of his favorites. My favorite game is Clue. My favorite thing to do most is wash with all.
And that video was taken 10 days before he was abducted. I'm finished. I remember the night before. He was kind of crabby because he felt like he was a bad skater. So he was a little bit sensitive. And sometime that evening, he asked, he felt really bad.
I'm sorry. I was so crabby. You want to play a game? And I said, no, thank you. I appreciate you wanting to play. I was in the midst of putting things away, which is a heartbreaker.
That's one of my worst mom moments. I wish I could take it back. Police want to get a recorded statement from Jacob's 10-year-old brother Trevor, who was with Jacob when he was taken. It was a really quiet solemn drive down that road. Now what was an ugly road.
Police were still there the following morning and it was traumatic. I could just feel Trevor stiffin. And then we went to the St Joe police station. This is a tape interview. Today's date is October 23, 1989, the time right now is zero nine, nine hours.
Can you tell us how old you are, please? I'm 10 years old. While you guys are riding your bikes, did somebody confront you? Somebody stopped me, you guys stopped riding your bikes. Oh, yeah?
Can you tell us what this person initially said when you guys were riding by? He said stop, I haven't got enough of the flashlight, going to do three-something minute. He has to solve ages. My heart just broke. He's a 10-year-old kid who witnesses horrific thing.
His brother was stolen. He hadn't slept in the fear, the sheer terror of that night. Where was his gun? He had to go to his head. OK, what happened now?
Told me to run his rasps and I could to the woods. Right when he told me to run the Grand G-Co. Where the abduction occurred was at the end of a driveway where the Rassier family resided. 34-year-old Dan Rassier lived on this farm with his parents who were out of town that weekend. My name is Dan Rassier and in 1989 I was a band teacher.
The night Jacob was taken, I was home alone, working on this collection, getting it up to date. Between 9 and 9.30, the dog is barking because the dog is noticing a car coming down the hill. It was like a blue, it may be a darker blue, but smaller car and turned around very quickly and I was gone. Shortly after that, I went to bed. I woke up when Smokey was barking, looked outside, and a whole bunch of people were up by the wood pile with flashlights.
When I interviewed Trevor and Aaron, they said they didn't see a car. So we thought, well, we need to do a ground search. We first searched where the bicycles were found and started working our way through this little bit of a wooded area. Dan Rassier meets up with police and tells them he saw a dark vehicle quickly turn around in his driveway earlier that night. Talking to Dan, we thought, well, maybe there was a car.
But in this area, we saw some tire tracks and then we saw some adult side footprints and smaller ones like child-sized footprints. They weren't going straight forward like this. They were to the side and almost like they were shuffling together. It didn't look like someone had just gone for a walk. It looked like somebody was pulling this kit along and so that caused us to think that maybe these were Jacob's footprints and the abductors footprints.
The car would have stopped here. So if they're coming down the road on their scooter and bicycles, they would have never saw that there was a car here. They found Jacob's footprint down here. Yeah, it was weighed down by that second pole. And the irony is it is such a peaceful, beautiful spot.
It's like God's country, you know? It is. The driveway where Jacob was taken is just a few miles from the interstate. So if he was in a car, Jacob and his kid never could be anywhere. I just had the sense that this guy took Jacob and took off.
In my mind, he's halfway to Las Vegas or Chicago. He's got him and he's going somewhere. My gut feeling was just the opposite. It's like he's so close. We can't reach him.
This man has put us behind locked doors and made us restrict our children's every movement. You couldn't be outside, locked your doors. You kept tracking your kids differently. With the community and parents on edge, the hunt for Jacob Wederling quickly becomes one of the biggest search missions in Minnesota history. What can you tell us about the situation?
In the days following Jacob's abduction, there was massive searches. Looking for any sign of Jacob or his kid now? The ground search was divided into sectors. Beginning with an intensive check of the 36th where my old think Joseph counted. It was a big area.
They checked all the fields of swamps like I was in the abandoned building. Sheriff came up with horses. You're all walk here, right? Let me come up. Just for the sake of coming.
Come on, come to the line of the little fella. In the days following the abduction, law enforcement connected a neighborhood canvas. We covered everything that we can with the helicopter. I remember the helicopter sound. I still have PTSD over helicopters.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers involved in task forces formed with multiple agencies and multiple investigators. That was our recovery. It was massive. There were resources I didn't know about ham radio operators. There's a small pilot's association and they were taking up little private planes.
It doesn't make any difference with the cost that we're just determined to do whatever's necessary. We got to do an absolute bill search out there. The governor called and offered up the National Guard, which was really, really huge because they searched, ground searched about 30 miles worth of land. Just wondering what all the army guys were doing on here. We went and met Addian Jerry almost immediately.
What we promised them is that we would do everything, everything in our power to find Jacob. You have to be patient and she said, I can't be patient, this is my child. And we both understood. There was just people all the time to get their house people bringing food. There's a hose right now.
The media coming and going with the huge satellite trucks. What you're doing right now is a very, very integral part of that. So we really appreciate you being here. They felt that if the story got out, there would be more people knowing about it, more people looking for him, that that would be their best chance of finding where he was. A friend of ours said, you know, you need to call the media.
He had seen the program on 2020, approximately six weeks before Jacob's abduction. 2020 with you down and water waters. How, getting the word out quickly was important in recovering that particular child. In desperation, Jeremiah's parents turned to the media, doing seven to eight interviews a day. It wasn't too long before it started making national news.
From ADC, this is World News Tonight. Last week an 11 year old boy named Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped from the streets of St. Joseph, Minnesota. I remember being at the Minnesota Vikings game when they had Jacob's missing poster. Not just the Vikings are part of this football game, but it's a whole area.
And this is a big, big thing and everyone is apart. A friend of mine, Jake, what are we? I just thought, well, this is it. If they get Jacob on this particular broadcast for the Minnesota Vikings, they will absolutely find him. How hard was that for you to see his picture out there as a missing child?
You're Jake. Yes, devastating. At the beginning, there's no way your brain can really take all this in. It's crazy. First it was Jerry who was front and center in the middle of all that media coverage.
But after an appearance on a current affair, the family decides to change, not its message, but its messenger. Tonight our David Lee Miller reports on that terrible crime that has brought terror to the country's heartland. It was a total shock, total disbelief. People started turning in Jerry as a suspect. And it's like, they didn't like the way he looked on TV.
He wasn't sad enough. He didn't cry. He wasn't angry. If it were me, I would respond this way. It was ridiculous.
I wasn't meeting their needs for what I should be as a searching dad. He finally, one day, just said they don't want to hear from me. They need to hear from you. So that was my call to step up. Jacob's all alone.
It's just not fair. It's just a run. How tough was that on the marriage? Very tough. Marriage is tough on a good day.
Your partner can be your support when you're going through a tough thing. But this is the thing we're both experiencing in real time together. So it was hard for us to really be there for each other in the way that we needed to be. You began to write letters to Jacob. Why?
It was my way of just connecting to him. If he came home tomorrow, I wanted him to know exactly what we had tried. Everything that we tried, because I kept thinking he was wondering why did it take so long. Dear Jacob, my heart hurts as days pass by without you. I wrestle over the details again and again, who could have done this?
Where are you, Jacob? I love you, Jacob. And I promise I will never stop searching for you. The idea that Jacob was taken while innocently writing his bicycle seemed to shake the nation to his core, leading police to stop at nothing to find him. Little do the Wetterlings know that just miles away, investigators may have a link to Jacob's disappearance.
Investigators became aware of a similar abduction that had occurred. There were so many similarities. They thought this could be our guy. This quiet Minnesota town, population under 3,000, has not been the same since Jacob Wetterling was abducted. A massive search has failed to turn up any trace of Jacob or his kidnapper.
Are you terrified that there's somebody out there who's going to try to snatch you or somebody else? Yeah, I would say I was traumatized. I slept on my parents' floor for how many months we didn't know who had Jacob. That person's still out there obviously, and so there's always that fear of the what-if. In my mind, the man that took Jacob was always lurking around the corner.
After Jacob Wetterling, everything changed. Almost immediately. How people, parents, their kids. I even asked the sheriff one time, and said, are our other kids safe? There were times when I just wanted to keep them all inside.
But I spent a lot of my own energy trying to nudge them. The people of Saint Joseph have rallied on Jacob's behalf, putting up posters, raising reward money, and calling attention to his plight. There were white ribbons everywhere, and they wrote on Jacob's hope. At a church service, Jacob's classmates and family sang, listen. One of his favorite songs, it has become an anthem of hope.
There was no evidence that Jacob was not alive. And that was the one thing Patty and the Wetterling family had to cling to. From that first night on, we kept leading our porch light on all the time. It was just a way to say, we're not stopping. You got to get home, Jake.
His favorite show was MacGyver. That was a man that escaped from all these outrageous situations, and I thought if anybody could get away, it would be Jacob. The FBI says it is the best lead they've had in nearly two months. For the first time, agents believed there is a connection between Jacob's abduction and another abduction earlier this year. Shortly after Jacob's abduction, investigators became aware of an incident that occurred in Cold Spring, Minnesota.
Cold Spring is about 10 miles from St. Joseph. And in January of 1989, just nine months before Jacob's kidnapping, another boy, 12-year-old Jared Shirell is abducted. Jared had gone to the skating rink with several other friends. And after I skating, they decided to walk to this cafe in town, and they ordered some milkshakes and french fries.
Jared just lived really close, so he decided he was just going to walk home. When he was nearing his neighborhood, a car had pulled up, and a man asked if he knew where the craymers lived, and Jared tried to help him with directions, and the man got out and grabbed Jared and put him in the back seat of his car. This guy approached me from behind and said I have a gun, I'm not afraid to use it. The abductor drove Jared to a remote site outside of Cold Spring, Minnesota, and assaulted him. I was dropped off and told to a run, don't look back or he would shoot.
The statement matched language used at the wetterling abduction. He grabbed Jacob and then he told me to run his faces. I get into the woods or else he'd shoot. He said almost the same words. I was just thinking that these cases are pretty similar.
I was really concerned that it could be the same person. Were you thinking that there was a serial kidnapper on the loose? Possibly, and I had heard that sometimes there's a time period where they don't do it again for a period being caught. Jared and his parents reported this right away, and they met with police and gave a very detailed police report. You believe the vehicle was a blue vehicle, a blue interior.
You described some sort of a scepterling scanner or a handheld scanner in the front seat of the vehicle. He described as a doctor as wearing a baseball cap, camouflage clothing, a man with a gruff voice. Did the FBI release this composite, a sketch of the cold spring abductor. It was drawn after investigators noticed the similarity between the abduction and Jacob's. The abductor was a white man in his 40s or 50s.
He had a deep raspy voice. He told the boy he had a gun. The characteristic that I remember of, like our event is the voice. When Jared Trire was abducted and sexually assaulted, that was very, very rare. You would pass forward to when Jacob Wirling was abducted.
The stranger abduction in Minnesota, on a gravel road. The probability that they're both related, absolutely. Police were looking for a child predator based on something you had said. What would let them think that? When he was coming out of the road there, he initially had reached over and had touched me.
So I think that obviously led them to think that was what his main goal was on the sexual predator side of things. Police always thought there were so many similarities between Jared's abduction and Jacob's abduction. They thought, okay, this could be our guy. But as each anniversary went by year after year and then nothing would happen, you do start to think, this case is never going to be solved. Every year we would get together like on the 22nd of October.
We've reached another year of, we haven't found him like we'd still been where he is. His presence is still real and heartfelt. But this graduation is still a somber one for classmates of Jacob Wittering. A lot of people value a lot of things more because realizing everything's like a beer for her. I think Patty and Jared would talk about what they kind of lived vicariously like through my graduating class, but it's also, I'm sure, it was a sad thing because they wish Jacob was there doing it with us.
Years go by. And then you're here to police are looking at somebody who's right down the street. They wired me. You wouldn't have rubbed her own, Jake. I don't even feel that I could have saved them.
And then a blogger begins doing a little digging of her own. Are you thinking at this point you probably got your guy? Yes. We do you got a big break in the case. We have in our grasp the opportunity to find Jacob Wittering.
The Wittering case is immense. It is a huge story. Looking for any find of Jacob or his kidnapper. This whole row right here is Jacob Wittering. And this is the Wittering room.
This is a lot of evidence. This guy threatened these kids with a gun and he would often say, don't look back or I'll shoot. You started a real investigation. And that began an incredible force. The chiropractor, a plumber, a blogger and a housewife.
You see all of these victims in a close radio as it has to be the same person. And the guy came flying out of the, from behind the spruce trees. In the dark. In total darkness. This doesn't win out of everybody's like, oh.
This could be the information that we've been looking for for all these years. Now you're about to find out. Yeah. The real story. Wow.
What did we just discover here? It's an unsolved mystery. A week's go by, months go by. Involving this young, all American boy. No news, no leads.
No one knew why? Year after year after year after year. And nobody really knew exactly how. All law enforcement really knew was that young Jacob Wedderling vanished on a moonless Minnesota night, leaving behind a footprint as the only clue to follow. When a story like that lingers, you just figure it's never going to be solved.
Where are you, Jacob? So it's 2004 and it's late January and I get a call. We invited Dan Rassier into the Stills County Sheriff's Office and went over the information we had with him. Back in 1989, Dan Rassier was that music teacher living on a property near where the Wedderling crime happened. Rassier sees himself as a solid citizen, a good guy, but police aren't yet convinced.
I was completely thinking I was going to help with something. It starts off kind of just, you know, what can I do? I remember him saying, well, that car that you saw, it's been accounted for. The car theory was that someone pulled into the Rassier farm driveway and was waiting there and abducted Jacob Wedderling and left. That car theory is based on Rassier's eyewitness account.
I went, well, great. You've got your guy. No, no, we've found the driver of the car and he is innocent. He did not do this. That's bad news for Rassier.
That's when investigations seem to really turn towards Dan Rassier as being the doctor. It had been 15 years since Jacob Wedderling was kidnapped right at the top of this driveway and now the man living on this sprawling farm across from the abduction site is the focus of the investigation. If you just want to look at a thing like this from a common sense perspective, it's got to be somebody that knows the area, somebody who's comfortable in the area. We were pretty, I don't know, forceful as the word, but we were pretty somewhat aggressive with him, maybe more than normal just to see if we could get a different reaction out of him.
Dan, I don't think he liked that. I know he didn't like it. I watch you tell me where you put Jacob's and go and find him. It'll be done. Boy, you could be the person that's the psychopath killer.
He'd be some of that nice guy in the world or he's someone between. Basically he's saying you took Jacob on and on, that kind of thing. How'd you do it? You knew they were coming by, you grabbed them. For instance, I said that you take Jacob Wedderling and I said, you're saying no, which most people would be upset that you accused him.
He put his hand up and he'd say, did I take Jacob Wedderling? Just kind of cocky remarks. He would never eliminate himself. He always kind of teased you with, it might be me type of comments. I did something like that.
I would have to be nuts. And I'm trying to explain to him, but he's just so, he's so gone that I remember the interview just going, not good, not good. And so on the way out, Pam Jensen says to me, well, you took that pretty well. And I go, well, it's a joke. The whole thing is a joke.
And then I left. That must have been mind boggling to think that police are looking at somebody who's right down the street. Were you suspicious? For years, I was curious about him. You were so determined to do anything to find your son that you were even willing to wear a wire.
I didn't wear a wire. I do anything. I just wanted to meet the man and have him look me in the eye and say he didn't do it. And so they did. They wired me.
So we put a wire on her and we knew where Rassier went to the gym. So we had her bump into him. Are you saying? I need to talk to you. We just sat in that lobby area and I asked a lot of questions.
You know, Jacob was last seen on your property. Do you think Jacob could have been on your property? I knew you would be on the eye and said you had nothing to do with Jacob's to sit here. I had nothing to do with this. You wouldn't ever have harmed Jacob.
I only feel that. If I would have been more alert, he's all hindsight. I could have stopped him. I could have saved him. Do you remember that conversation?
Yes. We sat down for maybe 45 minutes. I told her my side of the story. She wanted to get all the questions answered. Did you do this, Dan?
Thank you, Dan. Let's talk again. Thank you. I'm going to talk to you about the next microphone. He's either innocent or a psychopath.
He's really good at covering up or he didn't do it. By 2010, the investigation is right back where it began on the rest of your property. Through tying, we put together all the information we had and we presented that information to a judge. Yeah, the judge felt there was sufficient probable cause to look on the farm. I'm standing in front of a cornfield on the edge of the Rezeer family farm.
This was a big deal when they did the dig at the rest of your residence. Neighbors, having watching too. It's kind of scary. They did a pretty extensive search. They were digging up some of his property, which clearly he was not happy with.
The dig turns up tons of dirt and nothing else, but the damage has been done. Rezeer is branded. Rezeer was known publicly as a person of interest in the Wetterly case. It wasn't like we stopped everything and they started working on Dan Rezeer. It was not the case at all.
We worked everything we could think of. Dan Rezeer isn't involved in the Wetterling abduction at all, but it'll be years before investigators make that clear. If Dan didn't do it, who did it? That's when a blogger begins doing a little digging of her own. What are you thinking?
I just thought, oh, this is big. This is got to be the answer. This is really big. I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore. The Vision returns for the final chapter of the Brown-Bree Contrilogy.
That family wasn't real. You sure about that? I had a father called Vision. How was this possible? I'm not using my name.
We told this the two episodes from the year of Marvel Television's Vision Quest. Nothing bonds a family together quite like Mortal Jeopardy. Now streaming only on Disney Plus. The new documentary film Cat's Eye, Wild Hearts, is now available on Disney Plus and Hulu. The more we grow into Cat's Eye, the more eyes that we have on us, we want to do everything for the fans.
Our iPhones are what make Cat's Eye iconic. Cat's Eye, Wild Hearts, now available on Disney Plus and Hulu. Visit Disney Plus dot com forward slash what's hyphen on for more information. Terms apply. Tonight in Missouri, Sean Hornbeck is back home.
California kidnapping cases come to an astonishing end. Three missing women, found alive together a decade later. Two decades go by, no sign of your son. Yet you still hold on to home, I did. This is what kept me going.
These were clippings of stories about the children who made it back. And I would do anything to protect my children and all of these children. Over the years, we watched Patty turn into an activist. I was working with the National Center for Missing Expleited Children and doing law enforcement trainings all over the country. People need to be educated about the dangers of those who violate children.
Because of Jacob's case and Patty, the Sex Offender Registration Law was passed. Today, America warns, if you dare to pray on our children, the law will follow you wherever you go. She got very involved in trying to keep this from happening to other families. It wasn't just about Jacob, it was about all children. The Waterling Case is immense.
It is so emotional, it is deep, and it was for me all consuming. I'm Joy Baker, and starting in 2010, I wrote a blog about the Jacob Waterling Case. You started a real investigation. Yeah, I went to the local library, looked at all the old news tape articles from that time period, and I just started to lay it out. Over the next few years, Joy gained a following online.
But the Waterlings weren't aware of her until a chance encountered. In 2013, it was nearly 25 years since you lost Jacob. You made a blogger. Yes. I was speaking at an event, and this woman came and introduced herself and said she'd been blogging about Jacob.
Patty is mildly freaking out about this person, and I just go to the blog, and I'm reading and say, wow, this is good stuff. We called her, I think, the next day, and we had at least a two-hour conversation of, who are you, and where do you hope to go? Then a turning point enjoys research. She's struggles across a 1987 newspaper article from the nearby town of Painsville. I found this story about these five cases of young teenage boys who had been followed, assaulted, also very similar language, like when they had been caught, she'd say, don't turn around or blow your head off.
And it was similar to the language that the boys who were with Jacob had reported. The town of Painsville, where the incidents happened, is roughly 30 miles from where Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped. Past Cold Spring, Minnesota, where that other boy, Jared Shirel, was abducted months earlier back in 1989. I shared his story on my blog, and people were commenting, that same thing happened to my brother or my nephew or my son. Chris Berthelson, who grew up in Painsville, told me about a string of frightening incidents that he and his friends had there back in the 80s.
Some of the incidents were reported to authorities back then. Early in 1987, two friends of mine had been molested. One a masked man grabbed him, groped him, and then another friend of mine had been molested near his home. Was there a feeling that there was some guy out there who was playing on boys? It was the talk of everybody, at least of us boys.
It just became kind of a culture to watch out for this guy. All of a sudden, it's not safe to ride your bike. A time of fear. A lot of fear. Then in May of 1987, Chris had his own run-in with that man.
He takes me back to the spot. My friend and I were riding our bikes around this corner, and the guy came flying out from behind the spruce trees. In the dark. In total darkness. Close-lined my friend off the bike.
And he stopped on the bike, and I stopped, and my friend yelled, you already got me. And the guy took off running, and I took off on my bike to call the police. My friend, he said, I got his hat. In their scuffle, he grabbed his hat. We always kind of knew there were these pieces that were unanswered.
Law enforcement investigate, but they never arrest anybody for the attacks on Chris or his friends. One of the consistent things with all of my friends was that he had a low gravelly voice, a mumbly voice. More than two decades later, this string of incidents in Painsville may now shed new light on Jacob Wetterling's case. This is what happened to me. This is what happened to Jacob.
This could be the information that we've been looking for for all these years. So this looks very much like small town America. Very much. Just quaint homes. There's a river that runs through it.
It couldn't be more hometown America. Joy came here to Painsville after reading about those earlier assaults. The blogger tried to determine if the case is here, could somehow be connected to the kidnapping of Jacob Wetterling and that other boy in Cold Spring, Jared Shiro. So when you began looking into this case and you started to discover that there had been incidents of boys being either assaulted, listed here in Painsville, what areas did you find that were significant? A lot of them happened right here, right downtown, where kids were at their local hangouts behind the local Painsville place.
You're convinced that these incidents here in Painsville were no doubt connected to what happened to Jacob and that perpetrator was probably the same person. I really, really felt that Painsville was the answer. Law enforcement had actually talked to some of those Painsville boys after Jacob's abduction. When we found out about the Painsville incidents, we thought they were connected. We thought maybe the same person kidnapped Jared and Jacob.
In January of 1990, the Painsville Police Chief had contacted the task force and indicated that Danny Heinrich might be considered a suspect in the Wetterling case. Heinrich was in his mid-20s at the time. He was a lifelong resident of Painsville and was a member of the Minnesota National Guard. Danny Heinrich was one of the names who'd come up early, no prior arrest for sexual assault, no prior anything against children, couldn't hold a job for law and had a troubled childhood. The physical description was nearly identical in all the Painsville incidents.
It was very similar to the Cold Spring abduction as well as the Jacob Wetterling's abduction. Gravely, Raspy, a static field voice was a specific description of the offender. And investigators did take a closer look at Heinrich after Jared Chirrell's kidnapping. In the case of Jared Chirrell's kidnapping, Danny Heinrich was a suspect. They put him in a lineup. It was just a picture lineup.
So Jared picked two people that somewhat resembled the guy that had taken him, but that was as good as he could do. One of those was Heinrich. And where it's somewhat resembled in the precision of legal language isn't that he picked him out. With no other evidence, Heinrich is never charged. But after Jacob Wetterling is abducted, Heinrich's name surfaces once again.
When he was interviewed, Heinrich denied knowing where he was on the day of the abduction of Jacob. Heinrich denies any involvement. So authorities take a different tact. They search the home he's living in. They take his tennis shoes, they vacuumed his car, and they kept those fibers from the back of his car.
They obtained his tires from his vehicle. One of the items tested was Jared Chirrell's Snowmobile suit, and it was determined that trace evidence on Jared's Snowmobile suit may have originated from the seat materials in a Mercury tool pass. That fiber could have come from the seat of any Mercury tool pass manufactured around that time. Not specific to Heinrich's Mercury tool pass. If a laboratory examiner can testify that that tire impression belongs to that tire, that's evidence.
If a laboratory examiner says that tire impression is consistent with that tire, that's not evidence. Same thing with shoe impressions, same thing with hairs and fibers. It's throwing indications for an investigator to pursue it. It's not evidence. Investigators bring Heinrich in.
We started talking to him. Again, before alone, he said I'm on water. And of course, once they say that, according to the rules, we cannot answer any further questions. They did not have enough physical evidence to charge him, therefore they had to release him. Certainly, years of investigating, Danny Heinrich always was one of our suspects.
After different leads, we then decided that we'd go approach and see if we could talk to him, and we would knock on the door. The first time he shut the door on me, a couple of years later, we came back, same story, he had knocked on the door. He said, I got an attorney, I'm not talking to you. End of the story. Did we think that was suspicious?
Sure. But could we do anything about it? No. Every day, I'm getting all these tips and leads from Painesville residents, and I'm sending them all to Stearns County. But at some point, I just felt like a bother.
Joy may have discovered some additional information, but the fact that young boys were being either chased, stocked, or groped in Painesville was not new to us. We just couldn't share the law enforcement file what we had with her. But since Jared was a victim, investigators would share information with him. Jared meets with Captain Jensen. And he calls me, and he is on fire.
And he just said, Joy, there's more to this story. There's a hat that may have DNA on it. The Painesville incidents have something else in common. At the center of many of those crimes, is that a part meant where Danny Heinrich was living. Were you losing faith in law enforcement at this point?
I was frustrated. I wanted the team back. Fresh look. You got to go back to the beginning. Today's day, the 728, 1215 times 836, yeah.
A fresh look leads investigators back to a very familiar homeowner. There is no human or anything that remains on his property. I guarantee you 100%. And this is the Wetterling Room. This is a lot of evidence.
It's a lot of evidence. And you said not even all of what you have. This is a small portion of the evidence that was collected through the years. It's been close to 25 years since Jacob's kidnapping. And now an FBI team that's highly trained in child abductions is about to conduct a review of the entire Wetterling case.
My name is Chris Spokers. I am a retired FBI special agent, and I was a member of the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team that did a cold case review of the investigation. In October 1989, I was familiar with Mr. Wetterling's name because I had driven capacity billboard. It caught my attention that his son was missing.
Case was impactful to me to the point that I decided that I wanted to get into law enforcement to hopefully someday make a positive impact on this investigation. This whole row right here is Jacob Wetterling. I think it by far dwarfs any other case that we have for sure, volume of evidence. In 2014, we needed to take a step back and have a review of the whole case itself. In doing the cold case review, Danny Heinrich was a very good suspect early in the investigation.
There was some very compelling information there. Such as? Such as that some tires had been taken from his car, and these tires correspond and design and measurements to the tire impressions that were taken from the gravel at the Rassier residence where the abduction had occurred. We also found that his shoes corresponded and designed to the foot impressions that were taken from the scene. That's pretty stunning stuff.
It was really good evidence, but because there's no nicks, cuts that are individual to these shoes or these tires. You can't say it's exact. You can't say it's exact. One might think that based on the substantial evidence that law enforcement had gathered against Danny Heinrich wasn't that enough. But as a prosecutor, you have to evaluate a case not based on probable cause that it's likely, but proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
And looking at the evidence they had at the time, it wasn't even close. When they started reviewing the case, they looked at Jared's case too. This would be clothing related to the abduction of the Colesering Boy. When Jared Chiral was assaulted, DNA was not regularly used in criminal cases. Over the course of time and the investigation, we had continued to repeatedly submit the items from the Colesering Boy's abduction for DNA analysis.
And it was only finally in 2012 that we were able to come up with an unknown male DNA that was left on the clothing. Dennis Kern located a hair that had been saved on a slide at the FBI lab that was identified as Danny Heinrich. We do got a big break in the case that here has provided a DNA match to the previously unknown DNA that was collected from the Colesering Boy's abduction. And that match was Danny Heinrich. And so they were able to conclusively show that Danny Heinrich was the person who kidnapped and assaulted Jared Chiral.
Once we had a DNA match for the Colesering investigation, we saw a search warrant to go back to Heinrich's residence where he now lived in Annondale, Minnesota. In that search warrant, law enforcement alleged Heinrich's involvement in eight pains bill incidents. The baseball cap is tested for DNA and though 80% of the population was excluded, Danny Heinrich's DNA was not. In that search warrant, we were looking for human remains or any trophies that might have been kept. They were going to do search warrants for on this suspect Danny Heinrich.
That was scary. Would they find anything? Today's data 728, 2015 times 836,000. Presently with Pam Jenson's turn-thalish hairs on Canek Island, so the DCA. While other investigators were executing the search warrant, Captain Jenson and myself sat outside at the patio table with Danny Heinrich.
Heinrich has no idea that he's being recorded. You know when we do a lot of these search warrants, we like to see what we have on internet? They're going to find some things in the house that look pretty damn damning to me. Well you know, if you're able to like pornography, a lot of people got pornography in the house. You're a single guy.
Yeah, I'm not going to lie to you if you're not doing it. Yeah. Tell us what you found when you got in. The house itself was very neat. He had two cats, but the house was well-capped and organized.
There is no human or anything remains on this property. I guarantee you 100%. As far as I know, before I bought the place, who knows what's in the root cellar underneath the house that I wouldn't know anything about, you know. Right. Nothing for paying to make a better legal statement.
Or ever have done. Of course, we're trying to get a little information without making a whole set with us. I asked him about Painsville. I never touched anybody, seriously. That's the God's crew.
All in the mid, I got to stand in that house, but I never touched anybody. Very quickly within the search, investigators were finding binders that contained childarotica, child pornography. We found numerous bins of child-sized clothing. We found wigs and handcuffs. We recovered 922 VHS tapes.
A lot of the VHS tapes were of children's programming, where you had children actors on the shows. When we went through the tapes, investigators found hours of him at playgrounds, hours of him watching boys go by on their bikes. Very inappropriate. The search yields no evidence, directly linking Heinrich to Jared, Jacob, or any of the Painsville incidents. But there was something else found that troubled investigators.
He had tapes of news clippings from the letterling investigation. The weatherling investigation. So he was obviously concerned about the weatherling case. Correct. This very well could be Jacob Weatherlings.
A doctor, what are you thinking? A lot of it is thinking in your head, what do we now need to do so that we do this properly? So we worked with the US Attorney's Office to formulate an access to get federal charges for child pornography. Federal charges would carry more weight with more potential prison time, which might help elicit some confession in the weatherling case. So after nearly three decades, would Heinrich confess?
And would Jacob Weatherling finally be found? You don't know if he's dead or alive. Oh my goodness, this isn't it. This took me way not everybody's like, oh. Finally we found it.
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Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. About three months after they searched Heinrich's home, investigators contact the Wetterlings to share their findings. Patty and I were called down to the law enforcement center. You could just feel an electric energy in the room. We had made a PowerPoint which talked about the Pan'sville Incidents, the DNA match with Jared's case, and then we also went over some of the tire and shoe impressions with overlays.
They had Danny's shoes, and then they had the imprint on the driveway, and they just, it was like a slow-moving movie where they put one on top of the other, and visually it was a match, visually. And they did the same thing with the tiered, and they matched, exactly. It was chilling. That whole presentation was absolutely chilling. But you don't know at this stage, where Jacob is, you don't know if he's dead or alive.
Correct. They warned us to not reveal to anybody what was going on because they wanted him arrested. Good afternoon. Last night, FBI Special Agents working with the BCA, the Stern's County Sheriff's Office, and local police arrested Daniel James Heinrich. 26 years roughly after the abduction, Danny Heinrich is arrested on child pornography charges.
We consider him to be a person of interest in the Wetterling of Duction. It was really the first major development in the case, really, since the day it happened. It couldn't charge him in Jared's abduction because the statute of limitations had run out, but they were hopeful that they could get him to talk. We do see Patty and Jerry Wetterling coming down their driveway. You can see they still have a porch light on all the time.
Missing kids come home after long periods of time, and I will still always, always hope, until we have our answers. After Danny Heinrich was arrested, Patty asked me to help write the book, and so we were really focusing on that. We didn't know where Jacob was, so we just kept writing. We had no idea what the ending was going to be. Nearly a year after Heinrich's arrest, he's ready to make a deal.
Do you want justice, or do you want answers? I said, I want Jacob. Danny Heinrich would plead guilty to one count of child pornography in federal court and receive a 20-year sentence, if he was able to show us remains or provide a credible confession. He would either tell where Jacob was and what happened, or give some convincing evidence, and I was really troubled by that word. It's like, who does he have to convince?
He's already convinced all you he has to convince me. Her agreeing to this would give us the keys to unlock the door, to finally find Jacob Wetterling. Where is Jacob? Now Danny Heinrich, suspect in the voice kidnapping, has led law enforcement to this quiet, stretch of farmland in Painsville. Would they finally be able to bring Jacob home?
We walked through that narrow strip of woods with him, and eventually planted a few flags to show where the remains could have been. When investigation began at the scene, they found a piece of red material that was sticking out above ground, ended up being Jacob's hockey jacket. Everybody just took a deep breath, and just took the wind out of everybody, he's like, oh, I cannot describe it words. What it was like to all-sun just feel like, oh my goodness, this is it. We get this call saying that they had found Jacob's jacket.
Your blood runs cold. It's like everything inside is screaming no. And we're driving up, it's a peaceful farm. We see a sheriff and Captain Pan Jensen, and they just come up and give us a hug. It's been tears.
Well, it's been a while since I thought about this case, and when it found it was very surreal, we realized that there was no more Jacob Hope. It was incredibly sad, but at the same moment, there was something peaceful. Jacob was at peace. Jerry, are you? Words couldn't do anything at that point.
It finally, finally, we found him. Jerry and I, you know, he drove to some little neighborhood on a side street and pulled over and said, we have to call them. We got to call the kids, and that was the worst call in my life. Among Jacob's remains, investigators also find his number 11, Soccer Jersey. Sheriff would tell us what Danny said happened that night.
Heinrich said that he fired once. Just wants to go home. I can't imagine the fear. A Minnesota man confessing in chilling detail about abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in 1989. His confession coming days after he led authorities to the boys' remains.
It's part of the plea deal. After obtaining Heinrich's confession, law enforcement then shared the painful details with the Wetterlings. The sheriff would tell us what they found out, what Danny said happened that night. Heinrich said that he was in the St. Joseph area that Sunday night, and he saw the three boys going towards a convenience store, and he drove to the dirt driveway, and he waited for them.
He said that he walked Jacob back to his car, and he handcuffed Jacob, and that Jacob asked, what did I do wrong? He did nothing wrong. You know, we're all sobbing, and it's like, stop, Sheriff. Can you not hear us? You know, stop.
He drove Jacob to the edge of Painsville, and got him out of the car, and assaulted him. Jacob said he was cold, and that just, that really stuck with me. Leading out when he glows on, his apparent is just heartbreaking. Jacob said that he wanted to go home, and started to cry. Just wants to go home.
And like, was doing everything he asked him to do, and just wanted to go home. And like, I can't imagine like the fear, and just let him go home. And that's when he took out a gun that he had in his pocket, and he fired once, and Jacob didn't fall down, and he pulled the trigger again. Why did he have to kill him? Right? Two shots? It was just too much, too much.
He had not killed anybody as far as you know. Why did he kill Jacob? During the interview, he said that he had seen some red lights of a police vehicle going past, and he said that that contributed to his panic, and may have influenced his decision to shoot Jacob. He went home for some period of time, came back, and took Jacob, and took his remains and buried them. Approximately a year later, he went back to the scene, and he noticed a little part of the red jacket was sticking up. At that point, he determined that he needed to move Jacob, basically walked
Kitty Corner across the state highway into a farm field, and that's where Jacob remained until he told us about the location. Finally, we know Danny Heinrich is the confessed murderer of Jacob Weddling, and for that, he will spend the next 20 years in prison. I want to see Jacob, I'm so sorry. It's incredibly painful to know his last days, last hours, last minutes. I also want to say one huge shout out to Jared. Enjoy.
Jared had the courage to stand up and say this happened to me. As part of the plea deal, Heinrich also admitted in court to Jared's abduction and assault. In the case of the Peensville victims, we believe them. I hope they realized they were a very significant part of the wall of evidence that we had against Danny Heinrich to get us to the result that we eventually got. Heinrich was never charged in those eight Peensville incidents.
Turns out the statute of limitations had run out, and there was a lack of evidence. Heinrich denies any involvement to the police. My whole name is Jacob Berneboura. It is disheartening that it took so long for the Weddlingers to finally find out what happened. Jacob spurred Patty into being a Bulldog, you know, for keeping kids safe.
You know, it took 27 years, but she made a difference in those 27 years, and we are all better for it. You've written the book. It's your Jacob. What led you to put your pain out there and to relive it? Everybody has stuff going on in their lives and they're trying to figure out how do you get through this. Part of me wanted to write to share some of what kept us going if it could help another
family. I think Jacob's legacy is showing that all kids are really awesome and they need every bit of opportunity, to flourish, to express themselves, and to fully do that in a safe way. How is work? How would you describe where you are at this moment? I am a believer in children, and I didn't want our own kids to live fearful, afraid of the world, afraid to go out and to play and to have fun. So we fought for the way the world that Jacob knew.
I refused to let the man who took Jacob take away anything more. You can't have my marriage. You can't have my kids. You can't have the world of innocence and believing in dreams and going after your full potential. That's really what I have fought for and I still will. It's kids.
A mom turning her pain into action. A mother's journey of hope. That is our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm David New York. And I'm Deborah Roberts from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News.
Good night. You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Friday nights at 9 on ABC, you can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening. The NBA on ESPN is happening now. Now we're here from all of it. From superstar moves to the next
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