ELOCsoul
Verified Author - "Finding Jacob Wetterling"
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Ben is the about the same age as Jacob, I thought the information was obtained by LE in 1989 from Ben and his dad and that they saw the B bros. and LK on their way to the convenience store that Jacob went to, not when he wanted to get off of some crime when he was an adult. Am I wrong on that? I know he has been arrested several times in years past in Granite Falls MN, I don't know if he still lives in Granite.
I can't be certain of exactly when Ben told LE about the Bahner brothers & Lou. But in 1999 it was in the news. See excerpts from prior posts, below:
01-01-2014, 08:56 PM
ELOCsoul ELOCsoul is online now
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Smile Ben - The Final Name from the Bahner Tapes
The Bahner Tapes as promoted by Stearn Truth on YouTube featured the first names of 5 characters, three of which were the Bahners, and their names and criminal records were well documented. We've recently uncovered Lou's full name as Lou Kohls.
The other name in the tapes was Ben - he was the one laying in the ditch and claims to have witnessed Jacob's abduction by two men. His name is Ben Bina, and he has a considerably long rap sheet. According to the June 25, 1999 St. Cloud Times, prison inmate Ben Bina had told television station KSTP that he saw two men and a vehicle near where Jacob was taken. Sheriff Jim Kostreba is quoted as saying "All those leads have been extensively investigated in the past. I knew where the (KSTP reporter) was getting his information from, and it was unreliable."
I've stated before that I have little faith that the Bahner tapes were legitimate, and with this information I now believe they're a fabrication. Sad, but true, IMO. I believe that Ben Bina was trying to get a prison sentence reduced in exchange for information regarding Jacob's abduction. Whether or not Diane M. was a co-conspirator to the fabrication, or was just suckered in, I do not know.
Again, this is just my opinion, but I believe it to be true. I think we can cross the whole Bahner thing off the list
02-26-2014, 08:27 AM
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Quote:
(snipped by me) The Lou from the Bahner tapes was identified but not from media documentation that could be referenced. Ben Bina was identified in media reports that I referenced, but I could not provide a link to or post the article itself. (I think I'm understanding correctly that articles cannot be scanned to WS unless accompanied by a link?)
In any case, the whole Bahner tapes thing was investigated by LE and discredited. Bina was interviewed on KSTP right after a television show called "Vanished", which opened with a segment about Jacob Wetterling.