Update: September 3, 2016 Breaking News

Jacob Wetterling’s Remains Found in Central Minnesota

“This area is dedicated to our friend Jacob and other missing children”
Inscribed stone slab in Jacob’s Garden at North Junior High School, St. Cloud, taken Oct. 9, 2008. (Photo: Aubrey Immelman)

On Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015 Jerry and Patty Wetterling spoke to the media for the first time since 52-year-old Danny James Heinrich of Annandale, Minn., was arrested on child pornography charges and named a “person of interest” in the Oct. 22, 1989 abduction of their son Jacob.

Watch St. Cloud Times video

Read report in the St. Cloud Times

Read report in the Newsleader

Dennis Dalman / The Newsleader

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12/7/2015 Update

Wetterling Family Holds Paynesville Meeting for Tips, Healing

By Nina Moini
CBS Minnesota — WCCO-TV
December 6, 2015

Excerpts

Tonight, Jacob Wetterling’s parents asked for leads in their son’s case and tried to bring healing over some other cases. …

Now, authorities are exploring whether a string of sexual assaults against boys around Paynesville in the 1980s are connected.

Danny Heinrich, 52, lived in Paynesville when Jacob disappeared. He is charged with possessing child pornography, and police say he’s a person of interest in the Wetterling case. …

[One Paynesville victim, Troy Cole, said] if police had more seriously investigated those earlier cases, the story may have ended differently. …

Court documents have revealed a former Paynesville police chief told investigators to look into Heinrich in 1990, calling Heinrich the chief suspect in the Paynesville attacks on young boys around Jacob’s age.

“I gave a statement the night it happened to a cop here, then 27 years later I finally get a call from a detective asking about it,” Cole said.

Cole said he feels the survivors of Paynesville attacks were ignored by authorities for years. …

Read full report and view video at WCCO

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12/13/2015 Update

Inside One Woman’s Search for Jacob Wetterling

Joy Baker in her home office in New London, Minn. (Photo credit: Renee Jones Schneider / Star Tribune)

By Jenna Ross

December 6, 2015

Excerpts

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — The remoteness of the road overwhelmed her. Standing beside it, Joy Baker couldn’t make sense of what had happened there two decades before: Jacob Wetterling, 11 years old, taken by a masked man, never to be seen since. …

Baker, now 48, began writing about the Wetterling investigation on her blog, “Joy the Curious” [link added], launching a process of tireless questioning that Patty Wetterling, Jacob’s mother, credits with uncovering new possibilities in the case “way before anyone was really paying attention.’’ …

Investigators have now made official the questions Baker raised in 2013: Might the Paynesville attacks be connected to the kidnapping and assault of a Cold Spring boy just months before Jacob Wetterling’s abduction? …

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner declined to comment last week, citing the active investigation. But in the past, Sanner has said that his office knew about at least some of the Paynesville attacks long before Baker wrote about them.

Investigative teams routinely speculate about whether different crimes might be related, he said last year. “The difference is, she’s speculating and playing it out on a public stage, where anybody can read it. …

But Patty Wetterling believes Baker’s research into what authorities have since dubbed the “Paynesville assault cluster” pushed a possible link to Jacob’s abduction to “the top of the pile.” …

Read full report and view video at the Star Tribune

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2/17/2016 Update

A Birthday Message from His Mom to Jacob Wetterling on His 38th Birthday

By Pat Pheifer

February 16, 2016

Excerpts

Jacob Wetterling would have turned 38 years old Wednesday [Feb. 17]. … His mother, Patty Wetterling, took the opportunity of his birthday to pen a message to him on the website of the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center. …

“I am hoping and praying that people will remember you on February 17 and we ask that everyone hug their kids a little tighter, tell them that they love them and take time to play a game or read books. My wish is also that parents will support agencies that help to find our missing kids and help other victims. Today, we ask everyone to volunteer, attend events, send financial support and share safety information.” …

Read full report at the Star Tribune

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Related reports on this site

Danny Heinrich Confesses to Jacob Wetterling Kidnapping, Assault, and Murder (Sept 6, 2016)

Danny Heinrich in federal court confessing to the abduction and murder of Jacob Wetterling. (Sketch: Nancy Muellner / KARE 11)

Danny Heinrich Search Warrant in Jacob Wetterling Kidnapping (Oct. 30, 2015)

Minnesota Missing Persons Linkage Analysis (June 22, 2011)

Missing Person Joshua Guimond (Nov. 7, 2009)