MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 22 Oct 1989 - #6

[Sere-nity]

Updating cGorg's timeline he created in thread 5 with this new info about Charlie Grafft:
(I have bolded the times I added, non-bolded portions are the work of cGorg - and BBM in my post above means "bolded by me")

cGorg's Timeline so far:
9:00-9:15- Smokey barks, DR sees a dark blue(or black) car drive thru the farmstead
9:15- Abduction occurs
9:32- Merle's 911 call to police
9:40- Police arrive at Wetterling house. I'm thinking here that it does take some time for LE to download the information from the boys before proceeding to abduction site)
9:45 - Charlie Grafft arrives at Wetterlings after hearing police sirens go by his home at 9:35-9:40.
9:45-10-Kevin + girlfriend (and friends hear scanner + see police cars go by). Since they live relatively close (not verified yet) they make it to the abduction site prior to LE, drive ALL the way through DR's farmstead driveway. Smokey does not bark (explanation anywhere for this?) Kevin drives to Tom Thumb, sees 'medical cop', then notices LE squad car at Cotton Dentist office, talks to him, cop says 'we know about the bikes'
10:00- DR goes to bed
10:05-10:20(I don't have any info on this) Since Merle's 911 call was at 9:32 and lasted several minutes, he then called Jerry + Patty in Clearwater. So I would assume the earliest they could be getting into their car would be 9:40. 25-30 minute drive puts arrival at 10:10. However, according to the Saint Autumn blog quoting Patty as saying they met a squad car on their road and the police escorted them to their house. I am wondering if LE waited at the Wetterling house before proceeding to the abduction site.
10:30 - Charlie Grafft (Sheriff) was in the State Patrol helicopter beginning an air search. At one point they hovered so low they almost hit a power line.
10:30-11:30? - Helicopter searches
11:23- Smokey barks, DR places 911 call regarding people searching the woodpile
So my point is: seems a plausible scenario. Kevin arrived at the abduction site first as LE was at the Wetterlings. Kevin sees the 'medical cop'(whom I cannot explain) and also sees the 'new cop' parked at dentist's office. Is this the cop that met the Wetterlings on the road before proceeding to their house? If so, Kevin, the police, and the Wetterlings did not cross paths going to and fro. My questions:

1. Why did Smokey not bark when Kevin's car drove all the way through the driveway?
2. Why was there not a police officer at the abduction site when Kevin arrived there? Were they short of officers? Or did Kevin get there too quickly?
3. When did the helicopters arrive?
4. DR's comment about being 100% sure that the tan car that went through his driveway in the afternoon being the perp: what is the logic here? is there any connection of this tan car to the abduction scenario?
5. is it possible that a statement or statements within what's been stated is not true?
More Questions:
6. Why did Smokey not bark at helicopters so close overhead they almost touched power lines? That can't be a common occurrence out in the country. (Or maybe he did bark and that was what woke DR so he looked out the window and saw searchers by the woodpile.)

Question on the time line. As Jerry and Patty were away from the house. How can both these sentences be correct?


#1 He drove his squad car the three miles or so to the crime scene. After a short time he went to visit Patty and Jerry Wetterling. He arrived about 9:45pm. "You hate to say this, but you wanted to get out of the house," Charlie said recently. "Patty, you know, she just really lost it."

#2 10:05-10:20(I don't have any info on this) Since Merle's 911 call was at 9:32 and lasted several minutes, he then called Jerry + Patty in Clearwater. So I would assume the earliest they could be getting into their car would be 9:40. 25-30 minute drive puts arrival at 10:10. However, according to the Saint Autumn blog quoting Patty as saying they met a squad car on their road and the police escorted them to their house. I am wondering if LE waited at the Wetterling house before proceeding to the abduction site.

 

[ELOCsoul]

Question on the time line. As Jerry and Patty were away from the house. How can both these sentences be correct?


#1 He drove his squad car the three miles or so to the crime scene. After a short time he went to visit Patty and Jerry Wetterling. He arrived about 9:45pm. "You hate to say this, but you wanted to get out of the house," Charlie said recently. "Patty, you know, she just really lost it."

#2 10:05-10:20(I don't have any info on this) Since Merle's 911 call was at 9:32 and lasted several minutes, he then called Jerry + Patty in Clearwater. So I would assume the earliest they could be getting into their car would be 9:40. 25-30 minute drive puts arrival at 10:10. However, according to the Saint Autumn blog quoting Patty as saying they met a squad car on their road and the police escorted them to their house. I am wondering if LE waited at the Wetterling house before proceeding to the abduction site.

Charlie would have arrived at the house prior to the Wetterlings returning home, yes. Keep in mind there would be some degree of paraphrasing by the reporter when condensing the article for brevity, so therefore the specific order of events can easily appear skewed. The boys were home though, so he would have already been talking to them before Jerry and Patty.

 

[human]

(BBM)
So there WERE sirens! And if Charlie heard them inside his home 3 miles away, they had to have been pretty loud in front of DR's house. Was this around the time he said he was sleeping? Or was that later when "the helicopter was hovering so low they almost hit a power line"?? Hmmm. Yet a car in his driveway and his dog barking startled him. Seems to be some inconsistencies here.

Good catch sher. And wasn't that schreifel guy extremely old? No kids that age for sure.

 

[cGorg]

About the helicopter....I can't believe that DR still didn't think this was all a big deal when a huge helicopter was whirling above the farm in the middle of the night. Helicopters are very loud and alarming...the dog would have been going nuts!

When I lived in a big city...there were occasions when LE would fly a helicopter very low over residential neighborhoods...looking for somebody. You can't miss the sound of a helicopter over your neighborhood at night.

 

[ELOCsoul]

According to the January 10, 1989 Cold Spring Record, the Cold Spring Police Department and the Stearns County Sheriff's Department announced they would be providing a free fingerprinting service at Cold Spring Elementary School on Wed & Thur January 18 & 19. The purpose of the event was so LE officers could have clear and consistent fingerprints to assist in the investigation in the event a child disappears or is abducted.

Ironically, Jared was abducted from Cold Spring 3 days after that article.

I am reminded that as a kid, and also as a parent, that the number one tool at that time, for fighting the problem of missing children, was the fingerprinting program. After Jacob, and with Patty's pushing, we now have sex offender registration systems in all states. The "defense" of our children has evolved from a reactive approach to a proactive one.

 

[ELOCsoul]

Wetterling investigators at nearby farm for 2nd day
A recommendation for more-thorough search of area prompts latest return
By Tad Vezner and Rubén Rosario
Pioneer Press
POSTED: 07/02/2010 12:01:00 AM CDT | UPDATED: 4 YEARS AGO


Browse more photo galleries » Watch local video » Watch national video »
ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — Patty Wetterling slowed and said hello to a Stearns County sheriff's deputy Thursday afternoon as she passed the site of her son's disappearance.

"You hear the helicopter, and it just takes you back. ... This is certainly bigger than anything that's happened recently," Wetterling said later.

It was the first time she passed the site since investigators returned Wednesday to search a farm near where 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped more than 20 years ago.

On Thursday, investigators came back with a mobile crime lab, backhoe and dump truck. Throughout the day, the truck left the property, loaded with dirt.

The farm is owned by Robert and Rita Rassier, who live there with their 54-year-old son, Daniel A. Rassier. A family member said Wednesday that the son previously has given DNA samples, taken a lie-detector test and been hypnotized in connection with the kidnapping.

A federal law enforcement source said a recommendation to conduct a more-thorough examination of the area of Jacob's disappearance led to the latest search.

The farm had been searched twice before but in other locations.

The source said there was no new information in the case.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and FBI took part in the operation.

Patty Wetterling passed it all by Thursday as her sister drove her to her home a quarter-mile down the dead-end road. There, she said, she would call in sick from work, make some coffee and knit some booties for her expectant daughter. She said she'll stay away from the TV.

"I just needed to be back. I just needed to be here," she said.

The sheriff has called her — but only to say he can't tell her anything, just have faith.

"I don't know what to think," Wetterling said. "And then I don't know what I, what do I want? Do you hope they'll find something? I'm not sure. Do I hope they don't? ... That's not good either. It's a really confusing place to be ... but it is a commitment to be hopeful in this place."

At one point, she teared up as she described a dream she had two months ago. In it, Jacob was in a wheelchair, and she was pushing him as they fled "some bad guy."

She said Jacob turned to her in the dream and asked, "Mom, how'd you get so old?" She told him, "It's been a really long time."

"I talk to Jacob," Wetterling said. "I really believe we're still connected."

Then she added, "I need a vacation, can you tell?"

As for the family that owns the property near where Jacob was last seen in 1989, Wetterling said she doesn't know them very well. Even with the recent developments, she said, she didn't know whether to believe anyone in the Rassier family might have been involved with Jacob's abduction.

She said she has met the parents of Daniel Rassier.

"They seem to be really nice, salt of the earth, good people," she said.

Wetterling noted that crime statistics show that a large portion of kidnappings are committed by somebody who lives close by.

"It's good reason to go back to the beginning," she said. "I think the entire state of Minnesota needs to know what happened to Jacob. Who did this?"

Thursday's activity started around 7 a.m., when about a dozen vehicles from the Stearns County sheriff's office and the BCA drove onto Rassier property.

Sheriff John Sanner, a K-9 unit and a BCA mobile crime lab vehicle were on the scene. The dump truck and a backhoe arrived about 8:30 a.m.

Daniel Rassier and his parents drove off the property about 7:30 a.m.

In a 2008 profile of Daniel Rassier published after he had run a marathon, the St. Joseph Newsleader newspaper said he had lived in St. Joseph for all but two years in college. The article described him as "arguably one of the best trumpet players in central Minnesota."

Rassier is an elementary school band teacher and has worked for the Rocori school district since 1978, Superintendent Scott Staska said Thursday.

Staska said Rassier has been in the district for eight years and, during that time, "we've had no complaints" about Rassier. Students call him "Mr. Be-Bop," Staska said.

"You don't get nicknames like that without being well liked by the kids," he said.

Staska said he hasn't been "contacted by anyone in regard to any of the things happening now" with the search and said there is no change to the teacher's employment status.

Rassier also has been an adjunct music professor at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University since 1997, a spokeswoman said.

Ralph Bell, a former Newsleader editor, wrote the 2008 profile of Rassier. At the time, he said Thursday, he didn't know police had searched the family's farm previously or taken a DNA sample from Rassier.

But knowing that Rassier lived near the site of the abduction, Bell said he asked, "It must have been quite a night there for you and your parents, with all the hubbub going on?"

Bell said Rassier replied that his parents were overseas at the time.

"I said, 'You must have heard something?' " Bell said. "There were helicopters, sirens going off. He said, 'No, I was asleep.' "

Bell said Rassier struck him as "a sweet guy, soft spoken, smiling" and that by recollecting the conversation, he wasn't trying to point his finger at him.

Jacob Wetterling was with his brother and a friend when he was abducted just a half-mile from his home in St. Joseph, in central Minnesota. A gunman stepped out of the woods and disappeared with the boy.

His is the most notorious missing-child case in Minnesota.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.

 

[Pensfan]

According to the January 10, 1989 Cold Spring Record, the Cold Spring Police Department and the Stearns County Sheriff's Department announced they would be providing a free fingerprinting service at Cold Spring Elementary School on Wed & Thur January 18 & 19. The purpose of the event was so LE officers could have clear and consistent fingerprints to assist in the investigation in the event a child disappears or is abducted.

Ironically, Jared was abducted from Cold Spring 3 days after that article.

I am reminded that as a kid, and also as a parent, that the number one tool at that time, for fighting the problem of missing children, was the fingerprinting program. After Jacob, and with Patty's pushing, we now have sex offender registration systems in all states. The "defense" of our children has evolved from a reactive approach to a proactive one.

It might not be ironic that Jared was abducted and assaulted 3 days after that article. The mentioning of sexually perverse crimes incites and excites sexual deviants.

The abductor of Jacob may have been incited and excited about someone else's crimes against Jared, so he acted on his perverse sexual impulses when the first opportunity arose (mommy and daddy were overseas).

 

[shergal]

Good catch sher. And wasn't that schreifel guy extremely old? No kids that age for sure.

Yes, Urban was elderly back in the 70's when he did garden tilling for my parent's garden. I just looked online to see if there was an obit for him, and there is an Urban Schreifels, 78, still alive and living on 16th Ave. SE in St. Joe. which is bizarre. It has to be a son with the same name, because it's been 24 years since Jacob was taken. The address they show for this Schreifels is down further south on 16th Ave. I'm thinking maybe they sold the dad's original farm/home and the son moved closer to town? Not sure.

 

[shergal]

I found the transcript that JBrown made of the 911 call finally. It was back on thread #4. That explains a bit more clearly where Urban's house was, and where the woods were that the boys ran into. (Keep in mind that 95th Ave. back then is 16th Ave. now.)

Jbrown324320
Registered User
Here is the transcript of the 911 call.

911 emergency
This is Merlin Jerzak from *advertiser censored* Kiwi Court in St Joe, right in the Township. I am right now next door to my neighbor’s, at my neighbors, the Jerry Wetterling family. Some of their boys went down to Tom Thumb to pick up a movie and on their way back, someone stopped them and uh we believe that they have one of the boys because one of the boys did not come back with them. Ok, were they picked up in a vehicle? Pardon I can’t hear you? Were they picked up in a vehicle? Just a second, I will ask (asks boys). They didn’t see a vehicle. This person appeared on the road uh when they were bicycling back home. OK, and they don’t know where their brother and friend is at? They don’t know where their brother and friend is at. OK, so we are missing two people? Just missing one. One? OK. Did they see the individuals at all? Yes they did (asks the boys). He had a mask on. He had a mask on? Right. The other dispatch right now is dispatching a squad to where you are at right now, OK? In the meantime I just want to get as much information as I can. What is your name again sir? My name is Merlin Jerzak (spells name). OK, what is your home phone number Merlin? I have where you are at and everything. (Gives home phone #), but I am at my neighbor’s… and that’s Dr. Jerry Wetterling? That is Dr Jerry Wetterling. How old is the individual that has not returned? (asks boys how old Jacob is). Eleven. Ok, Jacob, it’s Jacob, right? Yes, Jacob, Jacob Wetterling. OK, what was Jacob last seen wearing? (asks the boys). Just a minute. OK. He was wearing a red hockey jacket that had “police department” on it. And it has his name on it. Police department written on back? (asks boys to confirm Police department on back? In white letters?) In white letters. Where was the last contact made? Pardon? Where was the last time they seen Jacob? Where were they at about? (asks boys) It was uh right at the uh Urban Schriefels uh house. OK, give me an idea where that is. Do you know where Dr. Cotton’s office is? Yes, it’s uh about approximately a quarter of a mile up ah South from the clinic. OK, it would be about a quarter of a mile up South of? Dr. Cotton and child clinic. Hang on a second, OK? (relays all info gathered to dispatch party: male party did have a mask on … 11 year old Jacob. wearing red hockey jacket with white lettering on back, “police department” across the back). Was Jacob riding a bike? (asks boys). Yeah, he was riding his ten speed bike.
(operator relays info over scanner: no vehicle was seen, party approached them on foot, was riding bike, not known where bicycle is at this time. He made contact with individual approximately 1/2 mile south of Dr. Cotton’s dental clinic on 95th Ave. Where are the …. at this time? XXXX Kiwi Ct. gives address and directions to Wetterling’s house).
Can you? Merlin? Yeah. Give me information on this guy with the mask? I want color, anything those kids can remember. OK by the way, I don’t have a house number on my house. You are at the neighbors place though right? I am at the Wetterlings. I have a fire number. My fire number is *advertiser censored* and theirs is, uh. I am right next door, and mine is *advertiser censored*. Do the Wetterling’s have a house number on there? No they don’t, but they are right next door to mine. Um I think that my best bet is to let Trevor get on the phone here and he can describe to you what he saw and this type of thing. OK, hang on just a second (talks about fire numbers and location) OK, I am ready. OK, I will put Trevor on and he can, he can answer your questions. OK. We have him pretty well calmed down here. OK. Hello? Trevor? Yeah. You are talking to the sheriff’s office ok? Mmhmm. I want you to give me anything you can recall about this male party that approached you guys, ok? Well, he was, he was like, kind of, he was like a man. He was kind of like… He was large? Sort of. OK. He had like uh kind of like looks like these nylon things, as a mask. Do you know what color it was? Black. A black mask? Do you know what color jacket he had on? I think it was black too. Ok. Did you notice any jeans or anything? Yeah, just a second (asking others inaudible) Trevor, do you know what happened to your friend’s bicycle? Um no, we don’t know. Nobody knows what happened to that? Cause we had to just like run off into the woods. OK, you guys ran off into the woods but nobody knows what happened to Jacob, right? Yeah. OK. Can you think of anything else? Did the guy have… What? Did the guy have like a deep voice or anything like that you could remember? (Trevor asks others) It was very cold(?) (I think this was "it sounded like he had a cold) OK, can you tell me, how big, compared to your dad or somebody how big would you say this guy was. He was about the size of Merle, the guy you were just talking to. OK, same height, same weight? Yeah. OK. Do you remember, and he had on a black mask and a black jacket. Do you know if the jacket was leather or nylon, did it have anything written on it? We couldn’t tell because it was so dark. OK. Can I talk to Merlin again real quick? Thank you. Yes? Merlin, how big are you? (laughs) OK, uh I am about 195 pounds and 5’10”. I know that’s hard for kids to pinpoint, but I have to try to figure out who he looks like. I am keeping you guys on hold because I am trying to talk to the officers at the same time, OK? So hang on just a second. (describes perpetrator over dispatch radio mask, approximately 195 pounds, 5’10” wearing a black mask and a black jacket). Your number is Adam John, right? AJ? Pardon? Your fire number is AJ 80? Right. (Merlin talks to boys- did the guy tell you guys to run into the woods?) Where are the woods at that the kids ran into? OK, it is a little bit to the south of Urban Schriefel’s um house. And, um ah it runs for about a quarter of a mile west. OK, I am hoping if Jacob would have ran into the woods or something if would have gotten lost or something. Do they know if he actually had contact with Jacob or anything like that? Yes, they just told me that the guy had a hold of Jacob and told them to run into the woods. Told the other two boys to run into the woods. Did they see any weapons at all or anything like that? Guns? Knives? He had a pistol. (operator relays info to police radio individual did have some type of hand gun). Can I talk to Trevor again? Yes, hold on. OK. Hello? Trevor, did you see the gun the individual had? Um, we couldn’t really see it, but we just, we sort of fell. ? OK, did he threaten you..? (Cut off) OK, do you guys see squad cars outside the residence? Um, what? There should be a squad…, can I talk to Merlin again? Yeah, I think the squad is at my house. Is it far? OK, can you guys open up the door and yell out to them. Yeah. OK I will tell them to go…, are you north or which direction are you from where the spot is? Um, South. Hold on. Merlin? (relays info about address on police radio). I got officer Bechtold in the house. OK. He is going to finish off the call from that end now, OK. More than likely we will be coming out with some dogs and stuff, OK? OK, good. Thank you very much. OK.

From: thread #4, page 4, post 97.

 

[shergal]

I added (in red) to a map we used earlier. The red rectangle would be the woods south of Schreifel's home/farm. (South is UP on this map) They extended approx. 1/4 mile back from the road to the west. Right under the red rectangle on the map would be Schreifel's house and farm. (The land by the "nue" in Avenue.) I think Urban's home was right near the woods, and his land extended out to the road and back farther where it looks like brown sand.

So this home would have probably been what the boys were in front of when they first saw the abductor step out of DR's driveway. I hope that helps to visualize it.

 

[thenotebook]

Ralph Bell, a former Newsleader editor, wrote the 2008 profile of Rassier. At the time, he said Thursday, he didn't know police had searched the family's farm previously or taken a DNA sample from Rassier.

But knowing that Rassier lived near the site of the abduction, Bell said he asked, "It must have been quite a night there for you and your parents, with all the hubbub going on?"

Bell said Rassier replied that his parents were overseas at the time.

"I said, 'You must have heard something?' " Bell said. "There were helicopters, sirens going off. He said, 'No, I was asleep.' "

I just do NOT buy the "I was asleep". When I was in college, there were riots during homecoming week in the middle of the night a few blocks from my apartment. The helicopters were circling overhead for hours and it was extremely loud. There is no way in hell that he could sleep through that unless he took a sleeping pill, had ear plugs, white noise machines, etc. And how could he sleep through that knowing that a kid had been abducted? And nothing exciting probably ever happened in that small town, so wouldn't he want to be awake and see what was going on, etc. It just doesn't add up.

 

[shergal]

Here is a better view from current maps of the location of the woods and the Schreifels' property.

Close-up of Urban Schreifel's property - note the neatly tilled garden.

So the boys probably said they were in front of Schreifels' home because there was just woods on the East side of the road back in 1989. The Rassier farm is so far back and behind trees, that the boys may have just thought of that as farm fields.

 

[Jbrown324320]

If we or the police could identify and interview victims of known child sex predators that were in the area at the time of the abduction, we could try to find similarities in the perp's approach. I think Jared may be the key to solving this abduction if both incidents were done by the same person.

 

[KeepHopeAlive]

Joy has a new blog entry up. It includes an article written by Jared that has been submitted to the Paynesville Press.

http://www.joybaker.com/2014/01/07/embracing-the-past/

 

[human]

So many possibilities for perps, so who knows if Jared and Jacob are related.

The whole sleeping thing is absurd. Where was DR? His story does not add up

 

[Mossad]

“The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past.”
― William Faulkner

“Events had been set in motion whose echo would be heard a thousand and more generations from now.”
― J. Valor, Salome

“So the story of man runs in a dreary circle, because he is not yet master of the earth that holds him.”
― Will Durant

“The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

“History, with all her volumes vast, hath but one page.”
― Lord Byron

“Those who stand for different causes during different generations often experience the same oppositions and the same difficulties as those of the previous and the next generations. That is the basis of history repeating itself.”
― Criss Jami


History: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msi...-94.713993&spn=0.035089,0.053301&source=embed

 

[ELOCsoul]

History: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msi...-94.713993&spn=0.035089,0.053301&source=embed

More of the Jackie Theel story, here.

http://www.paynesvillearea.com/news/headlinesarticles/archives/092204/0922theel.html

 

[ELOCsoul]

I found this article in the archives of the Cold Spring Record, from February 7, 1989. I apologize for the poor quality of the scan.

A few new bits of info about Jared's abductor that I don't recall seeing before:
* Big nose
* Dark, rough skin
* Dark hair

By all accounts, Jared's abductor was driving a nearly new, or new, 4 door car. From Garber's book we know that the FBI arrested a man in connection to Jared's abduction. From the book we also know the man that was arrested had recently parted with the car he owned at the time of Jared's abduction, and that fibers from the back seat were similar to fibers from Jared's coat.

Some have speculated that the man arrested was Duane Allen Hart. But, could DAH, a man with multiple DWI's, afford a newer car?? Could he afford the insurance on a newer car, or even be insured at all? Seems very unlikely to me.

 

[cGorg]

I found this article in the archives of the Cold Spring Record, from February 7, 1989. I apologize for the poor quality of the scan.

A few new bits of info about Jared's abductor that I don't recall seeing before:
* Big nose
* Dark, rough skin
* Dark hair

By all accounts, Jared's abductor was driving a nearly new, or new, 4 door car. From Garber's book we know that the FBI arrested a man in connection to Jared's abduction. From the book we also know the man that was arrested had recently parted with the car he owned at the time of Jared's abduction, and that fibers from the back seat were similar to fibers from Jared's coat.

Some have speculated that the man arrested was Duane Allen Hart. But, could DAH, a man with multiple DWI's, afford a newer car?? Could he afford the insurance on a newer car, or even be insured at all? Seems very unlikely to me.

So maybe he was a man of means...but with a reputation to protect.

 

[cGorg]

Regarding the Cold Spring Record, Feb 7, 1989....Joy's blog referenced this sketch and speculated that this man could have changed his appearance by growing a beard.