On Friday, July 2, Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner described 54-year-old music teacher Dan Rassier as a “person of interest” in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling at the end of the Rassier driveway on the evening of Oct. 22, 1989.

Dan Rassier

In a telephone interview with the St. Cloud Times, Rassier said investigators have interviewed him “numerous times” about Jacob’s disappearance. He told the Times he has submitted to a polygraph test, hypnosis, and DNA sampling.

As reported by the Times, Rassier said, “I had absolutely nothing to do with anything with Jacob. … “I didn’t do it. I had nothing to do with it.” (“Sheriff: Rassier ‘person of interest’ in Wetterling case” by Kari Petrie and David Unze, St. Cloud Times, July 3, 2010)

News media stake out the approach to the driveway of the Rassier farmstead in St. Joseph Township, Minn., July 1, 2010. The entrance to the property is blocked by a Stearns County Sheriff’s Department squad car during an excavation and warrant search in which “a number of items” were seized, according to Sheriff John Sanner. (Photo: Aubrey Immelman)

According to Rassier, the negative media exposure has made him the subject of threatening e-mails and death threats, which he has reported to law enforcement authorities.

Stearns County sheriff’s deputies control access to the Rassier farmstead in St. Joseph Township, Minn., while search warrants are being executed on the property in the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping investigation, July 1, 2010. (Photo: Aubrey Immelman)

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Criminal Investigative Analysis

On the face of it, investigators’ working theory — that Jacob was taken by an opportunistic offender on foot — seems plausible. The abduction site is in an isolated rural area on a dead-end road; it’s unlikely that a planful, premeditated offender would have trolled the area for a victim.

Dan Rassier, the “person of interest,” certainly had the opportunity — being home alone at the time of the abduction and plausibly having observed Jacob, his friend Aaron Larson, and his brother Trevor passing his home (on their way to the nearby Tom Thumb convenience store to rent a video) and knowing they would have to return the same way.

But while Rassier may have had the opportunity, his motive for taking Jacob is unclear. The conventional wisdom in nonfamily stranger abductions is that the motive invariably is sexual. However, I’ve been unable to find any evidence that Rassier is a pedophile or a sex offender.

Sidebar: St. Cloud Times online reader comments

guitar01 wrote:
I’ve known Dan my whole life, I took lessons from him a few years and he is a good friend of mine. I have been in contact with Dan since Thursday and him [sic] and his family are going through HELL. Imagine if it was you that was being accused of the crime and had death threats against you? How would you feel? I wish the media would stop portraying Dan as being a criminal. Dan is innocent untill [sic] proven guilty, END OF STORY!
7/3/2010 11:54:50 AM

odiewitch wrote:
I also had Dan Rassier as a band teacher. I had group and private lessons with him from 5th grade until 10th grade. He never did or said anything that made me feel uncomfortable. I still find it hard to believe he could of [sic] had anything to do with this crime. I pray for the families of the Wetterlings and for the Rassiers. Remember in this country you are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty not the other way around.
7/3/2010 12:18:58 PM

littlerockpj wrote:
To student commenting that he was a good teacher: As a teacher I have found students are good judges of character. Teaching music is hard and if students do not complain about a music teacher, he’s unusually good, since many think music teachers are odd. The fact that students speak well of him and the school did not have complaints makes me think there is more to the story. [...] I want Jacob’s abductor caught, but I certainly agree that a person in America is innocent until proven otherwise, and so many people seem to be rushing to judgement or taking their personal unhappiness out on law enforcement. If he is innocent, let’s hope that this story will not tarnish his reputation.
7/3/2010 3:39:25 PM

Considering Rassier’s extensive contact with juveniles in the course of three decades as a music teacher, it’s notable that there have been no known reports of sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior.

Furthermore, linkage analysis suggests that Jacob likely was taken by the same offender who kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and later released 12-year-old Jared S. nine months earlier in nearby Cold Spring, where Rassier works as a teacher.

Sidebar: Topical report

KARE 11 Investigates: Coincidence in the Wetterling Case (May 5, 2004)

Jared S. and Jacob Wetterling (Image: KARE-11)

I have information on good authority that DNA evidence was collected from the Cold Spring assault, and — given that Rassier submitted to DNA sampling as long ago as 2003 or 2004 — one would think that if he was a match, he would have been charged with the assault on Jared (Minnesota has a DNA statute-of-limitations exception for rape) and that a strong circumstantial case could have been made in charging him with the kidnapping of Jacob Wetterling.

Furthermore, Jacob isn’t the only young male to have gone missing from the area. On Nov. 9-10, 2002, St. John’s University student Joshua Guimond vanished without a trace from the college campus, approximately 6 miles distant from theWetterling abduction site. He has never been found.

According to FBI statistics, there are approximately 50 serial killers at large at any one time in the United States. Assuming, as a rule of thumb, that approximately 10 percent of those offenders are homosexuals targeting male victims, a rough estimate of the number of such offenders on the loose is five. Given the low population density of rural Stearns County where Jacob and Josh disappeared, it’s statistically improbable that two different offenders could be responsible.

Indeed, it would strengthen the circumstantial case against Rassier in Jacob’s abduction if he is unable to provide an alibi for the night Josh disappeared from St. John’s.

On April 28, 2003 — five months after Josh’s disappearance — the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department released information that it “received a call from an individual stating that they were driving off campus, just after midnight, on the night Joshua Guimond disappeared and that they saw someone jogging towards campus on County Road 159 wearing bright colored jogging clothing.”

Coincidentally, Wetterling suspect Dan Rassier is an avid road runner and one of his routes passes through the St. John’s campus (from the Rassier farm through St. Joseph on Co Hwy 2 to St. John’s University along Co Rd 51 and back to St. Joseph past the Abbey Church, St. John’s Prep School, the I-94 footbridge, and Hwy 75).

In a further coincidence, Josh played the euphonium and did some tutoring in brass instruments, which happens to be Rassier’s teaching specialty. It’s important that law enforcement authorities account for Rassier’s whereabouts on the night of Josh’s disappearance. If he is cleared in the Guimond investigation, it’s arguably less likely that he had any involvement in Jacob’s kidnapping.

On the face of it, Rassier doesn’t seem to be a compelling match for the kind of offender profile one would expect in the Wetterling case:

Rassier is an elementary school band teacher and has worked for the Rocori school district since 1978, Superintendent Scott Staska said. …

“We’ve had no complaints” about Rassier. Students call him “Mr. Be-Bop,” Staska said.

“You don’t get nicknames like that without being well liked by the kids,” he said. …

Ralph Bell, a former [St. Joseph] Newsleader editor, wrote the 2008 profile of Rassier.

Bell said Rassier struck him as “a sweet guy, soft spoken, smiling” …

(Pioneer Press, July 2, 2010)

Whatever the case, until he is charged with and convicted of a crime, it’s important that Rassier be accorded the presumption of innocence as the investigation proceeds and that members of the public desist from harassing Rassier or taking the law into their own hands.

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UPDATES

Related reports

Profiler Offers Insight Into Wetterling Investigation

By Ryan Ruud
KSTP.com
July 2, 2010

 KSTP video
With more questions than answers, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS sat down with a nationally-known criminal profiler for some insight into the sudden flurry of activity near the Jacob Wetterling abduction site.

Pat Brown has been investigating cold cases for more than a decade.

She has not, however, worked specifically on the Jacob Wetterling case.

Her perspective is unique nonetheless.

Brown says a telltale sign of who may have taken Jacob is the fact the abductors’ face was covered by a mask.

After all these years Brown says three things would give this case new life: New DNA evidence, a confession, or a body.

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Jacob Wetterling abduction: Dan Rassier, local elementary band teacher named “person of interest” (July 3, 2010)

Dan Rassier

Jacob Wetterling abduction case: Person of interest, Dan Rassier, in 2004 news interview as “unnamed suspect”? (July 9, 2010)

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Authorities Still Tight-Lipped On Wetterling Hunt

Caroline Lowe
WCCO
July 6, 2010

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. (WCCO) — Nearly a week after one of Minnesota’s most well-known kidnapping cases suddenly made headlines again, authorities are still tight-lipped about what they will say publicly about what prompted their latest search.

For two days, state, local and federal investigators searched a farm site near the spot where Jacob Wetterling was abducted in 1989. It is also a half mile from his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota.

They even brought in a backhoe which produced six loads of dirt that was hauled away in a truck for forensic analysis.

Sources tell WCCO the farm site is where they had found the last trace they could find of the eleven-year-old boy. Back in 1989, a police dog picked up Jacob’s scent just inside the property and sources say it disappeared a couple hundred feet away. Sources also say a mold was made of Jacob’s footprint on the site back then.

Investigators are expected to spend a couple weeks having the dirt taken from the site analyzed, trying to determine if it will provide any further clues to what happened to Jacob.

The Stearns County Sheriff told the St. Cloud Times one of the residents of the farm, Daniel Rassier, is a “person of interest” in the case. His family told WCCO he had nothing to do with Jacob’s disappearance.

WCCO video

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Investigators Sift Dirt Connected to Wetterling Case

By Kari Petrie
St. Cloud Times
July 23, 2010

Investigators continue to sift through dirt as part of the investigation into the Jacob Wetterling abduction.

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said the work could go into next week. Investigators took six truckloads of dirt and other items from a farm at 29748-91st Ave. in St. Joseph Township during a two-day search earlier this summer.

The dirt is being processed at the Stearns County Public Works Building in Waite Park. Dozens of investigators sifted the dirt through screens Thursday morning. …

The FBI and the BCA are assisting in the investigation.

Full story

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Wetterling Investigators Send Items for Testing

By Kari Petrie
St. Cloud Times
July 27, 2010

Authorities on Monday finished sifting through six truckloads of dirt that are part of the Jacob Wetterling abduction investigation.

Items of interest were found and will be sent to forensic labs for additional testing, according to the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office.

On June 30 and July 1, investigators executed four search warrants at a farm at 29748-91st Ave. in St. Joseph Township. Authorities took the truckloads of dirt and several other items from the farm.

The sheriff’s office has not identified what those items are.

The search breathed new life into the 21-year-old investigation of Wetterling’s disappearance. …

Full story

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Exclusive New Details in the Jacob Wetterling Abduction Case

By Cory Kampschroer
KSTP.com
Sept. 28, 2010

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said today tests done at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension have not uncovered any new substantial leads in the case, but the case remains under investigation.

Investigators seized several items during this summer’s search of the rural 158-acre St. Joseph farm.

Just as soon as law enforcement officials starting digging up the farm belonging to Daniel Rassier’s parents, Bob and Rita Rassier, we began uncovering new facts about the investigation. 

The Stearns County Sheriff has confirmed Daniel Rassier is a person of interest in the Jacob Wetterling abduction. However, Rassier told KSTP.com he had nothing to do with the abduction of Jacob Wetterling.

While police are not revealing exactly what was taken from the property during the two day search that started June 30th, sources have told KSTP.com exactly what was seized.

During the search of the outbuildings and property, investigators removed six truck loads of dirt and ash.

The dirt and ash was taken to a nearby public works building, where investigators sifted through it looking for any evidence in connection with the Jacob Wetterling abduction.

KSTP.com has learned investigators did recover clothing articles and animal bones in the dirt and ash taken from the farm. Some of those items were sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension lab for testing.

Sources tell KSTP.com, investigators removed several items from the farm, including a lawn chair, the base of a patio umbrella stand and a cedar chest. The items had been stored in an area above a four stall garage on the Rassier property.

We have also learned investigators seized a box from Daniel Rassier’s bedroom containing news clippings and articles about the Jacob Wetterling abduction. That box also contained part of Rassier’s journal.

Sources have confirmed to KSTP.com, during this summer’s two-day search, investigators did not have a search warrant for the farm house, but rather just for the outbuildings and property. However, during that first day of the search investigators found enough evidence to go back to a judge and get a warrant for the farm house itself. 

This is the third time the Rassier family farm has been searched, the first was immediately after the abduction, the second time was 6 years ago when investigators examined Daniel Rassier’s computer.  

Sources also confirm part of the reason why the farm was searched again this summer, was because new investigators took on the case and discovered evidence that had not been examined before. Another reason why investigators converged on the farm this summer is because of advances in technology.

The K-9 searching the Rassier farm was flown to St. Joseph from Louisiana. The K-9 works very closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

We have also learned about a meeting between Daniel Rassier and Patty Wetterling within the past 10-months. Sources tell KSTP.com Wetterling requested a meeting with Daniel Rassier and asked him if he abducted Jacob.

Wetterling also asked Rassier if he had been playing a joke on the three boys and the joke went too far. During the meeting, Rassier told Wetterling what he saw the night Jacob went missing and again told her he had nothing to do with her son’s disappearance. …

Read the full story at KSTP.com

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Related reports on this site

Dan Rassier Teaching Concerns (Aug. 28, 2010)

Jacob Wetterling: Rassier Search (July 1, 2010)

Squad cars and other law enforcement vehicles parked in the farmyard on the Rassier property in rural St. Joseph, Minn., Wednesday, June 30, 2010. (Photo credit: Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)

Josh Guimond: New Developments (May 24, 2010)

Josh Guimond

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, are met by Jacob’s mother Patty Wetterling upon arriving at the site where 11-year-old Jacob was abducted on Sunday, October 22, 1989, about half a mile from the Wetterling home in rural St. Joseph, Minn. After a prayer, three rifle rounds are fired as the universal symbol of letting the lost or missing know they’re being searched for.

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

On Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, Guimond family members and supporters led by Josh’s grandfather, Bob Guimond, approach St. John’s University along County Road 159 to commemorate the 7th anniversary of Josh’s disappearance from campus, following which they delivered an urgent petition for stepped-up efforts in the investigation to the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department.

Missing Person Joshua Guimond (Nov. 7, 2009)

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

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).

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, Wisc.
(Photo: John Klein / Journal Sentinal)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — July 3, 2009

Sarah Palin Personality Profile

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the occasion of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation from office, I featured my research on Palin’s personal psychology, conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.