MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 22 Oct 1989 - #1

[Shay]

Thank you so much! I was hoping someone had access to plat information. WOW! That is one large piece of land! A lot of ground to cover for a search.

Can you give us an idea of the landscape? Is it mostly open, wooded? Is anything being planted there?

glad to have a local on the forum! thanks!

From the aerial photos I've seen, there is alot of farmland (retired farmers), a large wooded area, and several barns/buildings. The driveway is very long and the actual house/barns are behind a large stand of trees.

Here are some decent photos:

http://wcco.com/slideshows/jacob.wetterling.abducted.20.1782866.html

 

[GoJacks]

well i wanted to post a video but it looks like i am too stupid. Here's another article instead.

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1632831.shtml?cat=1

For A Second Day Investigators Return To The Scene Of Where Jacob Wetterling Was Abducted

Mother of missing Jacob Wetterling is hopeful of new discovery on missing son, but police have held all information from her as well as from the public.

Investigators are once again searching a central Minnesota property where an 11-year-old boy was abducted at gunpoint nearly 21 years ago.

Authorities have said little about the search that began Wednesday in St. Joseph. KSTP confirms that Jacob's mother Patty Wetterling was not aware of the current search that began yesterday.

Stearns County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Bruce Bechtold says a court order restricts him from discussing the investigation. Digging has begun at the property near where Jacob Wetterling was abducted.

Stearns County officials, an FBI special agent, K-9 teams, and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were on the scene, while the family that owns the farm was seen leaving Thursday morning. The property, which is 158 acres, was blocked off to media, and is hidden behind a grove of trees.

It's not clear how long the search will take.

Jacob Wetterling was riding his bike with his brother and a friend in 1989 when a masked man with a gun approached them. The boys said the man took Jacob. There have been no arrests.

 

[Shay]

Any idea's on why the search warrant has an expiring time of noon?
Would this possibly mean they are looking for something specific or in specific area's?
Or could this simply mean they don't want the search to go on endlessly?

100+ acre's is a lot of ground to cover.

TIA

It's almost 2:30 here and they are still digging, according to the local radio station with a reporter on-site. Dump trucks are going in empty and coming out full of dirt.

Other than that, the local news has been quiet...but the tension is palatable. The Wetterling family has gathered together and are waiting for any news but they don't know any more than the general public. Patty Wetterling said in a radio interview that there's never been a search of this magnitude in the last 20 years.

 

[Mom who cares]

Thanks to Shay for being our eyes and ears!

 

[kgeaux]

:waitasec: This is what always got me about the case: How could DR sleep through all that ruckus going on right outside of his house? Helicopters buzzing overhead and sirens blaring in the dead of night out in the middle of nowhere. No way. DR should have been running down his driveway, throwing on a bathrobe, wondering what the hay was going on.

jmo

Some young people sleep very deeply. Not trying to defend him, just saying.

Question: one of the first articles posted today says the neighbor was 20 when this happened. A poster has figured out that if he is now 54, as listed in another article, he would have been 33 at the time Jacob disappeared. So which is his correct age?

Comment: I truly hope Jacob is found.

 

[Shay]

Thanks to Shay for being our eyes and ears!

No problem...just wish I had more info!

I remember searching for Jacob. I remember how his disappearance changed EVERYTHING...such as letting your kids play outside without worry, going for a nice evening walk alone, saying "hi" to a stranger without fear. Innocence was lost that day and things were never the same again.

 

[jantel74]

Some young people sleep very deeply. Not trying to defend him, just saying.

Question: one of the first articles posted today says the neighbor was 20 when this happened. A poster has figured out that if he is now 54, as listed in another article, he would have been 33 at the time Jacob disappeared. So which is his correct age?

Comment: I truly hope Jacob is found.

From what I understand, the local (neighbor) with the car that made the tire tracks was 20 or 21 and DR was 33. Hope that helps.

 

[Trino]

Some young people sleep very deeply. Not trying to defend him, just saying.

Question: one of the first articles posted today says the neighbor was 20 when this happened. A poster has figured out that if he is now 54, as listed in another article, he would have been 33 at the time Jacob disappeared. So which is his correct age?

Comment: I truly hope Jacob is found.

At 7:30 a.m., the 54-year-old man who lives on the farm and whom authorities have questioned before and taken DNA samples from, drove away from the site, with his father and mother in the car.

http://www.startribune.com/local/97577234.html?page=2&c=y

 

[raeann]

Some young people sleep very deeply. Not trying to defend him, just saying.

Question: one of the first articles posted today says the neighbor was 20 when this happened. A poster has figured out that if he is now 54, as listed in another article, he would have been 33 at the time Jacob disappeared. So which is his correct age?

Comment: I truly hope Jacob is found.

No kidding....just a couple of weeks after my son moved to a new apartment complex and started graduate school, he slept straight through the night and got up the next morning to look out his window and saw that an entire 32 unit apartment building across the parking lot from his building had burned to the GROUND during the night! There had been dozens of fire trucks, people woken up from their apartments, police, ems etc right outside his bedroom windows and he had been so exhausted he heard nothing at all!

 

[Shay]

Not trying to pass judgement of any sort, but I am wondering how the 54 yr old music teacher is viewed in his community? Wonder what kind of person he is?

Not sure how much I can say with violating board rules. (?)

 

[WhyaDuck?]

Not sure how much I can say with violating board rules. (?)

I'm not 100% sure, either, but I'd avoid using his name if I were you, whatever you think to post.

From what I can gather here, he's got two sides to him - seemingly high profile, but, if the user comments on some of those stories are to believed, "he's creepy"... Well, creepy has yet to become a criminal category, but it's interesting to wonder how much that "creepy" is fueled by innuendo, and how much is real.

 

[dreamweaver]

Not sure how much I can say with violating board rules. (?)

Whatever you say, say it very carefully.

 

[shergal]

Various comments under today's St. Cloud Times article - some people are speculating maybe Josh Guimond who went missing from St. John's University some years back may also be involved. This DR (son at the farm) works teaching band in another small town, Cold Spring, which is south of St. Cloud and St. Joe. He also worked at St. John's University. (Keep in mind this is just comments & locals speculating at this point.)

Comment 1:

- Daniel Rassier has been a band instructor at the Rocori school district for 30 years. He is also listed as a staff member at St. John's university.

- On the night of Jacob's disappearance, Robert and Rita Rassier were out of the country, and Daniel was home alone.

- Prior to Jacob's abduction, a boy named "Jared" was sexually assaulted bin Cold Spring by a man similar in description to Jacob's abductor.

Don't forget the boy who went missing and was never found from St. Johns (where he works) a few years back
_______________

Comment 2:

Has anybody checked out the "behind the pine curtain" website lately? It says that this Rassier guy is on staff at St. John's? Interesting twist...

http://www.behindthepinecurtain.com/wordpress/


Very interesting.

This could be very well be about Josh Guimond... and not Jacob.

... yet.

 

[daisy7]

Hi Daisy - where did you see they had no search warrant for the previous two searches? I must be missing something, which wouldn't be the first time.

Also, I think the change in this case really revolved around them abandoning the idea that the perp got away in a car in 2003/4, when the car that was spotted was discovered to be uninvolved. (Though I realize it was certainly possible for the perp to have hidden his car not far away, but that it was just never spotted.) Since then, I should think the homes around immediately around the abduction site became a lot more important. Perhaps that made the difference in the theory of the crime to allow for search warrant.

I don't know whether or not there was a SW executed in the previous searches. I meant my post to question why are they searching with a SW there now?? Is there something new that led to a new SW?

Sorry for the confusion! :blowkiss:

 

[WhyaDuck?]

Various comments under today's St. Cloud Times article - some people are speculating maybe Josh Guimond who went missing from St. John's University some years back may also be involved. This DR (son at the farm) works teaching band in another small town, Cold Spring, which is south of St. Cloud and St. Joe. He also worked at St. John's University. (Keep in mind this is just comments & locals speculating at this point.)

Comment 1:

- Daniel Rassier has been a band instructor at the Rocori school district for 30 years. He is also listed as a staff member at St. John's university.

- On the night of Jacob's disappearance, Robert and Rita Rassier were out of the country, and Daniel was home alone.

- Prior to Jacob's abduction, a boy named "Jared" was sexually assaulted bin Cold Spring by a man similar in description to Jacob's abductor.

Don't forget the boy who went missing and was never found from St. Johns (where he works) a few years back
_______________

Comment 2:

Has anybody checked out the "behind the pine curtain" website lately? It says that this Rassier guy is on staff at St. John's? Interesting twist...

http://www.behindthepinecurtain.com/wordpress/


Very interesting.

This could be very well be about Josh Guimond... and not Jacob.

... yet.

I thought I read that that student was later found to have killed himself in another state some time after the abduction. Anyone else see that some place? (Will try to confirm with link in a bit - WS is extremely slow and crashy for me these days, so I am less quick on the links than I used to be. Sorry!)

 

[wonderment]

I'm really concerned about some of the finger pointing that's going on in this forum. It's ok to consider things, but calling someone creepy or coming close to the edge of making accusations isn't helpful.

Just because it's on the Rassier farm doesn't mean they had anything to do with it...the criminal who took Jacob could've left evidence there or something.

 

[Shay]

I thought I read that that student was later found to have killed himself in another state some time after the abduction. Anyone else see that some place? (Will try to confirm with link in a bit - WS is extremely slow and crashy for me these days, so I am less quick on the links than I used to be. Sorry!)

Josh Guimond is still missing from St. John's University (7 years ago). St. John's is approx 5 miles from St. Joseph.

 

[Shay]

I'm really concerned about some of the finger pointing that's going on in this forum. It's ok to consider things, but calling someone creepy or coming close to the edge of making accusations isn't helpful.

Just because it's on the Rassier farm doesn't mean they had anything to do with it...the criminal who took Jacob could've left evidence there or something.

I agree. I will refrain from making personal observations about this person.

 

[Dum-Dum Sucker]

Look at the Photos under "Search on at St. Joseph Farm"

http://www.startribune.com/local/97...D8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUycaEacyUs

There is a blue tarp/tent shielding a small area of digging. It appears that they have pinpointed a specific location.

 

[Shay]

http://www.sctimes.com/article/2010...ation-near-Wetterling-abduction-site-is--done-

Not much new info...other than there will some sort of press release in the morning.