by Dennis Dalman
editorial@thenewsleaders.com
It was a dreaded announcement and yet to some it was a long-delayed relief.
The remains of Jacob Wetterling seem to have been found somewhere in central Minnesota. The case of the boy who was missing for 27 years caused horror, agony, anxiety and sadness locally, nationally and even worldwide.
“Our hearts are broken; we have no words,” said Patty Wetterling, the mother of Jacob after news that her son’s body may have been found and identified.
There is an outpouring of sympathy from throughout the world and especially from St. Joseph for the Wetterling family, even as some are relieved the case might finally come to a close and lay to rest so many doubts, fears and uncertainties.
Wetterling, who was 11 at the time, was kidnapped near his St. Joseph Township home Oct. 22, 1989 by a masked man wielding a handgun.
Patty Wetterling has told at least one news source the remains found are in fact those of her son, but law enforcement agencies have not publicly announced verification as of noon Saturday, Sept. 3.
A DNA analysis will be conducted on the remains.
Last week, Danny Heinrich, a man arrested last summer for possessing child pornography, reportedly led investigators to the place where they would find Jacob’s remains. Heinrich had been a person of interest in the Wetterling disappearance just weeks after the kidnapping. At that time, a man in the Paynesville area had groped and molested several boys during a period of years, and one of the boys was forced into a car and sexually molested.
There were similarities in all the cases: a masked man with a raspy voice, holding a handgun and threatening to shoot the victims. Jacob, his brother and a friend had biked to a convenience store about a mile from their home. On the way home, on the country road, a man got out of his car, told the boys to go down in the ditch, asked them their ages, then told the other two boys to run across the field and not look back or he would shoot them. When the boys did look back, Jacob and the sinister man were nowhere to be seen.
News of Jacob’s kidnapping exploded like a bomb in St. Joseph, central Minnesota and beyond. The disappearance gave rise to “Jacob’s Hope” and determined efforts by Jacob’s parents, Patty and Jerry Wetterling, to help prevent child abuse and abductions. They and many supporters founded the Jacob Wetterling Foundation and Resource Center, which lobbied legislators of law changes and helped educate the public about child-abuse issues.
The Newsleaders will update details on this story as they become available.
Jacob’s school picture taken Oct. 18 at North Community School, four days before he was abducted Oct. 22.
