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 the second day of the Jacob Wetterling Freedom Walk for Missing and Abducted Children, Vietnam vets accompanied by Jacob’s father Dr. Jerry Wetterling, march on Minnesota Highway 10 near Becker, Minn.

Story as reported by the St. Cloud Times:

Vietnam Vets Plan Last Missing Children Walk

By Dave Aeikens
St. Cloud Times
December 17, 2009

Twenty years ago, Mike Clark was trying to attract attention to the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling, an 11-year-old boy who was abducted from near his St. Joseph home.

Clark, who at the time was an elementary school teacher in Princeton, got some of his Vietnam veteran friends and walked from Anoka to the Wetterling home. It took three days and ended on Christmas. The trip has been repeated every five years.

Now 63 and retired, Clark plans to make the roughly 60-mile journey one last time — starting Friday from Anoka and ending Sunday at the Wetterling house.

“We are not getting any younger. Here comes 20 years and a few of us are still in relatively decent health. We decided to make this one more time,” Clark said. “It will surely be the last.”

Clark said many of the original walkers have died, can no longer walk or take medications for various ailments including bad backs, hips and knees.

The trip is meant to bring attention to all missing children, Clark said. It will start in Anoka and end in Big Lake on Friday, go from Big Lake to St. Cloud on Saturday and wrap up Sunday with a trip from East St. Cloud to St. Joseph. The plan is to arrive at the Wetterling home around noon.

“This isn’t just for Jacob now. This is for all missing kids. It’s a message we need to renew. I think a lot of progress has been made to help families find their kids,” said Clark, who has a son born the same year as Jacob Wetterling.

The walkers plan to leave at 8 a.m. Sunday morning from the Burger King along Minnesota Highway 23. The final stop could include some prayers and the firing three times of a military rifle.

On the third day of Jacob’s Freedom Walk for Missing and Abducted Children, the marchers 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.

Story as reported by KSTP 5 TV:

Vets March for Jacob Wetterling to Be the Last

By Michelle Knoll
KSTP 5 Eyewitness News
Minneapolis-St. Paul
December 20, 2009

A group of Vietnam veterans finished a 63-mile walk for missing and abducted children Sunday.

They started the annual three-day walk from Anoka to St, Joseph when Jacob Wetterling went missing twenty years ago.

Jacob’s father, Jerry Wetterling joined veterans on this year’s walk. His son, Jacob, was abducted from a rural road in St. Joseph in October of 1989.

“There is always a part of you that is sad because this hasn’t been resolved and there are people evil enough to do that type of thing,” said Vietnam veteran Steve Ruud.

The veterans do short walks each year, saving the longer treks to mark the big anniversaries.

“Twenty years ago we were at that same spot thinking a little ways down the road he’ll be returned or we’d find out, here we are 20-years later not having that, come about,” said Vietnam veteran Roger Bobby.

The veterans are hoping the walk will help raise awareness and keep cases like Jacob’s in the public eye.

“They understand what families go through with loss,” said Jerry Wetterling.

However, when the group reached the Wetterling home this time they said this would be the last. The men, who are now in their sixties, say the grueling three-day march is just too much.

On 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.

Story as reported by the St. Cloud Times:

Veterans Raise Awareness of Missing Children

By Dave Aeikens
St. Cloud Times
December 21, 2009

ST. JOSEPH — Twenty years ago, Mike Clark and a group of Vietnam veterans walked from Anoka to the St. Joseph home of Jerry and Patty Wetterling.

They ended their three-day walk on Christmas Day. Clark has organized the walk every five years to mark the disappearance of the Wetterlings’ son Jacob and other missing children.

On Sunday, Clark, who is 63, completed the 60-mile, three-day journey for the last time.

Patty Wetterling was waiting for the 20 walkers at the spot where Jacob was last seen 20 years ago in October. Jerry Wetterling was with the walkers.

“The strength of having this steadfast group of veterans is beyond words,” said Wetterling, her voice cracking after a brief ceremony in the cool December air. “They came to our house Christmas Day that first year and they have never quit. We are extremely grateful.”

Clark carried U.S. and Missing In Action flags the final yards of the trip and declared the trip as much of a success as it could be.

“If we accomplished what we really wanted, that would be an end to child abduction but that is not possible,” Clark said as he walked through a quiet St. Joseph neighborhood where people were shoveling their walks.

“All we can do is walk to bring attention to it, so we have certainly done that.”

Along the way, people dropped off pizza and ice cream and the group caught the attention of some TV news crews.

Clark and six others made all three legs of the trip. It started Friday with a stretch from Anoka to Big Lake. The walkers, some carrying red and white signs identifying their cause, were trailed by a white van with a yellow flashing light. They would go home for the night and then return.

On Saturday, they traveled from Big Lake to St. Cloud and on Sunday it was St. Cloud to St. Joseph, completing the journey at the Wetterling home south of St. Joseph, not far from the desolate spot among the cornfields where Jacob Wetterling was abducted 20 years ago.

The group stopped at the spot to say a short prayer and fire a rifle given to Clark by Mike Strand, who died in 2004. Strand was among the original walkers in 1989. The shot echoed through the countryside. The rifle shots symbolize those who are missing, Clark said.

“For all the pain people go through, the blisters, its worth it,” Clark said.

At the end of the three-day Jacob Wetterling Freedom Walk for Missing and Abducted Children, from Anoka to St. Joseph, Minn., Vietnam veterans, accompanied by Jacob’s father Jerry and younger sister Carmen, arrive at the Wetterling home in St. Joseph.

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Related reports on this site

Refer Joshua Guimond Case to FBI (Nov. 10, 2010)

Jacob’s Kidnapping ‘Comes of Age’ (Oct. 22, 2010)

Jerry Wetterling wears a button showing a digitally aged photo of Jacob as he might have looked at age 21. (Photo: Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)

Jacob Wetterling — Latest News (Oct. 5, 2010)

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said items recovered in a search could not be identified as evidence. (00:46)

Dan Rassier Teaching Concerns (Aug. 28, 2010)

Wetterling Suspect Dan Rassier (July 3, 2010)

Dan Rassier

Jacob Wetterling: Rassier Search (July 1, 2010)

Investigators use a tractor-mounted backhoe for an excavation on the Rassier farm in St. Joseph, Minn., Thursday, July 1, 2010. (Photo credit: Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)

Josh Guimond: New Developments (May 24, 2010)

Fighting to Protect Our Children (April 14, 2010)

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

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: Jim Maurice / WJON)

Wetterling Friend Shares Story (April 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)

Vernon Seitz’s Bay View home
(Photo: John Klein / Journal Sentinal)

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

An undated screenshot shows an FBI flyer for Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped in 1991. (Photo credit: FBI via EPA)

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

Adam Walsh, 6, disappeared from a mall in August 1981. His head was found two weeks later, 120 miles away.

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Related reports

Veterans will end north-metro walk honoring Jacob Wetterling
(Nancy Ngo, Pioneer Press, Dec. 15, 2009)

As he has in the past, Mike Clark is leading a group of Vietnam vets on a trek to remember Jacob Wetterling and other missing kids. (Photo credit: Darlene Prois / Star Tribune file)

Vets take final walk to remember Jacob
(Kevin Giles, Star Tribune, Dec. 18, 2009)

Vets march for Jacob Wetterling one last time
(Bill Hudson, WCCO, Minneapolis, Dec. 17, 2009)

Vets finish final walk for Jacob Wetterling
(WCCO / Associated Press, Dec. 21, 2009)

Minnesota vets walk for Jacob Wetterling
(Minnesota Public Radio / AP, Dec. 21, 2009)

Mike Clark and his fellow Anoka County Vietnam Veterans Chapter 470 members have carried this flag for Jacob since the first 60-mile walk they did in December 1989. On Dec. 10, 2016, the veterans walked one mile from the field where Jacob was abducted to his family’s home where Clark presented the flag to Patty and Jerry Wetterling. (Photo: ABC Newspapers)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 21, 2008

Top 10 Humanitarian Crises in 2008

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I featured Médecins Sans Frontières’ (Doctors Without Borders) annual list of “top 10” humanitarian crises, which in 2008 included Somalia, Myanmar (Burma), eastern Congo, Zimbabwe, global malnutrition, Ethiopia’s Somali region, Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan, Sudan (including Darfur), Iraq, and HIV/TB co-infection.