Jacob Wetterling: A 27 Year Search Comes to an End

hey guys welcome back to my channel so before we get into this true-crime video today I wanted to take a moment to thank our sponsor audible if you guys have been watching me a long time you probably know that I am a big fan of audible because reading hasn't always been the easiest thing for me so it makes reading really easy and really convenient we're going into these summer months here we're gonna spend a lot of time on airplane and having an audiobook playing in the background at any of these locations is the perfect way to relax and enjoy your summer I always like to recommend a book for you guys so this month I want to specifically mention Michelle making a mares book on the Golden State Killer it's called I'll be gone in the dark so if you would like to try audible for free you can get a free audiobook at the link below if you have never tried to audible before you can actually start with a 30-day free trial which you get a free audiobook of your choice through it's really really cool to start your free trial you can go to audible.com slash Kendall Rea that is AUD ible con /k NDA ll r AE or conveniently you can text Kendall Rea - 500 - 500 and they will get you started with your free trial there are so many titles on audible to choose from so many different categories of content and pretty much something for everybody and if for some reason you don't like your book you can exchange it at any time so definitely check that out you can't go wrong with a free trial so link is in the description box and let's get right into today's video hey guys welcome back to my channel so today we are doing another true crime case and this would have been aware is video this person was missing for 27 years today I'm gonna be telling you the story of a beautiful little boy and it breaks my heart this is Jacob Wetterling he looked like such a sweetheart doesn't he just looked like the sweetest kid I'm sure his teachers loved him family loved him he was born on February 17th of 1970 and he sadly went missing on October 22nd of 1989 my whole name is Jacob urban water line my favorite food is steak my favorite color is blue the best friend is Aaron Larson I don't have a favorite song my favorite game is clue my favorite thing to do most is watch football what I want to be when I grow up is a football player my favorite hobby is collecting football cards I don't have a favorite book and my newest fan of this game he was from st. Joseph Minnesota these are his parents Jerry Wetterling and patty Wetterling and they also had four other kids Amy Jacob Trevor and Carmen let's go through that day and what happens a pretty normal morning Jacob actually went with his father Jerry to go fishing they had a great time together fishing and you know that's always like such great bonding time because it's a lot of sitting and waiting for a fish to arrive so they had a really nice time fishing they went back to their house to catch the beginning of the Vikings game the Vikings game started at noon and after the game ended Jerry had the boys go outside with him and tossed the football around so that was Trevor and Jacob hanging out with their dad just you know having a really normal quality family day Patty and Jerry actually had plans that night to go to a dinner party so they left the house around 5:30 ish they were going to dinner at a friend's house who was about 20 25 minutes away from where they lived they weren't gonna be gone very long it wasn't gonna be a late night and they decided to let the kids stay home alone but the oldest daughter Amy actually wasn't there that night Jacob's parents told him that he could have a friend come hang out that night we called his best friend Aaron and Aaron came right over because the boys actually didn't have school the next day so they could you know have a fun night together [Music] [Music] when they got to the dinner party that they were going to they actually called the house and gave the kids the phone number of the house that they are at so that way they would be able to get you know hold of them if anything happened so during the middle of the dinner party Patty and Jerry received a call from Trevor asking if the boys could ride their bikes down to the video rental store when I was that age there actually was still rental stores back then I don't really think they exist much of anywhere these days me and my friends used to walk down to our video store all the time that was like kind of our thing to do on Saturday or Friday nights especially my parents were gone so it's like pretty normal and you know that was in the 2000s that I was doing that but patty being a very cautious mother said no she didn't want them to leave the house on their own so they needed to find something to do at home and they lived in an area that was you know mainly fields and stuff so it is a little dangerous and it's getting darker so it's not like they're just like on suburban streets they're you know in the middle of the country but Trevor said let me talk to dad and I'm sure we've all pulled that move where we tell you know one parent let me let me see if the other parent will let me to fix he actually decided to overrule Patty's decision and told them that they could ride to the movie store he said as long as they brought big flashlights so they could be seen by oncoming traffic that they were good to go only 45 minutes after getting off the phone with them another call came in and it was one of their neighbors the neighbors that have had something to do with Jacob and him being missing so he brand to his wife Patty and told her Jacobs missing we need to go now this neighbor then called the police and told them that Jacob was taken when he and his brother were coming back from the video stock or diem to Trevor and Aaron who were completely petrified from this and three of them were riding home and they were stopped on their bikes and then a man approached that who was wearing a black mask and holding a gun I mean I remember it like it happened yesterday initially when we are going down to Tom Thumb there's a little field to the left-hand side of the road I remember hearing a little rustle you know it's kind of tall grass I kind of sugar went through me you know just the wind or an animal but just something didn't feel right and so dark out that you couldn't see anything and I just remember the first thing I saw it was kind of the flash of the gun I mean it was like a silver kind of flash triggered it was just some high school kid or something just kind of pulling a joke on us he told us he had a gun you know and we had to turn off our flashlights so obviously it's like every kid's worst nightmare I'm sure they were absolutely terrified the guy told them to get off of their bikes and lay on the ground got told to basically lay down in the ditch where our face is down he asked for all their ages looked at the mall he first decided he didn't want Trevor so he sent him running off into the woods and said if he looked back he would shoot him then he looked at both Jacob and Aaron decided he wanted Jacob and Aaron running after Trevor into the woods and said if you look back or try to help your friend I will shoot you I ran as fast as I could to catch up with Trevor and then you know we went maybe a hundred yards and he looked back you know and there's nobody there at that point you're looking back you know me and Jackie were the same age we both look alike and it's pitch black and you probably couldn't really see our faces always had to live with it you know I was the last person you know with him that's 5050 odds as far as you know me or him and you know why did he choose him and not me Aaron said that when he finally caught up with Trevor who was running ahead of him they finally decided to stop when they thought they were far enough away and looked back but they couldn't see anything I mean I remember sitting in their house that night in their living room they'd have a big picture window and you could see everybody pull up and you know all through the whole night I just remember thinking you know sooner or later he's gonna come up and he's gonna get out of the car and this will all be over so when police heard this story they automatically didn't believe the boys they thought that the three of them were playing with a gun one of them accidentally shot Jacob and the two of them were covering the whole thing up by making up this whole story law enforcement did decide to start searching in the area where the boys claimed Jacob was taken from and of course time is of the essence here because we're dealing with a missing child so Jacob's family did everything they could to get his name out law enforcement was actually helping them with this process getting posters up and the media started covering the story and they were getting completely flooded with leads and this really struck the community I mean everyone wanted to help find Jacob figure this out and support the family and there are times where the wetterling's would literally have like people at their house looking for a Jacob for the first couple weeks of this investigation it was all anyone was talking about it became a major household name many of you have probably heard of Jacob Wetterling I knew I had heard his name many many times over the years more and more people are finding out that Jacob was missing and reaching out to help but like within any of these cases the media you know slowed down their coverage on it until it eventually just stopped but this family was seriously determined to not let anyone forget about Jacob they continued to follow leads do public speeches anything to get the word out to ensure that Jacob was not forgotten about now this is really interesting this is joy Baker she is a blogger and in 2010 she was looking for something to write about and came across a Jacob Wetterling case she was absolutely fascinated and consumed by the story so she ended up actually contacting patty Wetterling and kind of started putting together her own investigation to what she thinks could have happened through her own research which is really cool because there's a lot of awesome crime journalists out there who are literally making progress in cases or are the reasons cases are being saw talked about it on the podcast a lot but recently the Golden State killer was found they finally figured out who it was and Michelle Macon Ameri who unfortunately passed away while writing the book wrote this book about him and by spreading awareness she may have been part of the reason he was eventually captured so I feel like not many people give any credit to these journalists who become like private investigators through their work and sometimes come up with amazing stuff that the police can't even figure out but anyway she discovered that five boys all went missing in the same area between summer of 1986 and spring of 1987 this is Jared I can't pronounce his last name I'm gonna put it on the screen but he actually was a kid who got abducted nine months before Jacob and this happened in cold spring just literally down the road from the wetterling's it was only six days before his 13th birthday only three blocks from this kid's house this man approached him as he was walking down the street in a car pulled up and stopped the car and Jared started giving him directions this is when the driver jumped out of the car grabbed him by the shoulders put him in his car and said that he has a gun it isn't afraid to use it he was then driven five miles away from that location and sexually assaulted by this man but he was let go he was able to go home as long as he ran away and never looked back and that was almost exactly what this man told Trevor and Aaron and Jacob in the way that Trevor and Aaron described this man is extremely similar to how Jared described the man who you know messed with him was average height and weight and had a low-key raspy voice and sadly the years went by and Jacob was not heard from 2015 so what is that like 26 years on October 28th of 2015 a man named Danny Heinrich was named a person of interest in the case he was then arrested but here is the backstory on this guy back in December of 1989 so the year that Jacob was taken Danny was actually questioned by the FBI but they didn't have enough and linking Jacob to Danny and he was let go but Danny's DNA was actually connected to the abduction of Jared through DNA evidence on Jared's sweater so remember Jared went through a very similar situation to what the boys described happening to Jacob less than a year earlier but unfortunately by the time that they matched Danny's DNA - Jared sweater the statute of limitations had expired and they were not able to arrest him or hold him accountable in any way but it was a good enough reason for them to search his house and when they were searching his house they found child pornography and obviously they immediately arrested him so as part of a really odd plea bargain Danny decided to cooperate with the authorities and on September 1st of 2016 Danny showed the FBI where he buried Jacob Wetterling and sure enough Jacob was exactly where Danny had put him 27 years earlier after nearly three decades of Secrets all was revealed in just a few minutes in the federal courthouse after he signed a plea deal Danny Heinrich would explain what happened the night of October 22nd and now to a chilling confession in a Minnesota courtroom - a murder mystery that has haunted that state for in nearly three decades a man finally admitting to the 1989 abduction assault and killing of an 11 year old boy last week authorities unearth jacob wetterling's remains ending a mystery that has long haunted the state the gunmen confessed he drove Wetterling from Saint Joseph to Painesville where he molested the boy and murdered him according to reporters in court Heinrich told the judge I was driving on a dead-end road I noticed three children on their bicycles with a flashlight at the time Jacob's brother described how the two of them and a friend were held at gunpoint he told us to put her folks in the ditch and later on Heinrich says he drove away with Jacob handcuffing him the boy asked what did I do wrong after almost 27 years Danny Heinrich was willing to talk and we had to grab the moment the 53 year old told police where he buried Jacob's body in exchange for not being charged with the murder Heinrich still faces twenty years in prison after pleading guilty on the pornography charges the wetterling's agreed to the deal to bring an end to their tireless search it was only about 30 miles from the Wetterling house and law enforcement was able to confirm that it was him through dental records sadly on September 3rd of 2016 the family had to make a heart-wrenching statement to the public that Jacob had been found Jacob I'm so sorry is incredibly painful to know his last days today after 27 years patty Wetterling finally learned what happened to her son Jacob Rustica was alive to be found until we found him obviously they wanted answers either way and I'm sure they weren't like completely set on him still being alive at that point they must kind of know but I feel like as a parent you'd always have that hope and having that hope just crushed for you would be so hard especially after 27 years of searching now this part is going to piss a lot of you off trust me I feel the same way as you this is really really frustrating cause Danny agreed to a plea deal and show them where Jacobs body was essentially allowing them to solve the Wetterling case he was not charged with Jacobs murder let me repeat that again not charged for Jacobs murder even though he - doing it he was only sentenced for one count of child pornography his charge does carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years but 20 years that's it only 20 years after sexually assaulting at least two kids killing one of them and he could get out in 17 years if he has good behavior however this plea does not let authorities seek civil commitment as a sexual predator therefore there's a good chance that he will never actually be free no how did this actually happen I'm sure a lot of you are wondering it's very odd because it's not like Danny kind of planned this out the chances of the boys being there it was completely you know random they hadn't had these plans it's not like he was stalking them and planning this whole thing he just came across them so why did this happen what happened he said that the night he killed Jacob he was driving through the streets without any clear idea of what he was doing or where he was going and that's when he came across the three boys and he saw that they were riding their bikes with flashlights he said that he parked his car put on his mask and waited for the boys to come closer to him abducting Jacob at gunpoint handcuffing him and sitting him in the front passenger seat of his car Jacob crying saying what did I do wrong how he took Jacob back to Painesville 30 miles away Heinrich took him to a gravel pit outside of town removed Jacob from the car removed his clothes and took him to a grove of trees where he molested him and he said that he was able to avoid police by listening to a police scanner which any of you can do anyone can listen to police scanners I don't think a lot of people know that you can download an app on your phone and listen to like your book please you heard police sirens which had nothing to do with him but he thought that they possibly could be coming for him and he got scared panicked randomly decided to shoot jacob eventually said uncle take me home and started to cry Heinrich choked up as he described how he saw a patrol car come down the highway Heinrich told Jacob to turn around raised a revolver to Jacobs head but the gun jammed Jacob was still standing Heinrich said he pulled the trigger a second time and Jacob fell to the ground Heinrich walked back to his home The Plaza Hotel in Paynesville returning a couple of hours later to bury Jacob in a shallow grave returning one year later discovering the remains were partially uncovered he could even see Jacobs jacket he moved the bones and closed to a farm across the highway where he dug a trench two feet deep and that's where Jacob remained for nearly 27 years there is a small silver lining to this story in 1994 the Jacob Wetterling Act was passed this was the first law to institute a state sex offender register and after Jacob's abduction Patty and Jerry formed the Jacob Wetterling foundation this is an advocacy group for children's safety and in 2008 the foundation became the Jacob Wetterling Resource Centre and the foundation is dedicated to spreading education and awareness about sexual predators how it happens who takes them and what we can do to prevent it I feel so badly for Jacobs parents I think the worst thing about this is knowing that they spent 27 years looking for him and then finding out that he died that night he died on the day he was taken and no one knew so sad thinking of being an innocent child just riding your bike on a summer night with your friends and like having your life just take such a detour like that because if someone's selfish impulses that they just randomly decide to do something like this it's pretty shocking and upsetting but anyway I hope you guys found that story interesting in the comments I would love to know what you think about this bizarre sentence the fact that this guy basically got away with murder and you know let me know your thoughts on the whole thing but that's it for me today guys I hope you're having a great day stay safe and I'll talk to you next time [Music] [Music] where'd you go logical [Music]

Channel: Kendall Rae

Views: 2,354,182

Rating: 4.9429512 out of 5

Keywords: Jacob, wetterling, solved, found, Jacob wetterling, missing, where is, kendall rae

Id: sYbHHjGUwL4

Length: 20min 17sec (1217 seconds)

Published: Thu May 31 2018