Jacob Wetterling
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Jacob Wetterling (born February 17, 1978) was abducted at age 11 in St. Joseph, Minnesota on October 22, 1989. He, his brother, and a friend were riding home from a convenience store on bikes, when a masked man came out of a driveway and ordered the boys to throw their bikes into a ditch and lie down on the ground. The man had a gun, so the boys complied. He asked each boy their age. Jacob's brother and friend were told to run toward a nearby wooded area, but Jacob was taken away.
A massive search effort was undertaken to locate Jacob, but neither he or his abductor have been found. Four months after the abduction, his parents, Jerry and Patty Wetterling, formed the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, which is an advocacy group for children's safety. In 1994, the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, more simply known as the Jacob Wetterling Act, was passed in his honor. The law has been amended a few times, most famously by Megan's Law in 1996.
The investigation into Jacob's abduction has continued. In 2004, some new reports hit the local press. A long-held belief that the abductor got away in a car has now been thrown out. It was also revealed that another boy had been in a similar incident nearby. Jared (then 12) was sexually assaulted about ten miles away in Cold Spring, Minnesota earlier in 1989.
External link
- Jacob Wetterling Foundation (http://www.jwf.org/)