Search complete near Wetterling abduction site; no arrests

Digging near Wetterling site
Investigators use a tractor-mounted backhoe to dig just southeast of the Rassier farm in St. Joseph, Minn. Thursday, June 1, 2010. Crews have been digging up a portion of the yard at a rural St. Joseph farm near the site where Jacob Wetterling was abducted in 1989.
AP Photo/St. Cloud Times, Kimm Anderson

Authorities have completed their search at a farm outside St. Joseph in central Minnesota, just yards from where kidnap victim Jacob Wetterling disappeared 21 years ago.

Investigators with the Stearns County Sheriff's Office and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension left the farm of Rita and Robert Rassier shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, after two days of searching on the farm.

A deputy said the investigation had finished there for now.

Investigators have searched the farm at least twice before, but this time, they brought in a backhoe and hauled away six dump truck loads of dirt, which they took to a county highway maintenance yard.

Dump truck leaves Wetterling search site
A Stearns County dump truck left the farm that abuts the scene of Jacob Wetterling's abduction in 1989. Authorities have brought in excavating equipment in a search thought to be related to the kidnapping. But investigators say they won't discuss the matter publicly.
MPR Photo/Tim Nelson

The property abuts the road where Jacob Wetterling was abducted at gunpoint in 1989, returning from a trip to the store with his brother and a friend one night. He hasn't been seen since.

The Stearns County website lists the property's owners as Robert and Rita Rassier. Another family member, Daniel Rassier, is listed at the same address and serves as the St. Joseph treasurer, according to the county's website.

Police say they're under a judge's order not to talk about the case, but did say that they were executing a search warrant on the property.

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