ND ND - Sandra Jacobson, 36, & son John, 5, Bismarck, 16 Nov 1996

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John Henry Jacobson

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Cital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
Missing Since: November 16, 1996 from Bismarck, North Dakota
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: August 12, 1991
Age: 5 years old
Height and Weight: 4'8, 75 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian male. Light brown hair, brown eyes.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A hunter-green winter coat with blue cuffs.


Sandra Mary Jacobson

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Crital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
Missing Since: November 16, 1996 from Bismarck, North Dakota
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: December 8, 1959
Age: 36 years old
Height and Weight: 5'6, 145 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, green eyes. Sandra wears eyeglasses. Her nickname is Sandy.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A blue sweatshirt, blue jeans, brown lace-up boots and a blue down-filled jacket.
Medical Conditions: Sandra had been showing signs of mental illness prior to her disappearance.


Details of Disappearance
Sandra was last seen on November 16, 1996 with her son, John. The two were leaving a relative's home in the vicinity of the 1100 block of University Drive in Bismarck, North Dakota. They were riding in Sandra's car, a gray 1990 Honda Civic, and planned to purchase gasoline and then return to the residence. The Jacobsons did purchase fuel, but they never returned and neither have ever been heard from again. Sandra's car was found abandoned the next day, at the Centennial Beach parking lot near to the Missouri River in Bismarck. There was no sign of John or Sandra at the scene. The driver's side door of the car was open, the keys were in the ignition, and Sandra's purse was sitting on the front seat, its contents undisturbed. Police searched the beach and the river and found a shoe that might have belonged to John. Sandra had been showing signs of mental illness prior to her disappearance and had agreed to seek treatment. Authorities believe she may have taken John and jumped into the river. Sandra was separated from her husband, John's father, at the time she and John vanished. Police say there is no evidence pointing to foul play in John and Sandra's cases, and they have never had a suspect. There was a possible sighting of Sandra and John in Warroad, Minnesota in June 2004, but this has not been confirmed. Sandra and John's cases remain unsolved. They were declared dead sometime after their disappearances.


Investigating Agency

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Bismarck Police Department
701-223-1212



http://charleyproject.org/cases/j/jacobson_sandra.html
 
Today, November 16, 2007, marks the eleventh anniversary of John and Mary's disappearances. Please contact the Bismarck Police Department 701-223-1212 if you have any information regarding these disappearances.
 
Today is the 15th anniversary of Sandra & her son John disappearing from Bismarck, North Dakota. Growing up in that part of the country, this is a case that hits close to home for me.

Sandra's son, Spencer, has set up a website:
http://www.spencersstory.com/

Such a sad story... He's experienced the tragedy of his father being murdered, which is also unsolved, and his mom Sandra & his brother John disappearing. In 2009, Spencer lost his wife to a rare form of strep. I just cannot imagine what he has been through. Let's hope Sandra & John will come home to Spencer and his three young daughters!
 
I'm no expert at UIDs, but there are definitely similarities.

The UID had a wig, dental work, and possibly breast implants. I know on Sandra's reports that there is no mention of a wig or breast implants, but her dental information is available.

Just throwing out some thoughts in my head.
 
18 years ago now.
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/loc...cle_4bc66050-1830-11e4-bfe9-0019bb2963f4.html
This article was published July 2014 for the 20th anniversary of Michele Julson's disappearance. Sandra & John are mentioned in it.
Bismarck Police have three other open missing persons cases: Roy Hagel, whose abandoned car was found in the Death Valley Monument on March 10, 1989; Sandra Jacobson and her 5-year-old son, John Jacobson, last seen leaving in a vehicle to get gas on Nov. 16, 1996; and Christopher Mann, missing since Feb. 16, 2011, when he was last seen leaving his southwest Bismarck home on foot. Connor said these are old cases, but they’re still active.
“We’d just like to get this out there again and make people think about it,” he said. “Somebody out there knows something.”
 
Sandra Jacobson was 35 when she and her 5-year-old son, John, disappeared in 1996. She lived in Center at the time and planned to go to her parents’ Bismarck home for supper about 5 p.m. but told them she’d be late. On her way to town she called Bismarck police. She was upset and told them about satanic rituals she believed were taking place on a farm near Center. She called Bismarck police because she didn’t trust Center or Oliver County law enforcement.

She arrived at her parents’ home about 7:30. She seemed to be experiencing mental difficulties and agreed to let her mother take her to the hospital. She wanted to put gas in her car first, and when police found her car the next day at Centennial Beach — now Keelboat Park — they found a receipt to confirm she had done that. Her purse was on the front seat. She and John were never seen again.

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John Jacobson in 1996

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John Jacobson shown age-progressed to 24 years.

Missing person cases in Bismarck still open after 25, 30 years
 
Hi everyone - I have been digging into this case and hope to make a TikTok video about it. I posted in a Bismarck neighborhood FB group to try to clarify some information, and have gotten a huge amount of feedback!

There was lots and lots of discussion about satanic rituals happening in the caves around University of Mary in the 70s up until even now. Of course there's a huge connection with
"Son of Sam" David Berkowitz, who spoke about violent satanic cults in Bismarck and Minot.

I actually had a woman from the area message me privately and warn me about bringing up the cult activity - she said it is very much still alive and that the police don't do anything about it. She seemed genuinely scared of the cult presence in the area.

Another local told me someone they know was close to Sandra and the family and they believed she went into witness protection. Many people commented that they did not believe she committed suicide/murder, as she would never abandon her son Spencer like that.
 
The police file from this case, recently obtained by Forum News Service, reveals what Connor found: a missing persons investigation that left key questions unanswered, vital evidence unaccounted for and potential suspects cut loose.

While the file does not indicate a guilty party, it does pose some hard questions: Did the Bismarck Police Department’s initial investigation into the disappearance of Sandra and John Jacobson look at all possible angles? Or did it miss asking some crucial questions?

On the morning of Sunday, Nov. 17, 1996, Bismarck Police officers discovered a gray 1990 Honda Civic parked alongside the Missouri River in Centennial Park — its driver’s door cranked wide open.

With high winds and temperatures well below freezing, an open door was a sign to law enforcement officers that something wasn’t quite right.

They were correct.

Sandra Jacobson and her 5-year-old son, John Jacobson, were last seen on the evening of Nov. 16, 1996 in Bismarck. Sandra Jacobson's vehicle was discovered the following morning parked in Centennial Park near the edge of the Missouri River. Her purse, which contained her state identification card, was found on the passenger's seat. Absent from the purse was her driver's license.

Officers discovered keys in the ignition and a purse sitting on the passenger’s seat, but their efforts to search the area for the driver came up short. A light dusting of snow that fell overnight erased any hope for footprints leading them to the truth.

The discovery of the car was the start of a missing persons case that would haunt the Bismarck Police Department for decades.
 
The police file from this case, recently obtained by Forum News Service, reveals what Connor found: a missing persons investigation that left key questions unanswered, vital evidence unaccounted for and potential suspects cut loose.

While the file does not indicate a guilty party, it does pose some hard questions: Did the Bismarck Police Department’s initial investigation into the disappearance of Sandra and John Jacobson look at all possible angles? Or did it miss asking some crucial questions?

On the morning of Sunday, Nov. 17, 1996, Bismarck Police officers discovered a gray 1990 Honda Civic parked alongside the Missouri River in Centennial Park — its driver’s door cranked wide open.

With high winds and temperatures well below freezing, an open door was a sign to law enforcement officers that something wasn’t quite right.

They were correct.

Sandra Jacobson and her 5-year-old son, John Jacobson, were last seen on the evening of Nov. 16, 1996 in Bismarck. Sandra Jacobson's vehicle was discovered the following morning parked in Centennial Park near the edge of the Missouri River. Her purse, which contained her state identification card, was found on the passenger's seat. Absent from the purse was her driver's license.

Officers discovered keys in the ignition and a purse sitting on the passenger’s seat, but their efforts to search the area for the driver came up short. A light dusting of snow that fell overnight erased any hope for footprints leading them to the truth.

The discovery of the car was the start of a missing persons case that would haunt the Bismarck Police Department for decades.
What's interesting is that the article seems to suggest they may not have ended up in the river but also mentions some new details sugessting she was even more unstable than previously thought, if the husband is to be believed. I'm interested to hear whatever else they have because this case is somewhat light on details.
 
November 16, 1996, Sandra called her mother. They had made plans to have dinner at 5 PM, but she and John were going to be late.
While on her way to her mother’s house in Bismarck, Sandra called the Bismarck Police Department. She told them about a farm near Center where she believed satanic ritual abuse was happening. According to authorities, she sounded upset and hadn’t called the Center Police Department or the Oliver County Sheriff’s Office because she didn’t trust them.
It was 7:30 PM when Sandra and John arrived at Bernice Grensteiner’s home. Sandra was noticeably experiencing mental health problems and agreed to let her mother take her to the hospital. However, she wanted to put gas in her car first.
Sandra and John left in a grey 1990 Honda Civic around 8 PM. They were never seen again. Bernice reported her daughter and grandson missing at 10 PM.
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John / NCMEC

The day after they disappeared, Sandra’s Honda Civic was found abandoned at the Centennial Beach parking lot near the Missouri River in Bismarck.
The keys were in the ignition, and the driver’s side door was fully open. Sandra’s purse was in the front seat, with only her driver’s license missing. According to a receipt found in the car, Sandra had purchased gas the night before as intended.

Authorities conducted searches between Centennial Beach and the railroad bridge. An underwater recovery team was unable to search the river as thoroughly as they wanted due to strong currents and ice. Regardless, a shoe that may have belonged to John was found.
More @ link:
 
Sandra and John's case details from Charley Project:

Sandra was last seen on November 16, 1996 with her son, John. The two had made plans to eat dinner at Sandra's mother's home in the vicinity of the 1100 block of University Drive in Bismarck, North Dakota.

While on her way back to her mother's, Sandra called the Bismarck Police Department on her cellular phone. She sounded very upset and said she believed satanic ritual abuse was taking place on a farm near Center, North Dakota. She said she called the Bismarck police rather than Center police or the Oliver County Sheriff's Office because she did not trust them.

Sandra and John arrived at Sandra's mother's home at 7:30 p.m. Sandra appeared to be having mental health problems and she agreed to let her mother take her to the hospital. Before she went, however, she wanted to purchase gasoline. She and John were last seen leaving the residence in Sandra's gray 1990 Honda Civic. A photo of the car is posted with this case summary.

They did purchase fuel, but they never returned to Sandra's mother's home and have never been heard from again. Sandra's mother reported her daughter and grandson missing at 10:00 p.m. that same day.

Sandra's car was found abandoned the next day, at the Centennial Beach parking lot near to the Missouri River in Bismarck. There was no sign of John or Sandra at the scene. The driver's side door of the car was wide open, the keys were in the ignition, and Sandra's purse was sitting on the front seat, its contents undisturbed.

Police searched the beach and the river and found a shoe that might have belonged to John. Strong river currents and severe weather hampered the search efforts and investigators could not search the river as thoroughly as they would have liked to.

Sandra separated from her second husband, Alan Jacobson, John's father, three months before she disappeared. She was living in a trailer in Center, North Dakota with John and her sixteen-year-old son by a previous marriage, Spencer Nastrom.

Sandra believed she was in the process of a divorce which was being handled by Alan, and she was anxious about a possible custody battle. However, Alan didn't mention the divorce to the police when he was interviewed, and when the authorities investigated, they learned there was no divorce pending.

Alan stated he was away on a business trip to Missouri between November 16, the day his wife and son disappeared, and November 18. Authorities have been unable to confirm his alibi, however. Alan was not completely cooperative in the search for his wife and son, and he refused to submit a DNA sample. He claimed he and Sandra were trying to reconcile and had signed up for couples counseling, but records showed he had never attended any counseling appointments.

After his wife and son disappeared, Alan went to Sandra's trailer in Center and removed most of the items inside, including clothes and food. The trailer was never searched by police, either before or after Alan cleared it out. Although Sandra's family said she kept a detailed daily journal, Alan said he did not find it inside her home. The journal has never been located.

Spencer stated he saw his mother's wedding rings in a change container inside Alan's home just days after Sandra went missing, and he didn't know why Alan would have had the rings, but he wasn't sure if his mother had been wearing them when she was last seen. When questioned, Alan said he didn't take the rings out of Sandra's trailer and he believed she'd left them with him when they separated.

In May 1997, six months after the Jacobsons disappeared, a child's shoe was found near the river in Centennial Park. Alan said he thought the shoe might be John's, but John's older brother and his grandmother both said they did not recognize it and thought it was too large to fit John's feet.

Just hours before she went missing, Sandra attempted to call her ex-husband, Vernon Nastrom, but he didn't answer the call. Vernon was subsequently interviewed about his ex-wife and her son's disappearance.

He told police that during his marriage to Sandra, she had been fascinated with the idea of the end of the world, and had made a pact with him: if it looked like the world was going to end, both of them would meet up and jump off the Memorial Bridge together. The bridge is near where Sandra's vehicle was located after she went missing.

However, Vernon said, Sandra later concluded that suicide was a bad idea; she thought it would condemn the victim's soul to walk the earth forever, never to enter heaven. He passed a polygraph about the Jacobson case and was never considered a suspect.

Vernon was himself the victim of a homicide in 2005. He was run over by his own car and left to die in a ditch on a maintenance road north of Tuttle, North Dakota. His murder remains unsolved and there's no indication it's connected to the Jacobsons' case.

One theory is that Sandra murdered John and took her own life by going into the river, but there is no hard evidence to support this. Police stated there is no evidence pointing to foul play in the Jacobsons' cases, and they have never had a suspect. Sandra was employed with the North Dakota Department of Transportation at the time of her disappearance.

The Jacobsons' cases remain unsolved. They were declared legally dead sometime after their disappearances.
 

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