Latest / NO FILTER / The murder of Jacob Wetterling [True Crime documentary]

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The murder of Jacob Wetterling [True Crime documentary] · NO FILTER

0:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a series of cascading failures by all
0:05
Speaker 1: levels of law enforcement.
0:06
Speaker 2: Of course, Hi everyone, I'm Kevin, and this is just
0:13
Speaker 2: thought Lounge, where the true crime channel that delivers serious,
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Speaker 2: well balanced coverage of the cases that really make you think.
0:19
Speaker 2: The case we're about to look at has been the
0:21
Speaker 2: recipient of many notable claims over the years. It's been
0:25
Speaker 2: called the case that changed Minnesota. It has been credited
0:28
Speaker 2: with changing the way that missing children investigations have operated
0:32
Speaker 2: and at the time that had happened back in nineteen
0:34
Speaker 2: eighty nine. This case involved the largest scale search for
0:37
Speaker 2: a missing person in the history of the United States.
0:41
Speaker 2: After sunset on the evening of October twenty second, in
0:45
Speaker 2: rural Saint Joseph, Minnesota, eleven year old to Jacob Wetterling
0:48
Speaker 2: was taken by a stranger. A masked man carrying a pistol,
0:52
Speaker 2: dressed all in black, managed to steal him away in
0:55
Speaker 2: the dark of the night. The man left two witnesses
0:58
Speaker 2: to the abduction, younger brother and his best friend. It
1:02
Speaker 2: was a case that gripped the nation and sparked a
1:04
Speaker 2: nearly thirty year long, perplexing investigation, one that would be
1:08
Speaker 2: the source of intense speculation and criticism. This is the
1:12
Speaker 2: heartbreaking story of Jacob Wetterling. Let's take a look. In
1:26
Speaker 2: autumn of nineteen eighty nine, the Wetterling family lived just
1:29
Speaker 2: outside of small town Saint Joseph, Minnesota. Jerry Wedterling, a chiropractor,
1:34
Speaker 2: and his wife, Patty, a math teacher turnstay at home mom,
1:37
Speaker 2: were raising their four children, two boys and two girls.
1:41
Speaker 2: Beautiful rural countryside stretched along the long straight roads outside
1:45
Speaker 2: of Saint Joseph. Mostly cornfields, some wooded areas and family
1:49
Speaker 2: farms were scattered along the distance between the Wetterling household
1:52
Speaker 2: and town. It would take the boys, Trevor ten and
1:56
Speaker 2: Jacob eleven, roughly fifteen minutes to bite into town and
1:59
Speaker 2: back from their house. The boy's destination of choice at
2:03
Speaker 2: that time was tom Thumb, a local convenience store with
2:06
Speaker 2: video rentals and of course, snacks for sale. On one
2:10
Speaker 2: October evening, Trevor and Jacob were joined by Jacob's best friend,
2:14
Speaker 2: Aaron Larson. They set out on their bikes at about
2:17
Speaker 2: eight thirty pm. It was a trick they had made
2:19
Speaker 2: many times. It may have been dark outside, but they
2:22
Speaker 2: had reflective gear. Jacob wore a yellow reflective vest over
2:26
Speaker 2: top of his red jacket. The central concern at the
2:29
Speaker 2: time was whether local traffic would be able to clearly
2:32
Speaker 2: spot them on the road. The boys found a VHS
2:37
Speaker 2: to rent that night. They had one or two bags
2:39
Speaker 2: of snacks, and they made their way back, sometimes riding
2:42
Speaker 2: with a flashlight and at other times walking with their
2:45
Speaker 2: bikes and just chatting. The boys had made it about
2:48
Speaker 2: two thirds of the way back, just across the road
2:50
Speaker 2: from a farmhouse drive, when a man appeared in front
2:53
Speaker 2: of them on the road, dressed in black and with
2:56
Speaker 2: some fabric obscuring his face. The man carried a pistol
2:59
Speaker 2: and ordered the boy with their bikes into the ditch
3:01
Speaker 2: at the side of the road. He asked each of
3:04
Speaker 2: them in turn how old they were. After responding, he
3:07
Speaker 2: instructed Trevor and Aaron to run for the woods and
3:10
Speaker 2: to not look back, which they did. By the time
3:13
Speaker 2: that Aaron worked up the courage to look back for
3:15
Speaker 2: his friend Jacob, his friend had disappeared, and so had
3:19
Speaker 2: the man in black.
3:22
Speaker 1: He grabbed Jacob and then he told me to run
3:24
Speaker 1: his fast as I get into the woods, or else
3:26
Speaker 1: eat shoot.
3:28
Speaker 2: Jerry and Patty were out at a friend's house that evening,
3:30
Speaker 2: so they were not at home. When the two boys
3:32
Speaker 2: returned to the house, they instead sought out their neighbor
3:35
Speaker 2: Merlin Jerzak. Merlin called nine to one one.
3:41
Speaker 3: This is Merlin and Jerzak calling from court or to
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Speaker 3: my neighbors. At My neighbors would be Jerry Wedderlin family.
3:55
Speaker 3: Some of their boys went down to come Thumb to
3:58
Speaker 3: pick up a movie and on their way back someone
4:00
Speaker 3: stopped him. We believed that they have one of the
4:04
Speaker 3: boys because one of the boys did not come back
4:07
Speaker 3: with them.
4:08
Speaker 4: Okaya, were they picked up in a vehicle?
4:11
Speaker 3: Just a second, I'll ask was there a vehicle there
4:14
Speaker 3: or was he walking? They couldn't. They didn't see a vehicle.
4:18
Speaker 3: This person appeared on the road when they were basiccling
4:22
Speaker 3: back home.
4:24
Speaker 4: Did they see the individual at all?
4:27
Speaker 3: Yes, they did see the individual at all. He had
4:31
Speaker 3: a mask on. He was wearing a red hockey jacket
4:36
Speaker 3: that had police departments on it and it has his
4:40
Speaker 3: name on it.
4:41
Speaker 4: Would basically getty weapons at all or anything like that.
4:47
Speaker 5: He had a.
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Speaker 6: Pistol if.
4:55
Speaker 2: Stern County Sheriff's Office had responded rapidly upon hearing the
4:58
Speaker 2: details of the events from boys relayed via their dispatcher.
5:02
Speaker 2: They recognized the severity of the situation. Firefighters and thirty
5:06
Speaker 2: five officers from the Sheriff's office and other law enforcement
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Speaker 2: agencies began searching the area. They began from the location
5:13
Speaker 2: of the bikes, which was directly across the road from
5:16
Speaker 2: the farm driveway. Inside the farmhouse at the end of
5:18
Speaker 2: the drive the Racier home, thirty three year old Dan Rassier,
5:22
Speaker 2: a music teacher, was alone for the evening. He lived
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Speaker 2: at the family farm with his parents, who were away traveling.
5:28
Speaker 2: That night, at roughly nine thirty PM, Dan had watched
5:32
Speaker 2: as a small car and pulled into his driveway to
5:34
Speaker 2: turn around. It had struck him as odd. Earlier that day,
5:37
Speaker 2: he had viewed a tan Monte Carlo type vehicle speeding
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Speaker 2: down the road, turn into his driveway and make a
5:43
Speaker 2: rapid turn. It was a dead end road, though many
5:47
Speaker 2: from out of town would not know this. The second car,
5:50
Speaker 2: this one notably smaller and darker than the first, also
5:53
Speaker 2: drove up the drive rapidly and made the same turn. Then,
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Speaker 2: about an hour or so later, roughly ten t thirty pm,
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Speaker 2: Dan glanced outside and viewed a group of people all
6:04
Speaker 2: with flashlights walking through his family's property. He thought they
6:09
Speaker 2: could be looking to steal from his family's woodstore outside.
6:13
Speaker 2: Frightened by the number of them, he called nine to
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Speaker 2: one one. The recording of this call was not retained,
6:19
Speaker 2: but Dan was informed by the operator that there had
6:22
Speaker 2: been a child reported missing and the men he saw
6:25
Speaker 2: were officers combing the whole area. Concerned, he headed out
6:29
Speaker 2: to join the search party. He offered to check a
6:31
Speaker 2: barn in a few other outbuildings with no further questions.
6:35
Speaker 2: Dan's assistance in the search was accepted. A state helicopter
6:39
Speaker 2: with a searchlight scanned the nearby woods and fields. It
6:42
Speaker 2: was difficult to navigate the train in the dark, however,
6:45
Speaker 2: and the sheriff was already concerned that evidence would be
6:47
Speaker 2: missed because of the lack of visibility. At three am,
6:51
Speaker 2: he called off the search, a move that would be
6:53
Speaker 2: criticized later. Statistically, most murders occur within only three hours
6:58
Speaker 2: of the abduction, all within two days, The window of
7:02
Speaker 2: time to track down Jacob's whereabouts was already closing.
7:09
Speaker 7: There's no explanation.
7:11
Speaker 8: I don't feel the anger yet.
7:12
Speaker 9: I just want to I'm very optimistic.
7:17
Speaker 10: My son is pretty intelligent and if there's any way
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Speaker 10: that he can help pull himself through this, he's going
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Speaker 10: to do so.
7:26
Speaker 2: The search resumed at eight am. Department of Natural Resources
7:30
Speaker 2: officers used all terrain vehicles to search a two mile
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Speaker 2: radius around the abduction site. Helicopters flew over a twenty
7:37
Speaker 2: five square mile area. A Minneapolis Bloodhound led officers to
7:41
Speaker 2: tire tracks, prompting investigators to believe the kidnapper had a
7:45
Speaker 2: car nearby. There were fresh tire tracks and shoe impressions
7:49
Speaker 2: located in the gravel of the Rasier Farm driveway, the
7:52
Speaker 2: police thought likely from the same vehicle that Dan Rassier
7:55
Speaker 2: viewed at roughly the time of the abduction. Neither Trevor
7:59
Speaker 2: nor air And had noticed a vehicle nearby when the
8:02
Speaker 2: man approached them, but it was dark. The boys were panicked,
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Speaker 2: and it seemed unlikely that the abductor would have been
8:08
Speaker 2: capable of getting away with Jacob on foot. Examining the
8:12
Speaker 2: footprints that were next to the tire tracks, one set
8:15
Speaker 2: of prints appeared to be those of Jacob Wetterling, while
8:17
Speaker 2: the second set of prints were those of an unidentified adult.
8:22
Speaker 2: These tire tracks and shoe prints became the best pieces
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Speaker 2: of evidence available to investigators from the scene. Aside from this,
8:29
Speaker 2: they had only a vague description provided by the boys.
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Speaker 2: A stocky man between the height of five nine and
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Speaker 2: five eleven, dressed in black, with a low, husky voice,
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Speaker 2: his face concealed.
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Speaker 1: Coming down this road here and they were just packing,
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Speaker 1: I think, and then the sky he just came out
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Speaker 1: and he had a gun and it didn't I thought
8:50
Speaker 1: it was some kid pulling on a prank, gunners or something,
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Speaker 1: and then he but it was this man looked like
8:57
Speaker 1: well he was wearing he was all in black. Get
9:00
Speaker 1: a mask on.
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Speaker 6: You couldn't see his face.
9:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had a nylon mask or some kind of mask.
9:07
Speaker 1: Did Jacob say anything to the man?
9:09
Speaker 3: Just his age?
9:14
Speaker 4: When you ran?
9:14
Speaker 1: Did you look back?
9:15
Speaker 11: Yeah?
9:16
Speaker 1: Once we got we down there, what did you see?
9:19
Speaker 11: Nothing?
9:19
Speaker 1: No, he wasn't there anymore.
9:24
Speaker 2: Jacob's abduction sent shockwaves through Saint Joseph and the neighboring communities.
9:28
Speaker 2: The sense at the time, whether borne out by the
9:30
Speaker 2: facts or not, was that these types of incidents just
9:34
Speaker 2: did not happen in Saint Joseph or similar small rural towns.
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Speaker 2: This was a safe place to live. Most households did
9:41
Speaker 2: not even lock their doors at night, and the Wetterlings
9:44
Speaker 2: and other parents did not have any concerns about their
9:47
Speaker 2: children out biking and playing after dark. But all of
9:52
Speaker 2: that was poised to change. Two days after Jacob was taken.
9:57
Speaker 2: The search continued and the sheriff's office recorded tips pouring
10:01
Speaker 2: in from the public. It quickly became apparent that the
10:06
Speaker 2: local community was not exactly the safe haven that many
10:09
Speaker 2: believed it to be. A young boy from neighboring Painesville
10:12
Speaker 2: came in with his father to relay some information that
10:15
Speaker 2: the kids in the area already knew very well. There
10:19
Speaker 2: was a man targeting young boys in the town, only
10:21
Speaker 2: a forty minute drive from where Jacob was abducted. This
10:24
Speaker 2: boy stated that seven to nine other children, as well
10:27
Speaker 2: as himself, had also been grabbed by a strange man
10:31
Speaker 2: in the three years prior. Though in some instances these
10:34
Speaker 2: attempted kidnappings were unsuccessful. In each of these cases, however,
10:38
Speaker 2: the man eventually let them go. The story was consistent.
10:42
Speaker 2: The man dressed in dark clothing, sometimes camouflage. He occasionally
10:46
Speaker 2: had mud rubbed over his face, other times he wore
10:49
Speaker 2: a mask. He stayed out of sight and then made
10:52
Speaker 2: his move in the darkness. These incidents were not just
10:55
Speaker 2: occurring in Painsville. Adam Klaphackey, who was fourteen years old
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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty nine, likewise came forward with a tip
11:02
Speaker 2: in the early days of the investigation. Only six weeks
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Speaker 2: before Jacob went missing, Adam and a twelve year old
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Speaker 2: friend of his had an encounter with a vehicle on
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Speaker 2: the same road where Jacob was taken. While returning from
11:14
Speaker 2: the same convenience store.
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Speaker 4: The speeding car began following them. He seems like he's
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Speaker 4: doing sixty seventy. We started running. They ran into Adam's
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Speaker 4: friend's open garage and cowered there as the car pulled
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Speaker 4: in and sat there its high beams pointing at them,
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Speaker 4: and we're just sitting in the driveway like what's going on?
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Speaker 8: You know, this is crazy?
11:34
Speaker 4: And then he backed up into that person's driveway. The
11:38
Speaker 4: car stayed several minutes and then left. Days after Jacob's abduction,
11:42
Speaker 4: they and their parents went to weddling investigators again.
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Speaker 9: That we give a good description of the car, the
11:48
Speaker 9: description of the man driving the car, and that we
11:50
Speaker 9: can identify him in a line.
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Speaker 2: Adam and his friend provided the description of both the car,
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Speaker 2: a small blue Ford, and the man driving it to police,
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Speaker 2: but according to Adam, there was no follow up ever
12:01
Speaker 2: made to his report. Adam was certain that, given the circumstances,
12:05
Speaker 2: the man in the car was the same man that
12:07
Speaker 2: took Jacob. There were simply too many commonalities. The encounter
12:12
Speaker 2: left him believing that the driver's intention had been to
12:14
Speaker 2: take him or his friend also, but no one from
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Speaker 2: the Sheriff's office, or the FBI, or any other agency
12:20
Speaker 2: involved ever contacted him to provide more information. There was
12:25
Speaker 2: one reported case from another local boy, however, twelve year
12:28
Speaker 2: old Jared Cherrell, that did catch and hold the attention
12:31
Speaker 2: of law enforcement. Jared was from Cold Springs, a town
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Speaker 2: roughly ten miles from Saint Joseph. Nine months before Jacob
12:38
Speaker 2: was taken. Jared was walking home after dark from a
12:41
Speaker 2: local skating rink when a man pulled up in a
12:43
Speaker 2: car and asked for directions. While they spoke, the man
12:47
Speaker 2: forced Jared into the vehicle, claiming to have a gun
12:50
Speaker 2: and not being afraid to use it. Jared was fortunate
12:54
Speaker 2: in that he was released by the abductor. He was
12:57
Speaker 2: later able to give a description of the vehicle and
12:59
Speaker 2: a a vague one of the man himself to the
13:02
Speaker 2: investigators assigned to Jacob's case at this point. The lead
13:06
Speaker 2: investigators included Sheriff Charlie Graft of Stern County, but also
13:10
Speaker 2: the lead investigator from the FBI, agent Al Garber. The
13:14
Speaker 2: description of the suspect was becoming somewhat repetitive, but Jared
13:19
Speaker 2: relayd some additional details as well. He was able to
13:22
Speaker 2: describe the interior of the vehicle. He also told police
13:26
Speaker 2: that the abductor had a police scanner, which he used
13:29
Speaker 2: to keep abreast of the movement of the police while
13:32
Speaker 2: he held Jared. It was the belief at this early
13:36
Speaker 2: stage that the man they were seeking in Jacob's case
13:39
Speaker 2: was the same man that had taken Jared months earlier, and.
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Speaker 6: These facts match up with Jacob's abduction.
13:46
Speaker 2: The days were slipping by, however, while a massive multi
13:49
Speaker 2: agency search effort continued, roadblocks across the state, checked vehicles
13:55
Speaker 2: driving through, and hundreds of tips poured in. Graft, however,
14:01
Speaker 2: in the day's following, appeared to be placing his hopes
14:04
Speaker 2: on Jacob's chances of escape.
14:07
Speaker 5: An awful lot just depends on the type of person
14:09
Speaker 5: that we're dealing with that abducted the boy. Some of
14:14
Speaker 5: them keep him around for quite a while, some of
14:15
Speaker 5: them don't. So we're hoping that this type of person
14:19
Speaker 5: is going to keep Jacob alive and somewhere along the
14:23
Speaker 5: line that he's going to get a chance to get
14:25
Speaker 5: to a telephone or get away from it.
14:28
Speaker 2: Years later, the public would learn that the tip received
14:30
Speaker 2: about the multiple incidents in Painsville only days after the
14:34
Speaker 2: abduction in October nineteen eighty nine was not looked into
14:38
Speaker 2: until January nineteen ninety. Decades would pass before Adam Klophockey
14:43
Speaker 2: would retell his story of the suspicious car that followed
14:46
Speaker 2: him and his friend home. With the remarkable number of
14:49
Speaker 2: similarities amongst these stories and the unprecedented size of the
14:53
Speaker 2: investigative effort, what could account for the lack of attention
14:57
Speaker 2: paid to these reports by investigators. Theory is that Jacob's
15:01
Speaker 2: missing person's case became too big, too.
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Speaker 9: Quickly, welcome to a Current Affair.
15:07
Speaker 2: Only four days after he was taken, his story was
15:10
Speaker 2: aired by a Current Affair, a national broadcast that brought
15:13
Speaker 2: with it an overwhelming interest in the case from across
15:17
Speaker 2: the country.
15:18
Speaker 5: This past Sunday night, nine o'clock.
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Speaker 7: Did you know where your kids were?
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Speaker 3: In St.
15:24
Speaker 7: Joseph, Minnesota?
15:25
Speaker 8: The Wetterling family thought they did.
15:30
Speaker 6: Saint Joseph, Minnesota is the type of town where folks
15:33
Speaker 6: don't bother to lock the front door. A two hour
15:37
Speaker 6: drive north of Minneapolis Saint Paul. Here, the police chief
15:41
Speaker 6: doesn't even carry a gun. But now everything is different.
15:47
Speaker 7: This shouldn't happen anywhere. It's the type of it shouldn't
15:51
Speaker 7: happen anywhere. All I could think of is who would
15:53
Speaker 7: take a child away from their parents?
15:56
Speaker 8: I couldn't.
15:58
Speaker 6: Can you think of any reason anyone would want to
16:01
Speaker 6: harm your family or your son?
16:04
Speaker 8: No?
16:07
Speaker 4: Nothing.
16:10
Speaker 2: In the midst of widespread national attention, the National Guard
16:14
Speaker 2: was activated alongside the State Patrol and the Department of
16:17
Speaker 2: Natural Resources to search a seven hundred square mile area.
16:22
Speaker 2: Taking the case national also had another significant impact. Tips
16:27
Speaker 2: of potentially relevant information being received went from the hundreds,
16:31
Speaker 2: mostly local or state specific, to the tens of thousands
16:35
Speaker 2: now coming in from all over the country. Apparent sightings
16:40
Speaker 2: of Jacob psychics with supernatural intel, people reporting their suspicious neighbors,
16:46
Speaker 2: all intended to be helpful. Each one of these tips
16:49
Speaker 2: were recorded, and each one tracked down, while Agent Garber
16:56
Speaker 2: oversaw a team of seventy investigators tasked with tracking down
17:00
Speaker 2: on the thousands of tips streaming in. A likely suspect
17:03
Speaker 2: in the Jared Cheryl case emerged a man from Painesville,
17:07
Speaker 2: described by others as a shy loaner who occasionally exhibited
17:11
Speaker 2: a sharp temper. The man's name was Danny Heindrich. In
17:15
Speaker 2: January nineteen ninety, Heinrich was brought in for questioning and
17:18
Speaker 2: given a polygraph test relating to Jared and Jacob's cases,
17:23
Speaker 2: and he failed. He was also placed in a lineup
17:27
Speaker 2: for a young Jared to potentially identify him. Jared had
17:30
Speaker 2: told investigators that the man had a wide nose, fat ears,
17:34
Speaker 2: and cheese teeth. He subsequently pointed to two similar looking
17:38
Speaker 2: men in the lineup, one of which was Heinrich, but
17:41
Speaker 2: he could not be certain of an individual id. They
17:45
Speaker 2: also placed Jared into Danny Heydrich's vehicle. The boy seemed
17:49
Speaker 2: to recall the car with much better clarity and identified
17:52
Speaker 2: it as the one he had been forced into. His
17:55
Speaker 2: description of the vehicle was inconsistent, however, to the one
17:58
Speaker 2: he originally gave to the police by months earlier. Minor
18:02
Speaker 2: details such as the interior being light blue in color
18:05
Speaker 2: or having a luggage rack, did not match with Danny
18:08
Speaker 2: Heinrich's car. This ambiguity made the investigators question the idea
18:12
Speaker 2: of the vehicle. However, the fiber taken from jared snowsuit
18:16
Speaker 2: was consistent with the fabric and Heinrich's car. Still seeking
18:20
Speaker 2: a firm link between Jared and Jacob's cases, they took
18:23
Speaker 2: imprints from the Ford's tires to align to those in
18:26
Speaker 2: the Racier farmhouse driveway. They also sought to match the
18:29
Speaker 2: footprints in the drive to Heinrich's shoes. Heinrich's print was
18:34
Speaker 2: deemed similar and the tire track was consistent. The evidence
18:38
Speaker 2: was not overwhelming. These matches were consistent, but stopped short
18:43
Speaker 2: of being a scientific match, so they looked further. A
18:47
Speaker 2: search of Heinrich's father's home, where Danny also lived, revealed
18:50
Speaker 2: to two police scanners, camouflage, clothing, and photos of boys.
18:55
Speaker 2: Surely this linked him to Jared's case, if not the
18:58
Speaker 2: others from Painesville, but after two hours of questioning, he
19:02
Speaker 2: admitted to nothing. The FBI did not have enough to
19:05
Speaker 2: bring a charge in either case, and so the prosecutor
19:08
Speaker 2: instructed the FBI to release Danny Heinrich.
19:16
Speaker 8: You know, the parents just desperately need to know what.
19:20
Speaker 7: Happened to their I don't blame them.
19:23
Speaker 8: There's nothing Mike can go And do you have any
19:26
Speaker 8: information about the abduction of.
19:27
Speaker 3: J information whatsoever. That's the truth.
19:33
Speaker 2: For fourteen years, the sheriff's office pursued the theory that
19:36
Speaker 2: the abductor had a getaway vehicle parked at the end
19:38
Speaker 2: of the Restier family drive A tip that a suspicious
19:43
Speaker 2: red car had been seen driving in town around the
19:45
Speaker 2: time of the abduction led to multiple searches, each analyzing
19:49
Speaker 2: the tire tracks against those found on the driveway. But
19:52
Speaker 2: these searches yielded nothing of value, and no new viable
19:56
Speaker 2: suspects emerged as a result of these efforts. By autumn
20:00
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, Sheriff Charlie Graft was no longer
20:03
Speaker 2: at the helm of the investigation. His successor, John Sanner,
20:06
Speaker 2: had become sheriff that year, and he had adopted a
20:09
Speaker 2: new theory of the crime. Prompted by information from a
20:13
Speaker 2: source who wished to remain anonymous. Sheriff Sanner became convinced
20:17
Speaker 2: that the vehicle that had left its track on the
20:19
Speaker 2: drive that night was in fact, completely unrelated to Jacob's abduction.
20:24
Speaker 2: This source, known only as Kevin, was twenty one years
20:27
Speaker 2: old at the time. Kevin had overheard animated exchanges from
20:31
Speaker 2: law enforcement over his police scanner on the night of
20:34
Speaker 2: the abduction. Believing that something exciting was afoot, he jumped
20:37
Speaker 2: into his girlfriend's car and drove in the direction of
20:40
Speaker 2: the police and emergency vehicles that were rushing past his home.
20:44
Speaker 2: He lost track of them on a dead end road
20:46
Speaker 2: heading out of town. There, his headlights hit upon a
20:49
Speaker 2: few bicycles laying in the ditch. While he turned around
20:52
Speaker 2: in a nearby driveway. On his way back into town,
20:56
Speaker 2: he spotted a police officer at the Tom Thumb convenience store.
21:00
Speaker 2: Kevin went inside and reported what he had just seen
21:03
Speaker 2: about the bikes abandoned in the ditch across from the farm. Dismissive,
21:07
Speaker 2: the officer told him, yeah, we already know about that.
21:13
Speaker 2: Kevin was not a fan of the police. He did
21:15
Speaker 2: not trust or like them very much. In the months
21:18
Speaker 2: that followed, he knew that he must have stumbled across
21:21
Speaker 2: the crime scene. In the brief span of time between
21:24
Speaker 2: the nine to one to one call, when the news
21:25
Speaker 2: went out on the scanner and police arriving to cordon
21:28
Speaker 2: off the area of the road. He feared if he
21:31
Speaker 2: spoke up again that he would become a suspect. Kevin
21:35
Speaker 2: did eventually come forward many years later, after he told
21:39
Speaker 2: his story to a US marshal at a party in
21:41
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, he was finally prompted to speak
21:44
Speaker 2: directly to the Stearns County Sheriff's office. The result was
21:49
Speaker 2: a stark change in direction for the still ongoing investigation.
21:52
Speaker 2: If the tracks were not those of the abductor but
21:55
Speaker 2: instead the anonymous witness, Kevin, Sheriff Sanner believed that the
21:59
Speaker 2: man in Black Mamae have been on foot. This conclusion
22:02
Speaker 2: led his suspicions to a witness that had been overlooked
22:05
Speaker 2: on the night of the abduction, a witness that would
22:07
Speaker 2: have had the means to capture Jacob while on foot.
22:10
Speaker 2: Dan Rassier.
22:13
Speaker 4: Investigators had a new theory. They had become convinced Jacob's
22:17
Speaker 4: kidnapper was on foot, not in a car, and there
22:20
Speaker 4: was a new suspect we've learned.
22:21
Speaker 6: Investigators are again questioning an area school teacher.
22:25
Speaker 4: Investigators had turned their entire focus to investigate band teacher
22:28
Speaker 4: Dan Rassier.
22:31
Speaker 2: The evidence connecting the music teacher to the crime was
22:33
Speaker 2: at best circumstantial. He was a single man who lived
22:37
Speaker 2: with his elderly parents, and was, by his own self
22:39
Speaker 2: deprecating assessment, just a bit odd. It was not the
22:43
Speaker 2: first time that suspicions had landed on Dan. He had
22:46
Speaker 2: been questioned more thoroughly in the early years of the investigation.
22:50
Speaker 2: He had taken a polygraph. He had even been hypnotized
22:53
Speaker 2: at one point in an attempt to reveal additional suppressed information.
22:57
Speaker 2: Although Dan was not a formal suspect in Jacob's case,
23:00
Speaker 2: a news program in two thousand and four nonetheless reported
23:04
Speaker 2: that the sheriff's office was looking into a local man,
23:07
Speaker 2: and they did a very poor job of concealing his identity.
23:11
Speaker 2: After this public disclosure, Sheriff Sanner subsequently confirmed suspicions when
23:16
Speaker 2: he referred to Dan as a person of interest. The
23:19
Speaker 2: negative media attention cast a shadow over Dan's life. Dan
23:23
Speaker 2: was also interrogated for hours. He was told that the
23:26
Speaker 2: nine to one one call that he had placed that
23:28
Speaker 2: night upon seeing the strange men on his property who
23:31
Speaker 2: turned out to be searching for Jacob was simply a
23:34
Speaker 2: clever ploy to appear less suspicious. It turns out that
23:38
Speaker 2: those questioning Dan had never actually heard this phone call.
23:42
Speaker 2: The recording did not exist, and there was no reason
23:44
Speaker 2: to believe that it was suspicious. In June twenty ten,
23:48
Speaker 2: the sheriff managed to obtain a search warrant for the
23:51
Speaker 2: Rasier farm. Law enforcement descended upon the one hundred and
23:54
Speaker 2: forty eight acre property with diggers and removed multiple truckloads
23:58
Speaker 2: of dirt. They also seized items from his home, including
24:02
Speaker 2: a collection of newspaper clippings that Dan had compiled relating
24:05
Speaker 2: to the Jacob Wetterling case, but there was nothing of
24:08
Speaker 2: evidentiary value found. Sheriff Sanders' focus on Dan Rassier, however,
24:12
Speaker 2: continued unabated. Jerry and Patty Wedderling had each dealt with
24:20
Speaker 2: their missing son in different ways. For a time, Jerry
24:24
Speaker 2: seized on the unlikeliest leads, seeking anyone or anything that
24:27
Speaker 2: may help find Jacob. Psychic after psychic offered their versions
24:32
Speaker 2: to Jerry of what had happened, none of them led
24:34
Speaker 2: to anything tangible. While her husband pursued every possible avenue,
24:39
Speaker 2: Patty maintained hope and took action. She became an advocate
24:43
Speaker 2: for initiatives to locate missing children nationally. She started her
24:47
Speaker 2: own foundation, and she ran for Congress twice.
24:53
Speaker 8: People see me and they'll grab their other kids real close.
24:56
Speaker 8: It's very subtle, but they I represent something no parent
25:00
Speaker 8: wants to think about. It's a challenge to represent something
25:05
Speaker 8: so horrible and yet what we've tried to represent his hope.
25:09
Speaker 2: Beginning in twenty fourteen, the Stearns County Sheriff's Office, the
25:12
Speaker 2: Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the FBI conducted a full
25:17
Speaker 2: cold case review of the Wetterling case. Prompted by Jared Cheryl,
25:21
Speaker 2: the cold case detectives tested the DNA obtained from the
25:24
Speaker 2: clothing worn by Jared, and they yielded a clear result.
25:28
Speaker 2: It matched the man that had been arrested and questioned
25:31
Speaker 2: decades earlier, Danny Heinrich. Danny had been named repeatedly in
25:37
Speaker 2: connection to the crime in the early nineteen nineties, but
25:40
Speaker 2: after the search of his home and his interrogation had failed,
25:44
Speaker 2: he had been dismissed as a suspect. The statute of
25:47
Speaker 2: limitations on Jared's case had expired, but the cold case
25:51
Speaker 2: investigators had now come full circle. They again believed the
25:55
Speaker 2: theory posited in early nineteen ninety that Heinrich was the
25:58
Speaker 2: man behind Jared's abduction and was also responsible for Jacob's disappearance.
26:04
Speaker 2: On the basis of the DNA match, authorities again obtained
26:07
Speaker 2: a search warrant. Inside Danny Heinrich's home was a wealth
26:11
Speaker 2: of despicable and incriminating items. They found a box of
26:15
Speaker 2: boy's clothing, They found binders full of photographs, and they
26:19
Speaker 2: found videos of local children playing videos that appeared to
26:23
Speaker 2: have been taken in secret by Heinrich himself. They found
26:26
Speaker 2: a pair of handcuffs, there were multiple handheld police scanners located,
26:31
Speaker 2: But what they did not find was anything directly linking
26:34
Speaker 2: Heinrich to Jacob's abduction. There was no firm case to
26:37
Speaker 2: be made against him, only the certainty of the FBI
26:40
Speaker 2: agents that they had found the man that had taken
26:42
Speaker 2: Jacob Wetterling. Their only real leverage on Heinrich were the
26:46
Speaker 2: binders of photos inside his home. He faced charges for
26:50
Speaker 2: possession of these images of children that he had painstakingly
26:53
Speaker 2: printed from the Internet. So at this point special Agent
26:57
Speaker 2: Ken MacDonald suggested a deal. What they really wanted to know,
27:01
Speaker 2: he told Heinrich was where Jacob Wetterling's body was. If
27:05
Speaker 2: Heinrich could perhaps help with that piece of information, they
27:08
Speaker 2: could strike a plea deal on the other charges. Danny
27:12
Speaker 2: Heinrich agreed a.
27:14
Speaker 11: Man admitted killing their son and described the murder, which
27:18
Speaker 11: occurred twenty seven years ago. Last week, the suspect led
27:23
Speaker 11: police to the boys' remains, and, in a controversial plea agreement,
27:28
Speaker 11: in return for confessing, he will not face murder charges.
27:33
Speaker 2: Heinrich led the FBI to a farm just outside of
27:35
Speaker 2: where he had lived in Painsville in the late eighties.
27:39
Speaker 2: There they dug into the earth and the first item
27:41
Speaker 2: that emerged was a small red hockey jacket. They knew
27:45
Speaker 2: they had finally found Jacob Wetterling.
27:50
Speaker 7: It's around noon, I think when they found Jacob's jacket,
27:55
Speaker 7: which was heartbreaking to me.
28:00
Speaker 2: In late twenty sixteen, Heinrich gave his confession in court
28:04
Speaker 2: in exchange for a twenty year sentence on the other charges.
28:08
Speaker 2: He told the court that he had taken Jacob into
28:10
Speaker 2: his car, which had been parked in the Racier driveway.
28:13
Speaker 2: He then drove Jacob to the location of what was
28:15
Speaker 2: then a gravel pit roughly two miles outside of Painsville.
28:19
Speaker 2: Jacob was killed there in a panic after Heinrich saw
28:23
Speaker 2: a police cruiser drive past on the mainline road and
28:26
Speaker 2: it had spooked him. He had returned to his home
28:28
Speaker 2: for a shovel to bury Jacob, but when that tool
28:31
Speaker 2: proved insufficient, he had stolen a piece of machinery from
28:35
Speaker 2: the nearby gravel pit. At around midnight, he started up
28:39
Speaker 2: a bobcat digger, and he used this to create a grave.
28:43
Speaker 2: One year later, Heinrich had returned to the site and
28:46
Speaker 2: saw that the red jacket was clearly visible poking up
28:49
Speaker 2: from the soil. He then moved Jacob to the location
28:52
Speaker 2: on the farm. There the boy stayed for over twenty
28:56
Speaker 2: five years. Heinrich also admitted his guilt in the assault
29:02
Speaker 2: on Jared Cheryl. For Jared, it was the conclusion of
29:06
Speaker 2: his personal mission to bring his own attacker to justice.
29:09
Speaker 2: He had independently pursued leeds, linking his case to those
29:12
Speaker 2: of eight other boys from Painsville, and then eventually to Heinrich.
29:17
Speaker 2: It is not a stretch to attribute the credit for
29:19
Speaker 2: the final arrest of Danny Heinrich to the unfailing efforts
29:23
Speaker 2: of Jared.
29:24
Speaker 4: It was Schirol, along with blogger Joy Baker, who began
29:27
Speaker 4: a relentless push in twenty fourteen, insisting that unsolved cases
29:32
Speaker 4: in Painsville, Jared's case, and Jacob Wetterling's case were all linked.
29:37
Speaker 8: I'm not the only one that has made eye contact
29:40
Speaker 8: with his person.
29:41
Speaker 4: Patty Weddling recognized the efforts. Moments after Heinrich's horrific confessions.
29:45
Speaker 7: They one huge shout out to Jared.
29:50
Speaker 2: Heinrich confessed his guilt in the cases of Jared and Jacob,
29:53
Speaker 2: but he was not obligated to make any further confessions.
29:57
Speaker 2: It was assumed that he was responsible for the eight
30:00
Speaker 2: other cases in Painesville, but according to the FBI, reports
30:04
Speaker 2: of these cases in and around Saint Joseph, Painesville and
30:07
Speaker 2: Colt Springs area completely ceased after Jacob's abduction. They can't
30:13
Speaker 2: be certain, but their best guess is that Heinrich did
30:15
Speaker 2: not commit any other assaults over the twenty six years
30:18
Speaker 2: that followed Jacob's murder.
30:22
Speaker 10: I think we you know the fact that there there
30:23
Speaker 10: aren't other, you know, reported cases that happened after Weddling
30:28
Speaker 10: in the area up there that may have been his
30:30
Speaker 10: final abduction and only homicide, but obviously we don't know
30:35
Speaker 10: that definitively, and it is pure speculation to say that,
30:38
Speaker 10: you know, the act of murdering Jacob was possibly so
30:42
Speaker 10: traumatic that he you know that de forcement stop. The
30:44
Speaker 10: fear of getting caught is another possibility, but you're right,
30:48
Speaker 10: it is. It is generally unusual for them to stop.
30:52
Speaker 2: Stern County's new sheriff held a press conference following the
30:55
Speaker 2: confession of Danny Heinrich and preceding the release of the
30:58
Speaker 2: Wetterling investigative case file. It laid bare the many errors
31:02
Speaker 2: and oversights committed by law enforcement over the twenty seven
31:05
Speaker 2: year period, and the move clearly not appreciated by the FBI.
31:10
Speaker 2: Sheriff Don Goodmanson called to the investigation of failure. He
31:14
Speaker 2: stated that the interrogation of Heinrich by the FBI in
31:17
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety was batched by inexperienced personnel and that in
31:21
Speaker 2: the early days, law enforcement was circling around on itself,
31:25
Speaker 2: stating that the right hand literally didn't know what the
31:28
Speaker 2: left hand was doing.
31:34
Speaker 9: They have, in my view, from October twenty second, mistaken
31:39
Speaker 9: activity for accomplishment. They just felt like, if we keep
31:43
Speaker 9: doing this and keep doing this and keep doing this,
31:45
Speaker 9: getting more and more tips and company company will eventually
31:48
Speaker 9: stumble onto it. They had it.
31:52
Speaker 10: So was this investigation poorly done?
31:54
Speaker 5: Was it a failure up until twenty five years later?
31:57
Speaker 8: How would you characterize it?
31:59
Speaker 9: Three went off the rails, and very quickly on frankly
32:05
Speaker 9: went off the rails with the Painsville incidents. We should
32:09
Speaker 9: have been involved in that and solved those cases way
32:12
Speaker 9: back in eighty seven. Then it goes off the rails
32:15
Speaker 9: again in nineteen eighty nine, and then I think it
32:17
Speaker 9: goes off the rails, certainly from October twenty second through
32:23
Speaker 9: the arrest and release of Danny Heinrich.
32:27
Speaker 7: Don wasn't there.
32:29
Speaker 4: He didn't see the day to day operation.
32:32
Speaker 9: It's the impression that we disregarded Heinrich my goodness, and
32:37
Speaker 9: I don't understand what he's talking about about arresting him
32:40
Speaker 9: in a bar when he was drunk.
32:41
Speaker 7: That's not what happened.
32:43
Speaker 10: I want the picture to be clear.
32:45
Speaker 2: We're not dopes, we're not stupid.
32:48
Speaker 10: We don't miss big things.
32:52
Speaker 2: A lawsuit filed in the aftermath of Heinrich's confession by
32:55
Speaker 2: Dan Rassier claimed that Sheriff Sanner and others unjustly targeted
32:59
Speaker 2: him as a suspect despite no evidence, the impact of
33:03
Speaker 2: which was felt not just by him, but by his
33:05
Speaker 2: entire family.
33:08
Speaker 7: Because of this, I had lost a lot of things
33:10
Speaker 7: our family. Some people handled it okay and some people didn't.
33:17
Speaker 10: We all agree that it killed my dad.
33:22
Speaker 2: Dan's lawsuit was thrown out. There was compelling evidence that
33:26
Speaker 2: the search warrant for Racier Farm was obtained through nothing
33:29
Speaker 2: but conjecture and lies submitted by law enforcement that insinuated
33:33
Speaker 2: his guilt, but no actual evidence. But too much time
33:37
Speaker 2: had passed before Dan filed the suit. It was simply
33:40
Speaker 2: too late. There is still no closure for Jerry and
33:44
Speaker 2: Patty Wetterling. They now have answers, but answers will not
33:48
Speaker 2: return Jacob to them. For Saint Joseph and communities like
33:52
Speaker 2: it all over the country, the story of Jacob Wetterling
33:55
Speaker 2: is a haunting one. It remains very rare for a
33:58
Speaker 2: child to be abducted by a complete stre but nonetheless,
34:01
Speaker 2: the collective grief and devastation felt over this case and
34:05
Speaker 2: others like it, has led to an awareness of the
34:08
Speaker 2: dangers to children that may lurk in the dark no
34:11
Speaker 2: matter where you live.
34:12
Speaker 7: We learned early on that what happened was way bigger
34:16
Speaker 7: than Jacob and way bigger than our family. It's about
34:19
Speaker 7: this entire community was taken. There was an innocence stolen.
34:27
Speaker 2: That was the heartbreaking story of Jacob Wetterling. Thanks for watching.
34:31
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin. This is just that lounge, and I'll see
34:33
Speaker 2: in the next one.