First time poster, long time lurker here.
Got some time for this? I've followed the case for years and when I recently read ELOCs book and realized he had come to exactly the same conclusions I had formed about the abductor MANY years ago, it finally prompted me to get into the conversation. These are the same conclusions which a few months earlier I was surprised to see Joy also determined. Specifically, the attributes of the criminal that IMO must be true: namely, he heard or saw the boys on the way to the Tom Thumb, or, less likely, heard/saw the boys at the Tom Thumb and knew/guessed where to make an abduction. Among other implications, this of course means the unknown subject is local. He knows S 91st Street very well. This is not a planned abduction, it's a "lucky" accident the boys are seen by someone with an interest in snatching a boy.
The named POI has been thoroughly clobbered here, there's nothing more I can say about him that hasn't already been repeated 100 times, both good and bad. What I can say is spending years and years looking at the same very small set of suspects hasn't produced a solution. What about maybe spending some brain power in overlooked or discounted areas?
I asked a coworker *in the cube next to mine, yes we're that close* to read ELOC's book and whatever he wanted to online about this case. He just retired from the NYPD after 25 years, the last 8 as a detective. He doesn't remember looking into Jacob before. Today at lunch I asked him, outside of everyone whose already been looked at repeatedly, who do you want to look at in this case? His answer:
...."Kevin would be my number one place to start, even before the named POI or before any known child molesters." ....
Ever since Kevin's story has become widely known I've just had a very hard time believing it. Out of every strange/unfortunate detail in this case, it is Kevin's movement this night that to me is less plausible than winning the lottery.
Please do correct whatever details I'm missing or got wrong, but to me it's just one "lucky" bit of timing after another for Kevin:
1. Kevin says his girlfriend's mom keeps a police scanner on all the time. Already, this sounds odd to me. Not a typical family.
2. Conveniently, just as the night's dinner and card game is coming to an end with a plethora of witnesses to Kevin's whereabouts, the police scanner is active all of the sudden. From this point forward the number of witnesses to his whereabouts become less, and they will keep decreasing, but for now we've still got the brother-in-law and his wife also apparently in the mood to chase the cops on a Sunday night.
3. Kevin apparently can't remember exactly what the police scanner says, but he thinks its something about bikes and the Tom Thumb.
4. Kevin hears and sees the police go by his girlfriend's mom's place, naturally. He says he knows 2 of 3 police on duty in the field this night. There is one new guy he doesn't know. Why does Kevin know all the police?
5. Kevin heads not to the Tom Thumb, but to the Del Win Ballroom. WHY WOULD HE DO THIS? or, why would he SAY he did this? It was the Tom Thumb mentioned on the scanner, not the ballroom. I know they're close by, but he's deliberately going to the ballroom and/or deliberately saying he first went to the ballroom that night. Why go there?
6. At this point, the brother-in-law and wife decide their interest in crime scenes is over, so they go home. Apparently there is nothing of interest so far, meaning no cops. Kevin and his girlfriend from here are the only sources to tell us what he does tonight.
7. In the first of several really really amazing driving decisions this night, Kevin now decides he wants to go down S 91st Street. For no reason whatsoever, except, we are told, that he wants to look for cops. We don't have a lot of people who we can confirm drove South on 91st street this evening, but Kevin admits to being one of them. Also, he's very much insisting he never went to the Tom Thumb at first, although Tom Thumb was mentioned in the scanner traffic which inspired him to go out tonight.
8. Driving down 91[SUP]st[/SUP] Street is too boring it seems, there are no cop cars. Hmmm. What to do? How about we accidentally barge through the crime scene? Even though Kevin is the source of information about the ‘party spots’ and will talk about party goers for years parking on DR’s driveway to drink beer in the woods, on this night, he says, he was looking for a place to turn around and did not realize DR’s driveway was a driveway and thought it was a crossroad.
9. Since Kevin is thinking DR’s driveway is a road, he plans to use it to turn around. Oddly he will also admit to coming to the area since before he could drive both to party and ride in the bike trails. But I guess he misremembers the details of whether this is a road or driveway? Also, what does it matter? Road or driveway, if his plan is to turn around, why doesn’t he turn around?
10. Now Kevin has established himself definitely not at the TomThumb (yet), but definitely driving his car down 91[SUP]st[/SUP] Street, and turning into DR’s driveway. Hmmmm…
11. At this point, as we all know, Kevin admits to being one of perhaps 3 different cars that drive up DR’s driveway this dark late night but who apparently have no connection with DR and simply turn around and go back to 91[SUP]st[/SUP] Street. DR definitely reports seeing a car come up his driveway and turn around, with a girl or child in the passenger seat. For years this is assumed to be the abductor. Upon Kevin's revelations, this report of a car from DR is NOW assumed to be for Kevin's admitted tour through DR's property. This drastically reverses the focus of the case and puts it squarely on DR.
12. Now turned around, still before any police are in sight on the scene, Kevin arrives at the intersection of DR’s driveway and 91[SUP]st[/SUP] street, headlights illuminating the boys’ bikes. Kevin by his own admission is the first person to see the bikes.
13. At this point, I have to interrupt my play-by-play monologue and ask: Do you have any particular reaction to seeing 3 boys bikes on a side of the road?
14. ….the reason I ask is because Kevin has a pretty big reaction. He stops, stares, and can’t decide whether to load up the bikes in his car or not.(!) Now we have Kevin admitting his car was stopped in DR’s driveway, facing towards the road. Kevin claims in 2003 to have heard “something about bikes” (and Tom Thumb) on the scanner, so arguably 3 bikes on the side of the road is interesting, I guess, maybe, which explains perfectly why one would be in DR's driveway stopped in a car before the cops arrive.
15. Kevin suddenly has the urge to go to the Tom Thumb. I can’t get over how present Kevin is at every relevant location tonight, with a weird explanation for it 14 years later.
16. At the Tom Thumb, Kevin says there isn’t a female working as the boys claim, but a male. The female worker is known. Where's the male employee?
17. Displaying a cop-centric mindset again, Kevin says there is an unmarked cop car at the Tom Thumb.
18. Kevin sees and talks to a weird man here who says he’s a “medical cop”. This is truly weird.
19. Kevin then proceeds to the dentist office and confronts a uniformed cop in a marked police car, who he says dismisses his admission that he saw the bikes at the crime scene. There is no record of this from the police. In fact, there is a confusion in some accounts of Kevin's story about whether he first talks to cops at the crime scene or at the dentist's office. The Wetterlings later say they meet a cop at the dental office who escorts them home.
20. Later that night, Kevin’s brother asks him where he was earlier and says the FBI is taking plaster impressions of car tracks on DR’s driveway. Kevin's brother is with the fire department and they are helping with the investigation already.
21. Kevin is never heard from again. Until, he says he was at a party with a retired US marshall sharing his Jacob-related stories. The US marshal (???) says the police have been looking for Kevin since day 1.
---
There’s a lot here that sends up red flags, don't you agree?
The biggest for me is why on earth Kevin decides to drive down 91[SUP]st[/SUP] street this night, why he picks DR’s driveway to turn around in and why he doesn’t go straight to the Tom Thumb first since that’s what he says he heard on the scanner. So say what you will about DR, but Kevin admits to being in ALL the essential places this night. He specifically says his car is stopped on DR's driveway, facing out.
There’s also something not right here about Kevin claiming unfamiliarity with DR’s driveway and claiming he thought it was a cross street, according to the early reports of his story. By 2013 Kevin is admitting knowledge of the party spots and asking Joy if DR ever saw empty cars parked on his driveway because it is a known party-spot parking-lot. So did Kevin know very well about the neighborhood where he was that night in 1989 or not? (see Joy’s blog entry on Kevin’s story)
http://www.joybaker.com/2013/03/14/kevins-story/
Kevin’s narrative almost seems desperate to ensure he has an explanation for any witness or other evidence placing him at suspicious locations this night.
Kevin alone offers an explanation for being in exactly the same places the abductor was or could have been seen at that night. No one else does. If anyone saw his car that night in all the wrong places, he’s got an explanation for it.
Finally, the police scanner in Kevin’s story is essential to explaining his actions tonight. What does Jared notice about his abductor’s car? A police scanner.
I know Patty and police cleared Kevin. This is the first person who admits being on the crime scene that night, apparently while most of the cops are at the Wetterlings. I’m asking for you guys to see what clears him based on what we know; am I the only one who sees Kevin’s story incredible?
777
Got some time for this? I've followed the case for years and when I recently read ELOCs book and realized he had come to exactly the same conclusions I had formed about the abductor MANY years ago, it finally prompted me to get into the conversation. These are the same conclusions which a few months earlier I was surprised to see Joy also determined. Specifically, the attributes of the criminal that IMO must be true: namely, he heard or saw the boys on the way to the Tom Thumb, or, less likely, heard/saw the boys at the Tom Thumb and knew/guessed where to make an abduction. Among other implications, this of course means the unknown subject is local. He knows S 91st Street very well. This is not a planned abduction, it's a "lucky" accident the boys are seen by someone with an interest in snatching a boy.
The named POI has been thoroughly clobbered here, there's nothing more I can say about him that hasn't already been repeated 100 times, both good and bad. What I can say is spending years and years looking at the same very small set of suspects hasn't produced a solution. What about maybe spending some brain power in overlooked or discounted areas?
I asked a coworker *in the cube next to mine, yes we're that close* to read ELOC's book and whatever he wanted to online about this case. He just retired from the NYPD after 25 years, the last 8 as a detective. He doesn't remember looking into Jacob before. Today at lunch I asked him, outside of everyone whose already been looked at repeatedly, who do you want to look at in this case? His answer:
...."Kevin would be my number one place to start, even before the named POI or before any known child molesters." ....
Ever since Kevin's story has become widely known I've just had a very hard time believing it. Out of every strange/unfortunate detail in this case, it is Kevin's movement this night that to me is less plausible than winning the lottery.
Please do correct whatever details I'm missing or got wrong, but to me it's just one "lucky" bit of timing after another for Kevin:
1. Kevin says his girlfriend's mom keeps a police scanner on all the time. Already, this sounds odd to me. Not a typical family.
2. Conveniently, just as the night's dinner and card game is coming to an end with a plethora of witnesses to Kevin's whereabouts, the police scanner is active all of the sudden. From this point forward the number of witnesses to his whereabouts become less, and they will keep decreasing, but for now we've still got the brother-in-law and his wife also apparently in the mood to chase the cops on a Sunday night.
3. Kevin apparently can't remember exactly what the police scanner says, but he thinks its something about bikes and the Tom Thumb.
4. Kevin hears and sees the police go by his girlfriend's mom's place, naturally. He says he knows 2 of 3 police on duty in the field this night. There is one new guy he doesn't know. Why does Kevin know all the police?
5. Kevin heads not to the Tom Thumb, but to the Del Win Ballroom. WHY WOULD HE DO THIS? or, why would he SAY he did this? It was the Tom Thumb mentioned on the scanner, not the ballroom. I know they're close by, but he's deliberately going to the ballroom and/or deliberately saying he first went to the ballroom that night. Why go there?
6. At this point, the brother-in-law and wife decide their interest in crime scenes is over, so they go home. Apparently there is nothing of interest so far, meaning no cops. Kevin and his girlfriend from here are the only sources to tell us what he does tonight.
7. In the first of several really really amazing driving decisions this night, Kevin now decides he wants to go down S 91st Street. For no reason whatsoever, except, we are told, that he wants to look for cops. We don't have a lot of people who we can confirm drove South on 91st street this evening, but Kevin admits to being one of them. Also, he's very much insisting he never went to the Tom Thumb at first, although Tom Thumb was mentioned in the scanner traffic which inspired him to go out tonight.
8. Driving down 91[SUP]st[/SUP] Street is too boring it seems, there are no cop cars. Hmmm. What to do? How about we accidentally barge through the crime scene? Even though Kevin is the source of information about the ‘party spots’ and will talk about party goers for years parking on DR’s driveway to drink beer in the woods, on this night, he says, he was looking for a place to turn around and did not realize DR’s driveway was a driveway and thought it was a crossroad.
9. Since Kevin is thinking DR’s driveway is a road, he plans to use it to turn around. Oddly he will also admit to coming to the area since before he could drive both to party and ride in the bike trails. But I guess he misremembers the details of whether this is a road or driveway? Also, what does it matter? Road or driveway, if his plan is to turn around, why doesn’t he turn around?
10. Now Kevin has established himself definitely not at the TomThumb (yet), but definitely driving his car down 91[SUP]st[/SUP] Street, and turning into DR’s driveway. Hmmmm…
11. At this point, as we all know, Kevin admits to being one of perhaps 3 different cars that drive up DR’s driveway this dark late night but who apparently have no connection with DR and simply turn around and go back to 91[SUP]st[/SUP] Street. DR definitely reports seeing a car come up his driveway and turn around, with a girl or child in the passenger seat. For years this is assumed to be the abductor. Upon Kevin's revelations, this report of a car from DR is NOW assumed to be for Kevin's admitted tour through DR's property. This drastically reverses the focus of the case and puts it squarely on DR.
12. Now turned around, still before any police are in sight on the scene, Kevin arrives at the intersection of DR’s driveway and 91[SUP]st[/SUP] street, headlights illuminating the boys’ bikes. Kevin by his own admission is the first person to see the bikes.
13. At this point, I have to interrupt my play-by-play monologue and ask: Do you have any particular reaction to seeing 3 boys bikes on a side of the road?
14. ….the reason I ask is because Kevin has a pretty big reaction. He stops, stares, and can’t decide whether to load up the bikes in his car or not.(!) Now we have Kevin admitting his car was stopped in DR’s driveway, facing towards the road. Kevin claims in 2003 to have heard “something about bikes” (and Tom Thumb) on the scanner, so arguably 3 bikes on the side of the road is interesting, I guess, maybe, which explains perfectly why one would be in DR's driveway stopped in a car before the cops arrive.
15. Kevin suddenly has the urge to go to the Tom Thumb. I can’t get over how present Kevin is at every relevant location tonight, with a weird explanation for it 14 years later.
16. At the Tom Thumb, Kevin says there isn’t a female working as the boys claim, but a male. The female worker is known. Where's the male employee?
17. Displaying a cop-centric mindset again, Kevin says there is an unmarked cop car at the Tom Thumb.
18. Kevin sees and talks to a weird man here who says he’s a “medical cop”. This is truly weird.
19. Kevin then proceeds to the dentist office and confronts a uniformed cop in a marked police car, who he says dismisses his admission that he saw the bikes at the crime scene. There is no record of this from the police. In fact, there is a confusion in some accounts of Kevin's story about whether he first talks to cops at the crime scene or at the dentist's office. The Wetterlings later say they meet a cop at the dental office who escorts them home.
20. Later that night, Kevin’s brother asks him where he was earlier and says the FBI is taking plaster impressions of car tracks on DR’s driveway. Kevin's brother is with the fire department and they are helping with the investigation already.
21. Kevin is never heard from again. Until, he says he was at a party with a retired US marshall sharing his Jacob-related stories. The US marshal (???) says the police have been looking for Kevin since day 1.
---
There’s a lot here that sends up red flags, don't you agree?
The biggest for me is why on earth Kevin decides to drive down 91[SUP]st[/SUP] street this night, why he picks DR’s driveway to turn around in and why he doesn’t go straight to the Tom Thumb first since that’s what he says he heard on the scanner. So say what you will about DR, but Kevin admits to being in ALL the essential places this night. He specifically says his car is stopped on DR's driveway, facing out.
There’s also something not right here about Kevin claiming unfamiliarity with DR’s driveway and claiming he thought it was a cross street, according to the early reports of his story. By 2013 Kevin is admitting knowledge of the party spots and asking Joy if DR ever saw empty cars parked on his driveway because it is a known party-spot parking-lot. So did Kevin know very well about the neighborhood where he was that night in 1989 or not? (see Joy’s blog entry on Kevin’s story)
http://www.joybaker.com/2013/03/14/kevins-story/
Kevin’s narrative almost seems desperate to ensure he has an explanation for any witness or other evidence placing him at suspicious locations this night.
Kevin alone offers an explanation for being in exactly the same places the abductor was or could have been seen at that night. No one else does. If anyone saw his car that night in all the wrong places, he’s got an explanation for it.
Finally, the police scanner in Kevin’s story is essential to explaining his actions tonight. What does Jared notice about his abductor’s car? A police scanner.
I know Patty and police cleared Kevin. This is the first person who admits being on the crime scene that night, apparently while most of the cops are at the Wetterlings. I’m asking for you guys to see what clears him based on what we know; am I the only one who sees Kevin’s story incredible?
777
