Remains found confirmed as Jacob Wetterling/Suspect led LE to Remains #1

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...acob-wetterling-ending-a-27-year-old-mystery/

So am I understanding this right? There were two burial sites? When he saw his red jacket showing he came back and moved him?
(So obviously he was riding by often to see if anything had been found yet. Revisiting the crime scene.)

"What did I do wrong?" broke my heart! poor innocent child.:tears:

Yea, I know. Very disturbing what happened to Jacob. Yes, two burial sites and I believe the authorities confirmed the existence of both. It is still not clear to me where this is. It is described as a grove of trees near a gravel pit off of a sewage pond road. Curious how far from the second site that is, and how far the Bobcat was from that site.
 
One of my main questions, that cannot be answered by fact or forensics, is did DH really load the gun at the point the police cruiser "spooked" him. Or was the gun loaded the entire time? I think that goes to motive. My gut tells me that DH fabricated this part...and there is no way anyone can prove or disprove this statement.

I think he shot at him twice and missed, then shot a third time and hit him. I do not think it had anything to do with a police car. And I agree, I think it was loaded the entire time. I also am not sure that emotional "moment" he had when he told Jacob it is too far is entirely accurate. I think the real version is slightly different, just not sure how.
 
THIS is my biggest issue.

HE RETURNED at least 2x and was incredibly active each time (dragging and burying and re-digging and re-burying). IF the police were "watching him closely" after Jared's attack in Jan 1989 and/or before/during/after they brought him in for questioning in 1990, HOW DID THE STEARNS CO SHERIFF, THE BCA, AND THE FBI presumably miss his very obvious "tell"??????

I revert blame back to the Sterns Co Sheriff. They were in charge. They called (or dismissed) the shots

I'm fully aware we didn't have the forensic capability we do today (that conclusively linked Heinrich to Jarred) but fortheloveofgod we had good old fashioned stakeouts and police detailers on viable suspects.

IMHO

If they watched him, it doesn't sound like they did it for long, or consistently. Because obviously he was able to dig the body up and bury it in a different location, and police didn't see it.
 
This plea deal took a lot of work, and people working together, if you ask each one of us, the last 10 days the last few days have been the most difficult professionally...they were concerned every day that Dh would change his mind about cooperating. He is not a calm man, we had a limited amount of time before he changed his mind again... Nobody compares to Dh in my experience.

So what you're saying is that he is totally ****ed up, but then of course anyone who has done what he's done is anyway. So totally ****ed up is just who he is. He needs to go away. Forever.
 
People need to understand there was not enough evidence to convict him of anything relating to Jacob. When you question the deal made you are questioning the family getting their son back. Do not forget that if they had not done this deal we would NOT know where Jacob is today. Yes, it sucks that DH will not pay in prison for this, but honestly the 2 choices were either have him go on living with his secret or giving him a deal and letting the family have some answers and get their boy back. Please stop acting like they somehow gave this guy a pass on killing Jacob. They were never going to convict him without him saying anything and without him saying anything they could not convict him. It's what the family wanted and while not the best circumstance it's still the best thing for the family and was their decision. Just be glad you never have to make a decision like that.

He wasn't going to go on "living" for long if they put him in general population on child *advertiser censored* conviction. Now he is going to be in a nice federal prison among people of similar persuasion.
 
ELOCSoul has commented more than once that the problem with this case was that DH “fell off the radar” of LE, or words to that effect. This comment has stuck with me ever since DH was made known to us. But I’ve waited until we knew more before I commented. I sensed ELOCSoul was on to something significant, but I didn’t feel like I knew enough to respond to it. I think it is still an evolving opinion as new information comes in, but my take on this is that:

1. The LE community there in St. Joseph has also stated, more or less, that Jacob has always been a priority for them and his was considered an active case.
2. The information necessary to prosecute DH between 22 October 1989 and, say, 22 October, 1994, probably didn’t exist.
3. We learn (the public) only decades later that LE had three (I believe it was three altogether) candidates at the top of their list; meaning, there were 3 individuals whose identities they kept secret from the public for decades, who were most likely the persons responsible for Jacob’s disappearance.
4. There wasn’t evidence in any of those cases sufficient to prosecute with confidence, and you need that because of double jeopardy.
5. But there was enough crime scene evidence to make it obvious that one of the three must have been responsible. Looking back on what we now know they had, that seems obvious to me. It was circumstantial, but from a financial and resource perspective, they were good bets on a conviction if more evidence could be exposed with taxpayer money.
6. Despite this fact, and despite the supposed “high priority” on Jacob, no resources were expended to perform sting operations, cons, ruses, or other forms of manipulation of these three persons (or others connected to them) in order to expose additional evidence. This isn’t a new tactic; it’s been used for decades by police to solve tough cases (see the end). It can be ruthless and cruel perhaps, but it is legal and effective.
7. Around 2010 immense resources were spent on Daniel Rassier as a “person of interest”, despite the probability and priority that existed over these 3 persons since 1989. The public was not told about these three, and the public therefore had a strong confirmation bias against Daniel Rassier.

My conclusion is that there was a clear and resounding failure of middle management in the various agencies to manage this case effectively. It wasn’t individual police, agents, deputies or detectives. It wasn’t the Sheriff. It was the managers in the middle. The right way to have managed this case, if it was indeed a priority, would have been to assertively and without letup, manipulate these 3 men with whatever cons, scams, stings or other operations they needed to cause them to expose additional, prosecutable evidence. And it should have been precisely these three precisely because these were considered the 3 most likely to have been involved. Simple. And I can think of dozens of ploys that would likely work, it isn’t complicated to do. The FBI apparently came up with at least one we know about, and it worked (see below).

Only in 2015 (or thereabouts) did proper management seem to come into play. Whether it was ELOCSoul, DNA, or whatever, something jarred them back into proper management of this case when the FBI (and maybe others) finally ran just such a sting by using *advertiser censored* to ensnare DH. They now have a plea deal arrived at by pressure from *advertiser censored* charges. I know some will say this was because of DNA, but I think the DNA in reality only served to remind the FBI that DH existed. It was just a part of that jarring course correction. They had enough, from a management and financial perspective, to justify the increased costs of surveillance, stings and undercover operations long, long before the DNA match was made or WS existed. We only now know this because what they has now been revealed, and it directly (albeit circumstantially) tied DH to the Jacob abduction. I can list just some of that evidence:

1. The shoes DH owned were matched to (consistent with) the footprints in the driveway. The public was never told this until about a year ago. Authorities knew it within weeks of the abduction.
2. The tire tracks in the driveway matched (were consistent with) DH’s car he owned at the time. The public was never told this until about a year ago. Authorities knew it within weeks of the abduction.
3. DR saw DH’s car in the driveway, with what uncannily could have been Jacob himself in it, or a car once again matching the description of DH’s car. I know this was recalled under hypnosis, but if serious interviews (not hostile ones) were done at the time when his memory was fresh, this might not have been needed.
4. By far the most uniquely identifying aspect of DH’s M.O., his tendency to immediately grab the crotch over the clothes of boys he attacked, appeared in both the Jared case and the Jacob case. The public was never told this until about a year ago (the specifics of the sexual assault during the Jacob abduction appeared in Court documents related to DH’s latest *advertiser censored* case). Authorities knew it within days of the abduction.
5. The composite drawing, while not perfect, was consistent with DH’s appearance at that time. Authorities knew this within weeks of the abduction.
6. The M.O. of the attacker of other boys was consistent with the M.O. of Jacob’s abductor. Given the town’s size, the overall M.O. pattern described indicates that it was unlikely that this tiny farming town featured two or more men with this same peculiar tendency to knock boys off bikes and immediately grab their clothed crotch. It was plain as day what was going on, and that the same man that attacked Jared was the same man that had abducted Jacob. But granted so far, not enough for a jury.

While not enough for a jury, this was more than enough to justify a management decision to employ far greater resources on these three men, and pretty much ignore every other angle until they had pursued this to its end. There was no reason for all that other garbage, particularly the Daniel Rassier investigation. Therefore, in my mind, this was clearly a failure of middle management. And that is not to point fingers, it is to expose what roles in government need more work and attention.

Better training and standardization of means and methods in managing complex cases should be sought. Specifically, a more rigorous and standardized application of probability, risk, impact and priority; as it all relates to financial and fiduciary responsibility to the public, is needed. The public has a vested interest in identifying murderers as early as possible, and local agencies have a vested interest in identifying perpetrators of serious crimes to assuage public discontent with government, to enhance cooperation with police and to ensure adequate funding in the future.

There was a case in Australia where a cold-blooded, psychopathic serial killer, surprise, killed a bunch of people. Circumstantially, they knew he did it. Same problem. It was obvious he was guilty, but it wasn’t the kind of thing you could convict on. And they had no bodies, just a bunch of missing people that were circumstantially tied to the POI. So, they set up an elaborate sting and totally duped this guy. He took them right to the remains in the Outback and they found several bodies there. He was convicted and is now in prison. That is how you take the gloves off, that is how you manage assertively and that is how you prioritize.
If I learn something new to change my mind I will, but so far that is how I see this. Bad management.
 
One of my main questions, that cannot be answered by fact or forensics, is did DH really load the gun at the point the police cruiser "spooked" him. Or was the gun loaded the entire time? I think that goes to motive. My gut tells me that DH fabricated this part...and there is no way anyone can prove or disprove this statement.

He testified that the gun was not loaded when he kidnapped Jacob. He only loaded it when he got "spooked". He testified that he loaded two bullets. The first time he pulled the trigger, the chamber was empty. Then he shot him twice in the head.
 
Surely they are at least checking out the approximate shooting location and initial burial site. Right?

I can imagine there were casings and even possibly projectiles left on or in the ground. Those would still be there after all this time.

Then again, they don't really have a need for additional evidence at this point, so maybe they won't even bother.


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Surely they are at least checking out the approximate shooting location and initial burial site. Right?

I can imagine there were casings and even possibly projectiles left on or in the ground. Those would still be there after all this time.

Then again, they don't really have a need for additional evidence at this point, so maybe they won't even bother.


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If victim was shot in the head, then the skull will have a bullet hole. So very easy to verify the story. Anyway, it's not like perp can be tried for the murder.
 
Surely they are at least checking out the approximate shooting location and initial burial site. Right?

I can imagine there were casings and even possibly projectiles left on or in the ground. Those would still be there after all this time.

Then again, they don't really have a need for additional evidence at this point, so maybe they won't even bother.


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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am told that if this was really a "revolver" there would be no shell casings. They remain in the gun.
 
Oh, that's true! They stay in the chambers.


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So...

"Heinrich said he drove to Paynesville and turned off on Sewage Bond Road, stopping near a gravel pit in the area. Once there, Heinrich said he uncuffed Jacob and took him to a grove of trees."
-I could not find a road with this name. There are a few places near the water stream with a line of trees and field next to it. Having trouble finding a gravel pit in the 1990 aerial photo.

"Heinrich said he dragged Jacob about 100 yards to the northeast of where he was shot."

"Heinrich said his shovel wasn’t big enough, but he remembered there was a construction company nearby, so he went to see if a shovel was there. Heinrich said he found a Bobcat and knew where the company kept the key, so he returned to the site and dug a hole using the Bobcat, which is where he buried Jacob." -Could this be at Louis Industries just down the street? They appear to be a farm equipment dealer. How would he know where to find a key, wherever the place was?

http://kstp.com/news/danny-heinrich-court-appearance-jacob-wetterling/4255663/


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Probably "sewage pond road", I'm thinking this might be what the locals call County 33 since it goes by the sewage ponds. There's two gravel pits along the road, one on each side just before where the bypass is now. I did a lot of exploring in the area a few years ago since I like viewing road construction, and was checking out the bypass construction.

He said "construction company" not "implement dealer". Normally a dealer will keep keys for their brand new bobcats in a locked box. A construction company might be more lazy with keys especially in a rural area, there's a "Paynesville Excavating Company" very close
 
I'm speechless and heartbroken! :tears:

Did DH tell the truth? We will never know :( :puke:


jmo :moo:
 
If you read back, they explained that the LE didn't have enough evidence to charge him with murder. The family wanted closure and to have Jacob back home. The legal teams did the only deal and the best deal to find Jacob and to put the behind bars for a very long time.

What does that mean? Heinrich admitted to murdering Jacob.
 
The details are so unbelievably devastating. I'm so sad about this whole story. I have to believe there were more victims than just Jared and Jacob. All the time he lived there and saw the massive attention the case was getting for 26 years, he must have seen the billboards and the local news segments, America's Most Wanted, etc. and just got away with it for that time. Just such a lowlife coward.
 
Stealing the bobcat to dig a hole is a bizarre detail.

Think that really happened??
 
He testified that the gun was not loaded when he kidnapped Jacob. He only loaded it when he got "spooked". He testified that he loaded two bullets. The first time he pulled the trigger, the chamber was empty. Then he shot him twice in the head.

Yes that was his statement. I personally do not believe his statement though. I believe that the gun was loaded the entire time however, there is no way to prove or disprove DH's statement. I also believe by claiming a police cruiser drove by, which "spooked" him, at which point he "loaded" the gun, was a way for him to justify the crime in his sociopathic mind. Just my opinion.
 
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