MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 22 Oct 1989 - #4

[Mom who cares]

chef81, thanks for bringing that up, I sort of forgot about it. I would be curious too to see if anything came out of that.

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

Shergal,
I was talking about Ronnie Leo Bromenschenkel.

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

Who? Louis or the Bromenshenkel guy?

I was talking about Ronnie Leo Bromenschenkel.

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

I wonder if anyone ever made sense out of this?

"Dear Patty and Jerry,
My husband and I will be arriving in Mn sometime tomorrow afternoon. I had my operation on my adreanal gland a week ago and I am doing fine. The biopsy report has not come yet, I know it will not be in my favor. We will be doing an Expo for retired baby boomers at Mystic Lake Casino on the 5th and 6th. We have to be back to Az by the 14th , for I have a doctor's appointment then. I would like to meet with you as SOON as possible to locate Jacob. I truly believe he is alive and the man who came in to our store the day Jacob was taken from yous the abductor . I'll never forget his face or the look in his eyes,

Please contact me on my cell phone:651-251-7380

Posted by Carol Allen from Green Valley, AZ | October 1, 2010 2:45 AM"


As far as I know a poster sent this into the Jacob Wetterling Center and they reported it to LE. I've never heard anything more about it, I'm guessing it was probably just another bogus lead. Also about DR, yes I do think he knows than he is telling and obviously LE knows that too. Why else would they make him a POI to the public.

Is this the Tom Thumb in St Joseph?

 

[Jbrown324320]

I was the one who found that comment on a Jacob Wetterling story and reported it to the Wetterling foundation. I have never heard back so I am assuming it wasn't much for police to go on. Someone should call her to get her description of the perpetrator.
zeptepi- I was assuming she was working at the Tom Thumb at the time of the disappearance, but I do not know for sure.

 

[shergal]

I was the one who found that comment on a Jacob Wetterling story and reported it to the Wetterling foundation. I have never heard back so I am assuming it wasn't much for police to go on. Someone should call her to get her description of the perpetrator.
zeptepi- I was assuming she was working at the Tom Thumb at the time of the disappearance, but I do not know for sure.

It would have to be either the St. Joe Tom Thumb or the convenience store in Avon. IIRC, a woman reported the same creepy looking, staring guy stopped in her store in Avon around that same time. She recognized him from the missing flyers. I'll see if I can find a link.

Found it! And I never saw this article before either (at least not since 1989) it's very detailed.
" The man also was seen earlier the same day glaring at children and other customers at a convenience store in Avon, about 6 miles away."

http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=11579041

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

It would have to be either the St. Joe Tom Thumb or the convenience store in Avon. IIRC, a woman reported the same creepy looking, staring guy stopped in her store in Avon around that same time. She recognized him from the missing flyers. I'll see if I can find a link.

Found it! And I never saw this article before either (at least not since 1989) it's very detailed.
" The man also was seen earlier the same day glaring at children and other customers at a convenience store in Avon, about 6 miles away."

http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=11579041

That is a pretty detailed description. What did the people at the Tom Thumb say about when the man left, and which direction he went? Did the boys see him when they were at the store, and if so did they see any cars going their direction as they were leaving? Did anyone else recognize the car, or give similar descriptions? So many questions.
I would think with that description, it would be pretty easy to recognize who is is, if he were from - or was visiting in the area. He would probably stand out.

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

I wonder if anyone ever made sense out of this?

"Dear Patty and Jerry,
My husband and I will be arriving in Mn sometime tomorrow afternoon. I had my operation on my adreanal gland a week ago and I am doing fine. The biopsy report has not come yet, I know it will not be in my favor. We will be doing an Expo for retired baby boomers at Mystic Lake Casino on the 5th and 6th. We have to be back to Az by the 14th , for I have a doctor's appointment then. I would like to meet with you as SOON as possible to locate Jacob. I truly believe he is alive and the man who came in to our store the day Jacob was taken from yous the abductor . I'll never forget his face or the look in his eyes,

Please contact me on my cell phone:651-251-7380

Posted by Carol Allen from Green Valley, AZ | October 1, 2010 2:45 AM"


As far as I know a poster sent this into the Jacob Wetterling Center and they reported it to LE. I've never heard anything more about it, I'm guessing it was probably just another bogus lead. Also about DR, yes I do think he knows than he is telling and obviously LE knows that too. Why else would they make him a POI to the public.

Please try to call Patty Wetterling at her office or home- she has not changed her phone number. She also has an email at her State of MN office for Sex Abuse Prevention. She may not be on this website, but I am sure she would be more than happy to talk to you.

 

[shergal]

Please try to call Patty Wetterling at her office or home- she has not changed her phone number. She also has an email at her State of MN office for Sex Abuse Prevention. She may not be on this website, but I am sure she would be more than happy to talk to you.

See post #65. JBrown already sent this info to the Wetterling Foundation long ago.

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

Please try to call Patty Wetterling at her office or home- she has not changed her phone number. She also has an email at her State of MN office for Sex Abuse Prevention. She may not be on this website, but I am sure she would be more than happy to talk to you.

See post #65. JBrown already sent this info to the Wetterling Foundation long ago.

I am sorry. I didn't see that it was from a much earlier post. I am new here, and still learning the ropes. Also, I couldn't figure out how to delete or edit my post once it was done. I will try to pay better attention.

 

[chef81]

I wonder if anyone ever made sense out of this?

"Dear Patty and Jerry,
My husband and I will be arriving in Mn sometime tomorrow afternoon. I had my operation on my adreanal gland a week ago and I am doing fine. The biopsy report has not come yet, I know it will not be in my favor. We will be doing an Expo for retired baby boomers at Mystic Lake Casino on the 5th and 6th. We have to be back to Az by the 14th , for I have a doctor's appointment then. I would like to meet with you as SOON as possible to locate Jacob. I truly believe he is alive and the man who came in to our store the day Jacob was taken from yous the abductor . I'll never forget his face or the look in his eyes,

Please contact me on my cell phone:651-251-7380

Posted by Carol Allen from Green Valley, AZ | October 1, 2010 2:45 AM"


As far as I know a poster sent this into the Jacob Wetterling Center and they reported it to LE. I've never heard anything more about it, I'm guessing it was probably just another bogus lead. Also about DR, yes I do think he knows than he is telling and obviously LE knows that too. Why else would they make him a POI to the public.

I have no idea what ever came out of that situation, or who the woman is and where she had even seen the man. I think this "creepy old man" as he is usually referred to, didn't have anything to do with Jacob's abduction. I can't imagine how he could have gotten ahead of the boys on their way home from the Tom Thumb without them noticing. I believe this man probably did give off a creepy vibe, and who knows what he may have been up to. But I don't get the feeling that he had anything to do with the dissappearance of Jacob. I think he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, but who really knows for sure? Jacob was most likely stalked several days prior to the abduction, and whoever the perp was I think he might have known somehow that the boys would be alone that night. Any other opinions??

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

I have no idea what ever came out of that situation, or who the woman is and where she had even seen the man. I think this "creepy old man" as he is usually referred to, didn't have anything to do with Jacob's abduction. I can't imagine how he could have gotten ahead of the boys on their way home from the Tom Thumb without them noticing. I believe this man probably did give off a creepy vibe, and who knows what he may have been up to. But I don't get the feeling that he had anything to do with the dissappearance of Jacob. I think he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, but who really knows for sure? Jacob was most likely stalked several days prior to the abduction, and whoever the perp was I think he might have known somehow that the boys would be alone that night. Any other opinions??

So many questions... not nearly enough answers. One question I had is about CB radios in the area. Do you think that the pizza delivery used CB radios to get in touch with drivers? Isn't that kind of rural communication easily intercepted? Also, if there was more than one person involved -ie one at the store or along the way, and one in position, couldn't this have been a way to communicate? I know that CB radios were big in the 80's. Maybe still - who knows? I think you have to rule out whether it was possible for anyone to have gotten info about the boys traveling to the store that night. If not it had to have been a spur of the moment decision based on opportunity.
I had said before, regarding the guy at the store's- if he weren't from the area and was acting strange- and dressed the way he was, he would definitely have stood out. By the same token, someone looking like that who was from the area would be easy to identify.

 

[shergal]

So many questions... not nearly enough answers. One question I had is about CB radios in the area. Do you think that the pizza delivery used CB radios to get in touch with drivers? Isn't that kind of rural communication easily intercepted? Also, if there was more than one person involved -ie one at the store or along the way, and one in position, couldn't this have been a way to communicate? I know that CB radios were big in the 80's. Maybe still - who knows? I think you have to rule out whether it was possible for anyone to have gotten info about the boys traveling to the store that night. If not it had to have been a spur of the moment decision based on opportunity.
I had said before, regarding the guy at the store's- if he weren't from the area and was acting strange- and dressed the way he was, he would definitely have stood out. By the same token, someone looking like that who was from the area would be easy to identify.

zeptepi: I bolded the part where I think you have hit on the answer. JMO

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

zeptepi: I bolded the part where I think you have hit on the answer. JMO

Okay, so spur of the moment leaves out a lot of people. It doesn't seem like there would have been a ton of traffic on that road in 1989. It looks like it dead ends at the cul de sac. It had to be someone who was on that road and saw the boys going to the store, and made the decision. Which keeps DR in the running. Who else lives on or travels that road? Did the boys see any cars on either leg of the journey? Did DR have anyone visiting at the house? I also have a question about the road where Anthony Rassier now has a house. At the time of the abduction, it was just a dirt road of some kind. How far back did it go? Did they rule out whether a car was parked there hidden in the trees?

 

[shergal]

Wow, you all have to go listen to this! I was looking up the site that shows the original crime scene for zeptepi/solitary and they have added the whole full length 12 minute 911 call now. (They used to just have a quick soundbite of the guy calling.) I'm kind of freaking out, because the home were they say it happened is a name I haven't heard mentioned before and I know that guy. I think he may be dead now - not sure, but he used to come and till my folk's garden every year when I was younger. In the 911 call (which you click to hear under the video) you even hear Trevor's voice describing the guy. Did we know he was about 195 lbs. and about 5' 10"? I don't recall hearing that.
They have also added to the "in their words" video to include more comments from Aaron, Patty and Jerry.

http://www.sctimes.com/section/wetterling
Click on "in their words" for video, and on the scene for crime scene pictures.

Solitary: In answer to your pother question, there was no road where AR's house is now back in 1989. It's shown in the scene pictures, there is just kind of a turnaround area.

And the boys saw NO cars either coming or going to Tom Thumb.

 

[shergal]

Solitary: Other good links on Jacob you may want to check out:
http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/October-2009/Without-a-Trace/

http://www.globegazette.com/article_2b0e6832-84d0-11df-85ff-001cc4c03286.html

May 16, 1996: Search warrants authorities thought were sealed are released to the public. The warrants reveal three potential suspects authorities considered early in the investigation: A then 60-year-old St. Joseph-area man who confessed to the kidnapping one month after it occurred. The man was later eliminated as a suspect and moved to a nursing home because he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. A St. Cloud State University student who was committed to a mental institution one week after Jacob’s abduction. The man later was eliminated as a suspect and killed himself in another state. A Paynesville-area man who fit the description of a man suspected of abducting and sexually assaulting a Cold Spring boy. Authorities searched his home three months after the Cold Spring abduction. Police then said that the man wasn’t a top suspect in the St. Joseph abduction, but at least one paragraph in the search warrant was blocked out.
____________

Also, another poster here on websleuths, "Camille Grace", found this article in a newspaper named the Newsleader, but the article is no longer available online:

MN MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 1989 - Part 3

It is supposedly Dan Rassier talking about "peculiar things he witnessed the day of Jacob's abduction." This poster who uses the ID "Camille Grace" says this article was printed in The Newsleader - but when searching the newsleader's archives it does not come up. Maybe you could contact the paper or this "Dennis Dalman" who wrote the article and find out if it's true.

Here is the (long) article, I thought you might want to investigate this further. If this is true it sounds to me like Dan Rassier is placing himself right at the site of the kidnapping, by saying he was out jogging around on that same road right before dark.

Hope you can find some answers on this...

Camille Grace

Registered User

Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 3

This article was on the web last summer, then it disappeared, and now it's back:

http://www.thenewsleaders.com/person...nessed-things2. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Aug 25, 2010 16:28:07 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more

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August 25, 2010
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‘Person of interest’ says he witnessed ‘things’

On the late autumn day of the evening Jacob Wetterling was abducted, a nearby neighbor, Dan Rassier, said he “witnessed” many peculiar things in the area southeast of St. Joseph.

The day was Sunday, Oct. 22, 1989.

Next day, once Rassier became aware of Jacob’s abduction, the “things” he saw coalesced in his mind as vital connections pointing the way to solving the crime.

Rassier spoke of his frustration in a lengthy July 3 telephone interview with the St. Joseph Newsleader. He is frustrated, he said, because nobody has followed through with the information he so willingly shared about the “things” he saw that day. Rassier, citing “trust issues” with the media, declined to divulge the kinds of things he saw, although, when questioned further, he did more or less agree those “things” were people and/or vehicles. Rassier said he spent a good part of that day jogging on the road past the Delwin Ballroom, where a polka fest was taking place, and on his neighborhood roads, including the one on which Jacob was abducted, just before darkness fell. Jacob was taken on that road (91st Avenue) right at the spot where it intersects with the long driveway to the Robert and Rita Rassier farm.

Rassier said he “witnessed” things throughout that entire day and into the early evening. When he was not jogging, he spent all of the time at home Oct. 22. At that time - as now - Rassier has lived with his parents.

Another reason Rassier cited for not divulging details about the things he saw is because he does not want to tip off anyone guilty of the abduction.

“I am an innocent witness to what happened,” he said. “But I definitely saw something. All of the investigators know the information I told them.”

Rassier has a vivid memory of that autumn day of two decades ago when 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling, his brother and a friend had gone to the Tom Thumb convenience store to get some treats and a video. While returning home on the rural township road, a masked gunman stopped the boys. He told the brother and the friend to run into the woods. When the boys looked back from the woods, Jacob and the man were gone.

From the beginning, Dan Rassier was one of many people questioned by law enforcement.

“I was completely cooperative with them,” Rassier said. “They gave me all kinds of tests, including a lie-detector test. I told them about what I’d witnessed.”

Now, 20 years later, Rassier is yet again a “person of interest” by law enforcement. Last week, a variety of law-enforcement agenices, including the F.B.I., converged in force on the Rassier farm, confiscating some unspecified items and digging up earth from a gravel bed and then trucking it from the farm. Authorities have been tight-lipped about the reason for the raid and about confiscated items, saying only that the search of the farm was precipitated by a court order.

Rassier vigorously denies having anything to do with the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling.

“Yes, this is very tough,” Rassier said. “It’s a nightmare, but it’s nothing next to losing a son (Jacob). I’ve been getting a lot of death threats. I can handle this, but what worries me is my parents. It’s so hard on them. They (media) are saying horrible things about us. They are ruining our lives.”

On a bright side, Rassier noted, he and his parents are receiving a lot of cards, letters and calls of support and sympathy from friends, relatives and well-wishers.

Rassier, 54, is a music-band teacher for the Cold Spring/Rocori School District. He is also an avid runner who has participated in countless marathons during the past few decades.

Posted on Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Dennis Dalman

 

[Solitary Truth Sleuth]

Wow, you all have to go listen to this! I was looking up the site that shows the original crime scene for zeptepi/solitary and they have added the whole full length 12 minute 911 call now. (They used to just have a quick soundbite of the guy calling.) I'm kind of freaking out, because the home were they say it happened is a name I haven't heard mentioned before and I know that guy. I think he may be dead now - not sure, but he used to come and till my folk's garden every year when I was younger. In the 911 call (which you click to hear under the video) you even hear Trevor's voice describing the guy. Did we know he was about 195 lbs. and about 5' 10"? I don't recall hearing that.
They have also added to the "in their words" video to include more comments from Aaron, Patty and Jerry.

http://www.sctimes.com/section/wetterling
Click on "in their words" for video, and on the scene for crime scene pictures.

Solitary: In answer to your pother question, there was no road where AR's house is now back in 1989. It's shown in the scene pictures, there is just kind of a turnaround area.

And the boys saw NO cars either coming or going to Tom Thumb.

OMG! I can't believe it. I had a hard time hearing it all. I am going to listen to it again, and I will post again later.

 

[Jbrown324320]

I was at St Cloud State when Jacob disappeared. I remember being so shaken because it was my first time away from home, away at college and it happened so close!

In my opinion, the perpetrator has to be in very frail health or dead. He was described in 1989 as being in his 50's. 22 years onto 50 (if he was 50) is 72. He has to be in his 70's. I still think that DR knows who did it but doesn't want to snitch because of a possible code of silence between some pedophile group which probably still operates. DR doesn't want to get into trouble with the group.

Shergal, good catch. I will have to listen to it.

 

[Mom who cares]

Many thanks to anyone who would take the time to transcribe the complete 911 call for those of us without sound

 

[shergal]

Here is the dentist clinic that they said was 1/4 mile north of abduction site in that 911 call. "Jacob was taken approx. 1/4 mile south of Dr. Cotton's clinic"

Dr's. Cotton & Styles, D.D.S 1514 E Minnesota St., St. Joseph, MN

Google map:
Google Maps


1514 East Minnesota Street, Saint Joseph, MN 56374-8618 - Google Maps


Has a street view also. I think this must be a newer location for the clinic, but someone local should know. They must have been further east on Minnesota street directly at the end of what is now 16th Ave. SE originally.

I'm guessing Schreifel's originally had a home or farm across the road from DR, because it comes to the same location. That was probably Schreifel's field they laid their bikes down in. (Mr. Urban Schreifel was already in his 70's thirty years ago.)