43 replies to this topic

[Denise Harrison]

http://abcnews.go.co...ory?id=11065019

Mother of Boy Missing Since 1989 'Hopeful' New Search Will Yield Results

Investigators Searching and Digging Up the Farm Where Jacob Wetterling Was Last Seen

By JOHN WETENHALL
July 1, 2010

Patty Wetterling has never given up hope that one day the mystery of her son's disappearance in 1989 would be solved.

She may have a reason for new hope as law enforcement officials dug today at the farm near St. Joseph, Minn., where Jacob, who was 11 at the time, was last seen.

"I'm hopeful that they'll find something," Wetterling told ABCNews.com. "We're keeping our fingers crossed, saying a little prayer here and there."

Even after 21 years, Wetterling is cautiously optimistic about the search.

"It would be a stretch to think they were doing this massive search for any other reason," she said.

She praised law enforcement officials for their continued attention to a search that she has never given up on. "What it shows to me is the absolute commitment of law enforcement to never quit," Wetterling said.

Chief Deputy Bruce Bechtold of the Stearns County Sheriff's Department said a court order prevents him from discussing the details of the investigation.

"We're conducting an investigation," he told ABCNews.com. "We have people there again today."

Ernie Allen, head of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, confirmed that the Stearns County Sheriff's office, the FBI, and members of his organization's 'Team Adam' were all at the farm. Team Adam is made up of retired law enforcement officials who specialize in finding missing children. Like Bechtold, Allen said he could not comment on the reason for the new activity, instead focusing on the ongoing nature of the investigation.

"This is a continuation of an investigative angle that law enforcement has been pursuing for some time," Allen told ABCNews.com.

"There is clearly a legal basis for a search," Allen said.

"It's hard," she said. "It's very confusing, what to feel, what to think, what to do."

Police have refused to say whether the focus on the farm is connected to Jacob Wetterling's disappearance, and won't even discuss the issue with the boy's mother.

"They can't tell me," Patty Wetterling said today. "I do believe it's connected."

The mom said the connection to Jacob's disappearance is impossible to ignore.

[Kelly]

http://www.kare11.co...56483&catid=396


Items seized, being analyzed after search of Wetterling abduction site

7/2/2010

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- Officials in Stearns County have confirmed what was widely suspected: their intensive 2-day search of a St. Joseph farmstead was to gather evidence involving the abduction of Jacob Wetterling.

The Sheriff's office released a statement Friday morning describing the mechanics of the search, but revealed little about why it was conducted on the farm owned by Robert and Rita Rassier. It did say that the operation was based on 4 search warrants that were sealed by Stearns County Judge Vicki Landwehr so as not to jeapordize the ongoing Wetterling investigation.

Officials say that a number of items were seized from the Rassier farm, and will require additional processing and analysis that could take weeks or months. 

The search and excavation operation concluded Thursday evening, Sheriff John Sanner told the St. Cloud Times.  He said this phase of the investigation  was complete and no arrests had been made.

Sanner would not comment about what investigators found or were looking for, citing the court order, but said a news release would be issued Friday morning.

Throughout the day, a backhoe and dump truck were excavating at least one site on a farmstead in St. Joseph, Minn.

Video shot from the air showed the backhoe and law enforcement crews digging in a low spot just off an unpaved road that cuts through two farm fields near the home of Robert and Rita Rassier. 

The area being excavated appears to be a dump site. Some of the earth being dug up is blackened, suggesting that the site was also used for burning. Piles of what look like old construction materials and other trash sit nearby.

Dump trucks moved the piles of dirt off the property, apparently bringing them to the Stearns County Garage in Waite Park.

Jacob's father Jerry said the last two days have been exhausting.

"It's just been kind of emotionally draining...the last 48 hours. Now we go back to what we've been doing for 20 years...waiting and see what happens," Jerry Wetterling told KARE 11 on Friday. "That's the thing that really came from this week is that people really do care...It kind of speaks to how Jacob's disappearance has affected so many people. Everybody is anticipating wanting to get an answer. Where is Jacob?"

On Oct. 22, 1989, Jacob was riding his bicycle with his brother and a friend at dusk, and was just a half-mile from his home when they were approached by a masked gunman. He told the other two boys to run away and Jacob has been missing ever since. There have been no arrests, and authorities have cleared over 40,000 leads over the years.

For those who live in St. Joseph, this week's search opened up an old wound.

"I don't know of anybody here who hasn't been haunted by what happened," said St. Joseph resident Joyce Foster.

Parents were terrified after the abduction.

"That could have been our kid," Foster thought at the time.  "I just think about it all the time.  It's emotional and touches everyone.  He is just a part of you."

Patty Wetterling, Jacob's mother, was invited to the scene by law enforcement and later shared her thoughts with reporters.
Jacob's mother, was invited to the scene by law enforcement and later shared her thoughts with reporters.

Stearns County investigators, an FBI special agent, K-9 teams, and a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension crime scene truck are also on the scene.

Chief Deputy Bruce Bechtoldt now says that barrels trucked off the Rassier farm last night are used for the local town festival, and are filled with water to hold the tents down. He would not say why the barrels were removed from the farm or what investigators hope to learn from them.

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner says he is optimistic the search will be completed by the end of the day on Thursday.

"I wish they would have closure," said St. Joseph resident Sylvester Prom.  "I wish either way they would find out what happened.  Twenty-one years is a long time to be waiting for an answer."

[Kelly]

http://www.twincitie...&nclick_check=1

Il dizionario della musica leggera italiana. Da «Volare» ai giorni nostri

Wetterling case 'person of interest' ID'd
Sheriff names man on farm where '89 abduction occurred

Staff and wire reports
Updated: 07/03/2010 10:42:53 AM CDT

The Stearns County sheriff said Friday that a 54-year-old resident of St. Joseph is a "person of interest" in the 21-year-old disappearance case of Jacob Wetterling.

Sheriff John Sanner told the St. Cloud Times that investigators developed probable cause in recent weeks that led to the search of the farm where Daniel A. Rassier lives with his parents.

Rassier said he believes investigators came to his property because of new canine resources, and he said he would do what he could to help. No arrests have been made.

Investigators seized several items this week during a two-day search involving the 1989 disappearance of Jacob Wetterling.

The items, which police did not identify, could take several weeks or possibly months to analyze, according to the Stearns County sheriff's office.

Law enforcement descended with backhoes and earthmovers on a 158-acre St. Joseph farm Wednesday and Thursday.

Police on Friday publicly acknowledged the search was related to the 1989 abduction of Jacob, who was 11 at the time.

Participating in the search were the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and "nationally recognized search- and-rescue canine handlers," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

Also released Friday were court papers showing that a Stearns County judge ordered four search warrants and supporting documents withheld from public view.

Releasing the documents "could cause future, related searches to be unsuccessful and could create a substantial risk of severely hampering this ongoing investigation of the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling," according to the orders signed by District Judge Vicki Landwehr.

In a statement, the Stearns County sheriff's office said: "Although this case has remained open for nearly 21 years, the commitment and determination to provide answers to the family and community never wavered."

Jacob was riding his bicycle with his brother and a friend on Oct. 22, 1989, when they were approached by a masked gunman who told the boys to stop and lie on their stomachs in a ditch. He ordered the other two boys to run away, and Jacob has been missing ever since.

There have been no arrests, and officials have cleared more than 40,000 leads over the years.

After the kidnapping in the town, about 80 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, Jacob's mother, Patty, became an advocate for missing children and helped pass federal and state laws to track sex offenders and alert the public when children go missing. In 1990, she and Jacob's father, Jerry, founded what's now known as the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center.

"It has been my experience that these things take a long time," Patty Wetterling said. "You wait and see — and you hope. We hope we get some answers."

The property being searched is owned by Robert Rassier and his wife, Rita, who are in their 80s. The home also is listed as the address of their son Daniel.

A woman who answered the phone at the house Friday said that this is a hard time for the family and that there would be no comment.

[Jenn]

http://minnesota.pub...10/07/13/allen/

Much has changed since Jacob Wetterling's abduction
by Ernie Allen
July 13, 2010

Arlington, Va. — In 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked gunman while riding his bicycle home from a convenience store in St. Joseph, Minn. The abduction triggered a massive search and national media attention.

It was a wake-up call for parents everywhere, ending what for many was a naive innocence. People thought such acts only happened somewhere else -- in major cities or dangerous foreign countries. Parents asked, "If your child isn't safe in St. Joseph, where is he safe?"

Following the abduction, Jacob's parents formed the Jacob Wetterling Foundation. Patty Wetterling became a tireless leader and spokesperson for missing children and child safety. She has fought for laws to keep children safer, including a landmark 1994 law that mandated sex-offender registries in every state. She also serves on the board of directors of the organization I lead, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and works with the center to train law enforcement and educate them about child abduction from a family's perspective. And she is a voice of hope for families of other missing children.

An estimated 2,000 children are reported missing every day. Time is the enemy in the search for a missing child, but there is more hope than ever before that more of these children can be recovered alive. Research tells us that while most of the victims of the most serious stranger abductions survive, 91 percent of the recoveries occur within the first 24 hours. Yet we are seeing the recoveries of more long-term missing children. Elizabeth Smart of Utah was recovered after nine months; Shawn Hornbeck of Missouri after four years; Steven Stayner of California after seven years, and of course Jaycee Dugard of California after 18 years.

In the 1980s, many police departments still had mandatory waiting periods that had to expire before they searched for missing children, and they would not even take a missing child report until 24, 48 or 72 hours had passed. It was not until 1990 that Congress banned such waiting periods. In that and other ways, times have changed:

Today, law enforcement is better trained, better prepared and responding more swiftly and effectively than ever before.

Today, law enforcement has better technology and more resources to help locate missing children and they are more knowledgeable about child abductors and the offenses they committed.

Today, when a child goes missing, a report is immediately entered in the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC).

Today, there is a national network transmitting images and information instantly across the country and around the world, a network that links and mobilizes 18,000 police departments.

Today, we have new tools like the AMBER Alert, and are mobilizing the eyes and ears of the public to assist in these searches as never before.

Today, every state has a mandatory sex offender registry, and more than 716,000 sex offenders are registered in the United States.

From many searching families I hear the same thing: that the worst part is not knowing. The families need answers. They need to know what happened.

We strive to keep long-term cases alive and ensure that missing-child cases are never closed. The Cold Case Unit at our center has worked with law enforcement to resolve more than 400 of these long-term cases, including one from 1947. No case is ever closed until we learn what happened to the child.

Our forensic artists use age progression for long-term missing children to create a likeness of how the child would appear today. In fact, we have an age-progressed photo of the now 32-year-old Jacob Wetterling, which we continue to circulate widely, seeking new leads and information.

Part of Jacob's legacy is that today, more missing children come home safely than at any time in history. More offenders who prey upon children are being brought to justice. The search for Jacob has continued for 21 years. Last month, the search intensified when new leads took law enforcement back to an area near where Jacob was abducted.

Jacob is still missing. Our belief is that even today, someone knows where Jacob is and what has happened to him. Our hope is that we are getting closer to being able to provide some answers to the Wetterling family.

----

Ernie Allen is president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was involved in the search last month of a farm near the scene of Jacob Wetterling's abduction.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.sctimes.c...e-Investigation

Timeline of the Investigation
September 28, 2010

Oct. 22, 1989: Eleven-year-old Jacob Erwin Wetterling is abducted by a masked gunman about 9:15 p.m. along 91st Avenue, southeast of St. Joseph. Firefighters and 35 officers from the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies search the area. Two local FBI agents and five from Minneapolis are assigned to the case. A state helicopter with a searchlight searches the nearby woods and fields. A command post is set up at Del-Win Ballroom in St. Joseph. Searches are called off at 3 a.m. until daybreak.

Oct. 23, 1989: The search resumes at 8 a.m. Department of Natural Resources officers use all-terrain vehicles to search a two-mile radius around the abduction site. Helicopters fly over a 25-square-mile area. A Minneapolis bloodhound leads officers to tire tracks, prompting officers to believe the kidnapper had a car nearby. By 1:30 p.m., fliers are distributed. Photos are sent to law enforcement agencies in a five-state area. About 4 p.m., at least 75 College of St. Benedict students begin a 1½-mile prayer march. Two hours later, about 250 people lead a second march. College students help distribute fliers.

Oct. 24, 1989: An FBI expert in psychological profiles flies in from Washington, D.C., to join about 14 other investigators.

Oct. 25, 1989: Authorities receive several tips that a small red car had been seen in St. Joseph in the past three weeks. About two dozen red cars in the area are investigated. The FBI profile describes the abductor as a white man, 25-35 years old, employed in a low-skilled job with a low self-image probably stemming from a physical deformity such as acne or scars. About 600 people gather in St. Joseph Catholic Church to pray.

Oct. 26, 1989: At 11:30 a.m. about 30 horses and riders from at least five southern Minnesota counties form a volunteer posse and begin searching one mile east of St. Joseph. About 50 officers, including at least 20 FBI agents, sift through hundreds of tips. A group of anonymous Twin Cities business leaders offers a $100,000 reward for Jacob’s safe return within 72 hours.

Story continues at http://www.sctimes.c...e-Investigation

[Lori Davis]

http://news.blogs.cn...ple-in-50-days/

50 people in 50 days: Boy abducted at gunpoint 21 years ago

February 28th, 2011
11:21 PM ET

Editor's note: Nancy Grace's new show on HLN, "Nancy Grace: America's Missing," is dedicated to finding 50 people in 50 days. As part of the effort, which relies heavily on audience participation, CNN.com's news blog This Just In will feature the stories of the missing.

This is the 31st case, and it was shown Monday night on HLN.

Jacob Wetterling's family has not seen him since he was abducted at gunpoint in St. Joseph, Minnesota, in October 1989. He was 11.

His brother and his best friend witnessed the abduction, according to his mother, Patty Wetterling.

After Jacob's abduction, Patty Wetterling became an advocate for families of missing children, helping to build Team HOPE (Help Offering Parents Empowerment), a parent-to-parent mentoring program. She also headed the sexual violence prevention program at the Minnesota Department of Health in St. Paul.

[Lori Davis]

Missing IU student Lauren Spierer: Families who've lived a parent's nightmare help support each other
The few who really understand reach beyond their own grief to comfort the Spierers

By Laura Lane 331-4362
July 3, 2011, last update: 7/3 @ 12:19 am

...

Marilyn Behrman found solace back in 2001 when she met Patty Wetterling, a Minnesota woman whose 11-year-old son Jacob had disappeared without a trace in 1989.

“Never had I stood face to face and talked to another mother who has actually been where I am,” Behrman said.

They discussed how to survive and whether there would be happy times again.

“You do not wallow in darkness for the rest of your life,” Wetterling said. “You can pick up and go on

Read more: http://www.heraldtim....qp-8119395.sto

[Lori Davis]

https://www.findthem.../cases/4026/39/
NamUs profile for Jacob Wetterling - Case 4026

[Shannon]

http://www.myfoxtwin...erling-23-years

23 years since Jacob Wetterling went missing

Posted: Oct 22, 2012 7:24 AM MDT
Updated: Oct 22, 2012 7:24 AM MDT

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. (KMSP) -
Monday marks 23 years since 11-year old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped near his home in St. Joseph, Minn.

Jacob was riding bikes with his brother and a friend on Oct. 22nd, 1989 when a man abducted him.

Investigators have followed many leads over the decades, but Jacob has never been found and the kidnapper is still free.

The Jacob Wetterling Resource Center is asking everyone to mark the anniversary by doing something to make the world a better place for children.

Jacob would be 34 years old today.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.sfgate.co...ame-4100939.php

Charge: Man used missing boy's name
Henry K. Lee
Updated 9:12 p.m., Friday, December 7, 2012

A man convicted of fraud for stealing the identity of missing San Francisco child Kevin Collins has been charged in federal court with using another missing child's name fraudulently, court records show.

Behzad Mofrad, 46, stole the identity of Jacob Wetterling, who was 11 when he was kidnapped in Minnesota in 1989, and used it to establish a bogus identity, FBI agent Todd Dorman wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland. Mofrad was charged with identity theft, mail fraud and wire fraud.

Mofrad used Wetterling's name to rent a post office box in Lafayette and to lease a 2013 BMW from an Alameda County car dealership, Dorman wrote.

Mofrad was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison in 2006 for using 10-year-old Collins' name to apply for a passport using his own photo. Authorities said he took Collins' name from an online directory of missing children. Collins disappeared in 1984.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.twincitie...g-remains-light

Rubén Rosario: Jacob Wetterling, still missing, remains a light in loved ones' hearts
By Rubén Rosario
POSTED:   10/22/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT

My porch light stays on, anyway, so I tweaked the annual suggestion from a child-safety advocacy group that bears his name and lit a candle instead Tuesday night to remember Jacob Wetterling.

Jacob, then 11, was abducted at gunpoint Oct. 22, 1989, by a masked gunman as he, a younger brother and a neighborhood friend rode bikes near their homes in St. Joseph, Minn. Despite thousands of tips and global news coverage, the case remains unsolved.

Most Minnesotans remember or know some details about the case. But the passage of time -- 24 years now -- has a way of making such a case fade from public memory.

Not for Patty or Jerry Wetterling, the missing boy's parents. Not for his three siblings, now in their 30s. Not for family and friends. They live it each day in some manner.

But the hope that one day he will be found never goes away. That hope -- irrational or reasonable, depending on the case -- is reinforced by incidents like the mysterious cases unfolding in Greece and Ireland in recent days.

A little blond girl dubbed "Maria" was found last week living with a couple in a Roma camp near the Greek town of Farsala following a police drug and weapons raid. The kid looked nothing like the couple, and a DNA test confirmed she was not theirs. The couple told police they were given the child by a Bulgarian woman who was unable to look after her, two weeks after she was born on Jan. 31, 2009.

Cops doubt their story. The girl was removed from the home while officials seek to identify her and find her biological parents.

"I have never seen a case where we are looking for the parents instead of the child," Delphine Moralis, deputy secretary general of Missing Children Europe, told reporters. "We have never issued a found poster; it has always been a missing poster."

Coincidentally, police in Ireland on Monday removed a 7-year old blond, blue-eyed girl from a Roma couple in Dublin. The couple gave police a birth certificate from Coombe Hospital in Dublin, which has no record of the birth.

KEEPING HOPE ALIVE

News of the cases has prompted parents of other missing children across the globe, including the U.S., to have lead case investigators inquire whether "Maria" -- who police believe might be 5 or 6 years old -- might be their child.

They include the British parents of Madeleine McCann, who was 3 in 2007 when she vanished without a trace during a family holiday in Portugal. And the parents of Lisa Irwin, a then-10-month-old girl who disappeared from her Kansas City home two years ago, asked the FBI to make inquiries into the case in Greece.

There are plenty of other cases in recent years to keep hope alive.

They range from the recovery of Elizabeth Smart in Utah several years ago to this year's rescue, from a house of horrors in Cleveland, of three young women who had been abducted years ago.

Wetterling has told me time and again over the years that these "found" cases juice up her hopes that Jacob, who would be 35 now, will one day find his way back and ring the doorbell to the family home. That's why the Wetterlings keep their porch light on throughout the years.

That's why, when the area code to their home phone number changed after Jacob's disappearance from 612 to 320, a volunteer called every known area code in the U.S. with the same seven-digit number to inform them about Jacob in case he ever called them.

"That was amazing," Wetterling said Tuesday during the annual family reunion at her home. Wetterling channeled her grief to become an outspoken child protection advocate. She currently serves as the chair to the board of directors of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She is also program director of the Minnesota department of health's sexual violence prevention program.

"Jacob has a strong spirit," Wetterling said. Note the present tense. Keep hope alive.

TURN ON A LIGHT

Another person who never loses hope is Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner. He still has a detective actively assigned to the Jacob Wetterling case.

"The case remains open because a family and a community await answers they deserve," he said in an email Tuesday. "If we label the case 'cold' and file it away, the tendency is to forget about it. That cannot happen.

"Keeping the case assigned to a detective automatically gives the investigation both a sense of ownership and responsibility. In other words, life," he added. "I have never promised to solve the case; I have, however, promised to never stop trying to solve the case. That fire burns as passionately today as it did when it was kindled in 1989!"

And so, even if it is merely a gesture, turn on a light this week for Jacob and, by extension, all missing and exploited children out there.

MORE INFO

Anyone with information on the Jacob Wetterling case is asked to call the Stearns County sheriff at 320-251-4240. For information on Wetterling or any other missing child, call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.kaaltv.co...shtml?cat=10151

 

Investigators Look at Possible Wetterling Link

 

Updated: 05/14/2014 8:17 PM

Created: 05/14/2014 9:00 PM KAALtv.com

 

PAYNESVILLE, Minn. (AP) - Investigators are taking a new look into whether the abduction of Jacob Wetterling nearly 25 years ago may be linked to similar cases in central Minnesota.

   

Jacob was 11 when he was abducted by a masked gunman near his St. Joseph home in October 1989. He has not been seen since and the case remains open.

   

KARE-TV (http://kare11.tv/1mW4lT1) reports Stearns County investigators are now taking a closer look at several stranger assaults that took place in Paynesville in 1986 and 1987. There were at least five assaults and the victims were all teenage boys.

   

Sheriff John Sanner tells The Associated Press that investigators assigned to the Wetterling abduction compared similarities with the Paynesville cases 25 years ago. Sanner says officials have been taking a new look for about six months.

[Lori Davis]

http://minnesota.cbs...abduction-case/

 

New Developments Revealed In Jacob Wetterling Abduction Case

May 14, 2014 10:00 PM

 

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — There is a new development in one of Minnesota’s most infamous unsolved crimes: the abduction of Jacob Wetterling.

A masked stranger grabbed the 11-year-old as he biked home from a store in St. Joseph nearly 25 years ago. Now, WCCO-TV has learned that a cluster of at least six unsolved sexual assaults on boys were never looked at as a possible lead in Wetterling’s case.

 

Those attacks happened two years prior to Wetterling’s kidnapping, just 30 miles away in Paynesville. They are now being investigated by the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office.

 

This new development in Minnesota’s most notorious kidnapping case begins in the most unlikely of places.

 

For four years, Joy Baker, a blogger from New London, has written a detailed blog about the Wetterling case. Last summer, her research uncovered articles in the Paynesville Press in 1986 and 1987. They detailed six unsolved sexual assaults on boys just two years before Wetterling’s abduction.

WEB EXTRA: Read Joy Baker’s Blog

 

“The police chief is asking for the public’s help in finding this guy who has been assaulting 12-16 year old boys,” Baker said of one article. “What went through my mind is that they have to be connected. How many psychopathic pedophiles can exist in a 20-mile radius?”

 

WCCO-TV asked Patty Wetterling if she had ever heard of the Paynesville cases and showed her two of the original police reports from the Paynesville attacks.

 

“We did not know about these cases until Joy Baker put it on her blog, and it was like, ‘Wow,’” Patty Wetterling said.

 

Those reports, as well as the newspaper accounts, list a series of striking parallels with Jacob Wetterling’s kidnapping. He was abducted at 9 p.m. as he rode his bike home from a convenience store with his brother and friend. The Paynesville attacks also all happened at night as the victims were heading home.

 

In two cases boys were attacked while riding bikes. They were sexually assaulted. The attacker sometimes wore a mask, which in one case was described as made from candy-striped, indoor-outdoor carpeting. He had a low, gruff voice and he threatened the boys with a knife or a gun, saying he would blow their heads off.

 

“Some of these were taken from a group of boys. That is really rare,” Patty Wetterling said. “The threat of a gun, the age of the victims, they were close to Jacob’s age. I do think there is a strong possibility they are connected to Jacob’s case.”

 

While two of the Paynesville victims were questioned by law enforcement after Jacob Wetterling disappeared, one Paynesville victim, who is now 40 and did not want to be named, told WCCO-TV he and other victims he knows were not, and that to this day they feel their cases both individually and as a group were overlooked.

 

Patty Wetterling said it’s frustrating to learn so many years later about the Paynesville cases, but she is also understanding.

 

“It was a different world back then. We didn’t have the Internet, we worked hard so that each law enforcement agency had a fax machine,” she said.

 

Current Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner agreed the lack of Internet and the fact that small town law enforcement agencies often acted independently may have kept the Paynesville cases from becoming a significant part of the Jacob Wetterling investigation.

 

“We can’t look back. We are actively investigating these cases now. We want anyone with any information to come forward no matter how small.

You could hold the key,” Sanner said.

——-

Sanner stressed there is another unsolved case that investigators have always linked to the abduction. Just months before Jacob Wetterling disappeared, a stranger kidnapped a 12-year-old boy named Jared in nearby Cold Spring. Jared told WCCO-TV the threat his kidnapper left him with: “I was told to run, don’t look back or he would shoot.”

 

Jared is speaking out for the first time in years. On Thursday, hear why he’s convinced the same man is behind all of these unsolved crimes against boys.

 

If you have any information about any of these cases, please call the Stearns County Sheriff at (320) 251-4240. You can also call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.startribu.../269910761.html

 

Tuesday marks the 25th anniversary of Amy Sue Pagnac's disappearance

 

Article by: KELLY SMITH , Star Tribune Updated: August 4, 2014 - 7:56 PM

 

Amy Sue Pagnac, who would be 38, disappeared Aug. 5, 1989.

 

Tuesday marks a difficult milestone for Amy Sue Pagnac’s family and friends: the 25th anniversary of the 13-year-old’s disappearance.

 

While police continue to investigate the Maple Grove cold case, there are few clues to where she went that August day in 1989 and where she is 25 years later.

 

“It’s a very painful time of the year,” said her sister, Susan Pagnac Jr., who was 8 when Amy disappeared. “The loss of all those years …”

 

For the past two months, attention on Amy’s story and police work has ramped up, with FBI investigators, state forensic scientists and police officers searching the Pagnacs’ house and digging up the back yard in May. In June, they dug up areas of the family’s Isanti County farm. And this Saturday Amy will be among those that her Osseo classmates will honor at their 20-year high school reunion.

 

“We’re always looking [for Amy],” said her sister. “And we still want anyone with information to come forward and go to talk to the police again.”

 

Police say Amy, who would now be 38 years old, could be alive or dead. Last Saturday, Cpt. Keith Terlinden declined to say what prompted the two searches or whether anything was found, saying it could compromise the active investigation. But since attention on the case resurfaced in May, he said the two detectives assigned to the case have received a “fair amount” of tips.

 

“We’re continuing to work with the FBI and other agencies to try to bring Amy home,” he said. “It’s obviously still a high priority for our department. We’ll pull out all the stops to follow up on any leads.”

 

On Aug. 5, 1989, Amy and her father, Marshall Midden, went up to the family’s 140-acre wooded farm in Maple Ridge Township to harvest trees and farm vegetables. About 5 p.m., Midden and Amy were returning home, when he stopped at a Holiday gas station 2 miles away in Osseo, Midden told police. He said he used the bathroom and came out to find the car empty.

 

Amy’s mother, Susan Pagnac, has said in Star Tribune interviews that Amy was prone to seizures, wandering off at times. She also said Amy could’ve been abducted for prostitution, with someone claiming to spot Amy at a strip club years later and at a bus or train station in 1992.

 

Police haven’t confirmed those details. But the amount of time — more than two decades — that’s passed has posed a challenge to the case. There also is no suspect or evidence of a crime.

 

Time, however, has improved DNA technology. In fact, in 2013, Amy’s case was mentioned in an Associated Press article on the BCA’s new efforts to use DNA samples to identify human remains statewide. While forensic scientists have been testing DNA for decades, in the last few years, extraction and testing capabilities have advanced, allowing scientists to derive DNA from old remains, even if damaged.

 

“Law enforcement has changed significantly the last 25 years in the scientific realm,” Terlinden said. “We’re using some of the best experts nationwide to help with this case.”

 

Just two months after Amy disappeared, Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked gunman in St. Joseph, Minn. In 2010, investigators swarmed a farm near the spot where Wetterling disappeared, digging up six truckloads of dirt and ash. Four years later, nothing new has been reported in his case.

[Lori Davis]

http://fox8.com/2015...cob-wetterling/

 

Person of interest named in 1989 kidnapping of Jacob Wetterling

 

POSTED 5:07 PM, OCTOBER 29, 2015, BY ASSOCIATEDPRESS AND FOX8WEBCENTRAL

 

MINNEAPOLIS— Federal authorities say a Minnesota man is a “person of interest” in the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling, whose mother became a national advocate for the cause of missing children after his abduction in 1989.

 

They made the announcement at a news conference Thursday. A 52-year-old Minnesota man was arrested Wednesday on several child pornography charges. WCCO reports that authorities said hundreds of images of child pornography were found in the man’s home. Investigators also found video reportedly secretly taken by the man showing children playing, riding bikes and delivering newspapers in the neighborhood.

 

An application for a search warrant in that case says that authorities wanted to search for items including human remains, a red T-shirt with the name Wetterling on the back and a red hockey team jacket with the name Jacob stitched on the front.

 

The search was carried out July 28.

 

Wetterling was 11 when he was abducted Oct. 22, 1989, near his home in the central Minnesota community of St. Joseph. According to WCCO, the little boy was riding bikes with his brother and a friend when a masked man took him at gunpoint.

 

Patty and Jerry Wetterling issued a statement asking for help in the case of their missing son Jacob as authorities investigated a man with possible ties to the boy’s abduction in 1989.

 

“The search for Jacob is an ongoing investigation and we will watch and learn like everyone else. Right now we know what is being reported. We know what you all know,” they said.

 

The Wetterlings also thanked everyone involved in the investigation so far.

 

“We are so grateful for the prayers, the support and the hope shared in our search for Jacob and the search for answers,” they said.

[Deborah]

http://minnesota.cbs...-38th-birthday/

 

 

Wetterlings Mark Missing Son Jacob’s 38th Birthday

February 17, 2016 2:34 PM

By Laura Oakes

 

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Patty and Jerry Wetterling spent a tough Wednesday marking their missing son’s 38th birthday.

Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped in 1989 while biking home with his brother and a friend in his hometown of St. Joseph. He was 11 years old.

 

His mother Patty published an open birthday letter to him this week, where she also asks all parents to hug their kids a little tighter and tell them they love them.

 

“How I wish to wrap my arms around you and hug you tight,” she wrote. “I want you to know that since you were stolen away from us, people everywhere have been searching, praying and hoping for your safety and for answers.”

 

 

Meanwhile, 52-year old Danny Heinrich, who last fall was named a person of interest in Wetterling’s abduction, is scheduled to be arraigned before a federal judge on Monday on child pornography charges.

 

He has not been charged in the Wetterling case.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.kare11.co...roken/313210664

 

Wetterling's remains found: 'Our hearts are broken'

 

Sara Pelissero and KARE 11 Staff , KARE 9:57 AM. CDT September 03, 2016

 

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - The remains of Jacob Wetterling have been found, according to his mother, Patty.

 

Patty Wetterling told KARE 11's Caroline Lowe via text Saturday morning, "All I can confirm is that Jacob has been found and our hearts are broken. I am not responding to any media yet as I have no words.”

 

Authorities have not yet confirmed if Jacob Wetterling's remains have been found or if new information has been revealed in the case. 

 

Wetterling disappeared in October of 1989 after he was on a bike ride home from a convenience store. Wetterling, who was 11 years old at the time, was kidnapped by a masked man who approached him, his brother and a friend on a rural Stearns County road. The man threatened the other two boys and told them to run into the woods and never look back.

 

Despite an intensive investigation and non-stop efforts by Patty Wetterling and her husband Jerry to keep Jacob's case in the public eye, he has never been found -- until this possible development.

 

Authorities arrested 52-year-old Danny Heinrich of Annandale last fall, and declared him a "person of interest" in the Wetterling abduction. They recovered books of child pornography, and a DNA sample tying Heinrich to the kidnapping and sexual assault of another Stearns County boy from the same time period of Jacob's abduction. No charges can be filed in that case, however, as the statute of limitations has passed.

 

David Heinrich, Danny's brother, told Lowe that he learned about Wetterling's story Saturday morning. 

 

"I want the Wetterlings to know I had no idea," a very emotional David Heinrich said to Lowe. "My prayers are with them. I am happy for them that they know, not that he’s passed, but at least they have closure."

 

Heinrich remains incarcerated, awaiting trial next month on child pornography charges.

 

Authorities are not saying anything in this case. KARE 11 is working to gather more information and will update as soon as it is available. 

[Lori Davis]

http://minnesota.cbs...ind-wetterling/
 
Sources: Heinrich Led FBI To Jacob Wetterling’s Remains
September 3, 2016 6:34 AM
 
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Sources say the suspect in the Jacob Wetterling case led the FBI to remains that are now being tested for DNA.
 
Agents pressed Danny Heinrich for information on the nearly 27-year-old mystery in the last few days. Sources say the FBI took Heinrich out of jail at least twice this week.
 
It is during that time that Heinrich told investigators where they would find Jacob’s body. Searchers have been at a site in Stearns County for several days, and at some point found bodily remains and Jacob’s clothing at the scene.
 
Jacob’s mother, Patty Wetterling, texted WCCO’s Esme Murphy Saturday morning.
 
“Our hearts are broken. We have no words,” Wetterling said.
 
Patty said the family will release an official statement at some point.
 
Jacob was 11 when he was kidnapped by a masked gunman on Sunday, Oct. 22, 1989 in St. Joseph. He was biking home from a convenience store with his brother and a friend.
 
The FBI says a similar case happened in January of 1989, when 12-year-old Jared Scheierl was sexually assaulted in nearby Cold Spring. There was also a series of sexual assaults in nearby Paynesville in 1986 and 1987.
 
Danny Heinrich, of Annandale, was questioned in 1990 about the assaults and the Wetterling case, but was never formally charged.
 
The FBI named Heinrich a person of interest in the Wetterling case last October. Heinrich was charged with 25 counts of child pornography possession on the same day, to which he eventually pleaded not guilty.
 
It was also announced on that day that DNA taken from Heinrich in 1990 linked him to Scheierl’s assault, a discovery made by investigators in 2015.
 
Heinrich would not face any charges due to the statute of limitations, but Scheierl filed a civil suit against him in May, accusing Heinrich of sexual battery and false imprisonment.
 
Heinrich’s attorney has asked for evidence and incriminating statements made to investigators to be thrown out of his child porn case. His attorney also asked for his trial to be moved away from the Twin Cities area, which was denied.
 
Heinrich will likely face decades in prison for possessing the porn, with experts calling it a very strong case against him. His trial is scheduled for next month, but there is concern that it could all fall apart due to the possible discovery of Wetterling’s remains. He could appear in court as early as Tuesday, although nothing has yet been scheduled.
 
The Jacob Wetterling Resources released this statement Saturday morning on their Facebook page:
 
“We are in deep grief. We didn’t want Jacob’s story to end this way. In this moment of pain and shock, we go back to the beginning. The Wetterlings had a choice to walk into bitterness and anger or to walk into a light what could be, a light of hope. Their choice changed the world.
 
This light has been burning for close to 27 years. The spark began in the moments after the abduction of Jacob Wettlering, when his family decided that light is stronger than darkness. They lit the flame that became Jacob’s Hope. All of Central Minnesota flocked to and fanned the flame, hoping for answers. The light spread state-wide, nationally and globally as hearts connected to the 11 year old boy who liked to play goalie for his hockey team, wanted to be a football player, played the trombone, and loved the times he spent with his sisters, brother and parents.
 
Today, we gather around the same flame. the flame that has become more than the hope for one as it led the way home for thousands of others. It’s the light that illuminates a world that Jacob believed in, where things are fair and just.
 
Our hearts are heavy, but we are being held up by all of the people who have been a part of making Jacob’s Hope a light that will never be extinguished. It shines on in a different way. We are, and we will continue to be, Jacob’s Hope. Jacob, you are loved.”

[Kelly]

http://www.cnn.com/2...-remains-found/

Jacob Wetterling: Remains of missing Minnesota boy found, authorities say

By Ralph Ellis and Ray Sanchez, CNN
9/4/2016

(CNN)The remains of Jacob Wetterling, a Minnesota boy abducted from a rural road 27 years ago, have been found, the Stearns County Sheriff\'s Office said Saturday.
\"The Ramsey County Medical Examiner and a forensic odontologist identified the remains as Wetterling\'s earlier today,\" a news release said.

The release didn\'t say whether anybody has been charged. The sheriff\'s office said investigators will evaluate new evidence and \"expect to be in a position to provide more detailed information early next week.\"
The abduction of the 11-year-old boy led to the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which requires states to maintain sex offender registries and guidelines.
Child pornography suspect Danny James Heinrich, who was questioned in the Wetterling case, gave information that led authorities to the remains, said CNN affiliate WCCO and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, quoting unnamed sources.
Patty Wetterling, Jacob\'s mother who became an advocate for families of missing children, told CNN in a text, \"Our hearts are broken. There are no words.\" She declined further comment.

Jacob disappeared on a dark road in central Minnesota on the night of October 22, 1989.
Jacob had been at home with his two younger siblings, Trevor, 10, and Carmen, 8, and Jacob\'s friend Aaron Larsen, 11, while Patty and Jerry Wetterling attended a dinner party about 20 minutes away.
Wetterling, who lived in rural St. Joseph, his brother and a friend were coming home from a convenience store on bikes and a scooter when a man wearing a stocking mask and holding a gun approached.
The man asked the boys their ages, grabbed Jacob and told the others to run into the woods or else he\'d shoot, Jacob\'s father has said, recounting what his other son told police.
The case garnered worldwide attention and was recently featured on the CNN series \"The Hunt with John Walsh.\"

s news of the disappearance spread, FBI agents and National Guard troops descended on St. Joseph to aid in the search.
Tens of thousands of tips surfaced in the weeks that followed, but none led to an arrest or, until now, discovery of the boy\'s remains.
In October 2015, authorities announced a development: Heinrich, 52, was questioned in the abduction.
Investigators interviewed Heinrich about Jacob\'s disappearance, according to Andrew M. Luger, the US attorney for Minnesota. Heinrich denied involvement, authorities said.
At that time, no charges were filed in the Wetterling case. Heinrich has not been named a suspect in the case.

Since her son\'s kidnapping, Patty Wetterling helped create the sex offender registry for Minnesota and subsequently for the nation.
She also helped build Team HOPE -- Help Offering Parents Empowerment -- a parent-to-parent mentoring program for mothers and fathers in similar situations.
\"Most parents know nothing about child abduction, so when it happens you just scramble for what\'s out there,\" Wetterling said in 2014.
Jacob would have turned 38 in February.
\"Jacob was a fun, active, athletic, kind, 11-year-old boy who loved peanut butter and football,\" his mother wrote in 2014. \"He was most known for his sense of fairness.\"
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton issued a statement saying, \"Today, we continue to offer our love and support, as the Wetterling family finally brings their son home to rest.\"
The Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, a foundation that provides education on the exploitation of children, said Saturday: \"We are in deep grief. We didn\'t want Jacob\'s story to end this way.\"