Patty Wetterling and Joy Baker Recall Their Search for the Truth
The 35th Anniversary of the abduction of Jacob Wetterling was Tuesday October 22. Jacob's mother Patty and blogger/author Joy Baker joined me on WJON to talk about the steps they took that helped lead to Danny Heinrich as the person responsible for Jacob's abduction and murder.
Baker is originally from the Twin Cities area. She explained that she moved to New London in 1991, fell in love with a turkey farmer, got married and started a family. She became interested in true crime and became a blogger known as "Joy the Curious" in 2010. Baker says she began blogging hoping to become a writer. In 2010 Dan Rassier was named a person of interest in the Jacob Wetterling case. Baker began researching information on Jacob's case and ended up meeting Patty at a fundraising event in Willmar. Baker was the marketing director for Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar at that time. Patty recalls Joy introducing herself, handing her a card identifying herself as "Joy the Curious". Patty says her husband, Jerry, read Joy's blogs and was impressed with her writings. Patty says she called Joy the next day.
Patty recalls being afraid of anyone doing investigative work outside of law enforcement because she was burned a few times before. In 2013 Joy received a call from "person of interest" at that time, Dan Rassier. She says he wanted to tell his side of the story. Baker recalls after a 2-hour conversation with Rassier, she had a good sense that Rassier had nothing to do with the abduction of Jacob. Around the same time Baker reached out to Jared Scheierl. Scheierl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted near Cold Spring in January 1989 when he was 12 years old. Jared was let go after the assault. After Jacob was kidnapped in 1989, Jared became a star witness. Baker says the family moved to Paynesville after all the attention Jared was receiving. Joy reached out to Jared, met with him and the two began working together in hopes of finding who did this to him. One of their findings was a news article in 1987 about 5 cases of boys being sexually assaulted in Paynesville. Jared and Joy were both unaware of this and sent the information to the Stearns County Sheriff's office, who was investigating the case.
The Wetterlings began working with Joy and Jared and Patty indicates the discovery of sexual assaults in Paynesville in the mid to late 1980s was something Patty was unaware of. Patty says as they further investigated the cases in Paynesville they found 13 cases of sexual assaults. Joy, Jared, Patty and Jerry Wetterling were working together at this time and felt the Paynesville and Jared Scheierl cases were related and were likely committed by the same person.
Patty recalls requesting that all the law enforcement agencies who had been investigating Jacob's abduction get back together and pursue the case again. Patty says the investigators took the information Joy and the team had put together and their pursuit led them to Danny Heinrich. She says DNA identification had improved greatly since 1989 and authorities were able to connect Danny Heinrich to the case. Patty says the statute of limitations had run out so Heinrich couldn't be arrested for the crime against Jared but the evidence they had obtained allowed for a search warrant of Heinrich's home in Annandale. Heinrich was arrested on possession of child pornography in 2015. On September 6, 2016 Heinrich confessed to the abduction and murder of Jacob along with the abduction and sexual assault of Jared Scheierl.
Patty Wetterling and Joy Baker wrote a book about their pursuit of the truth. It is called "Dear Jacob: a Mother's Journey of Hope".
If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Joy Baker and Patty Wetterling, it is available below.