MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 22 Oct 1989 - #6

[cGorg]

Someone asked where were the woods that the perp told the boys to run to. Well I think they were straight ahead from the abduction site. See the attached picture from Joy's website.

The Wetterling home and Tom Thumb location are accurate as indicated. The abduction location is off a bit though. The abduction took place between the "A" and the "v" in the word "Avenue" on the street. I believe the woods straight across the road from DR's driveway are the woods the boys were ordered to run to.

You are spot on regarding the abduction site location. It's too bad that the picture in Joy's Blog is so misleading. Regarding the 'woods'...I agree, the only 'woods' nearby would be immediately to the north + west of the abduction site. If the perp knew where they lived, why would he send them northwest? If bycar, his escape route is north, if on foot then east so doesn't matter. That statement of 'run to the woods' has bothered me because there really isn't any 'woods' per se nearby. I suspect Trevor + Aaron ran west, then ran south across an open field to the Wetterling house.

 

[shergal]

Here's another pedophile who was in that area around this same time.. they had a long article on him in our paper today. His name is Rev. Robert Kapoun and he lives in Cold Spring, MN. (Has 2 homes, one lovely lake home and another vacation home in FL, paid for by the church!) There are no close-up photos of him in the article, I'll have to search and see if I can find any pics from when he was younger. (More music involvement here also.)

"They called him the Polka Padre. Later, they called him the Polka Predator.

The Rev. Robert Kapoun performed across the Twin Cities and surrounding areas as the Polka Padre for decades.

For decades, the Rev. Robert Kapoun charmed parishioners with his accordion at “polka masses” across Minnesota. Privately, he took young boys to saunas, rectories and a secluded cabin in Cold Spring and sexually assaulted them, according to court testimony. Parents complained but leaders at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis did little to stop him."

http://www.sctimes.com/article/2013...-Spring-priest-retirement-income-came-premium

 

[shergal]

I found some old photos of him here, on his record albums. Doesn't have the sticking out ears of Jared's predator, but looks similar to the sketch of Jacob's abductor.

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Kapoun_Robert.htm

 

[shergal]

Here's a direct link to the MPR article if the Times link doesn't work. The Times only allows so many views of articles as a "guest" and then you can't get back in there.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/co...priest-retirement-income-came-with-a-premium/

Assignments for Father Robert Kapoun included
Holy Redeemer in Montgomery, MN 1964-1967; St. Kevins in Minneapolis 1967-1971; St. Raphaels in Crystal Village, MN from 1971-1974; Home of the Good Shepherd, a protective institution for girls, 1974-1976; sick leave from 1976-1977; St. Patricks in Cedar Lake, MN 1977-1984; St. Catherines in Spring Lake, MN 1977-1984; St. Scholastica in Heidelberg, MN and St. Josephs in Lexington, MN 1984-1996; St. Thomas in St. Thomas, MN 1991-1996. From 1996-2002, when Father Kapoun retired, he was on special assignment in Cold Spring, MN.

https://www.andersonadvocates.com/PriestList/29/Father-Robert-Kapoun.aspx

 

[human]

He was revealed in Aug of 1989. So, he could have been doing some polka that night in Oct.

He would not have the easy access he had before and was forced a new way to get what be wanted.

Ugly story. Living the life of luxury and total denial. Sickening

 

[Trackergd]

Trackergd
SAR Search Manager

Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: S.E. Pennsylvania
Posts: 467
Initial Print Analysis:
Yellow: Tire Prints - Narrow bias ply ribbed tire pattern
Light weight or smaller vehicle. Defined sharp edge.

Red: Not sure about these - Unknown disturbances if no other
pictures are available.

Blue: Larger prints with force - Heel digs? Mounding on sides
Very deep with force. Cannot tell if sole pattern is like green.

Green: Shallow prints - flat with little force or mounding
No defined pattern - Flat sole shoe?

Red W/Yellow: Great pattern prints - flat bottom rib pattern
Commonly called a "crepe" sole
LE should have been able to tell if these were Jacobs or a perp

Jumble of prints with a tire track. "Appears" to be more than one person and some on top of others. Cannot tell if red marked disturbances are prints that were run over or disturbances caused by stones that caused mounding by weight of car.
Attached Thumbnails

Tracker,

Take a look at the picture of the footprints again, something I noticed to help orientation. Notice the shadows on the far side of the deeper prints? The camera angle is facing mostly south, a little southwest. The prints seem to veer toward the bottom of the picture at this point - towards the fence that is along the driveway.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=37778&d=1380809058

I agree.

I could not figure out what the prints were that have the blue arrows, even tried to reproduce them.... The light bulb just went on...:blushing: horse shoe prints. As the photo was not from above, but on a low angle, I was not seeing them for what they are. The looked like heal prints.....

Bottom line... Contaminated Crime Scene

 

[Trackergd]

With the above said, if I had those good photographs, I could still probably figure it out with some time, patience and a magnifying glass.

This whole issue with the crime scene, lack of security, poor preservation of evidence and some knuckle headed decisions about letting individuals, horses and a police car into an active crime scene has me wondering who is covering who's *advertiser censored**? Even a podunk police department knows better than this...even in the 80's.

 

[human]

Hard to say Tracker. No one in the US had seen a case like this one.

Hopefully, the pics are of some kind of photo op and not the actual things going on.

The FBI did come right away. Hopefully, they were smarter on crimes scenes.

Hard to believe they could be that stupid, but who knows. I was there the first weekend. I was there several times later as well.

I know one time we stopped and looked at the spot, but nothing comes to mind.

It was a surreal time. The nightmare of it ate me up. I did not sleep for days. I knew of Johnny Gosch and Etan Patz. A paperboy kidnapped in the morning and a little boy missing in New York city could be understood.

This was something that threatened all children. They were not safe in tiny town midwest America in a group. It was mind boggling. It challenged my whole way of looking at the world and life.

 

[JerseyJo]

Here's another pedophile who was in that area around this same time.. they had a long article on him in our paper today. His name is Rev. Robert Kapoun and he lives in Cold Spring, MN. (Has 2 homes, one lovely lake home and another vacation home in FL, paid for by the church!) There are no close-up photos of him in the article, I'll have to search and see if I can find any pics from when he was younger. (More music involvement here also.)

"They called him the Polka Padre. Later, they called him the Polka Predator.

The Rev. Robert Kapoun performed across the Twin Cities and surrounding areas as the Polka Padre for decades.

For decades, the Rev. Robert Kapoun charmed parishioners with his accordion at “polka masses” across Minnesota. Privately, he took young boys to saunas, rectories and a secluded cabin in Cold Spring and sexually assaulted them, according to court testimony. Parents complained but leaders at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis did little to stop him."

http://www.sctimes.com/article/2013...-Spring-priest-retirement-income-came-premium

What type of dance was going on at the Del-Win Ballroom the night of Jacob's abduction?

 

[ELOCsoul]

What type of dance was going on at the Del-Win Ballroom the night of Jacob's abduction?

There was a polka festival going on that afternoon. Being a Sunday, I will venture to guess it would have ended fairly early, say 6:00pm perhaps.

Newspaper advertisements for polka events from that time period were generally in the noon to 6:00 range on Sundays. The Thursday edition of the St Cloud Times had a small section for live music, entertainment, and dining events ads for the upcoming weekend.

 

[thenotebook]

It was a polka-fest. That immediately rang a bell in my head when I saw that he played polka music. It's the perfect reason for him to be in the area

 

[thenotebook]

But at the same time...does this crime really fit this perverted priest's motto? He sounds like the grooming, build trust kind of abuser. Maybe not a gun-touting abductor

 

[midwestphd]

The detail in the article about Kapoun that describes him making young boys swim naked makes me wonder if that lake has been searched for bodies.

Until this point, I've always believed that DR was the best suspect in thinking about means and opportunity. We don't know his motive, although we can speculate.

Polka Padre has opportunity (he's in town for the Polka Festival, relatively close to the abduction site), and we know he has motive. Means? In theory, yes. But did he come to town with the black nylon sock and a black outfit, and perhaps even a gun? I wish we could hear an audio clip of his voice (gravelly?). Would also help to know about potential vehicles he might have owned.

 

[cGorg]

The detail in the article about Kapoun that describes him making young boys swim naked makes me wonder if that lake has been searched for bodies.

Until this point, I've always believed that DR was the best suspect in thinking about means and opportunity. We don't know his motive, although we can speculate.

Polka Padre has opportunity (he's in town for the Polka Festival, relatively close to the abduction site), and we know he has motive. Means? In theory, yes. But did he come to town with the black nylon sock and a black outfit, and perhaps even a gun? I wish we could hear an audio clip of his voice (gravelly?). Would also help to know about potential vehicles he might have owned.

Interesting speculation. I have never reconciled the fact that the perp was dressed in black if the crime was a spur of the moment type other than LE or clergy, or obviously DR had the time to change clothes. shergal's finding of the Polka Padre offers an explanation. Musicians typically wear black for performances so he was already halfway there....just needed the mask + gun.

 

[human]

But at the same time...does this crime really fit this perverted priest's motto? He sounds like the grooming, build trust kind of abuser. Maybe not a gun-touting abductor

What happens when the ability is taken away?

He no longer had easy access once he was busted.

 

[human]

The detail in the article about Kapoun that describes him making young boys swim naked makes me wonder if that lake has been searched for bodies.

Until this point, I've always believed that DR was the best suspect in thinking about means and opportunity. We don't know his motive, although we can speculate.

Polka Padre has opportunity (he's in town for the Polka Festival, relatively close to the abduction site), and we know he has motive. Means? In theory, yes. But did he come to town with the black nylon sock and a black outfit, and perhaps even a gun? I wish we could hear an audio clip of his voice (gravelly?). Would also help to know about potential vehicles he might have owned.

He was recently busted as a perv, so i am not sure how welcome the polka perv would be at a dance.

He could have been visiting his good friend DR. I have no idea if they know each other. It would be interesting.

If he went to the Polka fest, i am sure plenty of people mentioned that to LE

This Polka connection is rather interesting

 

[shergal]

I tried finding a sound bite of the polka padre's albums so we could hear his voice. (Although a singing voice may be different than a speaking voice.) Found plenty of his albums, but no sound files anywhere. Evidently he played the organ. (Sorry, not trying to be funny - but that's what it said on his albums.)

Correction on DR from my post above, he didn't play IN the Deutschmeister's band, he just accompanied them sometimes as a guest player. The band has a double CD compilation out called Deutschmeisters & Friends.

I saw an interesting tidbit on a polka in MN history site - the two main players in the Deutschmeister band (Tony and Betty Wolf) used to take a trip to Germany every year during Octoberfest time, and would often take other locals from St. Joe with them. Wouldn't be surprised if DR's parents went on one of these group trips with them in 1989. The time of year and destination country is right.

From that website:
"30. In 1978 Betty and Tony started to go to Germany. Betty has been going every year since. Octoberfest, Passion Play, Switzerland, northern Italy, Vienna. People who travel with them are mostly from the local area."
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/web5/media.php?pdf=1&irn=10280311

 

[shergal]

I found some tracks you can listen to - but most of the Polka Padre's music is instrumental only. #10 has voices, not sure if they are his or a chorus.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/polkasgreatesthitsv3

You can also buy his old albums on ebay.

 

[marlins]

Very interesting posts about polka padre. After reading these posts I started researching possible newspaper ads or ANYTHING pertaining to the polka feat at the delwin. Though no information was recovered, I did come across the linked site below, which are all the archived CSB SJU student magazines published. I hope this info is helpful to someone.

http://cdm.csbsju.edu/cdm/search/co...and!and/rmcoll/SJUArchives/order/title/ad/asc

 

[human]

I have no,idea if this is correct, but it is possible that Jacob just started playing the trombone. If so, he would have hardly played at all. Just some lessons.