I do wonder if he checked on the first burial site because of the construction activity around that house in 1990? Anyway, starting with DH's testimony and putting it all together now:
MR. SCHLEICHER: All right. After you were finished, you indicated that Mr. Wetterling said something?
THE DEFENDANT: He said, I'm cold. So I said, Okay. You can get dressed, and I got dressed. On the way I said –
[apparently pauses here and changes direction in story – he was going to say to what spot he moved after leaving the grove where the assault had just occurred]
Are you taking me home? I said I can't take you all the way home. There is a lot -- you live a town or so away.
[peculiar, because we will see, when he paused just before this he was likely going to say he was going to his car. Why go to his car if this was premeditated? Where would he take Jacob? Maybe some place where he could drop him off? Possibly. It may be that he really was “spooked”, not so much by the police car, but by the realization of what his impulsiveness had gotten him into: he had created too much attention on himself to drive back to St. Joe or anywhere else for that matter. He would have to kill the boy]
MR. SCHLEICHER: What was his reaction to that?
THE DEFENDANT: He started to cry. I said, Don't
cry.
MR. SCHLEICHER: Now, before this point, sir, had
you noticed any law enforcement in the area?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes. On the way back to the car,
[Here he fills in the blank left by his earlier pause and redirection in his recollection. They were moving from the grove to the car when the police car went by. From this, it apparently went down old 23 toward St. Joe with lights on and siren off. Somewhere between this position and the car Jacob is told he will not be taken home. From this, I do not see that the gravel pit has anything to do with the narrative. I would plot the murder location just beyond the approach road along the tree line of the grove as the most likely location.]
there was a patrol car that came down the road with no siren with its lights, and it headed east on Paynesville. I panicked. I pulled the revolver out of my pocket. It was never loaded until that point. I, I loaded it with two rounds. I told Jacob to turn around, I had to go to the bathroom. He didn't know what I was doing.
MR. SCHLEICHER: You told him that you had to go
to the bathroom?
THE DEFENDANT: I had to go to the bathroom. I asked him to turn around.
MR. SCHLEICHER: Did he do so?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, he did.
MR. SCHLEICHER: And then what happened?
THE DEFENDANT: I, I, I raised the revolver to his head. I turned my head. It clicked once because it didn't line up, the first chamber. I pulled, pulled the trigger again. It went off. I looked back. He was still standing. He hadn't fallen. I raised the revolver again and shot him again, and that's when he fell to the ground.
