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

[human]

More dog info

http://www.jimmyryce.org/ScentCollection.html

 

[Trackergd]

I am a Native American trained tracker with over 40 years experience and over 30 years or SAR experience, and I have used tricks over the years that have confounded dogs. Not as hard as you would think. I have been called upon to serve as a "lost subject" in dog training drills.

Scent is also affected by humidity, hot or cold, time of day, air currents etc...

Dogs, Sign Cutters, Grid Searchers and Trackers all working together is the best scenario. Rely too much on just one and the probability of error jumps up quite a bit.

 

[Trackergd]

Will also add that one of the links you posted (West Jersey K9) is one of the teams I have worked with in the past and was a "search subject" for. There is a somewhat un-flattering news article floating around comparing me to a "good dog" during a drill.

 

[shergal]

I will look back at the previous posts on this case. It has been my experience that when tracks and/or a scent trail end abruptly, the individual has been picked up or entered a vehicle. If picked up, a second set of prints (adult) should be visible. There are very rare cases where an individual knows how to walk backwards in their own prints, but a trained eye can usually see the indirect register and go back to where they stepped off to one side or another.

There have been a number of cases over the years where abducted boys and girls who live with their abductor long enough and have been threatened enough with death if they attempt to escape that they stay with their abductor and are even left at home alone during the day.

I just find it interesting that the boy making the call noted they were near a park when none are in line of sight of the intersection, yet there are at least three areas that appear to be open grassy areas that could be considered a park or ball field. That would suggest he is in the immediate area of the station and was familiar enough with the location and the actions of his abductor that he felt he had the time and ability to make the call without being caught and punished.

I would be looking at near by areas that had parks and looking hard at any remote houses or buildings that are out of the eyes of neighbors. I would also forward aged photographs of Jacob to all the local schools, clinics etc..

I like your theory of the caller knowing there was a park nearby but not being able to see it from that intersection meaning he might have been kept somewhere nearby. Of course, this was 24 years ago, so where that gas station is now, may have been a park back then and the small building across the street may have been the convenience store. Solving cases from 24 years ago is challenging, because you have to picture how things would have been back then. Too bad we don't have a time machine.

 

[Tulessa]

I am a Native American trained tracker with over 40 years experience and over 30 years or SAR experience, and I have used tricks over the years that have confounded dogs. Not as hard as you would think. I have been called upon to serve as a "lost subject" in dog training drills.

Scent is also affected by humidity, hot or cold, time of day, air currents etc...

Dogs, Sign Cutters, Grid Searchers and Trackers all working together is the best scenario. Rely too much on just one and the probability of error jumps up quite a bit.

O/T but Cherokee here. I bet you can walk on dry leaves without making a sound? Mom taught me that little trick.

 

[human]

I am a Native American trained tracker with over 40 years experience and over 30 years or SAR experience, and I have used tricks over the years that have confounded dogs. Not as hard as you would think. I have been called upon to serve as a "lost subject" in dog training drills.

Scent is also affected by humidity, hot or cold, time of day, air currents etc...

Dogs, Sign Cutters, Grid Searchers and Trackers all working together is the best scenario. Rely too much on just one and the probability of error jumps up quite a bit.

Exactly the issue of the missing Jacob scent. Hard to know why the scent disappeared. So many issues. We are missing a lot of info such as what kind of dogs were used.

We do have the info that it was very dry.

Dogs have many facets that I did not know about, so more unknowns.

Jerry had some excellent relationships with Natives. Maybe you will be the one who cracks this open

 

[human]

On a different note, I wonder if Diane Muehlbauer who is going to have a blog on Jacob is so interested because of the artist in the red car. Her brother is an artist. Could he have been the one in the red car ?

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I came across this link yesterday for the Unsolved Mysteries television show. It mentions that Jacob's case was never featured on the show, which is so strange! This case seems to be right up their alley?!?

"The case was requested by the Wetterling family to be on Unsolved Mysteries, but it was denied. It is profiled [on this website] because of its connection to several other disappearances on the show."

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Jacob_Wetterling

There's an Unsolved Mysteries forum with fans of the show who have a lot of knowledge about it, so I searched for Jacob's name to see if there were any comments about the refusal to air a segment about his case. Someone emailed the JW Foundation about it and this was their reply:

Thank you for contacting the Jacob Wetterling Foundation. Jacob's story
was
never on Unsolved Mysteries as they believed there was not enough
information for them to solve it.

Thank you for your question.

Sincerely,

Deb Schmidt
Manager of Community Outreach and Education
Jacob Wetterling Foundation

 

[shergal]

Seriously? They only do shows on cases they can solve? Wow.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

Seriously? They only do shows on cases they can solve? Wow.

It's a BS excuse. I doubt that's the real reason it was declined. They've had segment focused on supernatural mysteries, ones that are impossible to solve. Heck, they had an episode in 1996 about Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown's "unsolved" murder.

ETA: I think the most likely reason is, that Unsolved Mysteries likes to do a variety of cases, and perhaps at the time they got the request, they had already done recent shows about missing children. They don't want the show to become too focused on one type of unsolved case.

 

[Alyssa2013]

I second the above comment. Not only that, the show was called "Unsolved Mysteries" for a reason...it's just strange that they didn't take Jacob's case. Anyway, I've followed his case for awhile now and it's almost always on my mind. It's not surprising though that they haven't found the perpetrator because there's very, very little to go on. I'm not saying that it's impossible to find the man, however. I do believe that he's still out there. Based on the details of the crime I think that this man, whoever he was, was probably not a first-timer. I say this because the crime that he committed would be considered a serious felony, or assault with a deadly weapon. Sometimes first-timers commit this kind of a crime, but I think that he had done this before. Actually, two months after Jacob disappeared, a boy was pulled into a car and molested on his way home. The man then instructed him to run all the way home or risk being shot. This circumstance is, IMO, eerily similar to Jacob's...the only difference being that Jacob never made it home. I think that they did check all sex offenders in the area, correct? I think I read that somewhere. I've often wondered why the man asked the boys their ages. To me there was purpose in that but I don't know what. Have you all heard of this? "In December 2008, police in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, searched the home of Vernon Seitz, a barber who told his psychiatrist that he killed two boys in the 1950s. Seitz was found dead in his home, but investigators discovered a variety of disturbing items, including a photo of Wetterling. Authorities say Seitz is not linked to Wetterling's disappearance." I'm wondering why this Seitz man even had a picture of Jacob in his house at all. To me that's just creepy. Given, that doesn't make him the murderer. But it's still strange IMO. Also, Matt Feeney was checked out because of the molestation charges against him and also because he had a fascination with the Wetterling case. He's no longer a suspect. Out of all of the leads related to Jacob's case there isn't one suspect that the police are really looking at. Jacob was so young and full of life it's beyond devastating to know that this case hasn't been solved yet.

 

[Alyssa2013]

I apologize for saying "murderer," as Jacob's body has not yet been found, I can't conclude that he was killed. I also selfishly hold out the hope that he's still alive out there somewhere.

 

[KeepHopeAlive]

...I also selfishly hold out the hope that he's still alive out there somewhere.

Many of us do.

 

[human]

I found human's comments interesting as well as ELOCsoul's story of the boy calling from Forrest, IL. If you get on MapQuest and ask directions from St Joseph, MN to Forrest, you can see Forrest is very very close to Urbana, IL. Is this the school of music attended by DR? Have I got that right?

Yes, that is right

 

[cGorg]

hmmmm......how coincidental is that?

 

[shergal]

I second the above comment. Not only that, the show was called "Unsolved Mysteries" for a reason...it's just strange that they didn't take Jacob's case. Anyway, I've followed his case for awhile now and it's almost always on my mind. It's not surprising though that they haven't found the perpetrator because there's very, very little to go on. I'm not saying that it's impossible to find the man, however. I do believe that he's still out there. Based on the details of the crime I think that this man, whoever he was, was probably not a first-timer. I say this because the crime that he committed would be considered a serious felony, or assault with a deadly weapon. Sometimes first-timers commit this kind of a crime, but I think that he had done this before. Actually, two months after Jacob disappeared, a boy was pulled into a car and molested on his way home. The man then instructed him to run all the way home or risk being shot. This circumstance is, IMO, eerily similar to Jacob's...the only difference being that Jacob never made it home. I think that they did check all sex offenders in the area, correct? I think I read that somewhere. I've often wondered why the man asked the boys their ages. To me there was purpose in that but I don't know what. Have you all heard of this? "In December 2008, police in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, searched the home of Vernon Seitz, a barber who told his psychiatrist that he killed two boys in the 1950s. Seitz was found dead in his home, but investigators discovered a variety of disturbing items, including a photo of Wetterling. Authorities say Seitz is not linked to Wetterling's disappearance." I'm wondering why this Seitz man even had a picture of Jacob in his house at all. To me that's just creepy. Given, that doesn't make him the murderer. But it's still strange IMO. Also, Matt Feeney was checked out because of the molestation charges against him and also because he had a fascination with the Wetterling case. He's no longer a suspect. Out of all of the leads related to Jacob's case there isn't one suspect that the police are really looking at. Jacob was so young and full of life it's beyond devastating to know that this case hasn't been solved yet.

Just a couple points, Jared (the other boy) was molested about 10 months before Jacob, and Jared's story was only published after jacob was taken. Also, LE does still have one person named as a POI after all this time, that is DR.

 

[Trackergd]

O/T but Cherokee here. I bet you can walk on dry leaves without making a sound? Mom taught me that little trick.

BBM. Lenni Lenapi Wolf Clan. So you can "fox walk"? Too bad even kids on the Rez are not learning the old skills. We need more SAR Trackers and Scouts... Good thing most lost people leave a trail that looks like a heard of elk went though....if you know how to look. :seeya:

Back O/T: Something tells me he knew that area where the gas station was very well. Most local historical associations have photographs of the area over the years, so do the Building Codes inspectors. Somewhere in County or state Records is a photograph of that intersection, could even be one in the family of the gas old station owner, and their name would be in the lot tax records. One of those grassy areas could also have been a ball field for local kids. I bet there is at least one or two folks in that area who were living there around the time of the phone call and can give a detailed description of the area.

 

[Wisdom]

Everytime I watch this video below of Dan and any others for that matter I just can't help but think he's responsible.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/...est-goes-through-day-of-wetterling-abduction/

When he says he's absolutely convinced 100 percent that the person that drove the tan colored car in the afternoon is the kidnapper.....where is the logic in that? There isn't any!! Why on earth would he think someone driving a car in the afternoon be responsible for an abduction later that night and at that same location no less which was a last minute plan thought up by the boys that night. None of this or anything with DR from the beginning adds up. The only car he saw was Kevin's which probably startled him while he was in the process of doing something with Jacob. In fact seeing Kevin's car just might have been what gave him the idea of placing a vehicle on scene to begin with. Then by saying he would go check some of his outbuildings that night for Jacob is very telling in my opinion because most people wouldn't do that alone or with only a flash light in hand since there would be a chance they could be in one of the buildings which would be a dangerous situation in confronting anyone. Just too many common sense things stacked up against DR which is exactly why an agent asked him to confess....LE knows he's responsible. I wish he would just confess and get it over with! Then he can start enjoying his free meals and cable tv.

 

[thenotebook]

I agree with you Wisdom. I've thought that about the tan colored car too. I'm not sure what the heck that has to do with the kidnapping. If he had seen the car speed up the driveway and turn around at like 9:15 that night, yes that would probably be related. But it was in the middle of the afternoon?!

Why would someone that was planning a kidnapping at that spot make themselves visible in broad daylight hours before? It doesn't make sense.

I don't think DR fits the physical description of the perp though. And the gravely voice - he doesn't have that either.

 

[KeepHopeAlive]

LE does not have the evidence they need to arrest DR or he'd be in jail right now. I don't think a confession from DR is going to do any good, unless it leads directly to Jacob. What if DR is innocent, no matter how guilty he might look? How many times has this happened in other cases? There is still the possiblity that someone else is involved. Neither the Wetterlings nor Jacob need a false confession from anyone. A confession from someone who might be guilty is not justice.