Jacob Wetterling: missing a quarter-century

By Caroline Lowe · On September 1, 2014

It will be 25 years next month since Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked gunman as the 11-year-old boy biked home with his brother and a friend from a convenience store in St. Joseph, MN.

He hasn’t been seen since.

John Walsh profiled the Wetterling case Sunday night on his new show on CNN: The Hunt.

Walsh’s son 6-year-old son Adam was abducted and murdered in Florida in 1981.

He and Jacob’s mother, Patty Wetterling, have become two of the highest-profile child safety advocates in the country.

Jerry and Patty Wetterling (Source: UnsolvedMysteries.us)

As a crime reporter in Minnesota, I often interviewed Patty and her family on the anniversaries of Jacob’s abduction.

Each time, I hoped someone watching the story might know something and call police with a piece of information that would lead them to Jacob.

Jodi Huisentruit covered Jacob’s case when she getting her start in television news and would continue to cover updates on his case until a couple years later when Jodi herself was also abducted in Mason City, Iowa. She was on her way to work at KIMT-TV as a morning news anchor.

Almost a quarter century after Jacob’s abduction, he and Jodi are both still missing.

Caroline’s interview with Patty Wetterling (Source: WCCO-TV April 2011)

I hope the John Walsh report on Jacob Wetterling prompts someone with information to contact law enforcement so his family and entire community in Minnesota will finally know what happened to Jacob.

I also hope Walsh’s show will help solve other cases, including Jodi’s…by keeping them in the spotlight.

Watch Caroline’s extended interview with Patty Wetterling (Bottom of page)
Read the five questions Jacob’s mother Patty would ask his abductor if she was given the chance.

Caroline Lowe

Caroline Lowe is a veteran Twin Cities crime reporter and has an extensive background in covering cold cases. Her work has appeared on 20/20, Oprah, Court TV and Forensic Files. Lowe’s decision to join FindJodi.com came from her dedication to cold cases and her persistence to never give up in finding the truth.

Closer Look

Not to put a negative spin on the parents but I have a strange feeling that they’re not telling everything that THEY know.If you compare notes,the story they told the press back in 1989 has changed significantly since then & there are many holes that I just can’t turn a blind eye to.

I learned from a reliable source that Patty & Jerry’s relationship wasn’t as upbeat & stable as the media reported.Only days before Jacob’s disappearance,they allegedly got into a heated dispute over him.Jerry was reportedly screaming and yelling at Patty right in front of a patient in his Chiroprator’s office.That scares—& intrigues—me.Why,if this IS true,were they fighting over Jacob?Why did they change details in their stories over the years?.Honestly,I think the police need to go back to the drawing board & investigate the parents more closely. Sadly,in a lot of these cases of missing/murdered kids,someone within or very very close to the family is involved.My gut tells me this is what happened in Jacob Wetterling’s case.
- Julie Mohler Tremp
  
  I agree, and I know someone who may be able to help law enforcement find clues in that direction. I believe this latest Daniel Heinrich situation is a diversion…another diversion, just like the Dan Rassier Diversion.
  
  The SCSO has been evading good evidence for a long time. This evidence is backed up by a prominent investigator with his own PI business in another county. There’s a cop from another county that knows what’s been avoided for years as well. This person has been discredited/slandered in a book that was released. The book is a compilation of news paper articles and public opinion. Public opinion is a dangerous thing. This is what the SCSO count on in their everlasting manipulation of the law, and this will also affect this case getting a much closer, and deeper look.
  
  The things we learned about the SCSO is disturbing, and their lack of attention to very important pieces to the puzzle is highly egregious.
  
  How is it that this “foundation”, more recently listed as a “resource center”, became so huge? Where has all the money gone? What specific purposes has this money been used for? Has anyone ever questioned anything regarding this? There’s thousands of missing children, and although I find the Jacob Wetterling abduction very sad and tragic, there’s other missing children out there who need to have the same focus on their abduction as Jacob’s does. Why has this turned into a three ring circus?
  
  Why did the Daniel Heinrich just now get charged with child pornography when he could have been charged years ago. After all, he was looked at by LE years ago, and he was on their radar. They say only recently forensic evidence has been developed to link Heinrich to the boy who was assaulted in Coldspring, in Jan, 1989. They claim the DNA was weak, and it couldn’t be tested until new advancements in forensic science developed. This means that Heinrich couldn’t be charged and convicted on Jared’s case within the statute of limitations. This seems odd that there’s other things he could have been charged with, that would have given probable cause to get a search warrant to search Heinrich’s home many years ago.
  
  Why isn’t the SCSO allowing assistance from the FBI on some suspects, and not others?
- Julie Mohler Tremp
  
  Closer Look, how did you find out this information? I also have some very interesting information, and I’m in contact with a person who may have enough information to break this case.
  
  Jacob’s parents aren’t who they pretend to be. I have the “inside scoop” on that as well. This person has proof that things were definitely not what they appeared to be in the Wetterling home. Things are closing in.
Closer Look

Not to put a negative spin on the parents but I have a strange feeling that they’re not telling everything that THEY know.If you compare notes,the story they told the press back in 1989 has changed significantly since then & there are many holes that I just can’t turn a blind eye to.

I learned from a reliable source that Patty & Jerry’s relationship wasn’t as upbeat & stable as the media reported.Only days before Jacob’s disappearance,they allegedly got into a heated dispute over him.Jerry was reportedly screaming and yelling at Patty right in front of a patient in his Chiroprator’s office.That scares—& intrigues—me.Why,if this IS true,were they fighting over Jacob?Why did they change details in their stories over the years?.Honestly,I think the police need to go back to the drawing board & investigate the parents more closely. Sadly,in a lot of these cases of missing/murdered kids,someone within or very very close to the family is involved.My gut tells me this is what happened in Jacob Wetterling’s case.
JP

They were at a dinner when Jacob went missing. How exactly has their story changed over the years?
JP

They were at a dinner when Jacob went missing. How exactly has their story changed over the years?
Coco

I still say the case was never researched and or studied very well, even though the case seemed to have been originally in the right direction, but what then stopped them from pursuing the case further, I mean you take a boy in the evening and try to find him within a few hours, you may find the kid alive, you give the perpetrator a lot more time than you, you’ll be beat to it, it’s a matter of who gets their first, who can cross the finish line first, it’s hard to chase down a suspect when you have no kid missing, but if you can keep talking and get everyone else to keep talking, and never give up, you will have hope, finding someone to have that GOLDEN INTEREST in the case, you’ll find your kid, and you find JUSTICE. Jennifer J. Bland
Kristin Tay

I dont think the parents had anything to do with it. I believe he was taken by a sexual predator and most likely killed. There seems to be a connection between his case and the case of an abduction and assault on another boy,close to Jacobs age. It was most likely the same person. Someone who obviously lived in the same area that both victims were accosted. Police need to dig into any known child molesters who may have lived around there at the time. And the other boy who was taken and then let go, was there any physical evidence found?