Jacob Wetterling
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Jacob Erwin Wetterling (born 1978) was an American boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota who was kidnapped from his hometown at the age of 11 on October 22, 1989. He, his brother, and a friend were bicycling home from a convenience store, 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 abducted.
A massive search effort was undertaken to locate Jacob, but neither he nor 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. It was the first law to institute a state sex-offender registry.[1] 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 was 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.
The Bridge of Hope is named in honor of Jacob. His mother Patty Wetterling ran unsuccessfully for the Sixth Congressional District of Minnesota in 2004 and 2006.
