'In the Dark': Why did it take so long to find Jacob Wetterling?
On the night of Oct. 22, 1989, Jacob Wetterling was abducted less than a mile from his home in St. Joseph, Minn. The 11-year-old had been riding bikes with his younger brother and a friend when a man in a mask approached them with a gun. He ordered them to lie in a ditch and asked their ages.
The man then told Jacob's brother and friend to run into the woods and not look back. By the time they did, Jacob and the man were gone.
Jacob's abduction came to define central Minnesota. Searchers scoured fields and farms. Parents kept their children at home. For many, it was the end of a free-range childhood and the start of "stranger danger."
Years passed with no break in the case. Every Oct. 22 for 26 years, Minnesotans turned their porch lights to remember Jacob. Jacob's parents went on to push for legislation that made sex offender registries mandatory across the country.
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This week, the nearly 30-year mystery got its ending. Daniel Heinrich confessed to Jacob's sexual assault and murder in court. He killed Jacob, he said, the night he was abducted. As part of a plea deal, he led authorities to Jacob's remains.
A new podcast from APM Reports, In the Dark, looks at why so many years passed without any answers for the Wetterling family, and how the case shaped the lives of everyone in its shadow.
From APM Reports:
In the beginning, the case seemed to have a lot going for it: The abduction took place on a dead-end road with limited escape routes, there were two witnesses who reported it right away, the Stearns County Sheriff's Office responded almost immediately. Yet as the circle of geographic possibilities widened by the hour, the police made decisions that would hobble the investigation for decades to come. Heinrich, questioned as early as 1990 about the abduction, lived under the noses of police. Why did it take so long?
Madeleine Baran, host and lead reporter for In The Dark, joined MPR News host Tom Weber to discuss the Wetterling case, and what law enforcement did — and did not — do. The first two episodes of In the Dark, along with additional information on the case, are available from APM Reports.
To listen to the first episode of In the Dark, and an interview with lead reporter and host Madeleine Baran, use the audio player above.