Jacob Wetterling's Abductors

“He grabbed Jacob and he told me to run fast as I could into the woods or else he would shoot,” (qtd. in Murphy) was how Aaron Larson described the moment he was last by his best friend’s side. On October 22, 1989, Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped a couple blocks from his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota. He, along with his abductor, have yet to be discovered. There have been thousands of leads as to who may be his abductor, but there fails to be enough evidence to convict any potential suspects. Initially, reported vehicles were used to search for Wetterling’s abductor, but after new findings in 2003, the investigation shifted towards local St. Joseph residence. Joy Baker, a New London blogger who has blogged intensely about the Jacob Wetterling

Cloud Times Staff). Since the tire tracks were fresh and a police bloodhound sent from Minneapolis was able to track Wetterling’s scent until the middle of the driveway, the theory of an escape vehicle seemed rational (St. Cloud Times Staff). Many authorities and volunteers were involved in the search for Jacob Wetterling, including FBI, local and state officers, two helicopters, 240 National Guard members and officials on terrain vehicles. Law enforcement gathered information from locals in hopes of receiving something that could help lead to the gunman’s identity. Three days following the abduction, locals report of seeing an unsual red vehicle driving around town six weeks, two weeks and then a day prior to Jacob Wetterling’s abduction; therefore, every red vehicle in the area was searched (St. Cloud Times Staff). Locals also reported sightings of three men: one known to creepily leer at visiting customers and the other two to be owners of the reported vehicles. Authorities combined the police sketches of these men due to belief the three sightings could be the same man and released the sketch to the public on November 23 (St. Cloud Times Staff). On December 14, two months after Jacob Wetterling’s disappearance, a man from Cold Spring, Minnesota, approached authorities with information about his case of

Instead of searching for potential suspects among surrounding towns, authorities questioned locals, especially Dan Rassier, the owner of the driveway where Jacob Wetterling was abducted. Since Dan Rassier has been a person of interest for many years, authorities refuse to clear his name, despite all the evidence gathered proving his innocence. Rassier has been willing to help out as much as he can by agreeing to undergo lie detection tests, DNA tests and hypnosis (Rassier). Not only have authorities targeted him for twenty years and still ongoing, during one interview with a BCA agent, Rassier explained the agent’s plea: “He was basically saying, ‘we don’t have anything on you but would you admit…we could end this and you admit that you did this,’” (qtd. in Murphy). Not only have law enforcement pressured Rassier to take responsibility of the crime, in June of 2010, authorities approached him with several search warrants and heavy digging equipment (Murphy; St. Cloud Times Staff; “Wetterling Investigators”). Although it was unable to be specified which items were taken back to forensic labs for testing, several truckloads of dirt were seen taken away from the farm property. (“Wetterling