Jacob Wetterling /// Part 1 /// 70 | Forensic Files

when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details canva presents
a true crime of design in the office Maya spots something unusual in the presentation what's this it was an
off-brand font her coworker explains I added the font I thought it was fun it was not Maya solved it with canva open
up canva one click and the font is on brand easy stay on brand and solve font crimes at canva.com the home for every
brand [Music] [Music] [Applause] never [Music] [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me is a man that I know can fake
sing better than Mariah Carey he is the captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to to be seing it's good to
see you and all all of our listeners you're giving me emotions deeper than I ever dreamed of and I'm very pleased to
announce that today in the garage we have a very special guest helping us with this episode The Great Mariah Carey
and to make her feel more at home we have turned off her [Music] mic today Captain we are drinking
redacted Rye IPA by Renegade Brewing Company and beautiful Denver Colorado garage grade four out of five bottle
caps redacted is a rye IPA that is loaded with Rye something here is aai this reneg this is renegade's
Flagship beer I'm glad you're cracking yourself up today it was a joke that I forgot that I wrote uh this Ren this is
Renegade black ship beer it has citrusy hops and spicy Rye which is a fantastic combo and redacted is truly oneof a kind
and this week's beer is brought to us by these truly one-of a-kind garage goers we have first we have a big shout out to
Larry and Renee from Denver Captain I am friends with Larry and Renee on untapped
and they are loyal listeners and they both work for breweries so I want you to play extra nice with Larry and Renee so
a big shout out to them and thank you for the beer guys like your gy next up we have Rob Mack in Alberta Canada we
also have Al from walk Iowa next up we have Roger the kitty cat from California and we'll stay in Cali and say hi to
lesli in San Diego and Edna in LA and last but not least we have Jennifer from Luxembourg Wisconsin Jennifer says try
some spotted cow and please please do a Wisconsin case yes and yes Jennifer we will do both the Spotted Cow yeah and I
tell you what Jennifer you're actually in for a little bit of luck here today while today's case does take place in
Minnesota uh there is a piece of this case that will take us to Wisconsin so thank you to everybody for chipping into
this week's beer fund and if you want to buy us around for next week's show go to
True Crim garage.com and click on the Donate button and like always we like your chib make sure you follow us on
Facebook Twitter Instagram untapped big shout out to and thank you to aelia for doing the uh helping us with the
Facebook stuff and a big Happy New Year to everybody we like your JY all right gather around grab a chair grab a beer
and let's talk some true crime [Music] a this past Sunday night 9:00 did you know
where your kids were in St Joseph Minnesota the wling family thought they did but their 11-year-old son on his way
back from a nearby convenience store was abducted by a mass gunman for 4 days a massive search has been underway tonight
our David Lee Miller reports on that terrible crime that has brought Terror to the country's
Heartland St Jo of Minnesota is the type of town where folks don't bother to lock
the front door a 2-hour drive north of Minneapolis St Paul here the police chief doesn't even carry a gun but now
everything is different Sunday night just outside of town 11-year-old Jacob wling was abducted by a masked man with
a gun it is a crime that will forever change this community and one that has terrorized Jacob parents this shouldn't
happen anywhere it's the type of it it shouldn't happen anywhere all I could think of is who who would take a child
away from their parents I I couldn't fathom it it it was total shock total disbelief even uh in talking with the uh
Sheriff's Department here uh it's it's they seem to be as almost as amazed as amazed as we are we taught him that
people are good we've worked for peace all our lives and this is a real violent act and I don't understand
it he's bright he's got a real clever sense of humor and quick mind he's very um he's he plays goalie he's he's cool
Under Pressure he's all these things give me hope that if there's an opportunity this boy will
be home is he a survivor he's is a Survivor Jacob's disappearance is especially shocking because he was with
his 10-year-old brother Trevor and an 11-year-old friend Aaron lson when the abduction took place according to the
boys they had just leased a videotape from this convenience store and were walking their bicycles down this road
when suddenly a mass gunman appeared out of nowhere we were coming down this road
here and we're just talking and everything and then this guy just came out and he had a gun and it and it
didn't it I thought it was some kid pulling a prank on us or something and then he but it wasn't then he told he
looked at Trevor and he told Trevor to turn off his flashlight and then he told us he had a gun and he told us to turn
around and go over into this ditch and put bikes in there and lay down then he came over and he he um asked us all our
ages and then he he told Trevor to run as fast as he could into the woods or else he'd shot shoot then he looked at
me and then he grabbed Jacob and he told me to run as fast as I could in the woods where he'd
shoot what did this man look like well he was wearing he was all in black he had a mask on and you couldn't see his
face uh-uh he had he had a nylon mask or some kind of mask did Jacob say anything
to the man uh-uh just just his age when you ran did you look back yeah once we got way down there what did you
see nothing no he wasn't there anymore here at the county Communication Center authorities have received more than 300
tips and while so far nothing has panned out they continue to be optimistic Jacob
will soon return home an awful lot just depends on the type of person that we're
dealing with that uh that abducted the boy uh some of them keep him around for quite a while some of them don't uh so
we're hoping that this type of person is going to uh keep Jacob alive and somewhere along the line that he's going
to get a chance to get to a telephone or get away from him despite a massive effort in the air
and on the ground police have few Clues and don't even know what type of car Jacob's abductor used to flee the scene
residents are understandably terrified and say children here in St Joseph have lost a part of their youth I know my
little boy he's five and he won't go outside just yday didn't want to go out and play and he was up last night and
it's you know it's scary for the kids anybody really the sheriff's department meanwhile has established this Command
Center to coordinate assistance from State investigators and the FBI but despite all the Manpower authorities do
not know why the boy was taken so far there has not been a demand for ransom and the family has never received any
type of threat Dr wling is a chiropractor in town who in this predominantly white middle class
Community heads up the local chapter of the NAACP they are kind gentle caring people
who want nothing more than the return of their son can you think of any reason anyone would want to harm your family or
your son no nothing I would only say that we really want Jacob back for Jacob's sake for our
sake and for everyone's sake please give him back to us there are so many people praying that
if I were God I would bring Jacob home safely very soon tonight the wetterlings are asking
for your help in locating Jacob in a moment we'll give out a special phone number but first here's the FBI profile
of Jacob's abductor they believe he's a white male between 25 and 35 years of age and may have attempted a similar but
unsuccessful abduction in the recent past anyone who may have any information about Jacob's abduction is asked to call
the sheriff's department Task Force at 612 259 3981 there is a $25,000 reward for information leading
to his safe return all tips will be kept confidential and you can call collect once again the number 61
12259 3981 myy I hope this is one story that's going to have a happy [Music] [Music]
ending back in August we covered the case of Joshua gimond now it's not absolutely necessary to listen to that
episode before this one but if you haven't already you might want to check that out that's episode number 47 anyway
The Disappearance of Joshua and The Disappearance of Jacob wling and because of the close proximity to one another
and some had suspected that maybe the two disappearances were connected so when we covered the Joshua giman case we
received a lot of requests to cover the Jacob werland case most of the time our cases are mapped out you know well in
advance so we didn't get to it uh shortly after this there were all kinds of developments in the Jacob case now
Jacob's case never ever really left the news it is arguably one of the most famous child abduction cases ever so now
there is this really big case and it's really heating up in the news again so I thought with it being in the news that
much that everybody would not be interested in us covering it but then in late October we covered the Johnny gosh
case this is an abduction uh the boy was never seen again young teenage boy that
was abducted and in this case we made reference to the Jacob wling case and once again we received a lot of feedback
from the True Crime garage Army again with request for us to cover this case so here we are Captain covering the
Jacob wling case mhm I'm here too so today's case takes us to St Joseph Minnesota uh and this is back in October
22nd 1989 which is a Sunday evening Jerry and Patty wling are out at a dinner party about 25 to 30 minute drive
from their home at home is their 11-year-old son Jacob wling his 10-year-old brother Trevor their
8-year-old sister Carmen and their friend Aaron lson who is 11 years of age as well this case really takes me back
though I you know I hate to date myself here Captain but but Jacob is pretty close in age to you and I uh well now
you're dating me thanks a lot well Captain he was a little older than us but we like Jacob his siblings and
his friend Aaron were all children of the'80s I I love the'80s I mean I was so young back then that everything seems
very innocent looking back now but you know remember when your parents would go out and they would leave you home alone
or even where there is someone there to watch you a babysitter or maybe a relative parents left a phone number
they would write it down on a piece of pap paper and leave it on the countertop or by the phone and say this is where we
will be this is the number for the restaurant or this is the phone number for our friend's house yeah if you need
anything call us at this number you know and then you would also get the list of
rules read to you you know like uh you are not to leave the house no fighting with your brother or sister no food on
the nice furniture M don't wear underwear on your head well this is exactly what Jerry and Patty werling did
before they went out to their dinner party well sure enough the kids come up with a great idea and so they are going
to call and ask Mom and Dad if they could go out for a bit their friend Aaron is going to stay the night that
night there was to be no school the next day so they called because they want to
go to the Tom Thumb store down the street M now for those of you too young to know this back in the day grocery
stores and convenience stores did the greatest thing some of them would rent movies or even video games and of course
this portion of the store is always the danger zone for parents because there's no way you're going to walk through that
that aisle without uh the child begging to take home a movie or a video game yeah I mean this is time before cell
phones and being able to access anything at your fingertips so Trevor calls the dinner party interrupts the dinner party
and he asks to speak with his mother and he's going 10-year-old yeah he's going to ask if they can go down to the Tom
Tom Thumb store to pick up a movie now the mom says no Patty says no it's too late it's it's after dark um this is not
a trip that you should be making after dark and uh you know Trevor says well let me speak to Dad you know the the old
uh everybody's done that bit right right and um I think my household dad was always a little easier to get to say yes
than mom so I can certainly identify with Trevor here he talks to his father and um Jerry agrees to let the boys go
to the Tom Thumb store uh he seems to be more concerned about it being dark rather than anything nefarious happening
to them but uh so they they equip themselves with um you know bright clothing and uh a flashlight and they've
already mapped out the perfect plan they have their sister at home their little sister who does not want to go to the
store with them and probably you know the older boys don't want the little sister tagging along anyway so they've
already made arrangements to have their neighbor uh girl her name is relle she's
14 years old she's going to come over and babysit their little sister Carmen while they will head down to the store
to retrieve their movie so the three boys set out for the Tom Thumb store two of them on bikes and one on a scooter
this is just before 900 p.m. so it's dark out and this is a country road so no street lights probably the only
lights you're going to see would be those from the houses you know the house lights and lights near the Tom Thumb
store I wonder if the older boys made the little kid do the scooter uh I I think Trevor may have been on the
scooter yes yeah you know what I mean like it's like low man on the totem pole gets the scooter yeah you're lucky to be
hanging out with us yeah so uh they go to the store they rent a movie The Naked Gun um and good movie they are returning
for home and this is right around 9:15 p.m. when they are startled when they see a man this man he is dressed in dark
clothing and he has some some kind of face mask or or something over his is covering his face and he is armed with a
handgun and he kind of just pops up and appears out of nowhere they're not really for sure where this man came
from the man tells the boys to stop he then tells Trevor to turn off the flashlight that he is carrying he has
the boys push the bikes and the scooter in the roadside ditch he tells them to lie down face down in the ditch he asked
Trevor his age to which Trevor replies 10 the man then asked ask Aaron his age Aaron says 11 yeah and then he asked
Jacob his age and Jacob says 11 he tells Trevor to get up and run to the woods but don't look back or he's going to
shoot yeah then he kind of lifts up each of the two remaining boys heads one at a
time to get a look at their faces he grabs Aaron's crotch and then tells Aaron to run to the woods and don't look
back or I'll shoot then the man grabs Jacob by the arm lifting him up a bit and drags him away and yeah and the
sexual assault onto Aaron was not reported originally yeah and what so now the two the two boys have run to the
woods and Aaron will eventually catch up to uh the younger boy Trevor MH and by this time the boys are in the woods and
they look back but they they don't see the man and more importantly to them their brother their friend Jacob is gone
as well and this is just gone without of Trace they don't see they don't see anything yeah they don't see a vehicle
by this point the boys are only a couple blocks from their home from the werling
home as I understand it to be this is a simple trip it's really just like one country road and you know a turn here or
there uh the werling house down to the Tom Thumb store is pretty much a straight shot so Trevor and Aaron they
run to the wetterling house once there they tell the babysitter Melle what just happened and she calls her father then
the the father calls 911 and he even puts Trevor on the phone to tell his account of what had just happened the
babysitter's father then calls Jerry and Patty wling and tells them that two of the boys came home and Jacob has been
taken and is still not home and he has notified the police the wetterlings of course leave the dinner party
immediately now we said that 911 call was placed and the receiving on the receiving end of this call is the steer
County Sheriff's Department yeah by the babysitter's dad Merl correct and the sheriff's department is on the scene
within minutes this is all happening very very quickly the report comes in quickly the sheriff's department
responds very quickly the sheriff's department they arrive and they see the bikes in the ditch and they start
searching the area for Jacob they search the woods as well and they're sech searching that night and in the early
morning hours this is like around 3:00 a.m. they decide to call off the search you know they are searching in the dark
um in in a very dark location and hunting for Clues you know if they can't immediately find the boy at some point
you wonder how much you're trampling over the crime scene if you're losing any evidence or if you're going to cause
damage to to any potential evidence so they start searching again around 8:00 a.m. this is a full-on search deal here
we we have you know a helicopter ATVs blood hounds the dogs track Jacobs sent to a gravel
road at this same spot there are fresh shoe prints and tire tracks so now we have the possibility of a car used in
the abduction now we are going to do a drag net here this is when you start checking with anyone you can think of
that could be involved in a particular crime and interview them to see where they were at the time of the crime was
committed as well as what they were doing or if there was anyone with them that could back up their story so if you
have a burglary you're going to interview all suspected burglars or persons convicted of breaking and
entering in this case of Jacob wling having been abducted the sheriff's department they will set their drag net
for sex offenders and pedophiles let's get into that after a quick this show is sponsored by better help do you look for
to the holidays maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some
sadness or even anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those
feelings therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools
to manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better
help a try it's entirely online designed to be convenient flexible and suit Ed to
your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist
at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with betterhelp visit betterhelp.com
Garay to get 10% off your first month that's better help hp.com garage canva presents a true crime of
design in the office Maya spots something usual in the presentation what's this it was an offbrand font her
coworker explains I added the font I thought it was fun it was not Maya solved it with canva open up canva one
click and the Fon is on brand easy stay on brand and solve font crimes at canva.com the home for every
[Music] brand Rosetta Stone is the language learning program with a lasting impact
I've been using the W to learn French and it's not just about memorizing words but actually having real conversations
and it's not just French they offer 25 languages right now Rosetta Stone has an awesome holiday deal 50% off their
lifetime membership every language unlimited access forever for anyone keen on diving deep into a new language check
out rosettastone.com it's a GameChanger beer break and we're back cheers everybody so where were we left
off at uh Jacob was abducted we now have two eyewitness accounts we have the 911
call place we have the cops out there now we have a search going and we also have um the eyewitness accounts and what
we're looking for in the suspect MH yeah and I mean think about this for a second
put this in your mind you know there we have these young boys you know 10 11 years old three of them they're out
together they're having you know a great day in every sense of the word up to this point because you know we we've
read and heard about what they were doing that day well one it's a Sunday right they don't have school the next
day right so that's it's a bonus day off uh also you know your parents are going
away you got your buddies spending in the night so that's a fun thing and then uh and this is not uncommon this is 89
this is not uncommon to be sent off to a grocery store down the street um or you
know in my neighborhood we had a a big bear um you know which is a grocery store that was about U less than a mile
away and your parents might send you off with 20 bucks to go get some snacks and
then right across uh the street from the Big Bear was a movie rental and so it wasn't that uncommon to uh send your kid
off even sometimes it would be a Friday night you know the the it was dark but you know uh your parents still seem
okay especially if you had numbers you know if it wasn't just you if it was if I would have said hey I just want to run
to Big Bear and get some snacks my parents probably wouldn't let me but if I had a friend spending the night or two
friends spending the night or have a friend spend the night with with a uh with one of my siblings hanging out
they're more likely to say go you know go out there and and just be back pretty quickly yeah they and they had a great
day they so far you know they they had some kind of thing earlier that day they had watched the Minnesota Vikings
football game pizza for dinner friends staying the night no school the next day then this thing happens is and and why
is this you know there are other child abductions that happen um this becomes huge news though and I think part of
that is because of the severity and how scary the situation is I mean we're talking about first of all a a stranger
abducting a child is very rare first of all you know usually when a t a child is
taken it's by somebody that they know or the family knows so we have a stranger abduction here which is very rare but
then on top of that like the captain said this is a witnessed abduction which is extremely rare you know this is this
is not a situation where you have you know little Timmy didn't come home he he went out on his own and he and he didn't
come home well he's probably lost or uh maybe he he left on his own accord no this is two boys
saying our brother our our friend was taken by gunpoint you know this this is an immediate danger immediate
immediately scary and the abduction itself is somewhat sexual nature as well yeah yeah with the with the friend being
grabbed in the in the genal I mean that's uh I think you know especially in 1989 uh a lot of the reports were hey
this boy was taken and by the way we have no Ransom note we have nobody calling M and and that it seems to me in
the 70s and 80s uh the first thought was always why did they take this kid and was it for ransom and now we have the
situation where we do have a sexual assault at the crime scene and so now we're assuming we should assume that
this is not uh taking a kid hostage for ransom this is this guy is taking the kid for um sexual acts you know and and
so then what what is going through the parents head at that point well and you think if your kids are good if your kids
are smart this thing's this kind of thing's not going to happen and as as a child you think you know if you do
certain things these things are not going to happen we're talking about things like you know tell your parents
where you are tell your parents what you are doing they did that they they they made the extra effort to reach out to
their parents and ask for permission to go to the store and they even arranged for a babysitter to come over and watch
the younger sibling you know that sort of thing's not going to happen and then one thing you touched upon too strength
and numbers we're always taught strength and numbers you know when you go off to
a an amusement park or somewhere when you're a child yeah you might get to go off on your own but it's always because
you have somebody with you right and uh or that your parents just don't care much about you and then they just let
you off on your own but this was this was three boys leaving together that should have returned together and there
should be no reason you wouldn't expect a child abduction to be witnessed like this well it's not like Jacob made a
mistake no not at all it wasn't like it wasn't like they're in the you know Renning a movie and and Jacob just
happened to strike up a conversation with the wrong guy you know it all three of the boys could have been taken
captured you know and and and I think it's strange I mean like in the account when he says oh well you know he pulled
both of of he pulled both of us up and looked at our faces and then it's almost like that the guy
chose mhm you know and and so and then it's also all by gunpoint yeah and uh and if that and look there's no reason
for me to believe that the story is not true you know I would say the only thing
is if he threw in the my only question is one if he threw in the gun but we got the other account from the brother so
but sometimes it would be like well we couldn't do anything cuz he had a gun MH um but then like maybe also if there's a
little fudge in the story was he actually mask you know or or does he just feel bad cuz he he can't tell you
what the guy looks like MH chances are his story is correct in my mind yeah yeah I I would agree so as well um let's
back up for a second here because something else happened that night that Jacob was taken uh whomever came up upon
the boys he encountered them on this dark country road but this is is right at the end of a family's driveway U this
is the rassier family uh but this is a country road so the driveway is about a quarter of a mile long mhm and on
October 22nd 1989 Dan rassier a grown man in his 30s he's living with his parents and he's home alone his parents
were away vacationing in Europe sometime after the sheriff's department began their search for Jacob Dan is awakened
it's about 104 p.m. and his dog is barking as there is some disturbance at the end of the
rassier driveway Dan looks out the window and he sees several flashlights moving about in the darkness near the
family's wood pile and he assumes someone or someone's are trying to steal wood from their property Because he
believes that he's outnumbered Dan calls 911 to report the incident the dispatcher informs Dan that there has
been a kidnapping that was recently reported on that road in which he lives and the lights he is
seeing is that of the sheriff's department searching for the boy Dan then goes to where the sheriff's are and
and has a brief conversation with one of the deputies and tells the deputy that he will go look around the area himself
and attempt to assist in the search MH now let's go to Monday October 23rd we had mentioned that the search picked up
where the sheriff's department had left off the previous night well early that morning uh now this is around 8:00 a.m.
on Monday and the search uh for Jacob continues the search for the abducted boy the search for the abductor this
continues now on this same day Dan rasier first off Dan is a music teacher at one of the local schools Dan is
called out of class and the sheriff's department they search Dan's car and they question him for about 45 minutes
um and this is kind of where this where this ends for Dan on that day now now 6 days later investigators search the
rassier farm Dan takes a lie detector test to which he is never told the results of the test which I don't think
is a strange thing um you know we have seen in some cases that we've covered like the West Memphis 3 where they
immediately tell you oh you failed this thing miserably and that's where they Grill you further my guess is that he
probably passed the lie detector test and that's why they didn't tell him of the results um but he yeah but you're
probably freaking out at this point oh yeah I mean as you're a music teacher so just even being suspect of this crime
could cost you your job cost you your livelihood well and when you're being called out of class you know and you get
there and there's a Sheriff there you probably assume I'm being interviewed because I live right by where this took
place and had I seen anything this is my opportunity to tell them even though I went down there and spoke to a deputy
that night and they didn't seem very interested in talking to me at that point um it could be that the sheriff's
department really expected to find the boy that night is what I think I think they thought maybe they'd find him in
the woods or find him nearby um I don't think this is something that they were familiar with or maybe not even have
having the capability of dealing with it well and then the music teacher probably
freaking out because he's going you know I live with my parents and my parents just happen to be gone the day that this
kid goes missing now my career possibly is in Jeopardy like we said I mean this is 89 it's not like you know I think
people are more uh understanding of that if you knew somebody or you lived in a close proximity you might be pulled in
for questioning it I think that's more likely that people understand that nowadays in 80 ' 89 they're probably
going this guy kills children or abducts children yeah it's pretty but it's pretty obvious to Dan at this point that
he is become part of the investigation whether he likes it or not and he tries to tell the steer County Sheriff's
Department that he is innocent and that he was he was yes he was home alone that
night but he was busy he was sorting through his extremely large record collection uh and he also tells them
that well I wonder if he was doing one of those things have you seen High Fidelity yes where he'd like decide hey
tonight I'm going to reorganize an alphabetical order and then the next day he'd say I'm going to reorganize based
on when I bought the record yeah and I think I think you might be right there because he he says something like he was
filling out uh index cards or something he's making some kind of catalog of his extremely large record collection but
you know he also tells them that he called 911 that night that he had placed a call to 911 that night and that should
prove that he's innocent well that doesn't prove anything well and but see it from Dan's seat here this this is the
way he's thinking uh the investigators tell Dan that the 911 call actually proves the exact opposite stating that
he manufactured the idea that someone was stealing wood from the property as an excuse to call 911 making him look
innocent and that on the call he sounded far too nervous for the real issue to be
theft of firewood well he's a music teacher right so I mean he's he's probably not like a big MMA fighter or
something and he's probably he probably was scared Dan also tells investigators that they should be looking for a
vehicle that he had seen a vehicle turning around in his driveway the evening that Jacob was taken Dan is able
to give a vague a very vague description of the car and because of the distance he did not get a good look at the driver
uh right because his house is so far back from off the road again you know if you're the cops I mean put yourself in
the cops position you know we got this guy that maybe maybe he's a little funny uh um lives with his parents he's older
gentleman in his 30s living with his parents he's a music teacher um not saying that there's anything wrong with
that um but then you make a 911 call saying hey guys somebody was stealing wood possibly yeah I got people on my
property that I don't know who they are with flashlights right and then you're going hey uh well and then there's a
flashlight the kids were holding a flashlight so is he just mixing up events and and but then he's then
telling you heyy you might want to check out this car that I saw well you didn't
mention the car the day before you know because if you went out and he said hey Sheriff by the way uh there was this car
that I saw earlier you didn't bring that up the day before right so I think that's why they started zeroing and more
on him my guess is that he probably was not given any information about the the abduction you know they they didn't say
this is what happened you know and it sounds like they didn't even care to talk to him that night night so I I
don't see him going out of his way to say well by the way I happen to have seen a vehicle turn around in my
driveway now I'm sure that he told him that during the 45 minutes of questioning the right that I mean Monday
that makes logical sense to me and you but I think you got 11-year-old boy that was taken by gunpoint these cops have to
do everything they can to just pick a direction and run in it as fast as you can until you hit a brick wall and then
pick another Direction and then keep running in that direction as well but I also think that at this point Dan is not
an actual suspect you know he's somebody that they're are they're interested in talking to him but I don't believe that
he's any form of a suspect and then he's mentioning this car this and I can't see
the driver uh and here's a description of the vehicle you should be looking for this car because this took place about
the same time as what the kid would have been abducted and you know this to me seems like a good enough lead you know
because the sheriff's department found Jacob S near those fresh tire tracks and they decided it was most likely that J
that Jacob was taken by vehicle which which is extremely plausible because that's how these things happen
especially when you're out on this Dirt country road you know and you know Jacob
should be if he's not there then he he has to have been taken by a vehicle or he would be in one of the yeah well it
seems nearby homes right it seems like you know aniv individual was driving by saw these three boys saw it as an
opportunity or possibly even knew these boys saw them at the video store and then said well I'm going to on their way
back I'm going to grab one of them Parks the vehicle gets out of the vehicle then
walks to wherever they are grabs one of the boys they walk back to the vehicle and then they leave by that vehicle mhm
yeah he ambushes them on their way back he's away from his Vehicles right and if
he's wearing all black and he's has a black you know nylon mask of some nature that they didn't even see him come
creeping up on them and not only you are you exactly right because we know the history of this case but it but think
about this too this is this is a wellth thought out plan this and I I agree with
you I don't know if it's a wellth thought out plan well well here's what I mean by that okay I I understand that
that he probably the as salent probably saw an opportunity and took advantage of
that opportunity however there has been some planning done in this he's he unless he just happens to be wearing
dark clothes that he just happens to have a mask or something to cover his face that he just happens to drive
around with a gun in his car and that he's got the the foresight to to decide you know what I'm going to park my car
elsewhere I'm going to put myself someplace else where I can take one of the boys so that the two that I'm
leaving behind they can't they can't see my vehicle or they don't see my vehicle
right right yeah I mean I think a lot of this I mean I don't like I said I don't
think it's actually planned I think this is just part of the guy's lifestyle this
is what he does he's a he's he abducts children you know and and and he's been setting his life up you know to put
himself in those opportunities and when those opportunities arise well I I got my van or car or whatever I'm driving
and I have all my tools um you know to abduct these kids in that in that van in the coming weeks and months the
sheriff's department and the wetterlings would continue to go to the media asking
for tips and leads or to see if anyone had seen Jacob and the tips I'll I'll put that in quotation marks the tips
pour in uh people say they have seen Jacob um people call about strange Vehicles strange men so the police are
tracking all of these tips they even set up a phone with a recording device on it
at the werling home so that Jerry and Patty could record the phone calls that are coming in and then we have the
psychics Captain uh one of be psychics love missing person's cases I think you and I have not always just WN to be
psychics well some some legitimate psychics yeah if you believe in that thing I I I do I'm not I'm not
discrediting anybody uh by name here or as a whole but what I'm saying is I see a lot of in these cases I see a lot of
wannabe psychics no I understand that but what I I just want to go on record to state that the majority of detectives
I've talked to they use psychics and the majority of the detectives that I have talked to said that after they found the
body or you know one okay the recent one I just we talking drinking coffee I just
said hey have you ever used psychics and yeah yeah and every time I do everybody
in the police department makes fun of me so he went to see one of the psychics she told him all this stuff it none of
it really made sense mhm then they find the girl and after he finds the girl everything that the psychic made sense
everything that she presented made sense after they found the girl and now everybody in that department doesn't
give him [ __ ] anymore because this lady has been right multiple times was was this the skipper that you were talking
to or a different different detective okay because the the fun thing here is I thought was a sheriff it was not a
detective okay I thought you were referring to the skipper at first who who we both know and he's a very
skeptical person he does not I mean is that fair to say he doesn't believe in a whole lot of mysticism or maybe even
spirituality I don't know but uh uh he has told me that that on occasion he's spoken to a psychic which blew my mind
because I thought that he wouldn't take a phone call or put any effort into that
at all but he said from his perspective that he didn't mind talking to psychics because he wanted an outside of the box
kind of opinion or maybe there was something that they hadn't thought of yet a possibility that they hadn't
thought of now in this particular case you know the the detective some of them one in particular said that he did talk
to psychics because he wanted to know how did they come to their conclusion how did they are they are they really
just holding on to information that they know hand rather than something they dreamt or or believe to have happened
they want to know is this person actually coming forth with information because they've actually done something
bad right right and look I I'm not suggesting that people go you know uh speak with a psychic on every little
thing I'm just saying that detectives do use this to you know kind of drum up some different ideas just like we talked
about with the skipper now here's the thing Captain I think you and I have covered enough of these cases to know
that the psychics seem to come out of the woodwork for murder cases but especially for these disappeared or
abducted cases they they really come at and and come at the family and come at law enforcement with ideas and thoughts
and dreams that they have had yeah well and and if you look at that this we talked about the Brian Schaefer case and
when they had the psychic kids do that case one of the things I was freaked out about and now maybe they do maybe they
knew maybe they didn't know but when they said that this guy was in this building and then he left the building
and came back now we know that to be factual later now where those kids fed that information I'm not really for sure
the the host in that particular incident claims that the the children the psychic
kids knew nothing of the actual incident they they were taken to a location and told somebody disappeared from this
location now go right and so if you're going to call a psychic to try to get answers on for your life I'd say don't
do that maybe try a therapist you know maybe have some Mentor or counselor but I I think there's nothing wrong with uh
using psychics in in this capacity but on the other hand there's been so many psychics when especially with these
YouTube videos these guys claiming that oh I know where this missing person is and it's based off of nothing and it's
just it's so they get a bunch of clicks on their YouTube video and those people are pieces of [ __ ] you know yeah well I
I will tell you when the world will end the exact date and why and then when it doesn't happen I'll disappear for a
couple years and give you a new date right just but so in this particular case there were a ton of Psychics that
came out of the woodwork here and presented their thoughts Visions theories and a lot of them were
communicating with the parents with Jerry and Patty wling well and some of that is just wrong too because if if you
are a [ __ ] artist and you know maybe some of these people actually think they have visions you know but I I just think
some of it is wrong to uh you know give the parents false hope exactly I mean I would say reach out to the law
enforcement you know don't bother the family they're going through something here that nobody should have to
experience and getting false hope is really kicking somebody while while they're at their lowest right now we
said that there was a whole bunch of Psychics that that came forward to law enforcement to the wetterlings hold on
we just got off on a crazy tangent sorry about that so about that I'm actually leading somewhere with this I have no
okay so there is one such psychic that came uh came about amongst the Sea of Psychics that presented their theories
their thoughts their Visions uh the the wetterlings had psychics calling the house at all hours some even would go to
the house to meet the parents of Jacob some asking for one of Jacob's toys or an article of clothing to better help
them Channel Jacob or Jacob's Spirit uh but one psychic that does go to the home
of the wetterlings is a man in his early 40s from Wisconsin and his name is is Vernon seats uh Vernon actually visits
Patty wling on two occasions well look when you name your kid Vernon he he's going to grow up to be like a librarian
or he's going to grow up to be a psychic well he he visits P Patty werling on two
occasions and on one of those occasions one of those visits he gives her a painting that he had painted of Jacob um
yeah so unfortunately you and I have heard some of the recorded calls um Captain these are all false leads
that we know of now um some of them calling the wetterlings in the middle of the night and saying some you know
absolutely horrible things telling Jacob's parents that he has been killed and how he's been killed according to
their Visions or he's alive but he's being held captive and he's been raped repeatedly I mean I don't know how a
parent in this type of situation has the strength to go on I guess the hope that
your kid could still be alive and the thought that I better be here doing something and of sound mind so that if
he is still alive I can help somehow some way W what a helpless feeling though I mean it's like you know if if
your kid falls down and then you can clean up the The Brute you know the the cut and you can and you can Comfort them
but your kid's just gone you know and I and I couldn't imagine the the thoughts that were raising through your heads and
then there'd be a part of you that would just want to hit the streets and just start looking and start driving around
and I I think personally for me I'd go crazy it'd be 10 years of me driving around looking for answers I mean I
think it would just be so horrific unfortunately helpless is the word is I think that's how you feel in this
situation you're you're helpless your child if your child is injured you nurse them back to health if if they're ill
you nurse them back to health if they're gone and taken from you you you're you're helpless you there's nothing you
can do uh you feel like there's nothing you can do in the situation well not only the helplessness of the parents but
you know your little brother was with you you know I mean if you're the little brother your older brother of a year or
or more um you know because one was 10 and one was 11 but I mean it could you know it's like he could be a year and a
few months older but it's like so you're your older brother possibly your hero or whatever
he's just been taken from you m and what and then then you witness all that not to mention hey lay down in this ditch
not to mention run to this Woods or I'm going to shoot you you're 10 years old I
mean I couldn't even imagine that or on the other side of things it's your best friend you're spending the night at your
best friend's house and he you like same thing you know and you have to deal with
the whole thing and then you have to deal with this guy grabbing your genitals you got to deal you know this
guy stole P your best friend away and then the the the stuff that he had to be going
through like now we're searching for my friend and I hope he's found but this is
probably all the kids are talking about in the community well and it's survivors
guilt even though you don't know the outcome of your friend or brother being taken you have this survivors guilt and
it's you know all these things are probably going through your head that oh why why was he taking and not me or what
could I have done different at that exact moment to change the the current situation that we're in you know
maybe should I have not run right maybe should I have pushed the issue maybe should I have looked the man in the face
um him off yeah all these things or tried to and like you said it's the it's the brother you know feeling guilty and
it's the the best friend you know well and then you got the parents on the on the idea of the mom said no mhm and then
you know and then Trevor went back to the dad the dad said yes yeah that that absolutely I mean this is a
heartbreaking story anyway but that portion of the story breaks my heart every time because you know when people
when people are in a situation where they can't control anything some people want somebody to blame and um the father
did absolutely nothing wrong here there's no reason why this should have happened at all no um nobody could have
foreseen this happening well and nowadays I mean this just people just don't let their kids do these things but
you know we're also raising a bunch of monsters now I mean like you know that was one of the best parts of my
childhood was running you know run down to the Big Bear and pick up some snacks I'd always get fudge rounds for some
reason cuz I think it was a buck and then need to eat like 20 fudge rounds and drink Coca-Cola but
um you know it's sad that we live in a world that we can't just send you know your 10 11 year-old kid you know a
couple blocks away to to run a movie but but again stranger with child abductions are
extremely rare um this isn't something that's happening you know yeah but right but also you know I I understand what
parents are doing though don't run to the store don't be by yourself don't play outside without anybody watching
because now we're not giving anybody an opportunity unless face it man there's just more sickos today well the you know
this situation it there's nothing that the parents should have done differently there's nothing that they could have
done differently this is not their fault no one they're not at fault here the the
brother's not at fault Jacob's not at fault like I said right what could have what could have Trevor done differently
and you know you pulled Clips to for our trailer at the beginning of the show and
you hear the brother I assume that's Trevor saying that no that's his friend is that Aaron saying that that I thought
this is just some like older kid playing a prank on us or something yeah you know
um the kids didn't even they're too young to even understand understand the situation that they're in well and one
of the things I thought was interesting I was watching this YouTube video and it
was a report from back in '89 and they were walking the same road with Aaron and Trevor and to see the news anchor
right beside them you realize how small these kids are yeah you know what I mean
and that and it's um it's it's sad that we have these monsters out there well let's fast forward a little bit here
Captain because Jacob case it goes cold in a sense uh for some time uh it's still in the news especially locally um
the anniversary you know that that October 22nd date every year brings the reminders to the public locally and
nationally but it won't be until about 2003 when the sheriff's department get the phone call that they have been
waiting on in 2003 a local man contacted the authorities and he's got a story for
them he tells them he was in the area the night that Jacob was abducted the man had been listening to a police
scanner and had heard about the missing boy and he decided to drive to the scene
he told them that he had got close enough with his car you know he's driving in his car he got close enough
that he saw the bikes and the scooter in the ditch he did speak with a deput a deputy that night asking if if the
sheriff's had seen or knew about the bike and the deputy said yes they had now are you hip to these police
scanners um my grandfather had one growing up uh which I always thought was kind of cool that he he listened to it
uh I don't really have any any kind of uh experience with them other than thought about getting one might be kind
of neat chasing ambulances and stuff no just you know just to hear what's going on just listening in you live in a
suburb so I don't it's could be like strange calls um but but Captain this is the phone call that they've been waiting
for because this man and his car could possibly account for the vehicle seen by Dan rassier that night and the and this
could account for the fresh tire tracks near the abduction site as well the man could not be 100 he couldn't 100%
remember the make in the model of the tires that he was driving that night no [ __ ] Sherlock well this is 200 three
well and this is my problem with the whole thing so you come out how many years later 14 years L 14 years later
yeah well you you come out 14 years later and you go hey guys I got a story to tell you really well well let you
want you want a little more background on this yeah I want to know why it took him 14 years why he was like oh I've
been busy could couldn't make a phone call no what happened was he had a lot of laundry to do you know being a 14 14
years older than what he was at the time he was at a party okay he was at like some some work function or something
like that and he was talking to somebody that that is in law enforcement maybe FBI or something I don't know the the
background I think he was a marshall the person he was talking to and he tells somehow the Jacob wling case comes up in
conversation and he says to the Marshall he says those are our people though right I mean think about every time
we're at a bar it's so great when a a true crime thing actually comes up then we don't have to feel like a weirdo uh
he he's in this conversation okay and he says you know I was I lived in the area
and as a matter of fact I I heard the call go out on the police scanner so I drove to the location I actually saw the
the bicycles and I told a deputy that night you know did have you guys do you guys know about these bicycles over here
should do you need any help should I get you the bicycle should uh should I show
you where they are and he said that the deputy told him we are aware of the bicycles know what's going on it' be
best if you just go home right right so he went home and he was never contacted they didn't take his name phone number
anything to contact him in the future they should have exactly and and he says that uh you know I just assume that
everything I knew they knew and so I never Conta that's not a bad assumption and the Marshall says well you know this
this case is ongoing it's a cold case it seems like nothing what you're telling me sounds like not a whole lot of
information here but you should contact the police and talk with them at least tell them what you know and he actually
said you know I I maybe it was because of the uh you know because of how he was greeted with it that night that he felt
uncomfortable calling the uh police department discussing this with them and the Marshall said well I know some guys
over there and let me arrange this for you because the Marshall thought that this was something that the sheriff's
department needed to hear well and I we've all been there we've all done that where we get pulled over by a cop and
their attitude is bad mhm right and and again you know I I I'm all for law enforcement I'm all for law enforcement
doing their job they're great people but let's just remember Serve and Protect that's that's that's what you're signing
up for not to harass not to you know try to teach everybody a lesson not to you know if you were picked on in high
school there should be a rule if you picked on in high school you shouldn't be able to be a cop there should be a
rule about that but uh no it's it's to Serve and Protect and and you don't have to Serve and Protect with a negative
attitude towards people and if this guy you know yeah maybe they thought okay we
got this crime scene and we don't want anybody to mess it up I get that go home please but this guy obviously thought
well for 14 years you know well these guys gave me some attitude and they probably know what I know yeah does
matter or at the very least they don't they don't care you know they the the information I have is not valuable
to them or their investigation so what am I you know right right um just a nice reminder just be nice to people that
goes for everybody just try to be kind okay don't don't be don't be walking around like a dick face you know well
and if if what the captain says should be true if you pick on every kid in your school if you don't grow up to be the
police officer then nobody is allowed to be a police officer um so again the man the first
thing that the sheriff's depart they want to know are you know what kind of tires did you have on that vehicle do
you remember because we have a photograph of the tire track we have tire tracks and if we can track down a
model that's similar or the same of that tire we can we can conclude that you were the one that left the tire tracks
here now because the Impressions were were so they they constantly say fresh tire tracks well but what I one thing I
think that they mean on that is not that they were just recently left there that
on top of that they probably came from newer tires given the amount of the impression mhm uh because their
follow-up question when he says I don't remember what kind of tires I was driving on they say well do you remember
if they were old or new tires and he said I can tell you that I had recently replace the tires on that vehicle okay
so now they believe that this vehicle this accounts for the vehicle that Dan rassier had seen the one that they were
kind of looking for you know they were looking even though they had questioned Dan and made him feel like a suspect
they were still looking for this vehicle now they now they believe they've tracked down this vehicle and this man
is innocent he's he's not the person that took Jacob so they can account for several things that happened that night
that they were looking for and since they could clear this man of any wrongdoing this now meant that they
believed that the abductor had most likely fled on foot with Jacob so this now means that we are going to look for
not only a suspect that is local but someone that is so local that he would have had the ability to take Jacob into
the attacker's home into his home and or property and had the ability to conceal
Jacob so once again the sheriff's department has Dan rassier in their sights Dan lived probably the closest to
the abduction site than anybody he had no alibi for his whereabouts or uh for what he to for what he was doing prior
to him talking with the police that night right uh and he he not only you know he was left home alone that night
and furthermore according to his own story he's roughly a quarter of a mile from the crime scene right so if if the
suspect left on foot then I mean here's our closest suspect yeah so once again Dan rassier is finding himself in the
hot seat of this investigation right and I and I get all that but there's another
part of me that that just goes okay well you found Tire prints and that was not of the suspect's tire Prints but that
doesn't mean that he he fled on foot mhm you I mean like maybe you just don't have the tire prints maybe the person
never left the road maybe the person just put on their blinkers walked out grabbed the kid put him in the car and
took off well there's been a lot of people to throw scrutiny at the sheriff's department because of this
issue you know because now we've taken Dan rassier and Not only was he once somebody that we were interested in
talking to regarding this investigation and regarding this crime now he seems to
be the most likely person now the sheriff's department has made him a let's call a suspect they never call him
a suspect but they're treating him yeah but he was a suspect they're treating him like a suspect but not only that it
seems like they've narrowed their Vision to the point where they're they're honing in on Dan rassier completely
right and what I said in the first place is the cops need to you know pick a path
pick a direction run as fast as you can until you hit the brick wall so 14 years
ago they didn't do that they didn't they didn't you know they should have looked
at Dan from every angle to as much as they could and he's either our guy or he's not a suspect I absolutely agree
with that stat they should have done that in the beginning the problem is that they didn't now where I don't fault
them and where I don't think we should have thrown scrutiny at the sheriff's department is because a lot of people
were saying you know well a new sheriff took over the same time and so the new sheriff says that we're we're going to
spend a good amount of time on 2003 yeah roughly around that time so the the new
sheriff kind of you know they've set their sights on the investigation now on Dan rasier but here's here's where I
think that they're fine to do that because no it's fine because because here's the thing like you said run till
you hit a brick wall Unfortunately they didn't do things properly in the beginning in my opinion but they've been
hitting a brick wall for the last 14 years so then what you do is you have you know new sets of eyes these are
probably you can assume that there's some new investigators on this case by this time you have technology you have
this person that comes forward that can account for this ghost car that Dan rassier says he saw so now you're
pouring back over the information and you're going what did we miss what did we get wrong well we thought there was a
car maybe we've got this whole thing wrong the whole time because there was not a car right maybe this gu been right
under our THB the entire time and we just didn't even we didn't see him because we assume there was a car now we
have this new information I don't blame them for for changing gears here and pivoting and focusing on Dan rier
sometimes you go down that path and you hit a brick wall and then sometimes you get a little more information and you go
down that path again and when you hit that brick wall it collapses and then you know and that's where your suspect
is I mean we've see that time and time again but yeah it just seems like they um but you
know small town 1989 seems like they just made a you know some mistakes here and there you know and that's going to
look we're human so we're going to make mistakes you know not every not every podcast that we put out is perfect I
mean most of them are but uh you know especially this one but yeah so I can't blame them too much I mean that I'm sure
their intentions were to get this writing to get this solved all right so I mean only at 2003 in this case and and
we know that there's more information that came out in 2016 and a whole bunch of stuff between
that right right so we got can you stick around for a little bit and we'll just uh knock out another podcast I got an
hour or so all right so we got a recommended reading for this uh yes I want to recommend this week a HomeTown
killer um this is a similar story to the one that we're telling today um this is
about a case that took place in the early 9s 90 s in Springfield Ohio um the author calls it the All-American Town
much like where Jacob was from uh this is the hometown killer a peaceful community stalked by a remorseless
Slayer and you can pick that up by going to our website true Crim garage.com click on the recommended page you will
see Hometown killer as well as all of our other recommended books we will be right back tomorrow in the garage
reporting more yeah well yes well we're going to do it tonight well we're we're going to record it tonight I'm going to
I'll I'll try to have it edited by tomorrow sounds good and until tomorrow be good be kind and don't lit
[Music] it canva presents True Crime of design in the office Maya spots something unusual
in the presentation what's this it was an offbrand font her coworker explains I added the font I thought it was fun it
was not Maya solved it with canva open up canva one click and the font is on brand easy stay on brand and solve font
C at canva.com the home for every [Music] brand

Jacob Wetterling ////// 70

TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com)

October 22, 1989 was the night of of a real life nightmare. Three young boys were returning home from a visit to their local Tom Thumb store after renting a movie. Blocks from their destination a man appears in the dark. He has the boys at gunpoint. He tells two of the boys to run into the woods. He drags the other boy away. The search for the missing boy Jacob started that night and lasted for almost 27 years. Join us as we discuss one of America's saddest and most talked about child abductions.

Beer of the week - Redacted by Renegade Brewing CompanyGarage grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the 1989 abduction of Jacob Wetterling and the investigation's developments over the years.

Key points

The Abduction of Jacob Wetterling. An 11-year-old boy is abducted by a masked gunman in Minnesota, sparking a massive search.
Community in Shock. The abduction terrifies a small town where residents felt safe.
BetterHelp Therapy Services. Convenient online therapy designed to fit your schedule. Get matched with a licensed therapist.
The Rarity of Stranger Abductions. Stranger abductions are extremely rare, making this case particularly alarming.
Witnessed Abduction. This abduction was witnessed, which is extremely rare and adds to the urgency.
The Investigation of Dan Rassier. Dan Rassier, a local music teacher, becomes part of the investigation after Jacob's abduction.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

If I were God, I would bring Jacob home safely very soon.

A parent pleads for their child's safe return.

10:44WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.