‘One more walk, one last time’ for Jacob

by Frank Lee

operations@thenewsleaders.com

Mike Clark can’t help but see something of his youngest son when he looks at a photo of Jacob Wetterling, who was abducted from St. Joseph and killed almost three decades ago.

Wetterling was the same age as Clark’s son back in 1989. The 11-year-old missing boy’s remains were recovered earlier this year at a Paynesville farm after his killer confessed.

“I was hoping for the sake of the family that he would be found because the family needs to know,” said Clark, an Anoka resident and member of the Anoka County Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 470.

Wetterling’s murderer, Danny Heinrich, 53, of Annandale, was sentenced Nov. 21 in a federal court to 20 years in prison — not for killing Wetterling but for receiving child pornography.

“Over three cold days in December of 1989, members of the Anoka County Vietnam Veterans (of America) Chapter 470 walked 61 miles from Anoka to the Wetterling house outside of St. Joseph to continue awareness about Jacob’s abduction,” Clark recalled.

Heinrich finally admitted to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing the 11-year-old boy while sparing the boy’s brother and their friend while they were bicycling on the evening of Oct. 22, 1989, at a time when Heinrich lived in Paynesville, where he led authorities to the boy’s remains this year.

“As October went into November and early December, nothing was happening, and I decided that I wanted to do something and decided on a walk,” Clark said of how he came up with the idea of the three-day walk in December from Anoka to St. Joseph in 1989.

In the intervening years, the group of veterans did three-day walks on the fifth, 10^th, 15^th and 20^th anniversary of Wetterling’s abduction at gunpoint by a masked man.

About the time of the Wetterling disappearance, a man in the Paynesville area had molested many boys during several years. Heinrich had been a “person of interest” in at least one of those incidents, but nothing could be proven. Heinrich finally confessed to sexually assaulting and killing Wetterling when he pleaded guilty to unrelated child pornography charges on Sept. 6. Last September, he also confessed to abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy in the Cold Spring area about eight months before he abducted and killed Wetterling.

Gov. Mark Dayton, who attended a community memorial service for Wetterling Sept. 25 in St. Joseph, stated in an official state proclamation that Oct. 22, 2016, was to be “Jacob Wetterling Day” – 27 years to the date after Wetterling was abducted in 1989. He mentioned in his proclamation how the St. Joseph boy’s abduction profoundly affected Minnesotans.

“It was my hope that the publicity would lead to some tips, which might break the case open, which didn’t happen of course,” Clark said as to the reason he and other veterans have kept walking for Wetterling in all the years since the child’s disappearance and after the kidnapping case had seemed to go cold. “I didn’t know if he would ever be found.”

Investigators into Wetterling’s abduction found 19 three-ring binders containing 100 images of child pornography last year while searching Heinrich’s home in Annandale, about a half-hour south of St. Joseph, but Wetterling’s image was not among the items discovered in the search.

“I was 43 years old when I organized that 1989 walk for Jacob. My youngest son was 11, the same age as Jacob,” Clark said. “Now I am 70 years old and have suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and have had both my left and right knees replaced.”

Veterans and others walked one mile from the abduction site to the Wetterling homeDec. 10 “to bring closure to our years of walking Hwy. 10 in December for Jacob,” according to Clark, who was accompanied on this year’s walk by his wife and Jerry Wetterling, Jacob’s father.

“Jerry was there to walk with us and then when we arrived on their property, Patty came out to greet us,” Clark said of Jacob Wetterling’s mother, who helping to create the Jacob Wetterling Act of 1994, the start of a state registry to help keep children safe.

Heinrich had been charged with 25 counts of child pornography. In return for leading authorities to Wetterling’s remains earlier this year and admitting to his involvement in the boy’s kidnapping and death, he was not charged with Wetterling’s murder.

“I was angry at the abductor — how cold-hearted he was,” Clark said. “And I also felt a sense of relief for the family because Jacob had been found, and he would be getting a proper burial and that’s something. They needed Jacob to be found.”

The group of about 15 men from the Anoka County Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 470 and their wives who made the one-mile walk on Dec. 10 presented the Wetterlings with “Jacob’s Hope Flag,” which was made by the walkers and carried in 1989 and during subsequent walks.

“It was bittersweet,” Clark said of the Dec. 10 walk for Jacob, which was billed as “one more walk, one last time, one last mile. “We are all in our 70s now, and our youth has gone by us. My oldest son now is 43 — the age I was when I started that walk in 1989.”

Clark worked as an elementary school teacher in Princeton before retiring He was the only one in the Dec. 10 walk that participated in the 1989 walk to raise awareness for Jacob’s disappearance.

“Some of the original walkers have passed on, and others were not in a position to be able to walk that day on Saturday,” Clark said.

Clark has a great deal of empathy for the Wetterlings and can’t help but wonder when he looks at his youngest son what kind of man Jacob Wetterling might have grown up to be and what kind of life Wetterling might have lived had the boy been given the chance to reach his full potential.

“I thoroughly believe that Jacob would have been like my son, Patrick, a hard-working adult who respects the rules and laws of our country and contributes to the community,” Clark said.