MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 22 Oct 1989 - #5

[cGorg]

I have 2 other items that I've wondered about...if anyone has any ideas on these items?

1. The sound heard by Aaron in the grass on the west(left)side of the road as the boys were going to Tom Thumb in a location near the abduction site. It's either an animal or the perp himself. I assume it was the perp spying on the boys. Why that side of the road?
2. As the boys are returning home, the man appears from the driveway....now he's on the opposite side of the road. Why?

 

[shergal]

I have 2 other items that I've wondered about...if anyone has any ideas on these items?

1. The sound heard by Aaron in the grass on the west(left)side of the road as the boys were going to Tom Thumb in a location near the abduction site. It's either an animal or the perp himself. I assume it was the perp spying on the boys. Why that side of the road?
2. As the boys are returning home, the man appears from the driveway....now he's on the opposite side of the road. Why?

This is just a guess on my part, but this is an overhead shot of the area currently. I have added green boxes in where there used to be woods. Hopefully the type is not too hard to read, but I have marked the clump of trees on the left (west) side of the road as "lone tree area." I would think back in 1989 this may have been a shorter bushes/tall grass area. It may just be as simple as the abductor knew this was the only brush area he could really hide behind, if the rest of the area was plowed field.

 

[cGorg]

shergal,

that is interesting. thanks for your resourcefulness! however, if you look at the pictures of the area from 1989 on the Saint Autumn website....you can see the trees to the west are a rather thin line. Also, the fields to the west are green and low cut as if a grassy field. The fields to the east are corn. As for the copse of trees that you indicate as the Lone Tree Area being only a brush area in 1989 I don't know how big the trees were in 1989....but I always assumed that the perp was actually in the grass in the ditch laying very low and very near the approach which is opposite the driveway. You can see a police car parked near this area in the photos. The bikes shown in this ditch do show longer grass so a person dressed in black could be unseen in the ditch. If the perp was indeed located in the Lone Tree Area then it seems either he arrived there from the north on foot or was following the boys on foot as they left their neighborhood.

 

[shergal]

The Wetterling neighborhood is south, not north, but I get what you mean. As I stated, it was just a guess. If the abductor was hiding in the grass right across from Rassier's driveway, that would seem to indicate someone who arrived from the West, possibly Bahners or someone who had been hanging out at the party spot in the woods back there. It's all speculation really, if DR was out running later than he stated, he could have been in any of those spots also, after moving off the road when he heard the boys coming.

For those who think the perp was in a car waiting though, do they think the noise in the grass was an accomplice hiding in the tall grass then?

 

[cGorg]

The Wetterling neighborhood is south, not north, but I get what you mean. As I stated, it was just a guess. If the abductor was hiding in the grass right across from Rassier's driveway, that would seem to indicate someone who arrived from the West, possibly Bahners or someone who had been hanging out at the party spot in the woods back there. It's all speculation really, if DR was out running later than he stated, he could have been in any of those spots also, after moving off the road when he heard the boys coming.

For those who think the perp was in a car waiting though, do they think the noise in the grass was an accomplice hiding in the tall grass then?

You nailed EXACTLY what I was thinking. Yes, of course, the Wetterling neighborhood was south + west of DR's property-your maps show that. Your guess was something I hadn't thought of before. My point was, DR could have been running from the north and seen the flashlight from the south and lay in the ditch(to the west) OR as you stated, the Bahners could have been in the 'party spot' and having seen the flashlight, run to either the 'lone tree area' or to the west approach and watched the boys pass by. The downside for DR is anything seems to fit. The Bahners must be placed at the site....is 'Ben' the one that places them there? If so, how could he see in such darkness? Both theories fit however. And both theories fit regarding the perp appearing from the driveway: if DR, then he simply walked along the driveway awaiting the boys returning from Tom Thumb, and if a perp was in a car, they 'stashed' the car halfway up DR's driveway, walked up(west) on the driveway and awaited the boys return. In the dark, the perp would be at an advantage.

 

[human]

Sure is a lot of people and activity out there on a Sunday night.

I am confused about the St. autumn map. It is not from 1989 is it?

 

[ELOCsoul]

OK, back on the research trail after a brief hiatus...

At 5pm on Friday August 3, 1990 - a boy called the Stearns County Crimestoppers hotline claiming that he was Jacob, and was calling from a payphone in Forrest, Illinois. He asked for help but hung up quickly, saying he had to go.

The boy said he was calling from near a park, but authorities were working with the phone company and speculated the call came from the intersection of Hwy 47 and 24 in Forrest.

LE placed a story about Jacob in the local newspaper, along with his picture. A woman who works at a convenience store called and said she saw a boy making a phone call from a pay phone across from the convenience store. She said she then saw a man put the boy in a red station wagon and drive away.

The lead dried up after no one else came forward.

Source - 8/09/90 & 8/10/90 St Cloud Times

 

[ELOCsoul]

I have 2 other items that I've wondered about...if anyone has any ideas on these items?

1. The sound heard by Aaron in the grass on the west(left)side of the road as the boys were going to Tom Thumb in a location near the abduction site. It's either an animal or the perp himself. I assume it was the perp spying on the boys. Why that side of the road?
2. As the boys are returning home, the man appears from the driveway....now he's on the opposite side of the road. Why?

IMHO - the perp was outside on foot - perhaps window-peeping in the Wetterling neighborhood. He could have also been out jogging or walking and simply ducked into the field as the boys approached.

Several ideas come to mind:

1. That the perp was out prowling and saw the boys leave the Wetterling house. The boys go the approx 2/10th mile east before turning north toward the Tom Thumb. The perp cuts diagonally across the field, nearly intersecting with the boys again near DR's driveway. This perp could have been parked in a field and his vehicle unseen by the boys. This could explain why Jacob's prints went partly up the driveway - maybe the perp picked Jacob up and carried him north to a waiting car. Heading partly up DR's driveway could have been a way divert attention to whomever lived there.

2. Remember that Matthew Feeney was dropping off a boy(s) from camp just minutes before or after the abduction. If it was before the abduction, maybe there was someone else from camp lurking in that neighborhood where the boy(s) had just been dropped off? Feeney himself supposedly has an alibi.

3. DR was outside running and hid on the west side of the road when he saw the boys coming.

4. There were others outside by the party spot.

 

[thenotebook]

OK, back on the research trail after a brief hiatus...

At 5pm on Friday August 3, 1990 - a boy called the Stearns County Crimestoppers hotline claiming that he was Jacob, and was calling from a payphone in Forrest, Illinois. He asked for help but hung up quickly, saying he had to go.

The boy said he was calling from near a park, but authorities were working with the phone company and speculated the call came from the intersection of Hwy 47 and 24 in Forrest.

LE placed a story about Jacob in the local newspaper, along with his picture. A woman who works at a convenience store called and said she saw a boy making a phone call from a pay phone across from the convenience store. She said she then saw a man put the boy in a red station wagon and drive away.

The lead dried up after no one else came forward.

Source - 8/09/90 & 8/10/90 St Cloud Times

Interesting. I've never heard this before. Was the Crimestoppers hotline a 1-800 number though? Or would Jacob have known how to make a collect call?? And why wouldn't he have just called his home phone #?

 

[human]

Good point about calling his own home phone or 911.

Was there a poster nearby so he could see the Crime stoppers number?

I know the Wetterlings got prank phone calls from kids pretending to be Jacob.

 

[cGorg]

Sure is a lot of people and activity out there on a Sunday night.

I am confused about the St. autumn map. It is not from 1989 is it?

I was referring to the news pictures on Saint Autumns site, not a map

 

[cGorg]

OK, back on the research trail after a brief hiatus...

At 5pm on Friday August 3, 1990 - a boy called the Stearns County Crimestoppers hotline claiming that he was Jacob, and was calling from a payphone in Forrest, Illinois. He asked for help but hung up quickly, saying he had to go.

The boy said he was calling from near a park, but authorities were working with the phone company and speculated the call came from the intersection of Hwy 47 and 24 in Forrest.

LE placed a story about Jacob in the local newspaper, along with his picture. A woman who works at a convenience store called and said she saw a boy making a phone call from a pay phone across from the convenience store. She said she then saw a man put the boy in a red station wagon and drive away.

The lead dried up after no one else came forward.

Source - 8/09/90 & 8/10/90 St Cloud Times

as per Google Earth, there is a convenience store on the southwest corner....wonder if it was there in 1989? One would assume so as it's a major intersection. Very interesting story.

 

[shergal]

I remember when they ran the article in the paper about this boy calling. It doesn't seem to make sense that if it was Jacob, he would call the Crimestopper's number instead of calling home. Especially at 5 pm.

 

[KeepHopeAlive]

I don't think it's far fetched for a boy Jacob's age and in Jacob's situation to call 911 (or whatever number is available to him) instead of calling home. He's in a dangerous situation. He's probably scared. He might not know exactly where he is. He has only a small window of opportunity to make a phone call. The police can be there in minutes to help him and bring him home.

 

[shergal]

I don't think it's far fetched for a boy Jacob's age and in Jacob's situation to call 911 (or whatever number is available to him) instead of calling home. He's in a dangerous situation. He's probably scared. He might not know exactly where he is. He has only a small window of opportunity to make a phone call. The police can be there in minutes to help him and bring him home.

I agree on calling 911. What I meant is to call a long 800 number seems odd.

 

[ELOCsoul]

In reading through old articles it appears there were a significant number of suspects early on. Many leads were followed up on.

For example, a journalist from Nashville called the St Cloud Times to order newspaper copies from the week after the abduction. Almost immediately the FBI came knocking and interviewed the man, took his picture, inspected his car and tires, etc.

Wetterling family friend Vern Iverson joined the search effort for Jacob right away - but his efforts were focused on organizing a media blitz. He was able to get news stations to the scene, contacts made at the national level, and recurring stories to keep the case "fresh". His level of involvement and the precision-like media blitz gave the FBI reason to suspect he was involved in the kidnapping, and he was considered a prime suspect. He was interviewed twice by the FBI, for a total of 5 hours - asked to detail his activities in Central America, etc. He agreed to a lie detector test but it was never administered.

My point is - it appears that LE cast a wide net and thoroughly vetted a large number of suspects. I know that I, among others, have been critical of LE missing a lot of info early on. But after reading up on articles from the time - they did as much as humanly possible. Most likely, DR was a suspect from the very beginning - probably a top suspect for a much longer period of time than we realize.

 

[human]

Thanks for all of that info.

The Wetterlings have a lot of professional friends who helped them.

They had many people who helped because they are super people.

Jacob's young sweet life changed many lives. The Jacob Wetterling act. The Jacob Wetterling Center. His parents have worked tirelessly for missing children.

People held their children more and told them they loved them.

He is a shining light

 

[thenotebook]

Agreed. He is a shining light and he deserves justice.

It seems through this thread we've identified some pretty strong suspects: DR, DAH, Bahner's, Meekman.

I'd love to know if LE has visited DAH. It sounds like this was the guy arrested in Jared's case, and I personally believe that the two cases are related.

 

[human]

DAH had lots of victims. Where did he get them all in the tiny towns he lived in?

Of course LE looked at DAH. I could not remember his hame, but I remembered the story. He was cleared for whatever reason. JBrown with her amazing sleuthing skills figured out who he is.

I wish we had a more recent pic of him.

If he was drinking since age 6, he must have been beyond a severe alkie. I wonder ifnhe even drove?

 

[ELOCsoul]

I remember when they ran the article in the paper about this boy calling. It doesn't seem to make sense that if it was Jacob, he would call the Crimestopper's number instead of calling home. Especially at 5 pm.

Near the 1 year anniversary of Jacob's abduction - there was an article featuring Patty - she said this particular call really haunted her. This was the 7th such call from someone claiming to be Jacob, but the first 6 were hoaxes. This one had more substance. But you're right - the only way it really could have been Jacob is if he had picked up a flyer somewhere else and kept it (or remembered the # to call) until the opportunity to call arose.