Here's a comparison of the younger DJH (on the left) with the drawing of the younger man who had attempted an abduction of a boy named Andrew (on the right) earlier in Summer of 1989 in St. Joe.
http://www.deadzoom.com/member/samiping/DJHcomparison.jpg
(Story of Andrew's abduction attempt):
http://www.thenewsleaders.net/2015/01/22/a-historical-perspective-from-25-years-ago-jan-19-1990/
Within a week of Jacob's kidnapping authorities released the sketch of a man and information about a previous kidnapping attempt that had occurred in the Township of St. Joseph in July 1989. In that case, nine-year-old Andrew had narrowly escaped his abductor's attempt. A man in a van had pulled up alongside Andrew and asked him his age. When the man tried to get him inside the van Andrew was able to run away.
In that attempted kidnapping case, the would-be abductor was described as a white male in his late twenties, with dark brown hair, dark eyes, a slender build and a fair complexion. He was driving an older, light tan van with white trim and rust along the bottom edges.
Andrew's mother said that at the time no one would believe them when the family tried to tell people about the attempt to kidnap her son. The Stearns County Sheriff's Department hadn't even informed the St. Joseph Police Department about that failed attempt until after Jacob was abducted three months later.
Investigators were particularly interested in exploring connections between the failed abduction attempt of Andrew and Jacobs abduction because they felt the use of the gun in Jacobs abduction might have resulted from a prior failed attempt.
Because the man used a gun, which is a very high-risk thing to do, FBI agent Jeff Jamar explained, weve concluded that he may have tried and failed before.
Following Jacob's abduction, the FBI questioned Andrew's neighbors, and found several witnesses who had seen the suspicious van in the neighborhood prior to the attempted abduction. The sketch of the man, as well as information about him, promptly generated more than 1,500 phone calls to search headquarters.
Despite a considerable number of leads and witness statements, the man's identity was never determined.
In an unusual coincidence, the day of Jacob's abduction, October 22nd, happened to be Andrew's tenth birthday.
Additional details about Andrew's attempted abduction and the man driving the light tan colored van came to light a few weeks after Jacobs abduction, as investigators went public with the sketches of the van and driver. Three different families in the St. Joseph Township area came forward with information about incidents they had wit¬nessed. Two of the families lived near Andrew's home.
One eleven-year-old boy said that a man in a similar looking van took his picture and then drove off. That incident hap-pened about two weeks after the attempted abduction of Andrew. The boy said he had been fishing on a lake dock when he saw a van stop in front of the dock. The man leaned out the window and took the boy's picture.
I turned around and looked at him and he backed up, turned and got the heck out of there, the boy said.
He said the man had black hair and was holding glasses in his hand while he took the picture.
The boy said he was too scared to tell anyone about the incident because he was afraid something might happen to him if word got out. The FBI obtained this information while routinely questioning boys in the school district.
Another young boy from Andrew's neighborhood told his parents that he saw a van matching the description of the one involved in Andrew's attempted abduction. He said he saw the van in his neighborhood on the same day of the abduction attempt, although he did not note anything particularly unusual about the sighting.
The mother of yet another rural St. Joseph family said she saw a similar van almost every day for three months, from June through August of 1989. She saw the van in an area about seven miles away from Andrew's neighborhood. Her family was building a new home and the woman said the van was parked across the street from their new home when she arrived there at about 6:00 P.M. daily, and would remain there until about 9:00 P.M. She said she never saw the van's driver during all that time. She thought it was unusual at the time, but had not felt compelled to call the police until after authorities released a sketch of the van in November.
He wasn't on our land, and he didn't do anything, she said. But I would always say 'oh, there's that van again. I would watch him and he would just sit there. He wouldn't move. I used to think he was hunting, because that's how long he sat.
It occurred to her after hearing news of Andrews attempted abduction that the man may have been watching the group of kids that were always playing outside with her own four children. After their house was completed and the children were no longer playing outside, the van wasn't seen there again.
