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 childrenâ€
Inscribed stone slab in Jacob’s Garden at North Junior High School, St. Cloud, taken Oct. 9, 2008. (Photo: Aubrey Immelman)
Wetterling Abduction: $18,000 Raised for AMBER Alert
By Kari Petrie
St. Cloud Times
October 22, 2010
The 22nd anniversary of the abduction of Jacob Wetterling is being marked with a large donation to a program that works to alert the community about missing children.
A group of motorcycle enthusiasts formed a nonprofit organization called Minnesota AMBER Alert Fundraiser and raised $18,000 for the AMBER Alert program.
A check was presented to Patty Wetterling, Jacob’s mother, during a news conference today.
Eleven-year-old Wetterling was abducted Oct. 22, 1989, in St. Joseph when a masked gunman stopped him, his brother and a friend as they returned home from a St. Joseph store. Wetterling’s brother and friend were released, but the man took Jacob.
No arrests have been made in the case. …
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One Minnesota County, Two Missing Young Men
Jacob Wetterling and Joshua Guimond, missing just a few miles apart.
(Photo credit: Star Tribune)
By Susan Hogan
Editorial writer
October 22, 2011
On Friday morning [Oct. 21, 2011], Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner prepared for an afternoon meeting with Patty and Jerry Wetterling, whose son Jacob was abducted 22 years ago today.
As a remembrance of the 11-year-old boy who vanished on a road near St. Joseph, people are being asked to leave their porch lights on tonight.
A few days from now, on Nov. 10, another family will gather for a vigil for another young person who vanished from Stearns County during the night.
He’s Joshua Guimond, a 20-year-old student who disappeared from St. John’s University in Collegeville on Nov. 9, 2002. Area lakes were searched, but no signs of Joshua were ever found.
“He just vanished,” said Bob Guimond, the young man’s grandfather. “Nothing ever washed up. No clothes or anything were ever found. That’s why we’ve always believed he was kidnapped.”
Jacob’s abduction had always been treated as a criminal case because witnesses saw the kidnapping. Without such witnesses or physical evidence of a crime, Joshua’s disappearance remains a missing-person case, the sheriff said.
“We don’t know what happened,” he said. “We just don’t know. It’s frustrating.”
Two young men. One county. No answers.
Each case is still assigned to an investigator, the sheriff said. Despite the passing years, he refuses to call them “cold cases.”
“Joshua’s case doesn’t get the media attention that Jacob’s case does, but each is equally significant to law enforcement,” he said. “We have families and communities that don’t have answers. We remain hopeful that we will find those answers.”
Last year, when his department pursued new leads on Jacob’s case, five dozen media outlets from across the country called the sheriff for interviews in a matter of hours.
After all this time, the story of the young boy snatched while biking with friends remains in the national mind. …
Joshua’s case didn’t have that kind of impact, but is no less important.
“It’s like we’re on an island in the Pacific Ocean,” Joshua’s grandfather said. “No one’s coming to help us. No lifeboats are out there.”
No family should have to endure the ordeal of a loved one gone missing. It’s a cruel torture to have a family member simply disappear from the Earth. Somebody has answers.
With Halloween approaching — a time for children and for mischief — perhaps we could leave our porch lights on for both of these anniversaries as a way to remember Jacob, Joshua and all children who’ve disappeared.
Read the full editorial at the Star Tribune
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Related reports on this site
New Book on Wetterling Abduction, Search, and Suspects (April 17, 2015)
On Facebook: Searching for Jacob Wetterling
Jacob Wetterling Kidnapping Tips (March 2, 2011)
Jacob Wetterling — Latest News (Oct. 5, 2010)
Satellite image of the Wetterling abduction site and surrounding area shows how few residences there are in the vicinity. The development northwest of the abduction site did not exist and consisted of woodland at the time of Jacob’s kidnapping in 1989 (Google Earth / Joy Baker; click on image for larger display)
Josh Guimond: Latest News (May 24, 2010)
Josh Guimond (Photo credit: KMSP-TV Fox 9)
Jacob Wetterling Freedom Walk (Dec. 21, 2009)
On Sunday, Dec. 19, 2009, the third and final day of Jacob’s Freedom Walk for Missing and Abducted Children, Vietnam vets, led by Mike Clark and Jerry Wetterling, pause for a prayer before beginning the day’s walk on the east side of St. Cloud at Minnesota Highway 10 and Highway 23 / Division Street.
Guimond: “Justice for Josh” March (Nov. 9, 2009)
On Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, three days before the 7th anniversary of the disappearance of St. John’s University student Joshua Guimond, Josh’s family and supporters convened near the site of Josh’s disappearance for a “Justice for Josh” march to raise public awareness of their son’s plight, after which they delivered a petition for renewed efforts in the search to the Stearns County Sheriff’s Dept. On Saturday evening, the family held a prayer service and candlelight vigil at Josh’s church in Maple Lake.
Missing Person Joshua Guimond (Nov. 7, 2009)
Jacob Wetterling 20 Years On (Oct. 22, 2009)
Jacob Wetterling Celebration (Oct. 16, 2009)
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)
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)
Vern’s Barber Shop in St. Francis, Wis.
(Photo: John Klein / Journal Sentinal)
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FROM THE ARCHIVES
One Year Ago — October 22, 2010
Jacob Wetterling Kidnapping ‘Comes of Age’
Jerry Wetterling wears a button showing a digitally aged photo of his son Jacob as he might have looked at age 21. (Photo: Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)
One year ago today, I commemorated the 21st anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction on October 22, 1989 in St. Joseph, Minn.
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Two Years Ago — October 22, 2009
Patty Wetterling takes a moment to reflect on the 20th anniversary of the abduction of her son, Jacob, during an interview Oct. 9, 2009 at their St. Joseph home. Behind her is a wooden toy train that carries the familiar Jacob’s Hope slogan. (Photo credit: Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)
Two years ago today, on October 22, 2009, I reported on the 20th anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction.
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Three Years Ago — October 22, 2008
Shiite demonstrators protest against a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact in Baghad on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008. (Photo credit: Wathiq Khuzaie / Getty Images)
Three years ago today, on October 22, 2008, the fourth day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I reported on difficulties regarding a status-of-forces agreement between Iraq and the United States, thanked supporters for their messages of encouragement and online contributions, and published excerpts from Eric Zaetsch’s “Developers are Crabgrass” blog entry for Oct. 20, 2008, regarding my write-in candidacy.
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