by Dennis Dalman
A public memorial dedication ceremony for Jacob Wetterling will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 25 in St. Joseph’s Klinefelter Park.
Wetterling was the 11-year-old St. Joseph boy who was abducted while riding his bicycle home with his friend and a brother one evening on Oct. 22, 1989.
His disappearance remained an agonizing mystery until 2016 when his murderer, Danny Heinrich, was discovered in Annandale and told investigators where he buried Jacob’s body near a pasture by Paynesville.
After Jacob’s disappearance, his parents, Jerry and Patty Wetterling, formed the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, an advocacy group for children’s safety. Jacob’s abduction has had an enormous positive influence on child-protection policies and strategies, including in legislatures far and wide.
In a tragic irony, Jacob, a murder victim, will be memorialized in Klinefelter Park. That park was named after Brian Klinefelter, a St. Joseph police officer who was shot to death after he made a traffic stop in the city on Jan. 29, 1996.
