MN - Jacob Wetterling, 11, St. Joseph, 22 Oct 1989 - #3

[margaret_diane]

Perhaps DR is implying that since the dirt and ash didn't reveal any DNA to suggest that JW was ever in the burner...... that he could be alive out there?

NEW QUESTIONS I HAVE:
- Where in Europe were DR's parents.
- Why were they there?
- How long were they gone for?
- When they heard the news (when did they hear it anyhow!?) - did they come straight home?
- Were THEY ever interviewed in relation to this crime?

Just wondering.

OTHER QUESTIONS:
- A PI was sent to Amsterdam by the W. family.
- What was the description of the person a tipster reported seeing JW with?
- What DID the investigator find if anything?

 

[Mandy113]

I found it interesting to know Patty Wetterling had a conversation with DR several months ago. Especially curious to me was her question if it had been a joke that had gone too far. Kids sometimes "bother" their neighbors, just by being kids and doing things kids do. I wonder if there could have been some interraction between DR & the children at some earlier point which caused Patty to pose that particular question.

I may be reading far too much into it. Simply my own speculation, nothing to back it up.

 

[margaret_diane]

And while I"m at it... whats the deal with the sweatsock they recovered sometime following the abduction? Has THIS ever been forensically tested? Was it Jacob's? Or someone else's?????

 

[concentric]

Who would have known that the Rassiers were in Europe?

 

[margaret_diane]

Who would have known that the Rassiers were in Europe?

DR, his brothers (presumably), their spouses (if they had them at the time), and family friends / relatives, possibly business associates (?), possibly members of the church they may have mentioned a trip to??

 

[Lotus]

DR:"I Only Know What I Witnessed."

I know DR claimed in the past that he saw a car turn around in his driveway (when he was sleeping) so why all the secrecy over something he has already stated?.. unless his story has changed. And I find it strange that a part of his journal was found by LE and that the journal could in someway "help" the investigation. It sounds like DR could have planted the journal knowing LE would find it.

 

[shergal]

DR, his brothers (presumably), their spouses (if they had them at the time), and family friends / relatives, possibly business associates (?), possibly members of the church they may have mentioned a trip to??

Any tour group they may have used also. This is just a guess, but since St. Joseph was largely a German population in 1989 and it was October, they may have been in Germany for Octoberfest. My own parents used to go to Germany, Italy, etc. with tour groups from the local area - some even involved with their church.

 

[Camille Grace]

I'm not sure how I first stumbled upon this article last summer, but I found it very interesting. It's the only article I've read in which Dan Rassier talks about seeing many peculiar "things" the day of the abduction. The implication is that he saw some "things" during the day and not just that night. We know that the art student in the red car has been eliminated as a suspect. What else do you suppose Rassier saw that day? Here is the link to the article: www.thenewsleaders.com/person-of-interest-says-he-witnessed-things2.

 

[shergal]

I realize "Topix" sites are sometimes just readers speculating, spreading rumors and arguing with each other, but here are an odd couple of posts made earlier today... (Of course, it could be the real abductor just trying to lead people astray also.)

"Sorry to say this, but Jacob is dead, and so is the person that killed him. The pedaphile that took Jacob, suffered a long painful death, if that make's people feel any better. And I do not know where his remain's are buried."

"There was a composit drawing made of 2 people of interest in the case. That drawing was so precise, that it was just like they took a picture, of the 2 suspect's. When I looked at the poster, I had a gut feeling I knew the 2 people, on the poster. It bothered me so much, I had to go back, and look at the drawing again. I looked at the eye's, and blam, it hit me. It was a picture of the father & son. The son (Suspect) used to work for a local nightclub. He would go up on the roof, during band break's, and watch the guy's and gal's, get it on in the parking lot. He took a bus driving job, for a local school, and got fired for pinching little boy's, in the a$$. I've said all I want to about the subject, or I'll have the FBI knocking at my door, wondering how I knew that. When the suspect died, I figured justice has been served."

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/st-cloud-mn/TKMOC8OA1GE8A1V9C

 

[shergal]

I'm not sure how I first stumbled upon this article last summer, but I found it very interesting. It's the only article I've read in which Dan Rassier talks about seeing many peculiar "things" the day of the abduction. The implication is that he saw some "things" during the day and not just that night. We know that the art student in the red car has been eliminated as a suspect. What else do you suppose Rassier saw that day? Here is the link to the article: www.thenewsleaders.com/person-of-interest-says-he-witnessed-things2.

Your link is not working for me, can you copy the article here at all?

 

[Lotus]

I'm not really sure what to make of this, at least not until I hear the details of what/who he saw.

 

[margaret_diane]

DR:"I Only Know What I Witnessed."

I know DR claimed in the past that he saw a car turn around in his driveway (when he was sleeping) so why all the secrecy over something he has already stated?.. unless his story has changed. And I find it strange that a part of his journal was found by LE and that the journal could in someway "help" the investigation. It sounds like DR could have planted the journal knowing LE would find it.

If the search executed most recently was a surprise visit by LE, then how could he have planted it, knowing LE would find it? Unless he and LE had a conversation in earlier years, weeks months which might have caused him to believe another search was coming, I'm not sure how that fits.

More importantly, if DR thinks his journal has information in it that could help the LE to crack the case, why oh why did they have to go FIND it? Why did he not just bring it to their attention (the journal and whatever info it holds?).

Further, when was the journal written? How long was it kept? If only PART of the journal was found, where is the REST of it?

 

[margaret_diane]

I'm still stuck on the fact that DR said he was RELIEVED!

Wouldn't he be MORE relieved if they had found something to formally and finally CLEAR him somehow??

 

[margaret_diane]

This article was on the web last summer, then it disappeared, and now it's back:

http://www.thenewsleaders.com/person-of-interest-says-he-witnessed-things2. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Aug 25, 2010 16:28:07 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more

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‘Person of interest’ says he witnessed ‘things’

On the late autumn day of the evening Jacob Wetterling was abducted, a nearby neighbor, Dan Rassier, said he “witnessed” many peculiar things in the area southeast of St. Joseph.

The day was Sunday, Oct. 22, 1989.

Next day, once Rassier became aware of Jacob’s abduction, the “things” he saw coalesced in his mind as vital connections pointing the way to solving the crime.

Rassier spoke of his frustration in a lengthy July 3 telephone interview with the St. Joseph Newsleader. He is frustrated, he said, because nobody has followed through with the information he so willingly shared about the “things” he saw that day. Rassier, citing “trust issues” with the media, declined to divulge the kinds of things he saw, although, when questioned further, he did more or less agree those “things” were people and/or vehicles. Rassier said he spent a good part of that day jogging on the road past the Delwin Ballroom, where a polka fest was taking place, and on his neighborhood roads, including the one on which Jacob was abducted, just before darkness fell. Jacob was taken on that road (91st Avenue) right at the spot where it intersects with the long driveway to the Robert and Rita Rassier farm.

Rassier said he “witnessed” things throughout that entire day and into the early evening. When he was not jogging, he spent all of the time at home Oct. 22. At that time - as now - Rassier has lived with his parents.

Another reason Rassier cited for not divulging details about the things he saw is because he does not want to tip off anyone guilty of the abduction.

“I am an innocent witness to what happened,” he said. “But I definitely saw something. All of the investigators know the information I told them.”

Rassier has a vivid memory of that autumn day of two decades ago when 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling, his brother and a friend had gone to the Tom Thumb convenience store to get some treats and a video. While returning home on the rural township road, a masked gunman stopped the boys. He told the brother and the friend to run into the woods. When the boys looked back from the woods, Jacob and the man were gone.

From the beginning, Dan Rassier was one of many people questioned by law enforcement.

“I was completely cooperative with them,” Rassier said. “They gave me all kinds of tests, including a lie-detector test. I told them about what I’d witnessed.”

Now, 20 years later, Rassier is yet again a “person of interest” by law enforcement. Last week, a variety of law-enforcement agenices, including the F.B.I., converged in force on the Rassier farm, confiscating some unspecified items and digging up earth from a gravel bed and then trucking it from the farm. Authorities have been tight-lipped about the reason for the raid and about confiscated items, saying only that the search of the farm was precipitated by a court order.

Rassier vigorously denies having anything to do with the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling.

“Yes, this is very tough,” Rassier said. “It’s a nightmare, but it’s nothing next to losing a son (Jacob). I’ve been getting a lot of death threats. I can handle this, but what worries me is my parents. It’s so hard on them. They (media) are saying horrible things about us. They are ruining our lives.”

On a bright side, Rassier noted, he and his parents are receiving a lot of cards, letters and calls of support and sympathy from friends, relatives and well-wishers.

Rassier, 54, is a music-band teacher for the Cold Spring/Rocori School District. He is also an avid runner who has participated in countless marathons during the past few decades.

Posted on Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Dennis Dalman

This article made me wonder the following:
-> could it be true that someone from the nearby polka party was responsible? Was every guest at the party somehow checked out? Did anyone go missing from the party for a period of time, or leave early, or was this just letting out as the abudction took place? Need more information if anyone has it on this party at the Delwin Ballroom!!

-> Could it be that DR (or perp) was an opportunist and they knew the party was happening, and figured that following an abduction, the party would make a great alibi (for a perp), or a great way to imply that someone else was responsible (if it was DR he could cast a shadow of doubt on his own involvement by pointing out that the party was in full swing, and many people were in the area.....

hmmmmm.

 

[GrainneDhu]

http://kstp.com/news/stories/s1765250.shtml?cat=1

Watch the video -- this is DR on video giving an interview over the search results. My perception of the man following viewing this video is this:

- Where is is concern for Jacob?? He presents to me even now, 21 years later, as aloof!! He doesn't seem sad or even emotionally involved on any level - this is of concern! Short of Asperger's Syndrome or Autism which can affect one's ability to socially relate to others -- how is he seemingly so very detached?

SBM

To me, his detachment seems pretty natural, if he is factually innocent. So the fact that he seems detached actually inclines me towards thinking he's factually innocent.

If he's innocent, then he had no close acquaintanceship with the Wetterling family or Jacob in particular. So he probably had the same sort of compassion I myself feel for Jacob: an intellectual compassion rather than an emotionally passionate compassion. If i felt an emotionally passionate compassion for a particular victim, I could not discuss their case on WS (or elsewhere), it would be too emotionally wrenching for me.

He's been questioned intensively and repeatedly over the years, so that he has repeated over and over what he saw, what he did that day and night, what he knows, etc. Rehearsing an event over and over tends to take the emotion out of the delivery. It isn't that there wasn't huge emotion attached to the event at one time, it's just that when you tell it over and over, just the telling alone becomes a desensitiser.

It has been 21 years since Jacob disappeared and even in the Wetterling family, life has gone on. This is as it should be; Jacob had siblings and it would only have compounded the tragedy had their lives been completely blighted by what happened to Jacob. Twenty one years is enough time for plenty of important life events to happen, which tends to push even the most tragic personal events into the past. I would tend to think the same thing has also happened to DR. He does not exist in a stasis chamber, his life has also gone on for 21 years.

Watching that video clarified something different for me. I have never much believed in the concept of justice for the victims of homicide; to me, the victim of a homicide is gone somewhere beyond any need for justice.

I realised once more that justice is for the living and it can be more necessary for the innocent than for the guilty.

 

[human]

Yes, why was he relieved? Did he think something would be found and nothing was?

 

[Camille Grace]

Maybe he said he was relieved that the testing was over because more people will believe he is innocent now that the test results are known. If he IS innocent, it must be extremely stressful and embarrassing to have his name connected to this crime.

 

[Trino]

Under the circumstances, I believe the term "relieved" is appropriate. Maybe he thought something would be found, and he would be implicated, although he was innocent. How many innocent persons are rotting in prisons?

 

[shergal]

This article was on the web last summer, then it disappeared, and now it's back:

http://www.thenewsleaders.com/person-of-interest-says-he-witnessed-things2. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Aug 25, 2010 16:28:07 GMT.

(Snipped for length)

Wow, I don't know, to me, DR is placing himself right on the scene if this is true. (I find it strange this article has never been posted anywhere though, or picked up by any newspapers or blogs.)

"Rassier said he spent a good part of that day jogging on the road past the Delwin Ballroom, where a polka fest was taking place, and on his neighborhood roads, including the one on which Jacob was abducted, just before darkness fell."

So he was out on the road jogging around the area right before dark.

 

[human]

The Wetterlings are moving on with their lives, fighting for children.

But I bet they think of Jacob almost every minute of every day. I bet the hole in their hearts hurts with an relentlessness pain.

Especially now when October 22 is coming up once again.

There are many of us whose lives were changed that day. I can't imagine how Jerry and Patty have dealt with this in such a positive way for all children.