Posted on 06/30/2010 3:30:07 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has confirmed Stearns County investigators are at a property in the area where Jacob Wetterling was abducted more than 20 years ago.
Neighbors report seeing several unmarked law enforcement vehicles Wednesday morning at the property in St. Joseph. A sheriff's office squad car is parked at the entry to the driveway.
The sheriff's office tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that, "an investigation is occurring today, but details of that investigation are restricted by a Stearns County court order."
The sheriff's office would not release any other details about the investigation and gave no indication when more details would be released.
(Excerpt) Read more at kstp.com ...
Good question. He did so not want to be disturbed that night so how was he behaving the next day? I’m sure with all the commotion that any pretense of teachers meetings or whatever it was was canceled so it might not be that anyone paid much attention to him in particular. Everywhere I’ve read comments of his former students, they always say he was a bit off but nothing specific. Seems he, Mr. Bee Bop, was not only a band teacher but also the girls’ basketball coach.
I’ve been wondering what with it being a small town and all and that last names carry power, well, I came across this in the comment section of http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2010/07/jacob-wetterling-abduction-search-underway-on-neighbors-farm/comment-page-1 :
“Someone mentioned how mayor of St. Joseph is/was Al Rassier. Age 54, same age as Dan Rassier. Cousins? Relative? Nevertheless, maybe why main suspect has remained “free” all of these years. Also, Al has one son, Josh, 32. Consequently, the same age that Jacob would (is) have been.”
"A few days later authorities thought they had another break. Witnesses claimed they saw an unusual man in his 50s in two St. Joseph convenience stores the day Jacob went missing, including at the Tom Thumb. The man, described as 6 feet tall with a large build and receding white hair, had silently glared at customers and did not buy anything. An alert was issued, as was a sketch. No results."
http://www.checotahpolice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=31
Good article. I don’t see how it could have been a stranger in the store. He wouldn’t have known the area or where the boys were headed. Aaron said he’d heard a noise on the way to the store so I’m thinking someone was already there.
Let’s say the farmer’s son walked down to the mailbox (the Witterling’s road has street mailboxes so that’s probably the way mail was delivered in ‘89) and saw the boys. He may have gotten ticked off if they were being loud and joking. Maybe he’d been mad at them over a period of time running up and down his road. Or since there’s a universal rivalry between band kids and athletes, maybe he had overheard Jacob mouthing off about band nerds and he felt he needed to be taught a lesson. I get the impression he wasn’t the girls’ basketball coach until years later. Anyway, knowing they would be back soon, he lay in wait for them. He had been a teacher at the school for about 10 years by then so he donned his mama’s stocking to hide his identity. He would have known about the prior abduction that occurred 9 months before so he might have done a copy cat. Patty says Jacob was stubborn so things might not have gone as smoothly as the perp thought they would and instead of releasing him relatively unharmed as the other boy had been, this time things turned from bad to ugly.
It just doesn’t make any sense that a teacher would be so disinterested that night knowing it might have been one of his students and his neighbor. Although, since the parents were gone, he might have been doing drugs and wanted to stay as far away from the cops as possible. No matter what the reason for his attitude, it was all very strange.
Learning about Mr. Wetterling (Ba hai’ and NAACP), they both must be “peaceable folk”. Much more so than I would be knowing every day I drove to town I’d have to pass by that farm and what possibly happened there. Strange Patty says they don’t know the farmer’s son. Patty says they haven’t moved or changed their phone number hoping Jacob would return one day. I wonder if they haven’t moved partly to show the neighbor they are still there and watching. I wonder what the other neighbors think.
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1636867.shtml?cat=1
The family confirms that the truck loads of what appeared to be dirt removed from their property was mainly ash. The ash, they say, is from their wood burning boiler that heats the farm.
Speaking exclusively to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall referred to the items removed from the Rassier property as “evidence.” Kendall also notes that we haven’t seen everything removed from the rural Central Minnesota farm."
Truckloads of ash were taken from the property, mostly from the wood-burning boiler used to heat the farm.
Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek used to investigate homicides. He said just a very small amount of bone fragment a pinhead-size bit of blood is enough to find DNA, even 20 years later, even if it's been burned.
"It's very hard to destroy all evidence related to a crime," said Stanek.
He pointed to the case of Katie Poirier. Investigators found a fragment of her tooth years ago in Donald Blum's fire pit.
Investigators in recent weeks developed probable cause that led to the search of the property, he said. They were then able to get additional resources to help with the search.
He wouldn't comment on what additional probable cause was developed, saying that would be counter-productive to the investigation.
Hope this finally gets solved and the Wetterlings finally know. Sad. Very sad.
Josh G was a "fellow band geek" to this friend who wrote the article.
http://www.findjoshua.com/FromAFriend.htm
I'm just appalled... the LAST place Jacob is seen is in the driveway of the local school band teacher & adjunct music prof at St. John's; and another disappeared young male in the SAME area is described by a close friend as a "BAND GEEK.
This is HORRIFYING, do you think that the LEOs never noticed this???
http://www.findjoshua.com/view.asp
According to Bob Guimond -- absolutely NOTHING was ever investigated in his grandson's disappearance.
I wonder if there is something wrong with LE in that neck of the woods.
HOW could they have NOT recognized that the last place Jacob was seen was in the band teacher's driveway ----- AND that Joshua Guimond was referred to as a "BAND GEEK."
I mean.... HELLO! Is anybody home??
O-M-G. I didn’t want to put something on the thread so check your mail.
Believe me, I do understand. The more I read, the more I am absolutely repulsed by many POTENTIAL factors in these cases, so close in space, and the fact that Jacob & Josh look like brothers is just eerie. SCARY.
Like you, some of this stuff is just so ... "publically unpostable."
Anyway, if any member of the public has TIPS or information about the disappearance of Josh Guimond, here's the webpage to submit info TO THE FAMILY:
I was thinking about the running marathons and sure enough found this. Scroll down about halfway:
http://www.immelman.us/news/wetterling-suspect-dan-rassier
Check out running routes. Wonder which “points” bring on the negative imaginings:
http://www.run.com/city.asp?dest=Saint+Joseph+MN
I am just shocked with how the Joshua Guimond case is being handled.
MAYBE the LEOs are actually ALSO investigating his disappearance when they sift through all the ashes from that wood burning furnace??
But they didn't mention Joshua Guimond.
But that car driver came forward in 2004 and has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Jacob's disappearance.
So . . . . it sounds to me like they spent two decades investigating a FALSE LEAD which was given to them by the person who is now their primary POI.
"....on a short list of potential suspects, even called authorities that night to report a suspicious car turning around in his driveway."
http://m.startribune.com/topic/1554-Local%20+%20Metro%20News/articles/199161639?paging=off
....In late 2003, after Sanner became sheriff, the focus changed when a man claiming to be the motorist responsible for the tire track came forward after having a casual conversation with a U.S. marshal who was a friend of a friend.He said that on the night of the kidnapping, he heard the police reports on a scanner. Curious, he drove to the site and saw the boys' bikes on the ground. He got there so quickly that he beat some of the police to the scene.He said he mentioned seeing the bikes to a St. Joseph police officer, then left.
Sanner said in 2004 that investigative records showed no sign that the man, who is not considered a suspect, had ever been interviewed.
That twist, on top of years of dead-end leads and tips to nowhere, fueled criticism and second-guessing of an investigation......"
Makes you REALLY wonder WHO is the cop who the driver spoke to about the bicycles and WHY the he|| didn't he ever report this discussion????
I mean THAT is truly weird. Was that cop ever identified? Was he a friend of the family who owns the farm???? What gives? WHO is the St. Joseph police officer who NEVER, over 20-plus years never reported that discussion????????
Bizarre!
I knew hiking trails were on the web but I didn’t know about running trails so was surprised coming across the link. It seems lots of folks are thinking along the same lines. I didn’t find a search for submitters names but he’s probably submitted others outside of St. J’s. I meant to look up places he’s done marathons. While there are probably running paths around every university, it sure does add more and more coinky dinks to all the cases.
The farm house is quite a ways away from the road for a car to be noticed just turning around. If DR was so sleepy, then why would a car by the road rouse him enough to make a call since police cars and helicopters weren’t much of a concern to him. A car would have had to have driven up the drive and turned around at the house for him to notice it if he were really in bed at 9 pm. I wonder just when or if he really did call it in. I think the only person who has said he called it in was this unknown relative and not LE. Seriously, why would he have made the report in the first place since the supposed car didn’t do anything but turn around. There was nothing to report. Besides, the time line would have been tight. You would think if there was a report the LE and FBI would have been all over him getting a description immediately. Strange (or incompetence) if they got the car dude’s tracks and this supposed mystery car mixed up. Maybe DR just claimed later there was a car as an alibi? Yes, they were looking for a car for years (turns out the innocent dude), but when did the car enter into the investigation and from whom?
I still want to know what DR was up to that night because it wasn’t sleeping. Could it be that he was out in the field when the car dude drove up?
Yeah, it would be interesting to know who the cop was that the car dude spoke with and why his name wasn’t put on a list of interviews especially since he got there so quickly.
They keep talking about the driveway being gravel and that they could see Jacob’s footprints. It would be a shame if the car dude and the cops drove over evidence. It’s very hard to determine tire treads and footprints in gravel so I wonder if the LE are telling the whole truth. If they could see Jacob’s footprints then they should have been able to see the other person’s. Drag marks show up in gravel but not so much footprints. They hint at a struggle at one point but not much else.
The locals say nothing but nice things about the old man but most say DR is odd. It’s interesting the Wetterlings also say good things about the old man but after all these years, both claim they don’t know DR (dad below and mom in a video somewhere).
http://religion-news.info/search-at-wetterling-site-is-third-since-boy-was-abducted
BTW, somewhere someone said Josh played the baritone and that he would have come in contact with DR through the brass section.
Well, small town and all. Everyone knows everyone else and is related to half the county. Then there’s the mayor with the same last name. It wouldn’t be the first time city officials covered up for kin.
Imagine TWO DECADES searching for a car that never existed. Imagine TWO DECADES of treating as credible a report about a non-existant car from the person who becomes the primary POI.
It's just shocking.
The driver had heard about the action on his police scanner. He arrived there BEFORE most of the police.
It was way later on in the night when the helicopters and massive police presence happened.
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