MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 22 Oct 1989 - #10

[Sasquatch321]

Post 639 by ELOCsoul.

The perp picked Jacob out of the three boys based on questions he asked.

Who on the school staff could have viewed the class film?

Including the janitor.

 

[shergal]

Post 639 by ELOCsoul.

The perp picked Jacob out of the three boys based on questions he asked.

Who on the school staff could have viewed the class film?

But the only questions he asked (according to the 2 witnesses) were their ages.

 

[ThePhantom]

NMogren, you make a very good point, because after all, "birds of a feather" -- DR was affiliated with the school in some way, was he not? The abbey houses numerous documented sex offenders. Jacob was abducted near DR's driveway. Is it all one big coincidence?

 

[ThePhantom]

Found it. Rassier was (is?) an adjunct professor at the College of St. Benedict as well as St. John's.

 

[ThePhantom]

I still believe someone who was or perhaps still is at St. John's has information they are too afraid to share.

 

[nmogren]

I agree there are answers there.

 

[cGorg]

I still believe someone who was or perhaps still is at St. John's has information they are too afraid to share.

Is your belief conjecture or do you have something of substance?

 

[cGorg]

Including the janitor.

Hmmm....

 

[ThePhantom]

All theory on my part. I highly doubt there will be POI's named from St. John's because alibis for the various priests for the nights when abductions/assaults occurred were never investigated. A meager effort was made for the Guimond case only long after the fact. Pinecurtain offers some info about these cases that in my opinion merits further thought. DR is still a "POI" but apparently not enough concrete evidence was found to charge him, not even after three rounds of extensive digging. But they never did any digging at St. John's -- and not because there were not any suspicions. My thoughts are from standing back and looking at that area and what any common denominators might be, as well as what has and has not been examined so far. As I've said before, no one has been given access to Sheriff Sanner's files, in spite of several inquiries. The sheriff was willing to pursue DR, but seemed very reluctant to look into legitimate concerns posed by others about certain monks. How could it be so easy to exclude potential connections to these assaults when so many monks in that location have extensive histories of child molestation? They were not monitored and not accountable to anyone. The fact that their criminal behavior was covered up and lied about for so long in spite of numerous young victims coming forward adds to my concern. Incoming conjecture -- I believe that in spite of what has been uncovered so far, it may be the tip of the iceberg. Why? Because if an organization is that willing to deceive and hide such despicable behavior for so long, in my opinion they are willing to cover up many things. With regard to the possibility of someone associated with the abbey having information -- again, conjecture on my part, but I believe someone there may have seen or heard things and chose to look the other way. A lot of that goes on there and it always has.

 

[Trackergd]

Including the janitor.

Exactly!

 

[Trackergd]

Including the janitor.

And who by a few different means would have access to Jacob's address and age in school files, and all the time in the world to snoop at night. Even if he was only providing the information to another party.

 

[Sasquatch321]

All theory on my part. I highly doubt there will be POI's named from St. John's because alibis for the various priests for the nights when abductions/assaults occurred were never investigated. A meager effort was made for the Guimond case only long after the fact. Pinecurtain offers some info about these cases that in my opinion merits further thought. DR is still a "POI" but apparently not enough concrete evidence was found to charge him, not even after three rounds of extensive digging. But they never did any digging at St. John's -- and not because there were not any suspicions. My thoughts are from standing back and looking at that area and what any common denominators might be, as well as what has and has not been examined so far. As I've said before, no one has been given access to Sheriff Sanner's files, in spite of several inquiries. The sheriff was willing to pursue DR, but seemed very reluctant to look into legitimate concerns posed by others about certain monks. How could it be so easy to exclude potential connections to these assaults when so many monks in that location have extensive histories of child molestation? They were not monitored and not accountable to anyone. The fact that their criminal behavior was covered up and lied about for so long in spite of numerous young victims coming forward adds to my concern. Incoming conjecture -- I believe that in spite of what has been uncovered so far, it may be the tip of the iceberg. Why? Because if an organization is that willing to deceive and hide such despicable behavior for so long, in my opinion they are willing to cover up many things. With regard to the possibility of someone associated with the abbey having information -- again, conjecture on my part, but I believe someone there may have seen or heard things and chose to look the other way. A lot of that goes on there and it always has.

I don't think we should jump to a conclusion that LE has nothing concrete on DR, he is still a POI anda work in progress. Its possible they have a damning piece of evidence against him but s not quite enough to paint the whole picture.

 

[Sasquatch321]

Is it possible that LE has a story of what happened from dr's journal? Yet DR is still saying no and because we havent found Jacob yet they can only contain him as poi? Just one example.

 

[nmogren]

Anyone who reads through the pine curtain and bishop accountability websites can see that this whole area has been full of predators hunting prey for many decades and that the steams county sheriffs office has been investigating the abbey for just as long. The church has been evading the laws for the most part up until now and covering up the most incomprehensible atrocities ever known to man. It is no surprise that there are so many unsolved crimes against children in that area.

 

[nmogren]

Is it possible that LE has a story of what happened from dr's journal? Yet DR is still saying no and because we havent found Jacob yet they can only contain him as poi? Just one example.

Yes, I think there is possibly something there that puts him with someone from the abbey that the county sheriff can't touch so they put the heat on DR.

 

[human]

And who by a few different means would have access to Jacob's address and age in school files, and all the time in the world to snoop at night. Even if he was only providing the information to another party.

Finding his address would be no problem. This was 1989 and I am positive without a doubt that their address and phone number was in the phone book.

 

[Sasquatch321]

Yes, I think there is possibly something there that puts him with someone from the abbey that the county sheriff can't touch so they put the heat on DR.

Have any of the priests or monks been caught doing any acts outside the abbey? or did the acts all happen behind their walls?

 

[human]

They wander around the campus. They are off campus.

Eckroth was doing stuff at the cabin by Bemidji.

They have done things in other countries.

This is just off of the top of my head.

And of course they were doing stuff at the different schools they were at.

 

[shergal]

And who by a few different means would have access to Jacob's address and age in school files, and all the time in the world to snoop at night. Even if he was only providing the information to another party.

Not buying this theory. Our son went to North Junior High (where Jacob went) and private file cabinets, teacher's files, and any confidential school records were all kept in locked cabinets to which janitors did not have access. I volunteered at North in the library and the office when my son was there, and even teacher's aides had to have a signed slip from the teacher and the manager would get whatever they needed for them with her "special keys".

I still think Jacob was taken on impulse by someone who saw an opportunity and grabbed him. Possibly someone local already out in the woods at the party spot, or outside at night with a car parked in the brush road across from DR's driveway who saw 3 boys go by, and realized who it was, and made the snap decision to grab Jacob. This local person (or persons) could have driven off with Jacob and then handed Jacob off to someone else (a pedophile or group) for money, or just kept driving and kept him for himself. The one visible deep footprint in DR's driveway could have been from Jacob escaping and running up the driveway and being caught at that soft spot in the road. (I'm just thinking out loud - trying to think of scenarios that wouldn't necessarily involve DR.)

 

[shergal]

Have any of the priests or monks been caught doing any acts outside the abbey? or did the acts all happen behind their walls?

As Human said, many acts happened at the churches they served at around Minnesota (and elsewhere) and in the schools they taught in. Facebook has a policy of no molesters with records being allowed to have a fb page, but because their acts were covered by the Abbey - only one of many priests/monks has actually had to serve prison time. So they are allowed to be on fb - there are some of them on there right now. And we see some who were parish priests in St. Joe in the 80's around town, they take the bus in from SJU, hang out at the mall, etc. So it's a lie that they are "on restriction" at SJU.