MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 22 Oct 1989 - #8

[human]

Good observations Hey You.

I bet anything the dogs they used in the first search were not cadaver dogs. I bet they were tracking dogs .

Bringing him to school would make sense as well. Think of the situation where large band instruments are stored such as a tuba.

I totally agree that there is no way possible to exactly drive over a tire track. And I totally agree that the tire track by that foot print does not stop and start again like a car that would have been parked

 

[human]

Actually it was family friend Vern Iverson, and San Francisco's David Collins, that orchestrated the media blitz that followed Jacob's abduction. Collins primarily was involved in the distribution of mass mailings, and Iverson recruited the media.

Interestingly, it was actually Jerry Wetterling who took the lead early on after Jacob's abduction. Patty was certainly a factor as well, and has been the "face" of Jacob's case the last 24 1/2 years.

Kevin Collins, the son of David, was a missing child. David spoke at a symposium that was held by the Jacob Foundation. He looked about 100 years old from the pain and trauma.

The Wetterlings brought out the idea that poor and minority children did not receive the help and publicity that more well to do white families do.

There was a Native American boy from Wisconsin that became missing a short while later. Bobby ? They had his picture placed on posters of Jacob that went around the world.

I recall Etan Patz. He got a ton of oublicity

 

[human]

bTW, Bobby was found. The details are very fuzzy. He was buried under a porch. Some older boys said he died accidentally.

I tried looking up Bobby and Lac Courte Oreilles, but nothing comes up

 

[HEY YOU!]

I think it's very likely that Jacob was in one of those music boxes, human. I bet he brought all those boxes to the school and hid them in plain sight. What was the usual procedure for bringing the boxes to and from the school? Was this the normal time for him to do so? I wonder if it was not and a student or teacher noticed the timing was off? I'll bet he still has the instrument box that held Jacob on the school property to this day. To keep it as a reminder of how smart he is and how he got away with this crime. I think the police dept should go over there right now with cadaver dogs and have them search the whole building. DR was hiding the clues in plain sight. He had to bring Jacob back to dispose of him before his parents came home, did anyone notice him bringing a large case home in the days following the crime? Him moving instrument cases around may not look suspicious but the timing of it may. Did anybody at the time notice anything out of the ordinary? He was pretty safe once he had Jacob back at the farm. The search clearly was for someone who drove up and took Jacob off the property so at this time, he knew he was in the clear and had time to dispose of Jacob before his parents came home.

Just my opinion of course...that being said, if DR is reading this he may dispose of the case now too. Hopefully there is someone close to him observing his actions.

Then again, I could be wrong.

 

[Sasquatch321]

I have tracked ex-military people who knew they were being followed that did not even think of concealing their prints. I would say the probability of an abductor attempting to create a false print field to be too low to calculate. That person would need to be a forensic expert.

As I noted, the print was deeper at the toe than at the heal with mounding on the sides meaning that Jacob was leaning forward, but not pushing off hard. Other than getting into the back of a vehicle, what other reason would he have for leaning forward? You are getting into a vehicle like an adult where you turn and sit down. My kids dove in and this would be even more applicable if he was told to lay down on the back seat, or if there was an associate grabbing his arm and pulling Jacob in.

Trackergd,

Thank you for taking a look at my unprofessional opinions. I have a 10 year old daughter who turns 11 on Wednesday, like an adult she has to turn and sit down into a vehicle. Jacob was 11 and was probably already taller than the car as well. She hasn't crawled straight forward into the vehicle since she was 4. If my daughter were to dive into the backseat, she would probably hit the door on the other side.

I do not know how a 11 year old boy could step, crawl, dive into the backseat and leave the detail that last footprint did.

 

[KeepHopeAlive]

Jacob would have been forced into the vehicle as quickly as possibly. More than likely, the abductor(s) pushed or pulled him in, not waiting for him to turn around and sit in the vehicle like a person normally would.

 

[Sasquatch321]

Jacob would have been forced into the vehicle as quickly as possibly. More than likely, the abductor(s) pushed or pulled him in, not waiting for him to turn around and sit in the vehicle like a person normally would.

Then where is the perps footprints behind Jacob? You would think there would be a mess of footprints happening right there then.

 

[human]

Jacob would have been forced into the vehicle as quickly as possibly. More than likely, the abductor(s) pushed or pulled him in, not waiting for him to turn around and sit in the vehicle like a person normally would.

So Kevin is the abductor because those are the only tire prints left?

 

[Sasquatch321]

Another good question, Where is the perpatrators footprints of entering a vehicle? Obviously there should be a big footprint that twisted into the ground to get into a vehicle.

 

[KeepHopeAlive]

I was replying to Sasquatch's post (#185) about how he would have gotten into the vehicle. Sorry, I didn't use the quote feature when I replied.

 

[HEY YOU!]

You guys are making good points...where are the perp's footprints? If the only deep footprint that we can see is next to Kevin's tireprint then it must have been planted there. How is there only 1 clear footprint? DR had the time and motive to do just that in the early morning hours after cops went home. This also explains the lack of perp prints. He had time to get rid of any that he left. I say he shuffled with Jacob prior to walking on the grass thereby obliterating his own prints. Where is the perp print getting into the car which should be equally as clear as Jacob's?

DR had nothing to lose by going out to his own driveway in the early morning hours after cops went home. He could be open about carrying a flashlight and just say he was checking out things to see if the boy was found, etc.

 

[Sasquatch321]

You guys are making good points...where are the perp's footprints? If the only deep footprint that we can see is next to Kevin's tireprint then it must have been planted there. How is there only 1 clear footprint? DR had the time and motive to do just that in the early morning hours after cops went home. This also explains the lack of perp prints. He had time to get rid of any that he left. I say he shuffled with Jacob prior to walking on the grass thereby obliterating his own prints. Where is the perp print getting into the car which should be equally as clear as Jacob's?

DR had nothing to lose by going out to his own driveway in the early morning hours after cops went home. He could be open about carrying a flashlight and just say he was checking out things to see if the boy was found, etc.

There is no evidence of a perpetrator entering a vehicle because there never was a vehicle.

 

[HEY YOU!]

Jacob would have been forced into the vehicle as quickly as possibly. More than likely, the abductor(s) pushed or pulled him in, not waiting for him to turn around and sit in the vehicle like a person normally would.

Then where are the perp's footprints? I have not seen 1 adult footprint have you?

 

[Sasquatch321]

It is impossible that the perpatrator entered the vehicle without openly revealing that black boot twisting into the gravel driveway. It's not there!

Trackergd, what is your opinion?

 

[Wisdom]

I think all the recent media attention has been excellent. One of the things I like to do is read all the comments people chime in and make below the headlines like this one. See below: I'm not sure if this chief of police from Watkins they are bringing up has been talked about or not on here? Either way anything can end up being a good lead.
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Captain906 • 13 hours ago
I grew up in Watkins, just 5 miles south of cold spring and 15 east of paynesville. The chief of police in Watkins was found guilty of pedofile in 1989. How is that not connected?!?!

 

[cGorg]

Trackergd can answer your questions better than I. However, I have a few observations:

1. Perps footprints would have to be there vehicle or no vehicle. It may be we can't see them in the limited pictures or Kevin drove over them or LE walked over them...IDK.
2. Jacob's last footprint: it appears to me that his toe is facing due south based upon the shadow lines. The tire print is parallel to the road thus going East-West. Why would Jacob's footprint be facing this way and have a forward moving impression?
3. The black+white pic of Detective Steve Mund I assume is Jacob's footprint being sprayed with some chemical. It appears this print would be just to the north of centerline of the road(the fenceline on the north is visible). If a car was parked on the south half of the road and facing east, then the perp + Jacob coming from the west would enter the vehicle from the north. The vehicle would have to either make a 'Y' turn right there or drive all of the way into DR's property, circle around, and exit the scene.
4. Jacob's last footprint is shown right next to the tire track and perpendicular to it. I just went out to my vehicle to retrieve a notebook in the driver's side, rear seat. I naturally placed my right foot perpendicular to the tire path and immediately below the frame of the vehicle and leaned forward into the back seat to grab the notebook. I could easily have dove into the seat(and I have a compact car).
5. Kevin's tire track being continuous + non-stop. I would assume this is true based only on his testimony. Having said that, LE until 2003 believed in the abduction by car theory despite no evidence of stoppage + startup of a vehicle discussed by others here on WS.

 

[Jbrown324320]

Here is the article about the Watkins Chief of police. Good find Wisdom! It's a good thing more and more child sexual predators are getting arrested.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/...l-assault-having-child-*advertiser censored*/

 

[ELOCsoul]

Here is the article about the Watkins Chief of police. Good find Wisdom! It's a good thing more and more child sexual predators are getting arrested.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/...l-assault-having-child-*advertiser censored*/

That's not the one I don't think. There was another police chief from Watkins that was molesting a child, but I think the child was an acquaintance or family member.

I will track down the article later this week.

 

[Trackergd]

With all due respect, it looks as if the tire tracks do not stop or show any change other than driving straight through. Are you saying that another car drove the exact same route that Kevin did and that he overrode every tire track of Jacob's abductor all the way up and around and back down the driveway? This is impossible... I say if a vehicle was used it was a vehicle on DRs property, therefore the tire tracks would not stand out as being unusual. There is an incline down towards the DR home, possible vehicle was not even turned on or was turned on (no lights) and took 60 seconds to disappear into an outbuilding on DR property The driveway may not be visible from the road at that point and I'm sure the homeowner is aware of that. Plus isn't the field to the right of the driveway a corn field? It may have still been high in October. Any locals care to weigh in on that?

Also, it just occurred to me that DR took a bunch of boxes (musical instrument cases) out the very next morning when he was told to go around the crime scene in his car (after lifting up the crime scene tape and contaminating the scene.) Let's say DR did this, cleaned up some evidence overnight while cops were away from scene...I think the only thing that stayed at the scene in the early morning hours was the yellow crime scene tape and no cop. Perhaps DR knew that since cops didn't enter his house that night, they may be going in the next day during daylight and he needed to get rid of evidence (Jacob). Maybe Jacob was in that trunk hiding under instrument boxes as DR drove out of his driveway? Maybe he unloaded the instrument boxes and the trunk with Jacob's body into a storage area in the school? Surely, this would be a smart thing to do and reasonable to think the home and property would be searched the very next day since they weren't at night. When it became clear they were focusing on another suspect who drove away, he brought the chest back to the farm and disposed of Jacob in the firepit as much as he could before his parents came home. He certainly had plenty of time with nobody considering him a POI at the time. Did cops have cadaver dogs at the school when they pulled DR out of class and searched his car or was it just a visual search?

Without a wider view, I am unable to tell if the vehicle stopped or not. The reports I have seen indicate that the print we are discussing is Jacobs last known print. To me, from the camera view, it appears that Jacob is stepping forward, possibly up into a vehicle. Since this is the last print, I would have to assume that unless he was picked up and carried, he would have entered the vehicle. Like people, vehicles do not "direct register", that is no two vehicles follow in the exact same print. Sometimes even the front and rear tires do not track in the same print and have some overlap.

 

[Jbrown324320]

Priest files have been ordered public: including Brennan Meiers and Tom Gillespie. Tom Gillespie counseled the Wetterlings after the abduction. (possibly inserting himself in the investigation?) Also, a new lawsuit against Eckroth.

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3441105.shtml?cat=1