The Jacob Wetterling Story: Missing Kids Today (Part 5 in a 5-Part Series)

Less than two months ago, the nearly 27-year-long search for Jacob Wetterling ended when Danny Heinrich confessed in court to kidnapping and killing the 11-year-old boy on the same night, Oct. 22, 1989. In their first interview since Jacob's remains were discovered, the Wetterlings told WCCO about their shock over the sudden end of the search for Jacob that lasted nearly three decades.

In the interview, Patty and Jerry Wetterling also described the horror they felt while listening to Heinrich confess the details of their son's last minutes of life, and also the overwhelming amount of support they received as people across the state, country and world paid tribute to their son.

“For almost 27 years we’re searching, and then in seven days, it was eight total, it’s over,” Patty said.

“That gunshot snuffed his breath out in Oct. 22. 1989, but his spirit is so strong you can just see how it affects people,” Jerry said.

Six weeks ago, authorities told the Wetterlings about the possibility that Heinrich, who'd been a suspect in the case from the very beginning and was awaiting trial on child pornography charges, would consider confessing the details of Jacob's abduction and murder in exchange for a plea deal.

The Wetterlings gave their permission to authorities to go forward and offer a plea deal to Heinrich.

About This Patch Special Report
Today, we offer our fourth installment in a five-part special report about the abduction and murder of Jacob Wetterling and other missing children in Minnesota and the Midwest. Previously in this report:

• The Jacob Wetterling Story: What Went Wrong (Part 1 in a 5-Part Series)
• The Jacob Wetterling Story: Are Parents Too Cautious (Part 2 in a 5-Part Series)
• The Jacob Wetterling Story: America’s First ‘Milk Carton Kids’ (Part 3 in a 5-Part Series)
• The Jacob Wetterling Story: A ‘Cluster’ of Abuse in Paynesville (Part 4 in a 5-Part Series)
  

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“It was around noon I think when they found Jacob’s jacket, which was heartbreaking to me,” Patty said of the day when investigators, led by Heinrich, uncovered Jacob's remains in Paynesville, Minnesota, about 10 miles from Jacob's hometown of St. Joseph.

“We later had to call our children and tell them that they’d found his jacket, and those were grueling phone calls to make. In all of these years, we’ve never had any piece of evidence to show Jacob was not alive.”

Both Patty and Jerry went to the Paynesville farm where Jacob's remains were discovered but stayed for only a short while.

“Jacob wasn’t alive there, and I didn’t want to stay,” Patty said.

On Sept. 6, Heinrich confessed to the abduction and murder of Jacob in court, and detailed the boy's final moments. But the Jacob Wetterling case took too long to solve. Henrich will not face criminal charges for what he did on that October night in 1989.

However, if there is any good that came out of the Wetterling case, it’s the attention it has drawn to the very real and significant threats children face in the world, even in our own towns and neighborhoods.

The Wetterling case led to important public policy changes, such as standardized sex offender registries, the founding of many important resources and child-advocate organizations, including the Jacob Wetterling Resource Foundation, and a better understanding of child abductions in general.

We know what happened to Jacob Wetterling. But there are still millions of children missing in the world. There are currently 354 missing and endangered children in Minnesota. According to the FBI, in 2015 there were 460,699 National Crime Information Center entries for missing children throughout the United States.

According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, 2 percent of all violent crimes against juveniles reported to police involve kidnapping.

The U.S Department of Justice uses three distinct labels to organize different kinds of kidnappings:

• Family kidnapping (49 percent)
• Acquaintance kidnapping (27 percent)
• Stranger kidnapping (24 percent)

In 2015 the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children assisted law enforcement with more than 13,700 cases of missing children:

• 86 percent endangered runaways
• 10 percent family abductions
• 2 percent lost, injured or otherwise missing children
• 1 percent nonfamily abductions
• 1 percent critically missing young adults, ages 18 to 20

One in every five endangered runaways reported to NCMEC in 2015 were likely victims of child sex trafficking. Of those, 74 percent were in the care of social services when they went missing.

In 2012, the United Nations said 2.4 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking at any one time, and 80 percent of them are exploited as sex slaves in what is a lucrative $32 billion network, USA Today reported.

A report released last month documents severe human rights abuses experienced by children and adults in Minnesota.

The report, released by the Advocates for Human Rights group, detailed 17 incidents of labor trafficking in Minnesota involving 36 victims over the past five years, including two boys who were violently forced by gangs to carry drugs.

In July, Patch reported on a Woodbury woman who was charged with human labor trafficking after another woman was found with two black eyes, broken ribs, a broken sternum and numerous bruises.

Imran Ali, assistant attorney in Washington County, which is prosecuting the case, told Minnesota Public Radio the county is investigating other possible cases.

"This is a growing problem with widespread implications," Ali said.

"It's not just Texas or California or Minneapolis or St. Paul. It's here in Washington County. It's everywhere."

"Leave the Light On"

The practice of leaving a porch light on for Jacob Wetterling began in 1989, the year he went missing. Since that time, Minnesotans began leaving their porch lights on every Oct. 22, the day Wetterling was abducted, in hopes that he would be able to find his way home.

Following the September day that Jacob's remains were found, people across the county, and at least one person as far away as Australia, left porch lights on overnight to memorialize him.

The Jacob Wetterling case touched the hearts of millions of people for nearly three decades because. Amidst all of the horrid crimes and injustices of the world, which are legion, stealing the life away from a young child is understood to be especially heinous.

After nearly 27 years, the search for Jacob Wetterling is over. However, today, there are still millions of missing kids, in the U.S. and around the world whose parents, like Jacob's did for nearly three decades, still wonder where their children are and if they are coming home.

Image of Jacob Wetterling via MissingKids.org, used with permission