I'm thinking along similar lines. I definitely have questions about the timeline of the initial search that I haven’t been able to find answers for (I looked through earlier threads, but may have missed it). From the information I have from previous threads and media sources, there seems to be an unaccounted block of time from about 3:00am to 6:00am (or so) in regards to the crime scene.
Was anyone assigned to watch over the scene during those 3+ hours, or did they all go home/elsewhere? If everyone left, was the scene secured in any meaningful way to ensure its preservation during this 3 or so hour period? If someone stayed, who was it? Was more than one person assigned to remain? How closely did they watch the scene and where were they actually stationed (like, did they have a view of the yard and house, or just the road/end of the driveway)?
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/LAW/11/19/ctv.wetterling/
...
“Grafft and his deputies searched with flashlights for three hours and only found a faint tire print.”
—Were the footprints also discovered during the night search with flashlights? Another article referenced below states that a bloodhound led them to the tire track sometime after 8AM. If the tire track and/or footprints WERE found during the initial night search, what measures were taken to secure the evidence?
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20115979,00.html
“By 10 P.M. police were already combing the site, and Stearns County Sheriff Charlie Grafft had called in a state police helicopter to join the town's volunteer fire department in the search. By midnight the FBI was on the case.”
—So, by approximately midnight, the Sheriff’s dept., State Patrol, volunteer fire dept., and FBI are all involved in the initial night time search. How did all of these different units work together in 1989? Were there any defined protocols for how they conducted the search or gathered evidence?
http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/med...thout-a-Trace/?cparticle=3&siarticle=2#artanc
“Neil Neddermeyer (task force):
‘In the beginning, we worked from 6 in the morning until 10 at night, seven days a week.”
—This article also states that Neddermeyer was on the case “from the second day” - was this schedule in place on the first day?
http://globegazette.com/jacob-wette...cle_2b0e6832-84d0-11df-85ff-001cc4c03286.html
“Oct. 22, 1989: Eleven-year-old Jacob Erwin Wetterling is abducted by a masked gunman about 9:15 p.m. along 91st Avenue, southeast of St. Joseph. Firefighters and 35 officers from the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies search the area. Two local FBI agents and five from Minneapolis are assigned to the case. A state helicopter with a searchlight searches the nearby woods and fields. A command post is set up at Del-Win Ballroom in St. Joseph. Searches are called off at 3 a.m. until daybreak.”
—Did any of the 35 law enforcement officials remain at the site overnight? If so, who, how many, from which organization(s)?
“Oct. 23, 1989:
The search resumes at 8 a.m. Department of Natural Resources officers use all-terrain vehicles to search a two-mile radius around the abduction site. Helicopters fly over a 25-square-mile area. A Minneapolis bloodhound leads officers to tire tracks, prompting officers to believe the kidnapper had a car nearby.”
—Was the tire track actually found in the initial night time search or later during the day?
