by MaryAnne Block
On her birthday, Nov. 2, Patty Wetterling of St. Joseph spent part of the day signing copies of her new book for visitors at the Bad Habit Brewing Co. in downtown St. Joseph.
Also signing books was Wetterling’s co-author, Joy Baker of New London.
“Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope” was published in October and has received excellent reviews from book reviewers and readers. The book is a harrowing account – also filled with love and hope – about the 1989 abduction and murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling, the son of Jerry and Patty Wetterling.
At the gathering, every seat was taken, and people waited in line to get their books signed.
Jacob’s body, buried in a farm grove near Paynesville, was not discovered until nearly 27 years after his abduction. His confessed murderer, Danny Heinrich, led authorities to the boy’s remains. Heinrich remains in prison.
One of the visitors at the book-signing was Jenny Dale of Sartell, who teaches in Avon. The same age as Jacob, she was an elementary-school student in Buffalo when the St. Joseph boy was abducted 34 years ago on a rural road near his home in St. Joseph.
Dale said Jacob was often on her mind and in her heart through all those years, partly because of some eerie coincidences. She learned later that Jacob’s abductor, who lived in Paynesville at that time, worked very near her school. After Dale married and moved to St. Joseph, she realized the apartment she and her husband managed was very close to the site where Jacob had been abducted.
Another visitor to the book-signing was John Allen, who grew up in the St. Joseph area.
“Jacob’s abduction changed the world,” he said. “Nothing has been the same since. It changed my awareness then and how we are raising our children now.”
Allen and his wife, Deidre, who now live in Sauk Rapids, still have the “Jacob’s Hope” buttons they received long ago as children.
They often share Jacob’s story with children to heighten their awareness.
Patty Wetterling (left) and co-author Joy Baker autograph copies of their book recently in St. Joseph. The memoir, entitled “Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope,” is a harrowing account, also filled with love and hope, of the abduction and murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in 1989.
