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)

A photo of Jacob Wetterling from 1989, the year he was taken (left), and an age-adjusted image of what he may have looked like at age 29 (right).

Updated Oct. 17, 2009

October 22 marks the 20th anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction. Jacob’s life and all children were celebrated with a concert by Jacob’s favorite childhood singer, Red Grammer, on Saturday, October 17, 2009 in the Benedicta Arts Center at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn. Douglas Wood and George Maurer also performed.

“A Celebration of Children”

Concert honoring 20 years of Jacob’s Hope, featuring Red Grammer

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IN THE MEDIA

Wetterlings Host Concert Honoring Jacob

Patty Wetterling sings with Red Grammer during the “Celebration of Children” concert at the College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Oct. 17, 2009. (Photo credit: Adam Hammer / St. Cloud Times)

By Jim Maurice
AM 1240 / WJON.com
October 17, 2009

Excerpt

ST. JOSEPH — Jacob’s Hope was kept alive in St. Joseph on Saturday night.

An auditorium was filled with kids younger than Jacob Wetterling when he was abducted, and young adults who weren’t even born yet. But there were also plenty of adults in the audience who remember exactly where they were when they got the news an 11-year-old boy had been snatched from a rural Stearns County road.

The Wetterling family hosted a celebration in honor of their son on Saturday night. It was a rollercoaster of emotion, from the smiles when Patty sang a duet with children’s performer Red Grammer to tears when Patty and Jerry read from a book about Jacob they had written for their grandchildren. …

Click on the story link for an audio version of this story with sounds from the event and additional photos.

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20th Anniversary of Jacob Wetterling Abduction

By Caroline Lowe
WCCO
October 15, 2009

Watch video report

One week from Thursday, Jacob Wetterling’s family will mark the 20th anniversary of his disappearance. On Oct. 22, 1989, a masked man with a gun kidnapped Jacob in rural St. Joseph, Minn. Eleven-year-old Jacob was biking home from a convenience store with his brother, Trevor, and a friend.

In the two decades since the abduction, Jacob’s mom, Patty Wetterling, has worked tirelessly to make the world safe for other children. This week she is also bracing for another anniversary without knowing what happened to her son.

In an interview with WCCO-TV reporter Caroline Lowe, Wetterling talked about the emotions she and her family go through every time an anniversary approaches.

“For me, every fall, there is this whole body experience of knowing that the abduction time is nearby,” said Wetterling. “I just keep scratching my head, like, ‘What haven’t we done? What else do we need to do to find Jacob and the man who took him and get some answers?’ Because we do need answers. I think the entire state of Minnesota needs answers.”

Answers that have never come, despite hundreds of searches and tips.

“We were really carried by the people in our community and throughout the state from the beginning, when so many people said, ‘I don’t know how you do it, I couldn’t get out of bed,'” said Wetterling. “We couldn’t either, we couldn’t. We were really lifted up by so many amazing people, and it’s working. It’s carried us for a long, long time.”

Wetterling said she has never given up hope.

“I simply don’t know. I never had this overwhelming sense that he died. A lot of parents will tell you they knew exactly the moment, they felt it. And I didn’t have that happen, so I don’t have that sense that he’s not alive,” she explained.

But the anniversary of the last time Wetterling saw her son never stops hurting.

“I just want to curl up in a ball all over again on the 22nd. I want to be home. I don’t want to think. I don’t want to do anything. I just want to be,” said Wetterling. “It is a time to remember and reflect and honor Jacob. And hope that one day, maybe this year, we will have our answers.”

Jacob would 31 years old now. Wetterling finds hope when she sees reunions like the recent one between Jaycee Dugard and her family. She survived 18 years as a prisoner of a man who snatched her from a school bus stop in California.

“I dream about having that opportunity,” said Wetterling.

And she hopes the 20-year anniversary of Jacob’s abduction prompts someone to come forward. Maybe even his kidnapper.

“Twenty years is a long time to carry that kind of guilt or pain,” said Wetterling.

As she waits for answers, Wetterling works as a nationally-recognized advocate for child safety. She is also is charge of sexual violence prevention education at the Minnesota Department of Health. Earlier this week, she was a guest on an episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show that focused on making a better world for children.

“I am fighting for the world that Jacob knew and believed in. A world where our kids can grow up safe. It’s really our adult job to build this world. It is not their job to not get kidnapped,” said Wetterling.

This Saturday night, the Wetterling family will host a children’s concert to mark the abduction anniversary. Jacob’s favorite singer, Red Grammer, will perform.

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Related links

The Search for Jacob [Alternative link — PDF]
(Steve Irsay, Court TV)

One of the last pictures of Jacob Wetterling, on a day trip two months before he was kidnapped on October 22, 1989, wearing the same blue mesh shirt he wore the night he vanished.

Find Joshua Guimond

One of the last pictures of Josh Guimond, taken on the campus of St. John’s University (6 miles from the Wetterling abduction site) shortly before his disappearance on November 10, 2002.

All possibilities should be investigated in Guimond case
(Aubrey Immelman, The Record, Nov. 11, 2004)

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Related reports on this site

Josh Guimond: New Developments (May 24, 2010)

Fighting to Protect Our Children (April 14, 2010)

Jacob Wetterling Freedom Walk (Dec. 21, 2009)

Guimond: “Justice for Josh” March (Nov. 9, 2009)

Missing Person Joshua Guimond (Nov. 7, 2009)

Jacob Wetterling 20 Years On (Oct. 22, 2009)

Jacob Wetterling Celebration (Oct. 16, 2009)

Jaycee Lee Dugard Found Alive (Aug. 28, 2009)

Wetterling Friend Shares Story (Apr. 28, 2009)

U.S. Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Aaron Larson poses with his fiancée Jackie Tentinger and 2-year-old son, Anikan, as he arrives home April 17, 2009 in Slayton, Minn., after a year-long deployment in Iraq. As an 11-year-old boy in St. Joseph, Aaron was with his best friend Jacob Wetterling when Jacob was kidnapped by a masked gunman on Sunday, Oct. 22, 1989. (Photo credit: Justine Wettschreck — Daily Globe / Associated Press)

Jacob Wetterling Lead Unravels (Jan. 7, 2009)

Ottis Toole Murdered Adam Walsh (Dec. 16, 2008)

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Video: Frenzy of violent child kidnappings in Iraq (03:01)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 16, 2008

After the Primary Election: Day 37

One year ago today, on the 37th day after losing my 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I reported on the murder of a U.S. soldier by an Afghan policeman and sectarian divisions that threaten stability in Iraq.