Sorry this is off topic from what is being discussed...but I read last night in an older newpaper article on Jacob - that a person came forward in 2003 to say they were the ones who turned around in the farm driveway, leaving the tire marks. Why would he wait all that time to come forward?? I kno whe was cleared and all....but ALL that time and this was such a huge case, it's not like he wouldn't have heard all about it....
Dejasade: Here is info and an interview with Kevin who was driving that car:
(From the Immelman site about Jacob)
This is a copy of a statement Jacobs best friend Aaron gave police.
[Investigator:] Was there any vehicles or anything around at this point that you observed? [Aaron Larson:] Uh uh. Not that we could see.
How did the car come into play? Remember the witness turned possible suspect? It was his account that placed a car at the scene that night. He said it turned around and sped away about the time Jacob disappeared.
The FOX 9 Investigators also have learned there was a car nearby that night. We found the driver. He is not a suspect.
Kevin: Its sad. It chokes me up. But what can I do. What could I have done.
Hes a man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kevin: I never came forward. I figured I didnt have to.
Kevin was 21 at the time. He heard something on the scanner. Saw a police car speed by his house. Curious, he tried to follow the squad. He was there so fast there was no police crime scene tape around the bikes and scooter yet. He drove away and told a police officer what hed seen.
Kevin: He said, yeh we know all about that. I know about the bikes. And that was it. It was like I was bothering him. We backed out and left and that was it.
Trish Van Pilsum: He didnt take your name or phone number.
Kevin: He didnt take my name.
Trish Van Pilsum: He didnt ask, did you see a man lurking around?
Kevin: Didnt ask me a thing.
Nor, it appears, did the officer pass along his conversation with Kevin to investigators. It strikes the new investigators now working on the case 14 years later as strange. It also strikes them as a huge problem. In fact, investigators didnt know about Kevin at all until this October [2003]. This came about because he met a federal marshal at a party who urged Kevin to talk to the lead investigator of the Wetterling investigation.
Kevin: He was really shocked. Cause after I told him who I talked to, what I seen, he couldnt believe he didnt know about me. In reality, I could have been the kidnapper and they never would have found me.
In fact, of the thousands and thousands of pages of leads, none places Kevin at the scene around the time of the kidnapping. A source close to the case said they wasted 14 years looking for him.
Trish Van Pilsum: Kevin, do you think, Boy if my information didnt get passed along, what else was missed?
Kevin: Yes. Who else knows something about the case they might not think was crucial.
Kevin even heard the police were trying to track down the car using tire tracks.
Kevin: I was scared. I got really scared.
Kevin expected police to come to him. They never did.
Trish Van Pilsum: So if they couldnt find you, what were the odds that they could find the kidnapper.
Kevin: Exactly. I think about that all the time. Its sad. A young kid like that you know, 14 years.
Why didnt he go to the police? He figured hed gotten to the scene after everything was over. He doubted he had anything to add. And he didnt want to get caught up in the widening net of the Wetterling search.
Kevin: I knew they were looking for someone and I didnt want to be put in the position of being a suspect.
Now investigators believe the car is accounted for. The investigation narrows to a small area surrounding the abduction scene. And, specifically on one man. One of Jacob Wetterlings neighbors.
