Another possible sighting in the state of Illinois popped up on August 10, 1990. A pair of girls reported that they had met a boy named Jacob at a swimming pool the prior day. The girls were at the police station to complain about a group of boys that had been harassing them when they noticed a poster of Jacob. The girls told police that the "Jacob" they knew looked just like Jacob Wetterling.
The girls saw the boy at the pool again the next day. This time they took pictures of him and showed them to the police. The police interviewed the boy at his parents home. They spoke with the parents and neighbors. Their investigation revealed that the boy had been living there for the last five years.
On October 3, 1990, a possible sighting of Jacob occurred in Reno, Nevada. A young boy had come into a store along with two men on three consecutive days at 9:00 am. On the third day a clerk asked one of the men if the boy was his son. The man laughed and indicated he was not his son. The trio never came back to the store after that. The clerk phoned authorties, and after being shown a poster of Jacob she identified the boy as being him.
Another lead in the investigation was produced in late October, 1990, just less than a year after Jacob had been taken. A waitress at the El Ray Truck Stop & Cafe in Motley, Minnesota said a man stopped into the truck stop and began talking about the Jacob Wetterling case. He mentioned taking a boy to a cabin, and a truck driver in the restaurant reported that he had seen a small boy in the same man's car. The boy hadn't entered the store. It was thought the man may have been driving north in an older Pontiac Bonneville that was in relatively poor condition.
It was determined the man was from St. Cloud and was traveling with his own son. He had heard reports about the encounter and called into authorities to explain it was him that had been seen at the truck stop.
Sources: Various newspaper articles from 1990
