The show is sponsored by Murder in the Heartland, a podcast from ID.
Murder in the Heartland explores real crimes across small town America, towns that might
“look a lot like your own, every week uncover shocking stories of murder and betrayal.”
From a suspicious hunting accident, to a college student who disappears after her shift at the local bar. Here from investigators, witnesses, and family members as they share the chilling details behind each case. If you're interested in true crime with a small town twist, you might love this podcast.
Listen to Murder in the Heartland, wherever you get your podcasts. That evening, the weather was perfect. There's one of those nights where the moon was an out, and there's no stars.
So we left probably close to around 830.
I was actually on the scooter, and then they were on their bikes. We weren't in a big hurry. We were just cruising down the road. You couldn't see anything unless it was in our little circle of light from our little flashlights. A man came out from the left-hand side, there's a little gravel driveway that leads back
to a farm. And it's one of those kind of an ingrained where it comes out, and he says, "Stop and turn off your flashlights and have a gun." He told us to look at him and ask this how old we were, and so at the time Trevor was
10, and myself and Jacob were both 11.
“I still remember my first reaction was, I think I let out a laugh almost because I thought”
this must be a joke, then I became real. Somebody took Jacob. Growing up in St. Joseph, Minnesota was like growing up in classics, Malta, and America. Nobody locked their doors at night, kids were able to run and play. St. Joseph, Minnesota has known as St. Joe, you have a lot of the lakes that people enjoy.
It's a rural community, so there's lots of farmers and farm businesses in the area. Every was a chiropractor, he liked the field of a small town, especially when you're building a practice. What was life like for you at that time? When you think back to the '80s.
It was kind of nuts, kids were in different sports, dance, it was just a really wild time. You can say, four kids, it was pretty busy, it looks like it, but they were fun, like those stair steps, too, with their ages. In 1989, Amy was 13, Jacob was 11, Trevor was 10, and Carmen was 8 years old. If we bought this house in the woods, it just felt very peaceful here.
I grew up right next door to the wetterlings. All of the siblings in the wetterling family had a very close relationship. I was a stay at home, mom. We just played, it was fun. Trevor, you got to get down low, so it was--
Hey, wait, we got to go down.
“I think the favorite video is when Jacob portrayed me reading the newspaper.”
And then, Trevor comes back up again and says, "Dad, I forgot to tape the game, and Jacob goes, "What? You forgot to tape the game!" "I'm so angry, you're going to be for two weeks." It was pretty funny.
That's this, Jacob. He looks so much like you. He's cute. And what does this say about him? He loved playing hockey, and one year he decided to be goal-y.
But he was really good. He had a really good balance, if he stopped it, it was a great save if one in. That's a great shot. What made him special to you? He just had a really good spirit.
Sweet innocent, very real, a light up a room.
I am Aaron Larson.
Jacob, what I only know is my best friend.
They were kind of the family that was willing to try anything. It looked like you had it just really kind of all laid out very nicely. We did. We were happy, everybody was busy, or you can see busy in this calendar. This is 1989, this is January, every month.
This one is jammed. Yeah, this is school, back to school, so you've got everything going on, and then this is October.
“Now, this is the month that you'll never forget, October 19th, 22nd, pretty much everything”
stops.
It goes to nothing and it just stopped.
October 22nd, 1989, is a very vivid date in my memory. It was a Sunday, we didn't have school the next day for some reason. Jacob and I went fishing near by Lake. He had been practicing for a hockey try out, and he was just crazily having trouble staying on his skates.
It was just really bugging him, so I suggested we go fishing. We had a really nice time fishing and came back around noon time. We all met in here to watch the Viking game. Come on, head on the barter down, and Joey Browner, Wednesday, but one week. That particular night, we were invited to a dinner party.
We were going out to dinner with friends, and the kids were going to stay here. We asked Jacob if he minded babysitting, Amy was staying at a friend's house. We were just going to be gone a little bit, and he was in sixth grade. He said, "You're no problem, can Erin come over."
“I remember being super excited because I'm actually going to hang out and we don't have”
school the next day. We left. We got to our friend's house called Home to give them the number. This is pre-cell phone. You have to remember.
They could ride their bikes to the store and rent a video. I initially said, "No, it was starting to get dark." Being little boys, you kind of come up with not taking no for that first answer.
They've ridden to the store a million times, but not at night.
What are we lived in, kind of, a little colisec, wooded area, to the town, is a street road, but cars can go fairly fast on that road. I was just concerned that they would be visible. Trevor said, "Well, let me talk to Dad." He had it all figured out.
He said that Jacob was wearing my reflective running vest. Erin had a weight, a sweatshirt on, and Trevor was carrying a flashlight. They had everything taken care of. So, okay, go and then come right home. But then they called a third time.
These are responsible children, and they said, "Carmen doesn't want to go with. Is it okay if Rochelle comes over to babysit?" So then I went over to the wetterling house as a parent. We were in direct contact with them and everything felt fine. Like you'd done everything right that you could possibly do.
Right, it's a five minute 10 minute max bike ride. It's not far, it's a mile. Jacob wetterling his younger brother Trevor and Jacob's best friend, Erin, take their bikes and scooter to go to the local Tom Plum to run a movie.
“We went into Tom Thun, the convenience store and we got the naked gun, the movie, and I remember”
also getting blow pops, just some suckers. And then we just headed back the same way we came down. They were just like getting really close within a half mile of their house and all of a sudden this guy stepped out of the shadows and said, "Stop, I have a gun." A guy wearing a mask took your sign.
But would take a child. It seemed like they weren't gone very long at all when all of the sudden Trevor rushed into the house, followed pretty closely by Erin and they were frantic, kind of screaming, "Rashel, Rashel, someone took Jacob, there's a man with a gun and he's got Jacob." My 11-year-old mind at the time I thought this can't be, this can't be real.
And then once he said I have a gun, that fear level went from zero to 1,000 and probably two seconds. We both got told the run and I cut up to Trevor and we looked back and Jacob wasn't there.
We had to have a man jump out and abduct an 11-year-old boy.
It was inconceivable. I ended up calling my dad, he just came right over.
“You both are having your dinner, then you get a phone call that I suspect you'll never forget.”
So he answered the phone and it was Rashel's dad. He asked for me and says, "The boys went to the Tom Thumb and a guy. I'm wearing a mask, took Jacob." A guy wearing a mask, took your son. You were worried about him getting hit by a car and he gets snatched by somebody.
"What are you thinking?" I'm not thinking. I'm not thinking. He changed. Jerry came back to the table and grabbed my arm and said, "We got to go."
And I said, "You know what happened?" I turned those boys back and he said, "Two of them are somebody took Jacob." It's like, "What? It was unimaginable. I grabbed my person.
We left." I don't know any of them. That's my neighbor's seat. Jerry wedder named Stanley. Jeffrey had come.
Some of their boys went down to Tom Thumb to pick up a movie and on their way back. Someone stopped them and we believed that they had one of the boys. "Okay, where they picked up in a vehicle."
Just a second, I'll ask boys, was there a vehicle there or was he walking?
"They couldn't say to him to be a vehicle." "Okay." "Did they see the individual that off?" "Yes, they did. They could see the individual at all.
He had a man that's gone." He had a nylon stocking, over his face, we couldn't see the eyes or any of that. His features.
“Maybe that's why the voice stands out to me more.”
It was a very gruff, gravely voice. "All of this is an individual that has not returned all of his seats. We love it." "Okay, Jacob is Jacob, right?" "Yes."
He had a Jacob wedding. "He had a gap, especially right now, is for stretching the squad to wear your act right now, okay?"
"I'm Bruce Peck told him I was the first officer on the scene.
I was a brand new deputy at the time, I got a call from Dispatch, that it sounded like a boy had been abducted. In my mind, that can't be true, but I activated my lights since I ran and drove pretty quickly this way." "It must have been the longest ride of your life."
"It was." "What would take a child?" "That's all I could. Who would do this?"
“"It's about a 20-minute drive or so trying to figure it out.”
We had no idea what we were walking into." "It's one of those things that you just can't even fathom could actually happen in small town, Minnesota." "I have to drive past the abduction site to get to the wetting home, and it's in this location where we're standing now."
"You're all riding your bike and your scooter from this way, and you get to this area what happens?" The sudden a man came out from this area over here, and he said, "Stop, I have a gun and told us to turn off our flashlights."
"It's basically where all your fears and everything gets real very fast."
"The ordered them to put their bikes down in the ditch, and then to lay down, face down each one of them." "And this is the spot there on as far as you know." "Yeah, I like right in here, so we were laying with our heads facing that way, like on our stomachs."
"And then he started with Trevor at first, and he told them to run as fast as he could into the woods. And then he told me to get up and run as fast as I can, don't look back, or else I would shoot him." Trevor and Aaron ran off to the woods back here, and then they ran from the corner of
the woods here, dangly across the fields where a gap in the trees is, that's where the wetterling house and the neighborhood is. When Aaron finally caught up to Trevor, and they were brave enough to look back, they just didn't see Jacob. He was gone.
"Nobody was there, then it was a matter of how fast can we get to somebody to help us, because we had no idea what's going on, and where's Jacob?" "You make your way back home, and you hear from the other boys," Trevor said this man, "There was a man with a gun, and he told us to get off our bikes and lie down in the ditch or he'd shoot."
"Do you have any recollection of what was going through your mind that night?" "Fear, just frantic fear, I guess I would say it." The detectives were asking for all kinds of personal, they might have taken Trevor's hockey jacket because they both played for the same league, so it's his hockey jacket.
"He was wearing this," he was wearing this when he was kidnapped.
Then they asked for a picture of Jacob. This is the photo that you gave.
“This was the yellow sweater photo, this was heartbreaking, you take it down, but it was”
so hard, because they had three of the kids school pictures on the wall, and then there's this blank frame, it was just when I was heart-wrenching moments.
That first night was just a lot of chaos.
"The sheriff was concerned that maybe he's tied to a tree or something, he can't break free. We're going to find him." One forcement, our searching and searching the abduction site, then key pieces of evidence and a witness emerge.
"A car turns around in the evening, really fast, and it takes off." This show is supported by Chime, if you're like a lot of people, you may have chosen
your bank at 16 and never looked back, but it's never too late to make a change.
“So you should know all your options, and that's why it's worth looking at Chime.”
Chime offers the most rewarding, fee-free banking out there, all with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance fees. Instead of fees, you get rewards. You get 5% cash back on Chime card in a category of your choice, like gas or groceries, all while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check.
You can also grow your money faster with a savings rate that's nine times the national average.
And if you're ever in a pinch, spot me and let you overdraft up to $200 fee-free.
Join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Add to Chime.com/20 spelled out T-W-E-N-T-Y. It only takes a few minutes to sign up, that's Chime.com/20. Chime is a fintech not a bank, banking services and Chime card provided by Chime's banking
partners, qualifying direct deposits required terms and limits apply, go to Chime.com/disclosures for details. "They are total 12 by 5 feet tall. My home ain't a shake up or number I'm a favorite food is steak, a favorite color with blue, best friend is Ann Lars." His sixth grade teacher, she had video taped all of the kids and had them tell a little
bit about yourself. "What do I want to do when I grow up is a football player?" "It was him, just his face, and sharing all of his favorites." "My favorite game is blue, my favorite thing to do most is watch football." And then that video was taken 10 days before he was subjected.
"Mesh."
“"I remember the night before, it was kind of crabby because you felt like you was”
a bad skater. So he was a little bit sensitive. And sometime that evening he asked, "He felt really bad. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was so crabby, you want to play a game." And I said, "No, I thank you. I appreciate you wanting to play. I was in the midst of putting things away. Which is a heartbreaker. That's one of my worst mom moments. I wish I could take it back."
At least want to get a recorded statement from Jacob's 10-year-old brother Trevor who was with Jacob when he was taken. It was a really quiet solemn drive down that road. Now what was an ugly road. The bikes were still there, the following morning, and it was traumatic. I could just feel Trevor stiffen. And then we went to the St. Joe police station. This is a tape interview. Today's
date is October 23, 1989, the time right now is $0.99.
"Can you tell us how old you are, please?
While you guys are writing your bikes, did somebody confront you? Some guys stop making
you guys stop writing your bikes?
“"Oh yeah. Can you tell us what this person initially said when you guys are writing”
your bikes?" He said, "Stop. I have a good. We don't have a flashlight. Go in and get face up and away. And yes, just all the ages." My heart just broke. He's a 10-year-old kid who witnessed his horrific thing as brother was stolen. He hadn't slept in the fear, the sheer terror of that night. This is a child who's traumatized. I can't imagine it as a parent with that head to have been like "Where was
his gun?" "Yeah, it got me to use him." "Okay, what happened now?" "12-meter on the bus and I could get to the world. Right when he told me to run a grand Jacob." Where the abduction occurred was at the end of a driveway where the rest of your family resided.
“34-year-old Dan Rassier lived on a farm with his parents. His parents were out of the”
country when Jacob was abducted. My name is Dan Rassier and in 1989, I was a band teacher. The night Jacob was taken. I was home alone. Working on this collection, getting it up today. We're between 9 and 9.30. The dog is barking because the dog is noticing a car coming down the hill. It was like a blue, it maybe a darker blue, but smaller car and turned around very quickly and it was gone. Shortly after that I went to bed. I woke up when Smokey was barking.
Looked outside and a whole bunch of people were up by the wood pile with flashlights. When I interviewed Trevor and Aaron, they said they didn't see a car so that we thought what we
need to do, a ground search. We first searched where the bicycles were found and started working
“away through this little bit of a wooded area.”
Dan Rassier told police that he had seen a dark vehicle coming to his property, circle around, and leave. Talking to Dan, we thought, well, maybe there was a car. Falled in this area, we saw some tire tracks and then we saw some adult side foot prints and smaller ones like child size foot prints. They weren't going straight forward like this. They were to the side and almost like they were shopping together. It would didn't look like
someone had just gone for a walk. It looked like somebody was pulling this kit along and so that causes us to think that maybe these were Jacob's footprints and the abductors footprints. The car would have stopped here.
So as they're coming down the road on their scooter and bicycles, they would have never saw
that there was a car here. They found Jacob's footprint down here. Yeah, it was weighed down by that second pole. And the irony is, it is such a peaceful, beautiful spot. It's like God's country, you know, it is. One of the biggest concerns with an interstate nearby in a vehicle he could have just taken off. Jacob could be literally anywhere. I just had the sense that this guy took Jacob and took off.
In my mind, he's halfway to Las Vegas or Chicago. He's got him. He's going somewhere. My gut feeling was just the opposite. It's like he's so close, but we can't reach him. This man has put us behind locked doors and made us restrict our children's every movement. You couldn't be outside, you locked your doors, you kept track of your kids differently. With the community and parents on edge, the hunt for Jacob wetterling quickly
becomes one of the biggest search missions in Minnesota history. What can you tell us about the situation? In the days following Jacob's abduction, there was massive searches. Looking for any sign of Jacob or his kidnapped. The ground search was divided into sectors. Beginning with an intensive check of the 36 square mile St. Joseph Township. It was a big area. We checked all the fields this
While I was saying they'd been in buildings.
You're all volunteers, right? How can you come up? Just for the sake of help.
Find another fellow. In the days following the abduction, law enforcement inducted a neighborhood canvas. We've covered everything that we can with the helicopter.
“I remember the helicopter sound. I still have PTSD over helicopter.”
Hundreds of law enforcement officers involved. A task force was formed with multiple agencies and multiple investigators. It was massive. There were resources. I didn't know about Ham radio operators. There's a small pilot association and they were taking up a little private planes. It doesn't make any difference with the costs.
We're just determined to do whatever's necessary. We've got to do
absolute thorough search out there. The governor called in offered up the National Guard. Which was really, really huge because they searched ground search about 30 miles worth of land. There's one or one of the army guys who are doing all here. We met Patty and Jerry almost immediately. What we promised them is that we would do
“everything, everything in our power to find Jacob. You have to be patient and she said,”
"I can't be patient, this is my child and we both understood." There was just people all the time. I get their house, people ringing food. It's a full right nose. The media coming and going with the huge satellite trucks. What you're doing right now is a very, very integral part of that. So we really appreciate you being here. They felt that if the story got out, there would be more people knowing about it, more people looking for him that that would be their best chance of
finding where he was. A friend of ours said, "You know, you need to call the media." He had seen a program on 2020. Approximately six weeks before Jacob's production. 2020 with huge hours and barber waters. How getting the word out quickly was important in recovering that particular child. In desperation, Jeremiah's parents turned to the media, doing seven to eight interviews a day. There wasn't too long before it started making
national news. From ABC, this is World News tonight. Last week, an 11-year-old boy named Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped from the streets of St. Joseph, Minnesota. Well, the suspect is 20. I was reported for local television news in Minneapolis. Who works at the discount as a mom, I was scared to death. Any parent in America could relate to a 11-year-old boy,
“being taken, it just didn't happen back then. I remember being at the Minnesota Vikings game”
when they had Jacob's missing poster. I'd just the Vikings are part of this football game, but it's a whole area. And this is a big, big thing and everyone is a part of friend to find Jacob Wetterling. I just thought, "Well, this is it. If they get Jacob on this particular broadcast for the Minnesota Vikings, they will absolutely find him." How hard was that for you to see his picture out there as a missing child? You're Jacob.
Devastating. But at the beginning, there's no way your brain can really take all this in. It's crazy. In the early days of the investigation, Jacob's father was the main person dealing with the media. But I remember after Jerry Wetterling appeared on a fairer. People didn't think he reacted right. Tonight, I didn't even leave Miller reports on that terrible crime that has brought terror to the country's heartland. It is total shock, total disbelief.
People started turning in Jerry as a suspect and it's like, they didn't like the way he looked on TV. He wasn't sad enough. He didn't cry. He wasn't angry. If it were me, I would respond this way. It was ridiculous. I wasn't meeting their needs for what I should be as a searching
dad. Thank you, Bob. He finally, one day just said they don't want to hear from me. They need to hear
from you. So that was my call to step up. Jacob's all alone. It's just not fair. It's just run. How tough was that on the marriage? Very tough. Marriage is tough on a good day. Your partner can be your support when you're going through a tough thing. But this, this is the thing we're both experiencing and real time together. So it was hard for us to really be there for each other in the way that we needed to be.
You began to write letters to Jacob.
tomorrow, I wanted him to know exactly what we had tried everything that we tried because I kept
thinking he was wondering why did it take so long? Dear Jacob, my heart hurts as days pass by
“without you. I wrestle over the details again and again who could have done this? Where are you Jacob?”
Little to the wetterlings know that just miles away, investigators may have a link to Jacob's disappearance. Investigators became aware of a similar abduction that had occurred. There were so many similarities they thought this could be our guide. This quiet Minnesota town population under 3,000 has not been the same since Jacob wetterling was abducted. A massive search has failed to turn up any trace of Jacob or his kidnapper.
That guy could be in the way. He could come someone else could come and teach you. Are you terrified that there's somebody out there who's going to try to smash you or somebody else? Yeah I would say I was traumatized and I slept on my parents' floor for how many months
and we didn't know who had Jacob that person still out there obviously and so there's always
that fear of the what if. In my mind the man that took Jacob was always lurking around the corner. After Jacob wetterling everything changed almost immediately how people parent their kids.
“I even asked the sheriff one time was like are our other kids safe?”
There were times when I just wanted to keep them all inside but I spent a lot of my own energy trying to nudge them into being okay with the world again. The people of St. Joseph have rallied on Jacob's behalf putting up posters, raising reward money and calling attention to his plate. There were white ribbons everywhere and they rode on them you know Jacob's hope.
At a church service, Jacob's classmates and family saying listen one of his favorite songs it has become an anthem of hope. There was no evidence that Jacob was not alive and that was the
“one thing patty and the wetterling family had to cling to from that first night on we kept”
leaving our porch light on all the time. It was just a way to say we're we're not stopping. You got to get home Jake. The FBI says it is the best lead they've had in nearly two
months. For the first time agents believed there is a connection between Jacob's
deduction and another abduction earlier this year. Just nine months earlier a 12 year old boy in cold springs which is just about 10 miles from St. Joseph was abducted as well. My name is Jared Shiro. I'm January 13th 1989. I was 12 years old and I was walking home from a skating event with my friends and we allowed stop at the local cafe. They ordered some milkshakes and french fries. Jared just lived really close so he decided he was
just going to walk home. He was about nine o'clock at night and a car had approached me from the friends. Man asked if he knew where the cramers lived and Jared tried to help him with directions as I was kind of walking towards the car he got out of vehicle got close enough to me and grabbed me by the shoulders and told me to get the **** in the car he hadn't done and he wasn't afraid to use it. The abductor drove Jared to a remote sight outside of cold spring Minnesota
and assaulted him. The perpetrator took my pants and my underwear and he left me half naked inside of a snowville suit after the incident was done and he got back in his car and dropped me on the outside of cold spring and told me to run don't look back or he chewed.
The statement match language used at the wetter lane abduction.
told me to run as fast as I could into the woods or else he chewed. He said almost the same words are just thinking that these cases are pretty similar. I was really concerned that it
“could be the same person. Were you thinking that there's a serial kidnapper on the loose?”
Possibly so many things about that crime were similar to what happened to Jacob. The main difference is the man let Jared go home. He claimed to know who I was and if he the authorities would ever come
close to finding him he would find me first and kill me. The following days, weeks, months,
there wasn't much sleep. It was complete chaos. I slept on my parents' bedroom floor. I think for a first few months. Jared and his parents reported this right away and they met with police and gave a very detailed police report. He believed the vehicle was a blue vehicle, blue interior. He described some sort of a police scanner or a handheld scanner in the front seat of the vehicle. Jared described
“as a doctor as wearing a baseball cap, camouflage clothing. I think it put him around 40s. He had a”
little raspy voice. He's kind of husky room build. The ADFBI released this composite. A sketch of the cold spring of doctor. It was drawn after investigators noticed the similarities between the abduction and Jacob's. The abductor was a white man in his 40s or 50s. He had a deep raspy voice and he told the boy he had a gun. The characteristic that I remember of, like, our event is the voice. When Jared tried to roast the doctor and sexually assaulted, that was very, very rare.
He was fast forward when Jacob letterling was abducted. A stranger abduction in Minnesota on a gravel road. Probability that they're both related absolutely. Police were looking for a child predator based on something you had said. What would lead them to think that? When he was coming out
“of the the road there, he initially had reached over and had touched me. So I think that obviously”
led them to think that that was what his main goal was on the sexual predator side of things. Police
always thought there were so many similarities between Jared's abduction and Jacob's abduction.
They thought, okay, this could be our guy. But as each anniversary went by year after year and then nothing would happen, you do start to think this case is never going to be solved. Every year we would get together like on the 22nd of October. We've reached another year of we haven't found them like we'd still don't know where he is. His presence is still real and heartfelt. But this graduation is still a somber one for classmates of Jacob letterling.
A lot of people value a lot of things more because you realize I mean everything's not going to be your forever. I think Patty and Jerry would talk about they kind of lived very careously like through my graduating class. But it's also I'm sure it was a sad thing because they wish Jacob was there doing it with us. Years go by and then you hear the police are looking at somebody who's right down the street.
They wired me. He wouldn't ever have harmed him. I only feel that. I could have saved him. Three decades ago, a young woman named Angie Dodge is found brutally murdered in her bedroom in Idaho Falls. It was the probably the worst case I've ever seen. It is the one that sticks with me. Police, zero in on a suspect and put a man behind bars. But as the years passed, doubts emerge about whether the real killer was ever caught. That's when Angie's own mother
in barks on a decades-long mission to uncover the truth. Twenty-three years I've been trying to put this puzzle together and
the center's missing. I've always been told the truth will come out. You can't hide the truth.
Listen to the snare. A new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app and add free on Amazon Music.
I'm here to win.
This is what hunger looks like. It was 100% around the chose.
Robert Irwin hosts. The next era of ballroom starts right here on Dancing with the Stars, the next prize. All new Monday's 8/7 Central and ABC next day on Hulu. It's an unsolved mystery. The week's go by, months go by.
“Involving this young, all-American boy. No news, no leads. No one knew why?”
Year after year after year after year. And nobody really knew exactly how. All law enforcement really knew was that young Jacob Wetterling vanished on a moonless Minnesota night, leaving behind a footprint as the only clue to follow.
When a story like that lingers, you just figure it's never going to be solved.
Well, where are you Jacob? So it's 2004 and it's late January and I get a call. We invited Dan Racer into the Students County Sheriff's Office and went over the information we had with him. Dan Racer lived in a house that was at the end of the driveway where Jacob was abducted. Dan Racer saw himself as being a good citizen. He was a teacher. Someone who
cooperated with police. I was completely thinking I was going to help with something.
“It starts off kind of just, you know, well, what can I do? And I remember him saying,”
"Well, that car that you saw, it's been accounted for." The car theory was that someone pulled into the grass here farmed right away and was waiting there and abducted Jacob Wetterling and left. I went, "Well, great, you've got your guy." No, no. We've fallen the driver of the car and he is innocent. He did not do this. That's when the investigation seemed to really turn towards Dan Racer as
being the abductor. It had been 15 years since Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped right at the top of this driveway. And now the man living on this sprawling farm across from the abduction site is the focus of the investigation. And if you just want to look at a thing like this from a common sense perspective, it's got to be somebody you're thinking that knows the area, somebody who's comfortable in the area. We were pretty on a forceful's the word, but we were pretty somewhat aggressive with him.
Maybe more than normal just to see if we could get a different reaction out of him. And I don't think you like that. I know he didn't like it. "Oh, why should I tell you we can put Jacob so I'm going to find him. We'll be done. Why? You could be a person that's a psychopath killer. You could be some of that. That's the guy in the world. You could be someone in between." Basically he's saying, "You took Jacob on and on that kind of thing. How'd you do it? You knew they were
coming by, you grabbed them." For instance, I said, "Did you take Jacob wordling?" And I said, you're saying, "No, which most people would be upset that you accused them." He put his hand
up and he said, "Did I take Jacob wordling?" Just kind of cocky remarks. He would never
eliminate himself. He always kind of teased you with, "It might be me, type of comments." I did something like that. I would have to be nice. And I'm trying to explain to him,
“but he's just so... He's so gone that I remember the interview just going, "Not good, not good."”
And so on the way out, Pam Jensen says to me, "Well, you took that pretty well." I go, "Well, it's a joke. The whole thing is a joke." And then I laughed. That must have been mind-boggling to think that police are looking at somebody who's right down the street. We're used to suspicious. For years, I was curious about him. You were so determined to do anything to find your son that you were even willing to wear a wire. I did wear a wire. I
do anything. I just wanted to meet the man and have him look me in the eye and say he didn't do it. And so they did. They wired me. So we put a wire on her and we knew where Rassier went to the gym.
We had her bump into him.
Hey, Liam. I need to talk to you. We just sat in that lobby area and I asked a lot of questions,
you know, Jacob was last seen on your property. Do you think Jacob could have been on your property? I knew, you know, with me the eye and said you had nothing to do with Jacob's decision. I had nothing to do with this. You wouldn't have rubbed her. I don't even feel that. I, if I would have been more alert, he saw hindsight. I could have stopped and I could have saved them.
“Do you remember that conversation? Yes. We sat down for maybe 45 minutes.”
I told her my side of the story. She wanted to get all the questions answered. Did you do this, Dan? Thank you, Dan. Well, let's talk again. Thank you.
I told the FBI as I'm tearing off the microphone. He's either innocent or a psychopath.
He's really good at covering up or he didn't do it. In 2010, police did a two day, pretty massive search of the Rassier farm. Through time, we put together all the information we had, and we presented that information to a judge and the judge felt there was a sufficient problem caused to look on the farm. And I'm standing in front of a corner field on the edge of the Razeera family farm.
“This was a big deal when they did the dig at the Rassier residents.”
Neighbors have been watching too. It's kind of scary.
They did a pretty extensive search, even digging up some of his property,
which clearly he was not happy with. The massive dig turned up a lot of dirt, but no evidence. But it left Dan Rassier in the public eye as the guy who took Jacob. And it was holding the secret of where Jacob was. Rassier was known publicly as a person of interest in the wetterling case. It wasn't like we stopped everything and they started working on Dan. We're here. That's not the case at all. We worked every day. We could think of it.
Dan Rassier was not involved in Jacob wetterlings ofduction at all, but it would be years before he would be cleared by investigators. But if Dan didn't do it, who did?
“That's when a blogger begins doing a little digging of her own. What are you thinking?”
So I just thought, oh, this is big. This is, this is got to be the answer. This is really big. [Music] Tonight, in Missouri, Sean Hornbeck is back home. California kidnapping case has come to an astonishing end. Three missing women found alive together a decade later. Two decades go by. No sign of your son. Yet you still hold on to hope. I did. This is what kept me going.
But these were clippings of stories about a children who made it back. I would do anything to protect my children and all of these children. Over the years, we've watched Patty turn into an activist. I was working with the National Center for missing exploited children and doing lawn for some trainings all over the country. People need to be educated about the dangers of those who violate children.
Because of Jacob's case and Patty, the sex offender registration law was passed. Today, America warrants. If you dare to pray on our children, the law will follow you wherever you go. She got very involved and trying to keep this from happening to other families. It wasn't just about Jacob. It was about all children. The Waterland case is immense. It is so emotional. It is deep. And it was for me all consuming.
I'm Joy Baker and starting in 2010, I wrote a blog about the Jacob Waterland case. You started a real investigation. Yeah. I went to the local library, looked up all the old newspaper articles from that time period and I just started to lay it out. Over the next few years, Joy gained a following online. But the Waterlings were to wear of her until a chance encounter. In 2013, it was nearly 25 years since you lost Jacob.
You made a blogger. Yes. I was speaking at an event and this woman came and introduced herself
Said she'd been blogging about Jacob.
And I just go to the blog and I'm reading and saying, wow, this is good stuff.
“We called her, I think the next day and we had at least a two hour conversation of who are you?”
And where do you hope to go? Then a turning point enjoys research. She stumbles across a 1987 newspaper article from the nearby town of Payne'sville. I found this story about these five cases of young teenage boys who had been followed, assaulted, also very similar language like when they had been caught, teeth say, don't turn around or help blow your head off. And it was similar to the language
that the boys who were with Jacob had reported. Jacob and Jared.
Payne'sville is a small town about 30 miles from where Jacob was abducted and just passed where Jared Chirole was abducted in cold spring. For many years, I lived in fear,
“watching over my shoulder. Joy contacted me. She asked me if I was the Jared associated with”
the wetterling investigation. I shared his story on my blog and people were commenting, that same thing happened to my brother or my nephew or my son. Be in a male victim of a sexual assault. You have learned that there's a lot more male victims other than the world that's on to. Sexual assaults on young boys is something you really heard about. Chris Bertelsson, who grew up in Payne'sville, told me about a string of frightening
incidents that he and his friends had there back in the '80s. Some of the incidents were reported to authorities back then. Early in 1987, two friends of mine had been molested. One a masked man grabbed him, groped him, and then another friend of mine had been molested near his home. Was there a feeling that there was some guy out there who was praying on boys? It was the talk of everybody. At least of us boys, it just became kind of a
culture to watch out for this guy. All of a sudden, it's not safe to ride your bike. A time of fear. A lot of fear. Then in May of 1987, Chris had his own run-in with that man. He takes me back to the spot. My friend and I were riding our bikes around this corner and the guy came flying out from behind the spruce trees. In the dark, in total darkness, close lined my friend off the bike and he stopped on the bike and I stopped and my friend yelled,
"You already got me and the guy took off running and I took off on my bike to call the police."
My friend, he said, "I got his hat." In their scuffle, he grabbed his hat. We always
kind of knew there were these pieces that were unanswered. Although Payne's real police did follow up and investigate the cases of the boys in that town, nobody was ever arrested. One of the consistent things with all of my friends was that he had a low, gravely voice, a mumbly voice. More than two decades later, this string of incidents in Payne'sville may now shed new light on Jacob Wedderling's case. This is what happened to me.
This is what happened to Jacob. This could be the information that we've been looking for for all these years. This looks very much like small town America. It really might shout to acquaintance. There's a river that runs through it. It could be more on town America.
“When Joy came across the incidents in Payne'sville, I think a light went off in her head that”
these have to be connected to Jacob's case. When you began looking into this case and you started to discover that there had been incidents of boys being a thief at all. Salted, arrested, here in Payne'sville, what areas did you find that was significant? A lot of them happened right here, right downtown where kids were at their local hangouts spot, the local pizza place. Europe convinced that these incidents here in Payne'sville were no doubt connected to what
happened to Jacob and that perpetrator was probably the same person. I really, really felt that Payne'sville was the answer. Law enforcement in fact did talk to some of those Payne'sville boys after Jacob's abduction.
When we found out about the Payne'sville incidents, we thought they were conn...
maybe the same person kidnapped Jared and Jacob. In January of 1990, the Payne'sville police
“chief had contacted the task force and indicated that Danny Heinrich might be considered a suspect”
in the wetterling case. Heinrich was in his mid-20s at the time. He was a lifelong resident of Payne'sville and was a member of the Minnesota National Guard. The Danny Heinrich was one of the names who come up early. No prior arrest for sexual assault. No prior anything against children. Couldn't hold a job for law and had a troubled childhood. The physical description was nearly identical and all of the Payne'sville incidents it was very similar to the calls for an abduction as well
as the Jacob Waterlings abduction. Gravity Raspi's static field voice was a specific description of the offender. An investigators did take a close look at Heinrich after Jared Charles kidnapping. One of the officers in Payne'sville suggested that they look at Danny Heinrich as a suspect
“because Heinrich wore camouflage clothing and he drove a car similar to the car described by Jared”
Charles. They put him in a lineup. It was just a picture lineup. So Jared picked two people that somewhat resembled the guy that had taken him but that was as good as he could do. One of those was Heinrich and words somewhat resembled in the precision of legal
language isn't that he picked him out. With no other evidence Heinrich is never charged.
After Jacob's abduction Heinrich's name surface again. When he was interviewed Heinrich denied knowing where he was on the day of the abduction of Jacob Heinrich denies any involvement. So authorities take a different tact. They searched the home he's living in. They take his tennis shoes. They vacuumed his car and they kept those fibers from the back of his car.
“They obtained his tires from his vehicle. One of the items tested was Jared Charles'”
snowville suit and it was determined that trace evidence on Jared snowville suit may have originated from the seat materials in a mercury toe pass. That fiber could have come from the seat of any mercury toe pass manufactured around that time. Not specific to Heinrich's mercury toe pass. If a laboratory examiner can testify that that tire impression belonged to that tire that's evidence. If a laboratory examiner says that tire
impression is consistent with that tire that's not evidence. Same thing with shoe impressions, same thing with hairs and fibers. It's strong indications for an investigated to pursue it. It's not evidence. Investigators bring Heinrich in. We started talking to her again before a long ceremony. And of course once they say that according to the roles we cannot answer any further course. They did not have enough physical evidence to charge him
therefore they had to release him. So they years of investigating any Heinrich always was one of our
suspects. After different leads we then decided that we'd go approached and see if we could talk to him then we would knock on the door. The first time you shut the door on me a couple years later we came back to the same story. He knocked on the door. He said I got an attorney I'm not talking to you and the story. Did we think that was suspicious? Sure, but could we do anything about it? No. My station WCCO actually talked with Danny Heinrich and he denied any involvement in Jacob's case.
We talked with the suspect in his car. Do you have any information about the abduction between all information whatsoever? That's the truth. Every day I'm getting all these tips and leads from Payne'sville residents and I'm sending them all to Stern's County. But at some point I just felt like a bother. Joy of me, I've discovered some additional information but the fact that
young boys were being either chased doctor, growled in Payne'sville was not new to us. We just couldn't share the law enforcement file while we had with her. Any victim of crime has a right to go in and see their case files. So I took advantage of that. Jared meets with Captain Jensen and he calls me and he is on fire and he just said Joy, there's more to this story. There's a hat that may have DNA on it and so we thought,
Wow, what did we just discover here?
When you're losing faith in law enforcement at this point, I was frustrated. I wanted the team back.
“Fresh look. We do you got a big break in the case?”
Taste there, we got for a day. If you like your true crime, like you like your coffee, red handed is the podcast for you. It's dark, intense and might just keep you up all night. I'm Hannah, I'm Suriti, and every week on red handed we break down a different fascinating case. From the most recent U.S. trials, everyone is obsessing over like Brendan Banfield
Karen Reed and Ellen Greenberg to the most unbelievable stories from around the world.
There's nothing we love more than digging into every detail of the cases we cover,
getting beyond a basic analysis and cutting to the heart of the story. Red handed has over 400 episodes ready to binge right now. Plus be sure to check out our weekly sister show, shorthand, where we unpack everything from the black death to area 51. If you're looking for smart, detailed true crime with personality, check out red handed wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Harvey Gianne, and this is Killer Stories. Every Monday, I'm cutting the lights.
I'm telling you a bedtime story. Except, these stories are all real. We're talking brazenhise,
devastating cons, serial murders, and cases that defy tidy categories.
So join me for new episodes of Killer Stories with Harvey Gianne, every Monday. Today, law enforcement is launching a new effort to find weatherling by placing six billboards around the area where he went missing. Jacob had been missing for 25 years. There was a little publicity about this new billboard campaign. And so that, to me, that kind of like sparked an idea, I'm Chris Nubary, I'm the producer and director of the documentary Echoes in the
Night, the search for Jacob Wedderling. I'm a Minnesota and my thought, well, no one's really
“done intimate look at the Jacob story. And what are links were open to this idea?”
I wanted to sort of see inside their lives and film in their space. Those are all videos. Let's show off over there. And then there's the other room. This was Jacob's room, actually. Jacob Trevor had bunk beds in here. Nobody really sleeps down here anymore with just the single beds. That's kind of a poignant moment. And this is the Wedderling room. This is a lot of evidence. It's a lot of evidence.
It's been close to 25 years since Jacob's kidnapping. And now an FBI team that's highly trained in child abductions is about to conduct a review of the entire Wedderling case. My name is Chris Bokers. I am a retired FBI special agent and I was a member of the child abduction rapid deployment team that did a cold case review of the investigation. In October 1989, I was familiar with the abduction of Jacob Wedderling.
Case was impactful to me to the point that I decided that I wanted to get into law enforcement to hopefully someday make a positive impact on this investigation.
“This whole row right here is Jacob Wedderling. I think it by far dwarfs any other case”
that we have for sure volume of evidence. In 2014, we needed to take a step back and have a review of the whole case itself. In doing the cold case review, Danny Heinrich was a very good suspect early in the investigation. There was some very compelling information there. Such as, such as that some tires had been taken from his car and these tires correspond in design and measurements to the tire impressions that were taken from the gravel
at the rest of your residents where the abduction had occurred. We also found that his shoes corresponded in design to the foot impressions that were taken from the scene. That's pretty stunning stuff. I was really good evidence, but because there's no nicks cuts that are individual to these shoes or these tires, you can't say it's exact. I can't say it's exact. One might think that based on the substantial evidence that
Law enforcement had gathered against Danny Heinrich wasn't that enough.
prosecutor, you have to evaluate a case not based on probable cause that it's likely
“but proof beyond a reasonable doubt and looking at the evidence they had at the time,”
it wasn't even close. When they started reviewing the case, they looked at Jared's case too. This would be a clothing related to the abduction of the cold-suring boy. My thought all throughout my life was, if we can find my perpetrator, then we'll find Jacob's
perpetrator. My first met Jared during that early period of our production, I admired Jared
a ton. His bravery to come forward and tell his story. 20 some years later, here I am, that's Garrett Little Boygan, because we still don't know who this person is and we still don't know where he's at. When Jared Chiral was assaulted, DNA was not regularly used in criminal cases. Over the course of time in the investigation, we had continued to repeatedly
“submit the items from the cold-suring boys abduction for DNA analysis and it was only finally”
in 2012 that we were able to come up with an unknown male DNA that was left on the clothing.
Dennis Kern located a here that had been saved on a slide at the FBI lab that was identified
as Danny Heinrich. We do you got a big break in the case. The here is provided a DNA match to the previously unknown DNA that was collected from the cold-suring boys abduction and that match was Danny Heinrich. And today we're able to conclusively show that Danny Heinrich was the person who kidnapped an assaulted Jared Chiral. Once we had a DNA match for the cold-spring investigation, we sought a search warrant to go back to Heinrich's residence where he now lived in Anandale,
Minnesota. In that search warrant, law enforcement, alleged Heinrich's involvement in eight pain-sville incidents. The baseball cap is tested for DNA and though 80% of the population was excluded, Danny Heinrich's DNA was not. In that search warrant, we were looking for human remains or any trophies that might have been kept. They were going to do search warrant for on this suspect Danny Heinrich that was scary would they find anything.
Today's day to 7, 28, 2015 at times 8, 36 am. Presently with Pam Jensen Stern's colleague Sheriff on Ken McDyle, Minnesota BCA. After the DNA hit that showed Danny Heinrich was connected to Jared Chiral's case, authorities conducted a search of Heinrich's home in Anandale, Minnesota. While other investigators were executing the search warrant, Captain Jensen and myself sat outside and had your table was Danny Heinrich. He had no idea. He was being recorded. You know, when I do
a lot of these search warrant, we're like to see what we have on an internet. They're going to find something in the house. They're looking pretty damn bad means to me. Well, you know, if you're ready for like pornography, a lot of people got pornography in their house. You're a single guy. You have pornography. I'm not going to lie to you if I do. Tell us what you found when you got it. The house itself was very neat. He had two cats, but the house was well-capped and organized.
There is no human or anything remains on this property. I guarantee 100%. As far as I know,
“we have before I bought the place, who knows what's in the root cellar underneath the house?”
That I wouldn't know anything about, you know? Right, nothing for paying the makeup literally. Those stuff in there. Or ever had stuff. Of course, they're trying to get a little information with their income. So, with us, I asked them about Payne's bill.
I never touched Danny, but curious. That's the God's tool. All of a sudden, I got some damn
shit in that house, but I never touched Danny. Very quickly, within the search, investigators were finding binders that contained child erodica, child pornography. We found numerous bins of child size clothing. We found wigs and handcuffs. We recovered 922 VHS tapes. A lot of the VHS tapes were of children's programming, where you had children actors on the shows. When we went through the tapes, investigators found hours of him at Playgrounds,
Hours of him watching boys go buy on their bikes.
This search yields no evidence, directly linking Heinrich to Jarrett, Jacob, or any of the Payne's
“bill incidents, but there was something else found that troubled investigators. He had”
tapes of news clippings from the Wetter Lane investigation. The Wetter Lane investigation. So, he was obviously concerned about the Wetter Lane case. Correct. This very well could be Jacob Wetter Lane's. A doctor, what are you thinking? A lot of it is thinking in your head. What do we now need to do so that we do this properly? So, we worked with the U.S. Attorney's Office, reformulate a nexus to get federal charges for child pornography. Federal charges would carry
more weight with more potential prison time, which might help elicit some confession in the Wetter Lane case. About three months after they searched Heinrich's home, investigators contact the Wetter Lane to share their findings. Patty and I were called down to the Law Enforcement Center. He could just feel an electric energy in the room. We had made a power point which talked about the Pan's Bill incidents, the DNA match with Jared's case. And then we also
went over some of the tyrant shoe impressions with overlays. They had Danny Shoes and then they had the imprint on the driveway and they just do it's like a slow-moving movie where they put one on top of the other and visually it was a match, visually and they did the same thing with the tyrant and they match exactly. It was chilling that their whole presentation was absolutely chilling. I was brought into a briefing room at the BCA, the FBI, Stearned County,
everybody's in the room and it starts out with Jared. We got some good news, then we got some bad news. We got your guy. I said, what's the bad news? That couldn't charge him in Jared's abduction because statutory limitations had ran out. We can't drive. So you just take a deep breath. You're taking it in. It's in disbelief. I help you get to this point that their statutes and limitations and any types of cases like this.
They warned us to not reveal to anybody what was going on because they wanted him or us to got a call from Patty and she said, I don't think we're going to be able to film that
“thing tomorrow. There's something really big happening and she said you should turn on your TV.”
Good afternoon. Last night, FBI Special agents working with the BCA, the Stearned County Sheriff's office and local police arrested Daniel James Heinrich. 26 years, roughly after the abduction, Danny Heinrich is arrested on child pornography charges. We consider him to be a person of interest
in the wetterland abduction. It was really the first major development in the case really since the
day had happened. Everybody in media wanted to know what was the wetterland's reaction to this huge news. And so they scheduled this press conference, they let me come into their home while they're preparing for that. It brings back a lot of anxiety, a lot of beginning stuff and I can't live in the
“dark all the time. I think emotions were you know high. I know what I want to say. It's just”
how you say it. It's hard. I think the clock says 12 13 so. All right. This is my big idea. That's it. I said this is my big idea. I don't know if it's good or not, but whatever. I hate this laundry. I love you. I do too. We do see a patty and Jerry Wetterling coming down their driveway. You can see they still have the porch light on all the time. Missing kids come home
after long periods of time and I will still always always hope until we have our answers.
After Danny Heinrich was arrested, Patty asked me to help write the book and so we were really focusing on that. We didn't know where Jacob was so we just kept writing. We had no idea what the ending was going to be. The months were ticking by after the arrest and it was sort of this new
Form of uncertainty.
Just took the wind out of everybody's like, oh finally we found him.
“Nearly a year after Heinrich's arrest he's ready to make a deal. Do you want justice or”
do you want answers? I want Jacob. Danny Heinrich would lead guilty to one count of child pornography and federal court and receive a 20 year sentence. If he was able to show us remains or provide a credible confession. He would either tell where Jacob was and what happened or give some convincing evidence and I was really troubled by that word. It's like, who does he have to convince? He's already convinced all of you. He has to convince me.
Her green to this would give us the keys to unlock the door to finally find Jacob boiling.
Where is Jacob? Now, Danny Heinrich, the suspect in the voice kidnapping, has led law enforcement
“to this quiet stretch of farm land in Payne'sville. Would they finally be able to bring Jacob home?”
We walk through that narrow strip of woods with him and eventually planted a few flags to show where the remains could have been. When investigation began at the scene, they found a piece of red material that was sticking out above ground and up being Jacob's hockey jacket. Everybody just took a deep breath and just took the wind out of everybody's like, oh, I cannot describe in words. What it was like to all sun just feel like, oh my goodness.
I mean, this is it. We get this call saying that they had found Jacob's jacket. Your blood runs closed. It's like everything inside is screaming no.
“And we're driving up. It's a peaceful farm. We see a sheriff and Captain Pan,”
Johnson and they just come up and give us a hug and there's been tears. I did your walk away. It's almost been a while since I thought about this case and when it found it was very surreal, we realized that there wasn't no more Jacob home. It was incredibly sad, but at the same moment there was something peaceful. Jacob was at peace. Jerry, are you?
Words couldn't do anything at that point. And finally, finally we found him.
Jerry and I, you know, he drove to some little neighborhood on a side street and pulled over and said, we have to call him. We got to call the kids. And that was the worst call in my life. After obtaining Heinrich's confession, law enforcement then share the painful details with the waterlings. The sheriff would tell us what they found out, what Danny said happened that night.
Heinrich said that he was in the St. Joseph area that Sunday night and he saw the three boys going towards a convenience store and he drove to the dirt driveway and he waited for them. He said that he walked Jacob back to his car and he had cuffed Jacob and that Jacob asked what did I do wrong? He did nothing wrong. You know, we're all sobbing and it's like stop, sheriff. Can you not hear us, you know, stop? He drove Jacob to the edge of Paine'sville
and got him out of the car and assaulted him. Jacob said he was cold and that just that really stuck with me. He didn't have any clothes on. His appearance is heartbreaking. Jacob said that he wanted to go home and started to cry. Just once. Just once they go home and like was doing everything he asked him to do and just wanted to go home and like I can't imagine like the fear it's let him go home. And that's when he took out a gun that he had in his
pocket and he fired once and Jacob didn't fall down and he pulled the trigger again. Why did he have to kill him? Why? Two shots? It was just too much, too much.
You went home for some period of time, came back and took Jacob and took his ...
buried them. Approximately a year later he went back to the scene and he noticed a little
“part of the red jacket was sticking up. At that point he determined that he didn't move Jacob”
basically walked kitty corner across the state highway into a farm field and that's where Jacob
remained until he told us about the location. He had not killed anybody as far as you know. Why did he kill Jacob? Finally, we know Danny Heinrich is the confessed murderer of Jacob weddling and for that he will spend the next 20 years in prison. Why did he kill Jacob? During the interview he said that he had seen some red lights of a police vehicle going past and he said that that contributed to
his panic and may have influenced his decision to shoot Jacob. I want to see Jacob I'm so sorry. It's incredibly painful to know his last days. Last hours, last minutes, I also want to say one huge shout out to Jared and Joy. Jared had the courage to stand up and say this happened to me.
“I came here today to remember the spirit of Jacob. As part of the plea deal, Heinrich also admitted”
in court to Jared's abduction and assault. The case of the pain'sville victims, we believe them.
Heinrich was never charged in those eight pain'sville incidents. Because of my anger with the
statues, the limitations and the injustice, it just worked and it wasn't good, depression, cut-up, alcoholism cut-up with me and one day I just stopped feeling sorry for myself because there's so many others and who am I to sit there and say woe is me. It was important for Jared Chirol to file a civil lawsuit against Annie Heinrich just to get some legal recognition of what he had done, holding somebody accountable. So he and his lawyer worked hard for a number of
years to get to the point where they were heading into the courthouse for the civil hearing. We are finally coming to the day of the civil hearing here. Thanks to our Twitter friend, that's going to help us with what we're not going to do to that. My ex-wife will be testifying today. It'll go good. As well as a friend of mine that was with me the night of my abduction, so kind of give a little more insight to this long journey.
Just having that day in court changed my headlines, and in the next day I picked him
awarded 17.2 million. He says he knows he won't likely see any of that $17 million judgment,
but says that's okay. I didn't lose. I wasn't denied justice. The pain and suffering was real and it justified that. You've written a book, dear Jacob. Yeah. What led you to want to put your pain out there and to relive it? Everybody has stuff going on in their lives and they're trying to figure out how do you how do you get through this? Hard to me wanted to write to share some of what kept us going
if it could help another family. When I go out on the road and they they show up because Jacob meant something to them and they still carry them in his heart and the change the way they parent and it changed the way they parents parent it and it's like he changed the world. It wasn't me but it was the spirit of who this this kid was and what he believed in and it's still shining.
“I think it's all the fact. I think Jacob's legacy is showing that all kids are really awesome”
and they need every bit of opportunity to flourish to express themselves and to fully do that in a safe way. How would you describe where you are at this moment? I am a believer in children
I didn't want our own kids to live fearful afraid of the world afraid to go o...
and to have fun. So we fought for the world that Jacob knew. I refused to let the man who took
“Jacob take away anything more. You can't have my marriage. You can't have my kids. You can't have”
the world that of innocence and believing in dreams and going after your full potential. That's
really what I have fought for and I still will. It's the kids. David I was struck by how this
“mom so remarkably was able to turn her pain into action. Patty Wetterling continues to advocate”
for child safety honoring her son's memory. In fact, ever her book dear Jacob, a mother's journey of hope written with longer joy baker, her vise even more of the story and you can look into it
“there. That's our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm David New York.”
And I'm Deborah Roberts from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Good night. [Music] Hello divina. Friday's. Yeah, full of surprises this season. Project Runway is back. Times star snap over its biggest season ever.
Twenty two designers are coming hard. This has never happened in front of my history.
Everyone is stressed. What was happening? I would wear that is fantastic. This is the type of thing that you get from say hold. The world is watching Project Runway, new episodes Friday, stream on Hulu and Disney Plus.


