Jacob Wetterling - Monster in Minnesota

At first, the abduction of Jacob Wetterling seemed to be totally random - a completely isolated tragedy that set the town of St. Joseph, Minnesota on edge.

But the more investigators hear, the more they think they may have a monster under their noses.

This week, we're drinking Amanda's Rosado de Lágrima.

SOURCES: https://crimeoverwine.com/episode-show-notes/f/episode-67---monster-in-minnesota

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Almost three decades of wondering what happened to Jacob Wedderlane,
a brutal and public kidnapping opens investigator's eyes to a
string of attacks in mid Minnesota. Episode sixty seven of
Crime over Wine starts right now. Hello everybody, and welcome
to this week's episode of Crime over Wine, the only
podcast with head scratching true crime stories that are just

(00:27):
better over a bottle of wine. I'm your host, Liam Collins,
and this week my guest co host is a wine guru, y'all,
and you are in for a treat. She is the
owner of Amata Tapas and Wine and beautiful Downtown Chattanooga.
My guest co host this week is Amanda Trotter. Hello, Amanda,
how are you Hello.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm so happy to be on this podcast and thank
you so much for inviting me, of.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Course, and so you I have one remembers Amanda right
from a couple of weeks ago, we did our live
show adam Ota Tapas. We talked about the Jamie faith
case and so Amanda's back, and think we were even
talking about like between the two live shows we did
with adam Outa Tapas and now now this episode, I
think that you might hold the record for most amount
of appearances on Crime Over Wine, Amanda. So Congress, Oh

(01:10):
my gosh.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I know I need a Crime over Wine jacket.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Like how they the uh the five Timers Club on SNL,
Like I'm a three timer.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
You're gonna have to come back two more times with that, Amanda. Yeah,
we don't. We don't just give away those jackets for nothing.
So I gotta earn it, right, you gotta earn it.
You gotta earn it. But you know, Amanda, so you know,
we got along great on our on our first two shows,
or I think you know, I gotta like you know
comments that, like our chemistry was like really really good.
And so I'm really excited to have you back this week.
I love that, but mostly because you like know your

(01:41):
way around a bottle of wine. And so I actually
I let you pick out our wine of the week,
and so I'm gonna go ahead and toss it over
to you and let you insure for the people.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, so we are drinking a bottle of wine that
is called Amanda.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
It felt fitting. I wonder why, I can't imagine.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
So, so this wine is the varietal is like a
form of garnacha, very very similar grape to peino noir.
And yeah, this wine is amazing. The wine maker named
it after his daughter Amanda. And in Spanish, which is
the name of our restaurant, Amada, it means lovable woman.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
So yeah, it's very on brand for our restaurant as well.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
So this is at twenty twenty. It is completely so
the fruit is completely destemmed and does not undergo any
maceration on the skins.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
So it is a rose.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
And in Spain they call that risotto, but same thing.
The aging process is completed in stainless still in French oak.
It's got a really really cool taste on.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
The back end.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
And this style of rose means tear drop, pink and Spanish,
and yeah, it's a really really good one big fan
of this, not only because it's my name, but I
use this wine to give to people sometimes. It's almost
like a form of merch for me. I love that.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, So trying to get the bottle.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Open, it's really in there, y'all, Like.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I'm struggling, so you can't see, but this bottle has
a pink wax on top of the cork and so
and it is like for some reason the cork that
they use. It is actually really really hard to get
this bottle open.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
I may I think I need to do like a
whole like mini series for this podcast on just on
like me trying to open up these different bottles?

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Are you having to muscle it out?

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah? Yeah, finally Jesus. Sorry, if I had.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
A video of me every time I open a bottle
of wine, like, I would be so embarrassed for anyone
to see that.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Love that? Okay, Well, now that I have this f
and wax off, like gosh, like I feel like an
amateur right now not being able to get this open.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
No, that's.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I love that sound. It's like a very dark, very
very dark rose.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, it's so cool. I think like because of the garnacha.
Like they're really really picky about the farming practices here
and like just being biodynamic and they stay within the
perimeters of just trying to keep this this is technically
classified as.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
An organic wine, okay.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
And yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
It's I think it's really really cool. It Honestly, it
drinks like a red, does it not?

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, no, it does. It's it's smooth like a red
for sure, but it's still almost there's almost like a
little bit of like carbon.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, like that's called effervescent and effervescence and.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, and it does have like just a sprits to it.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, this is sprits.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, this guy, this wine. He's from Basque Country and
in that area.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Chocoli is one of the big wine making towns and
they're just like world class winemakers over there, and they're
known for having that like little sprits, the effervescent and
it's like one of those things like you want that
when you're eating fish, and this is like a fisherman's
town and yeah, so it's delightful and honestly, this kind

(05:23):
of stuff that's like super different, like those so good
with funky cheeses like I can't remember cheese.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, yeah, this could be great with a charcouteri board.
Oh absolutely, yeah, I really like this this wine, Amanda.
I'm like I'm sending here. I'm like, do we have
to talk about the crime?

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, yes, let's talk about the crime. We're just like
geeking out over this wine though.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
And for it, you need to bring you back on
once a month to give us like your incredible wine
recommendations and teach us a little bit here because I
feel like you probably have a whole lot of knowledge
up there that I had never even considered before. So
anytime you want to come by, appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
You know, I'm still very new to the wine world.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I'm like two years into being a wine snob.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
I haven't always been been this knowledgeable.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
And I'm really specifically knowledgeable about Spanish wine because that's
that's my brand. But yeah, as far as like other
regions of the world and stuff, still totally learning and
it's one of those that's one of those things about
wine you're always learning.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, No, that's fair. Ye, Well, speaking of learning, So
you're the wine expert, I'm the crime expert as far
as I'm aware. So you want to transition to this
because Amanda, I probably have one of the most like intense,
like deep dark kind of cases that we're that we've
ever probably talked about and crime over wine. There's like
a massive world that I feel like that we are
about to uncover and kind of dive into that most

(06:47):
of us probably are like imagining or trying to imagine,
like doesn't even exist. And so you ready for this
one because I think we're you're gonna be a good thing.
We have a really good bottle of wine handy because
you're gonna need it. I think after going what I
have to say this week, So this week I want
to tell you about a young boy whose youth and
innocence was stolen from him at a critical age, and

(07:10):
when decades go by with no leads to find the
person responsible, a surprising confession exposes a majorly flawed investigation.
This week, I want to tell you about Jacob Wetterling
and the monster in Minnesota. Eleven year old Jacob Wetterling

(07:40):
was a good kid. He grew up in Saint Joseph, Minnesota,
just northwest of Minneapolis. He lived with his parents and
his two younger siblings, and the night of October twenty second,
nineteen eighty nine, Jacob's parents were out at a dinner
party and called in a sitter to watch the kids
for the night. But right after dark, Jacob, his friend
and his ten year old little brother decided to grab

(08:00):
some flashlights and take their bikes and make the short
ride to a local convenience store to rent a video
and to buy some candy for the night. And the
sitter was like, sure, go ahead, get out of my hair. Frankly,
as far as I'm concerned, and that's what they did.
They got their video and their candy and were riding back,
whipping through the night on their bikes about a half
mile from Jacob's house, when suddenly, out of the shadows,

(08:20):
a man approached them, coming from a car that was
parked on the side of the road. The man was
wearing a mask and dark colored clothing, and he asked
the boys how old they were, and they told him.
Then he told Jacob's friend and his brother to turn
off their flashlights and to get into a ditch off
the side of the road. And the idea of it

(08:41):
just seems like odd, like so ridiculous, right that Jacob's
friend thought it was a joke frankly and started to laugh.
And when the boys didn't immediately do what the man said,
he threw the boys bikes into the ditch, grabbed Jacob
and told the boys to run away and not look back,
or else he would find them and shoot them.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
God. Okay, so as far as since I'm a I'm
in the third Timers club, I can already tell this
is the darkest one we've done yet.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, So we talked about julay Lin Turner,
who was clearly mess up in the head for the
first for the first show we did, and then we
talked about Jamie Faith who was just like a weird
you know, love triangle situation going on. This is the
first case I've talked to you too about Amanda that
involved the child, and like, the details are just haunting
as far as I'm concerned. Then, yeah, a little bit

(09:28):
of a disclaimer, definitely. Again, I know a lot of
my listeners are really sensitive about, you know, about cases
involving children. Here's your warning, right, like, maybe skip this up.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, no, I'm buckled up.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah. Well, the boys ran home to the Wedterling's house
and told their babysitter what had just happened. Completely shocked,
she called her father, who came over to the house,
called Jacob's parents, and then called nine to one one.
Police were there within minutes two and immediately started a
wide scale search based on the description Jacob's friend and
brother were able to give them about this mass man.
Like the little details they had, they didn't have much

(09:59):
share about him, but they gave police what they could.
By the next day, the FBI had joined in on
the investigation already, and the story of the young boy
who was snatched by the masked man just a half
mile from his house during such an innocent activity as
a bike ride, had spread throughout the region. Investigators were
just inundated with tips right away, and the FBI quickly

(10:19):
stepped up the search to include aerial and ground searches too.
It turned into one of the largest searches in Minnesota history.
Less than a week after Jacob went missing, the FBI
had assigned get This twenty different agents to his case,
and the governor had also activated the National Guard to
search a seven hundred square mile area for Jacob. Meanwhile,
Jacob's parents, through their pain, had said that they were

(10:42):
going to seek as much publicity for Jacob as possible,
speaking to as many media as would listen to them.
In just a little while after the search began, police
found their first clue. It was a tire track and
two sets of shoeprints along a driveway right next to
the road where Jacob was taken by that man, and
the shoe prints look to be from an adult and
possibly another set that looked like it was from a child.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Oh wow, So at this point, like the kids that
ran away were able to get at least the first.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Part of the clues to the police.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, right, right, And it was yeah, and it was dark, right,
so like let's keep that in mind. Like it was
and like the the agenalin's running, they're young, they don't
really know what to look for, Like they don't really
know what was going on. They had no dea that
they were in danger, and so like they really and
the guy was wearing a mask, like they really only
had like you know, roughly how tall he was, like
if as well as like an eleven year old could

(11:38):
describe to you, like everyone looks like they're like, you know,
one hundred feet tall and eighty years old.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
That's so yeah, that's such an interesting perspective as far
as like when children are your.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Witness, Yeah, right right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
And also I know, like because I've watched a ton
of true crime, as we both have, I definitely think
that there's a little bit of like sometimes kids say
the damnedest things and you don't know if like if
what you're saying is true or if if it's like
a completely accurate statement, right.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Well, and and to you know, investigators credit too, like
a lot like in this case, like a lot of
times in other cases, you know, you know, investigators show
up to the scene and encounter exactly what you're saying
and are just like, I don't know what to believe.
I don't know what to do, and so therefore don't
really take it all that seriously from the jump. And
we've seen that over and over and over again overwine
to these guys credits, guys and girls credits. They you know,

(12:37):
like they took it seriously right away, like they immediately
started searching for Jacob because like they had, you know,
that there was enough there to like make that to
make that, you know, believable. So yeah, I mean, but
I but but I you know, I could see where
where you're coming from with like yeah, yeah, like what,
like what do you really know it is true when
you're dealing with a ten year old at eleven year old? Yeah, well,

(12:59):
you know, the neighbor who owns the driveway where the
tracks were found was indeed questioned and denied any involvement
in Jacob's disappearance. But investigators were initially really skeptical that
the tracks were found at his house, so they stayed
on him, and I mean like for years Amanda searched
his property even but ended up finding absolutely nothing there.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Oh wow, And this I don't know anything yet because
I have not read the script, but it does seem
like that would be such an hard spot to be
in as far as like just the neighbor and you know,
that's it's like, I'm sure that to have Polle surging
your property for that long period of time would just

(13:39):
be so frustrating.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Well and for of all things, the abduction of a time,
it's like.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
No one wants to be tied into this. Everybody is like, yeah,
that's terrifying.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Right exactly. Well yeah, and you know, but in the
days after Jacob's disappearance, hundreds of calls continued to come
in promising information about what may have happened to Jacob.
More than five hundred people too came to a prayer
vigil at a local church, and the FBI starts to
paint a picture of who they believe is the man
behind the mask. Here, an FBI profiler says they are

(14:11):
sure Jacob's abductor is a sex offender previously and that
he likely has already left the area. The profiler describes
the abductor as someone who is likely a loner, possibly
with a physical deformity of some kind, and has likely
committed a similar crime in the past. And on October
twenty fifth, just three days after Jacob was kidnapped, the
local sheriff, who is leading the investigation from a local level,

(14:33):
suggests that Jacob could already be dead.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Oh this is sex sickening. I am taking a sip
of my wine.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
And yeah, I need that very much so well. And
it's kind of like odd to me too that like
I don't really know where this like thought process came
from of like that he may be dead. Like I'm
just I have a lot of questions there because it's
like why, like like why, like I don't really understanding
where where that where that you know, presumption came from
because I didn't really see anything like sure he hasn't
been seen, but like like I didn't really see anything

(15:07):
that like led them to like usually like there's blood,
there's something that like you know, lets people but like
you know make this kind of assumption, but that doesn't
really seem to be here from what I can tell. Yeah,
so I don't know. It's just kind of weird, and
like again, it makes it even weirder, I think anyways,
a little bit later on, so definitely hold that thought.
But you know, the community had, you know, already rallied
around the Wetterlings. Local business leaders pooled funds together to

(15:30):
offer a one hundred thousand dollars reward for Jacob's safe return,
and estimated one million flyers had been sent to local hospitals,
truck stops, and social agencies around the country as a
word about his disappearance and spread naturally at this point.
All throughout this process, law enforcement or fighting off rumor
after rumor about why Jacob may have gone missing, who

(15:52):
may be involved, and even some rumors that suggest that
Jacob was found safe already and you know, and that
he was totally fine, that the search was off, which
to be clear, obviously was not true. The FBI puts
out multiple composite sketches based on Jacob's friend and his
brother's description of the man they encountered that night, plus
an additional sketch of a man who was seen in
the convenience store right before Jacob was kidnapped, But all

(16:15):
the while police didn't seem to be getting any closer
to finding Jacob or the person responsible for taking him
and doing god knows what to him. That was until
December of nineteen eighty nine, just about two months after
Jacob's disappearance, when a second young boy comes forward with
a shocking story that puts the whole town on edge.

(16:39):
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happy with better help. The young boy's name was Jared Shierl.

(17:48):
He was twelve years old from Cold Spring, Minnesota, just
about fifteen minutes southwest of Saint Joseph, where Jacob lived.
This is what he tells police. He says that in
January of nineteen eighty nine, so just nine months before
Jacob's kidnapping, he was walking back home from a cafe
when a masked man approached him, then grabbed him and
threw him to the back of his car and drove

(18:09):
to a remote location and sexually assaulted him. Afterwards, the
man dropped Jared back off where he took him from
originally and told him to run away and to not
look back or else he would shoot him, just like
what you know. Jacob's friend and his brother said that
that man said to them. For months, he kept this
horrible attack to himself until months later when the news
about what had happened to Jacob's spread and he just

(18:31):
felt like the similarities were just too close to keep
what had happened to him to himself. For one single
extra day.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
So now we have I guess this would be a
fair witness. And did you say the age of this kid?

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, twelve, Yes, he's only a year older than Jacob. Wow.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
So I'm assuming we're about to get a better sketch
of the possible suspect.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Then yeah, kind of, and I can show you the sketches.
It's kind of in fact, let's do that because I
think that actually it could be potentially interesting. So this
is what we're talking about. I mean, so like here's
the thing. I'm like, Look, this is how I feel
about sketches, right, Like they always look like the most
like everyday man possible. Like that's how I feel about it. Yeah,

(19:17):
but like so but I mean, so this is but
like they all kind of like they all have this
similar facial structure, so like sure, but they have totally
three totally different hairstyles, I mean kind of. I mean
they all have like you know, like you know, very
receiving airlines, so they have that. So like they look
I guess similar enough, but one.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Of them is definitely more fit and attractive than like
the other two. Yeah, the other two look more Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah that's fair. Yeah, And this is like a composite,
to be clear, like a composite of the other two
that the third one that we're talking about all the way,
I'm the right, But yeah, I mean he has like
he has receding hairline. He looks like he's like fifty
sixty something like that. He you know, he's like, you know,
his like very square looking like features, you know, bigger ears,

(20:06):
you know, a very like prominent nose, that kind of thing.
But there's nothing really that I'm like, I don't know,
I guess maybe unless I like know that guy, you
know what I mean, and then like maybe I'm like, oh,
like that looks like that dude, But like I don't
really feel like that stands out to me in anyway.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, no it doesn't.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, we're gonna link to this on our website, you know,
so that what you guys can see it for yourself.
And now that we you know that I showed you this,
we're gonna bring it back I think a little bit
later on. So definitely like like freeze this in your brain, Amanda,
because we're gonna talk about this a little bit later on. Okay, okay, cool. Well,
so Jared described to police like everything that he could
about the man and his car in detail, and police
are convinced that Jared's attack and Jacob's abduction are likely

(20:44):
related somehow, And after they collect this information, another law
enforcement agency decides that what they're hearing about what happened
to Jared and what may have happened to Jacob or
just two similar to cases that they are already investigating.
The police chief in Painesville, Minnesota, which is just about
thirty minutes southwest of Saint Joseph, calls investigators to say

(21:05):
that he thinks his investigation into a string of child
sexual assaults may be related to the cases that they're
working on. By January of nineteen ninety eight, young boys
had reported being picked up and sexually assaulted in Painsville.
The similarities were eerie, Amanda. They were all out walking
to wherever when a man approached them in a mask,

(21:27):
grabbed them, shoved them into his car, drove them to
a separate location, and attacked them. They were investigating the
cases thoroughly and they hadn't made an arrest just yet,
but they did tell investigators that they had a pretty
darn good suspect, and the police chief told them that
he thought this man should be a suspect in Jacob
and Jared's cases, too.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
Okay, so who was this guy?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Is it the convenience store, the person that they saw
at the convenience store.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Well, that's actually not totally clear, Amanda, So it's but
that's fair point so like, but definitely hold bad because
you're onto something there, I think for sure. But the
man's name that they're talking about anyway is Danny Heinrich.
He lived in Painsville at the time with his dad,
and by January of nineteen ninety police had actually already
interviewed Danny, but he denied any involvement in Jacob's case

(22:17):
and they didn't have anything more solid on him, so
they just let him go. But now that his name
had come up again, police interviewed Danny a second time. Again,
he denies any involvement and says he was likely at
home in Painsville the day that Jacob was abducted, not
in Saint Joseph, and he actually even cooperates in all
of police's questioning, and he even agrees to give them
a sample of his hair, his shoes, and his car

(22:39):
for evaluation. Police also execute a search weren't on his
home they collect police scanners, a case, a list of
scanner frequencies, a pair of boots, some clothing, and a
truck containing photos of children, some with towels wrapped around
them and others who were wearing only their underwear.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Oh wow, So this guy's name's being brought up.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Why So that's hold that thought. We're gonna get there
for sure. So but the reason we're talking about it
right now is because so the Painsville, the pain Painsville
Police Department had identified him as a suspect and like
they're in their child abductions. So when they started hearing
about what it all has been happening in the Saint
Joseph and in Cold Spring, Minnesota, they were like this
sounds way too familiar, and they're like, we haven't been

(23:26):
able to prove it against this guy, but like maybe
you can. And so they just like gave them the
information that they had so that way they could like
all work together. At this point, I assume, okay, yeah,
but like I'm still not I'm not one hundred percent clear. Really,
I kind of get a good hint like toward the
like toward the ends, and we're again, we're gonna get there.
A little bit later on. But like, how how how
Danny ended up on police's radar to begin with, and

(23:49):
like specifically in Saint Joseph because in related to Jacob's case.
Because if you remember, I had just said that by
the time that Painsville police had called him or called
them about Danny, Danny had all read had already been
questioned by police. So that's not totally clear to me.
It's kind of a little odd, but definitely, but so
we're gonna get to that a little bit later on.

(24:09):
So definitely hold that thought. But I do want to
show you something, Amanda, though, So let me show you
a picture of Danny.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Oh yeah, he kind of looks like the first sketch,
the one.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
On the left, right, So let's show you. Let's show
you that again. Like definitely like nothing like these two
at all, Like nothing like to you on the right. Yeah,
but the guy in the left for sure, Like the
similarities are very striking, like the receding hairline, the nose,
the like the shape of the face, like everything is

(24:43):
kind of aligning here pretty well. So again, we're gonna
link to all this on our website. Go check it
out for yourself if you want to, but that's where
we're at at the moment. Well, just a few days
after the questioning Amanda, investigators get Jared to sit in
the back seat of Danny's car to see if it's
the same car where he was kid where he was
abducted a few months prior. He sits in the backseat

(25:04):
and Jared says that on a scale of one to ten,
he is an eight or maybe even a nine, that
this is the same car that he was thrown into
when he was abducted and assaulted. Police compare the tires
on Danny's car to the tracks found near the scene
of Jacob's abduction and found that they were consistent with
the tracks, but not an exact match. They also later

(25:25):
say that the shoe print collected from the scene was inconclusive,
but it did correspond to Danny's right shoe. But police
also find a fiber in Danny's car that matched the
same fibers from Jared's clothes that he was wearing that night,
and so police are confident enough at this point to
bring Danny in. They arrest him and charged him with

(25:46):
Jared's assault, but to be sure, they put Danny in
a lineup to get Jared to pick him out the
same lineup that I had showed you, Amanda, and when
the lineup comes out, Jared does not identify Danny as
his attacker.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't think that Danny
is the guy.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
I don't. I don't know why. I just don't feel that.
I don't feel that he's the one that did up.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
For what gives you that feeling, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
I guess, like, well, obviously I just saw a picture
of him, and I'm like, I just I guess I
have an idea in my head of the person that
did this, and it didn't look like that guy. And
so that's just like, I know, that's a silly theory,
but that's it. So yeah, so what does that mean
what happens after that? Well?

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, so Danny's charges are dropped, Amanda, and he's released.
And so not only do they not have enough to
now to charge him with Jared' attack, but they definitely
don't have enough to tie him to Jacob's disappearance either,
And so he's just gone.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
I see.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
So he's released and we don't know yet like where
he goes, but does he just you know, does he
fall off the face of the earth, like now that
he's a free.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Man, kinda Amanda, like a little.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Gone from this story, Like we won't hear about Danny again.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Uh dot dot that question right now, Amanda, but hold
that BP. Well, you know, despite this loss, police continued
to investigate Jacob's disappearance very thoroughly, and they actually continued
to investigate that neighbor who owned the property where the
tracks were found, and they clearly liked him as their guy.
They searched his property again multiple times, but still just
did not find anything significant. And to be clear, you know,

(27:25):
again spoiler alert a little bit here, but this guy
was never charged and so we're not going to name
him publicly for that reason.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
Okay, so at this point, they're kind of back to
square one.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
One, yeah, a little bit. Yeah, and they really just
don't have anything solid. Like I felt like they were
getting like the closest they could get to Danny and like,
now that's kind of over. But you know, meanwhile, you know,
again we haven't even talked about Jacob's parents. Let's talk
about that, because they are just absolutely heartbroken. Obviously. Every
day felt like they were getting further and further away

(27:59):
from finding Jacob for sure. Not long after his disappearance,
they founded the Jacob Weddling Foundation, which is focused on
the prevention of child abductions, and later it turned into
a national database assistance program to help families and missing children.
On February seventeenth, nineteen ninety, which would have been Jacob's
twelfth birthday, two hundred people gathered for our memorial to

(28:20):
honor him and his parents. Ended up raising about two
hundred thousand dollars for the foundation. But all the money
in the world couldn't have brought Jacob's parents any sort
of peace, and they lived with that same feeling of
hopelessness to spare and sadness every day for years, which
turned to almost two decades, Amanda, with no significant updates

(28:41):
in Jacob's case until two thousand and eight, when someone
comes forward with a surprising admission that may kick this
investigation into high gear all over again. Get ready for
that big test with study study dot com offers learning

(29:02):
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Speaker 2 (29:41):
Okay, so we're back from a quick little break and
we're about to.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Talk about wine. Yeah, so let's do it.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
This is my time to shine.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yes, tossing the microan over do ims.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yes, So m liam, how many like have you had
a full glass yet? No?

Speaker 1 (29:57):
I'm like maybe halfway through.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
This week you talk more than I do. So I
get to listen, and so I'm like.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Not the first time, by the way, Well.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
On the show, I don't know about in life, I exist.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
The fun part about.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Being a guest on this show in particular is like
I really am listening, just like.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
The listeners are to the story for the first time.
And so I'm just.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Sipping like I'm it's a it's a great time being
a guest.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah, you got that you you made it made it
got made in the shade for sure.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
So we're gonna do a little a smr wine pouring
a little. Uh yes, so deductive wine tasting. So deductive
wine tasting means to start with the senses and we're
gonna go through one of those like kind of like
how this taste before I ever even try it? So

(30:52):
you start with the color. And that is what is
really really cool about this wine. It is not based
off of how you know, what do you think when
you look at this?

Speaker 3 (31:02):
What's your first thought if you'd never tasted it? Like,
what are you what are you thinking right now?

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Okay, it's definitely it's giving me a little bit more
of like a boulder rose right like flavor.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
So you would guess that this is a rose based
off of like because it's clear.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
I don't know if I would, I know, because.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
I guess to think about this wine, I would definitely
think we are drinking I would I think we are
drinking a blend.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Like and that's the thing, this is not a blend.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
I would think that it's a white grape and a
red grape blend.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
And which is ever rose?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
And I would that's kind of like that's what I
would think when I look at this. Yeah, that it's
absolutely godsome.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, and it's like cool too because it's like almost
like like typically with like a rose, like it's you
can like see right through it, right, which is kind
of cool, But like this is like it's it's like
foggy almost.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
This is like like what I would call like a
ruby gemstone kind of look like, and it's kind of
it definitely like is giving sparkling in some way, Like
you can almost tell that this is gonna have ever
best sense with the taste. And then on the smell,
tell me what you get when you first smell it.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Strawberry.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
I get strawberry. I definitely smell.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Now this is like a really really weird descriptor, and
some people are put off by this one, but I
get a little bit of like a barnyard. And yeah,
do you see what I'm saying. Yeah, it's it's a
it's a wine tasting note, Charlie.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
But yeah, and that's that's because of the.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Practices that they've used, so that this has been aged
and stainless steel and French oak, and it's an organic
wine and they're not using they don't even add sulfur
to this wine, I mean, no additives whatsoever. And so
like sometimes with organic wines, you'll kind of get that
barnyard smell.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fair. And then well, but I
don't really get that kind of like earthy kind of
flavor that I usually get when I usually consider when
I when I think about like organic wines, that's not
like it you don't like, you don't get like the
like negative connotations that come with that kind of Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
This is one of those wines like with the deductive taste,
and it's like people who drink a lot of wine,
like like Psalms would say, this is a tough one.
I can't tell you what it's gonna taste like until
I get in there, okay. And so lastly, so we've
talked about the way it looks, we talked about the
way it smells, and now we're tasting. So what do
you get on the what's the first thing? Like, are
you getting fruit forward?

Speaker 1 (33:18):
I am getting fruit forward, but it's it's not so
much like fruit forward like in the front of the mouth.
That's a fruit forward like in the back, Like I'm
not really getting a whole lot of flavor in the
back in the front, but I'm getting all of that
in in like the not really the back, but in
the middle of the mountains.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Yeah, this wine reminds me. Do you like sour beer?

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Oh? Yes, yes, it kind of like reminds me.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Of a sour yeah, which is crazy because the fermentation
processes is it's so different. But also like you know,
they're they're adding fruits to those those sour beers and stuff.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
And this is like that to me.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
It's like super super ripe strawberry like like you know,
but not another descriptor with fruits, fruit forward wines like
this one.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
But it's not sweet at all.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
It's dry wine with effervescence, which is just like a
really cool combination those two qualities.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
And a wine. But yeah, I'm just I'm such a
big fan of this one.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, me too. I really like this wine a lot.
Thank you so much for bringing this to us. But
it's because it's talking about like the sweet versus you know,
because it's it's very fruity. It's a very fruity wine.
But it's light, so it's not like it's not like
heavy like a sweeter rine. Like it's very it's light.
It gives you like very it's light notes. It's it's
it really just kind of fills your mouth as opposed
to like you know, weighing it down almost like, which

(34:36):
is kind of how I whenever I drink Sweeter wines.
That's how I that's how I feel, is I feel
like the it's it's weighing down in my mouth. And
this is just very much so fills and just like
like you know, comes open, like opens up inside and
with with all the fruit flavor.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
So it definitely has a good crescendo as far as
like after you drink it, like it doesn't just immediately
disappear the taste like it's a it's got a beautiful build.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
And yeah, they did a really good job with this one.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
I can't imagine, like I have never tried any cheese
pairings with this wine, but like immediately like I just
want to get a blue cheese or I can't remember
where my head goes. I just know it would be
it would just take all of those like fun strawberry
flavors and shoot them to the to the movie.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah yeah right, yeah yeah, No, we're gonna have to
We're gonna have to do like fold into in some
Chuck Cuderie boards in this podcast, because every time I
have one of these wines, I'm like.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
No, next time, I'm gonna be like, and if you
have a chance to get some blue cheese.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah yeah, okay, good to know, good to know. We
need to do those pairings for sure. That's the extra
extra layer to this. Well okay, so Amanda, so we
left out on the back just before the break. We're
about to introduce a whole new character into this story.
I think that really comes out of left field and
just really opens this thing up. Are you ready for this?

Speaker 3 (35:51):
Let's do it all right?

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Excellent? Well, we are jumping forward down to two thousand
and eight. This is almost twenty years after Jacob Weterlin
went missing, and that's when a psychiatrist came forward to
federal investigator saying that one of their clients confessed to
murdering two young boys in nineteen fifty eight. That client's
name was sixty two year old Vernon Seats. He was

(36:14):
from the area, but did indeed admit to his psychiatrists
confidentially that he murdered two boys fifty years ago. Vernon
had just died in his home in Milwaukee of natural causes,
and so when investigators get the chance to search his
home after he died, they found some really disturbing stuff

(36:34):
including child pornography, bondage devices, books on cannibalism, newspaper clippings
about missing children, and a laminated missing person poster from
Jacob Wetterling. And when police clued Jacob's parents into the
latest news about the investigation, investigators showed them a picture
of Vernon, and Jacob's mom recognizes him right away. She

(36:58):
says that Vernon had come to visit her her at
least twice after Jacob's disappearance, wanting to talk to her
about Jacob, but by this point she was too frazzled
and there were dozens of people coming to her wanting
to talk to her about her son, so it didn't
really stand out until she was sitting at a table
nearly twenty years later with a picture of that same
man right in front of her.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Oh my goodness. First of all, his name's Vernon. I
hate that name. It's giving venom or like Voldemort. Yeah yeah,
So what did they do about that?

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Well, police did compare everything that they could about Vernon forensically, Amanda,
but didn't find anything physical that linked him to Jacob's case,
so they just kind of like let that tip go
really yeah, which again like he's dead, so like there's
nothing you can really do about it. But he's like
straight admitting to murdering young children. It just seems like

(37:53):
we should confirm that.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
Yeah, yeah, no, it seems like an important detail.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yeah, which, like I don't know like at this point too,
Like I always keep in mind, well, this is two
thousand and eight, so like maybe not as much, but
like specifically in the late ninety eighties early nineties, like
there was so much because like the Internet didn't exist,
like technology wasn't really all that advance, and so all
these like distinct agencies like really worked completely independent of
each other, like they didn't really communicate all that much,
like they did when they had to, but not like

(38:19):
voluntarily like we think about today, like where you can
just like log into a database and like have all
this information. Not really the case back then, So maybe
that was part of it.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
This is like out of left field.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
But have you watched the new Conspiracy Theories Octopus?

Speaker 1 (38:36):
I know, but I just added it to my Netflix
last night.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
I'm like almost episode three. Please text me, okay, I will,
I will all because it's a very very interesting like
when when.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Databases were introduced to the police systems and it's yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
And they didn't have that.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
That's exactly the case with this, with this case in particular, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Well yeah and so but and like there's also like
a certain level of like like pride over it to you.
Like I've noticed a lot of times like this is
a very prideful community, the law enforcement community, and so
like big egos to be clear, and so it seems
to me as though like it could be one of
those situations as well, where it's it's just like, you know,
this is my case, not your case. This is my case,

(39:16):
and so like that, like and again I don't know
for sure if that's what's happening, but like sometimes that
is what happens, that they're just like, you know, not
to say they're just gonna like let a murderer go,
but like not give it as much attention if it's
like somebody else's thing. Yeah, but you know, the glimmer
of hope, you know, felt like everything that they were
hoping for. And although it turned into just another dead end,
it did reignite some interest in the case. Around the

(39:38):
same time, a blogger of all people by the name
of joy big Or started to dig into Jacob's disappearance again,
and in the process she came across those Painsville assaults
that we mentioned earlier. Well, she somehow got connected with
Jared to talk through what she had learned, and then
started writing about Jacob's disappearance. And because of this, you know,

(40:00):
sudden renewed interest, the FBI agreed to officially reopen Jacob's
case and agreed to look at Jared's assault again too.
The FBI opened a cold case review of the way
Jacob and Jared's cases had been handled. It basically simultaneously
gave him an excuse to look at the case files
with a freshet of eyes, while also having the added
benefit of analyzing what may have gone wrong in an

(40:21):
official capacity. And by twenty fourteen, after years of running
down new leads and cracking open pages that hadn't been
turned in more than two decades, an investigator notices something
that could bring them down a new path. And the
more that investigator digs, the more they realized that there
could really truly be something there that finally finally cracks

(40:43):
this case. Crime Overwine is proud to support a minse. Today,
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(41:03):
offers low cost of that care for those who need
it most. They rely on donations to keep their costs
low for pet families across the country. You can support
Emancipet's mission at emancipet dot org. Investigators found a hare
that was on the wrists of the sweatshirt Jared was

(41:25):
wearing the night that he was attacked in January of
nineteen eighty nine, and in twenty fourteen, the DNA technology
that they had access to was needless to say, much
stronger than the technology they had back in the eighties
and nineties, so they decided to test it again and
it turned out to be a total match to a
hair they already had in their system. It was the

(41:46):
hair that police had collected from Danny Heinrich back in
nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
No, my boy, Danny, I really just felt like he
didn't do it.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Okay, So Danny's still around these two decades later, So
they finally get him, They finally arrest him.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Right well, unfortunately, Amanda, the statute of limitations on Jared's
attack had run out by twenty fifteen, but it did
give investigators an excuse to get a search warrant, and
they did. They searched Danny Heinrich's property, the same one
he had lived in at more than twenty years prior,

(42:26):
and they found handcuffs, duct tape, camouflage pants and a shirt,
and four bins filled with boys size athletic well plus
newspaper clippings of articles on Jacob's disappearance, and nineteen binders
of child pornography, not even including the quote, numerous videotapes

(42:48):
of what appeared to be surreptitiously recorded footage of neighborhood
children delivering newspapers, riding bicycles, playing in public playgrounds, and
participating in sports activities. And so although they couldn't arrest
any with Jared's assaults, they do arrest him on child
pornography charges in October of twenty fifteen.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Wow, Okay, so I have a question the statue.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
This is like a legal jargon kind of question.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
So the statue of limitations in that being had ran
out by twenty fifteen, and so they ended up putting
him on child pornography. So what does the statue of
limitations exactly mean and what's the timeline on that?

Speaker 1 (43:31):
And yes, great question, So glad you asked. And so basically,
statue of limitations means that like you can't go like
you can only you know, make an arrest or bring
charges against someone a certain amount of time after crime
is being committed. And it's like a certain it's it's
a you know, it's a you know, in place to
to protect you know, you know.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Innocent people, right yeah, in a.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Aspect, right, yeah, but pershaps like.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
A criminal doesn't expire.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Right Yeah, Yeah, I mean yeah, it's it's it's there
for sure, and it's like it's they're like, you know, again,
it can be debated about how legit this is or not.
And like there are certain crimes that there are you know,
no statute of limitations on, but there are, and like
you know, obviously much more intense crimes there are much
longer statute to limitations, and like you know, like more
petty crimes have much shorter statute.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Okayah see, And I didn't know that, And so like
is that something that a judge or the police department
who decides the time the time for.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
So it depends on your state and depends on the
crime unfortunately. So you know, like Tennessee may have a
statute of limitations for sexual assaults that's you know, a
certain amount of time, but like New York may have
one that's like much longer. It really just depends on
the state. But like to be clear, like if they
even tried to bring charges against someone wants the statute
of limitations right now, like that is thrown away right away,
like not, it doesn't even get like much of a hearing.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
You are so educated on this stuff and just crazy
to I'm immediately pulling maximum.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
I know. This is when DNA was the game changer.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh, this was like when they were
like getting people left and right because all of a
sudden this technology was coming back. Yeah, no, for sure.
But you know when they took Danny Ann, police pressed
him over and over and over again, and now they
finally had this man in their grasp after decades of
trying to prove that he or someone else had something
to do with Jacob's disappearance and likely Jacob's murder, as

(45:20):
they were presuming by this point, and after hours of questioning,
Danny broke down. He admitted to kidnapping, molesting, and killing
Jacob Wedterling. He said he was out for a drive
when he saw the three boys on their bikes that
October evening and decided he wanted to take one of them,
and he said he pulled over next to that driveway
where the tracks were found, got out, grabbed Jacob, drove

(45:42):
him to a remote spot, assaulted him, and then panicked
and shot him twice. After he killed Jacob, he used
a Bobcat construction vehicle he found it a nearby construction
site to dig a hole and to bury him. About
a year later, he said he returned to the site
where he buried Jacob and noticed that the grave was
becoming a little bit more noticeable, and so he moved
his body to a nearby farm not far from where

(46:04):
he lived.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Okay, mister, criminal burials are for like spirituality, Like you're
bearing somebody as a criminal. It's not even it's so
morally messed up to me, I'm like you better, yeah,
at least to your crime. Right. So this guy obviously
is just insane. Then he tampers with the body and

(46:27):
moves the burial site, if we can even.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Call it a burial the buried site.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Yeah, what ya. It's just like yeah, and it's like
like a little bit of because a lot of times
and like I don't know nearly enough about the psychology
to like to be able to like speak on this intelligently,
but like some really kind of like generalizing here, but
point being is like so like a lot of times
these guys like kind of get off a little bit
on like like like the risk of it all, and

(46:56):
so like that almost makes me think that may have
played a part.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
And also like now we're hearing like that he was
returning to the site, right and it's either gill or
like we're talking about some real like deep psychological issues
with this guy.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Absolutely, yeah, no, absolutely, But you know, police ended up
approaching Jacob's mother with Danny's confession and told her that
they wanted to offer Danny a deal, but they needed
her to sign off on the whole thing. Investigator said
that they were going to offer that they don't pursue
murder charges against Danny for Jacob's murderer, and would only
charge him with child pornography charges if Danny showed them

(47:34):
where he buried Jacob. Jacob's mother agreed, and so did Danny.
He brought investigators to that farm, just outside of Painsville
and not far from where Danny lived, and he watched
as they dug up bones, teeth, and a T shirt
that said Weaterling on the back, plus a red Saint
Cloud hockey jacket, which is exactly what Jacob was wearing

(47:57):
the night that he disappeared.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Oh my gosh. The parents agreed.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Yeah, I don't know if that's what I would do.
But also to like to be fair from their perspective, like,
first of all, I can only imagine like what twenty
five years later, like you're just looking for closure, You're
just looking for this all to be over. You're just
looking to know exactly what happened to him, exactly where
he went, et cetera, et cetera. And so from that perspective,
I could see why they wanted to do it. But

(48:25):
and then also too, like I just don't think they
really had that strong of a case frankly against Danny
without without the body or without like it's I mean
kind of I mean, but like I mean not really
because like they did, like they didn't end up charging
him at all with anything that he just admitted to yea,
you know what I mean, Like they've only gotten him

(48:45):
on the child pornography charges, and like, I mean, sure
they could have built something against Danny, but like they
didn't really have anything. They really didn't have anything, Like specifically,
if he didn't have any any part of Danny's body
to compare the DNA too or whatever, like to get
more physical evidence. You didn't have that. And if Danny's like,

(49:06):
I'm not telling you anything unless you drop the charges,
like what well, what other choice do you have? And like, frankly,
this guy is gonna be in jail for the rest
of his life anyways, right because if the because child
porn like Georges like the maximum that like will take
you right up to the end of your life anyways,
considering how old he was.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
I actually didn't know that they were. It's almost like
murder as far as the way that it's charged. So
thank you for saying that, because now I'm like, why
would the parents because that I'm surelong person was like listen,
we got this guy. Yeah, yeah, don't worry, right, We're
gonna you know, right, Yeah, that's an interesting way to
go about it.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
But yeah, yeah, again, I don't know if I agree
with it, Like I would have maybe like lessened it
to like a lesser murder charge, but like do you,
I don't know. Again, she was fine with it, so,
like I give it that much credit.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
But they just want their son's body, you know.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
They will over Yeah, yes, be over. So on September sixth,
twenty sixteen, Danny confessed under oathed Jacob's murder and also
confessed to Jared Schiles's sexual assault. But remember the statute
of limitations had ran out there, so he was never
charged with Sharon's assault, and although he was largely considered

(50:13):
a suspect in the eight Painsville assaults, he was never
charged in those either, and also never made a confession
to that. He was sentenced to twenty years in federal
prison on those child pornography charges.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
Twenty years.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Yeah, that's not enough.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
I mean, it doesn't feel like enough. I have to
imagine that's like the maximum. But I mean again, it
just makes him think that like you should have gotten
him on something with the murder charge, but like what,
like I don't know. Again, I also like that it's
a backseat quarterback. This thing, but like it just feels
like they like it. It feels like they like, I
don't know, I just feel like they could have had something,

(50:50):
but maybe they just truly didn't. Like, maybe they're truly
like this is the best we can do.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
It's also like such ever such a long period of time,
Like you feel like the hamster on the wheel, and
it's just like, gosh, when are we getting off of
this wheel? Right? Well?

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Yeah, And it's also like a totally new set of
investigators on this.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Surely these aren't people that were like had their hearts
like in it in the beginning.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Right, So true, but you know, it's a bit of
a surprising move to Amanda talking about, like, you know,
the current law enforcement scene. In twenty eighteen, the local
sheriff's office reveals publicly a report that details the findings
of a task force assigned to investigate the investigation into
Jacob Weddling's disappearance, and flat out the sheriff says that

(51:31):
police originally botched this whole thing, saying they had quote
wasted time chasing far flung leads and listening to psychics
rather than tracking down compelling evidence close to home. In
the report, which was forty one thousand, seven hundred and
eighty seven pages in all like holy crap. The sheriff

(51:52):
said investigators didn't thoroughly canvass the neighborhood originally and failed
to connect Jacob's case to other similar crimes in the area,
there being like a ton of evidence to do that.
He also said that for years investigators pursued the neighbor,
who again were not naming, despite their being absolutely zero
evidence that he had anything to do with Jacob's disappearance.

(52:13):
They were on him though even then still and on
top of that, the report said that police received a
tip less than forty eight hours after Jacob Wetterling's disappearance
from a boy who'd been attacked by a man in
Painsville in a similar manner, but investigators didn't follow up
that lead for almost three months plus. Danny Heinrich's name

(52:35):
came up a lot in this investigation, even after police
had arrested him and released him after Jared couldn't pick
him out in a lineup. Another sex offender in the
area had implicated Danny with new information on Jacob's abduction
in March of nineteen ninety one, but he was never
questioned after that, even he'd already been questioned twice before.

(52:56):
Plus the report says that in his initial questioning, Danny
failed a polygraph test when being asked about Jared and
Jacob's cases. Like, look, I hate polygraphs, Like I don't
buy them for shit, But back then they were like
absolutely everything, and like here's a guy who flat out failed.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Yeah, people, genuinely, I think back then believe polygraphs were
more accurate than we believe now. And it sounds like
this new group of law enforcement that we're able to
get to the bottom and crack it on on Danny,
that they really cared about going back and kind of

(53:35):
like exposing the original crew who was a part of
this investigation and like they're poking all the holes and
like their process and like this is where they went wrong.
And it sounds like it's a productive way, honestly to
get about it, because like they don't want to make
the same mistakes.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
Like, right, that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
But like you know, I appreciate that, I guess with
the law Enforstment doing that, yeah, because I mean, yeah,
we're how are we gonna get better if we don't
We don't know what didn't work the price time.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Right, well, and it would have been so easy for
them to just be like yeah, no, like you know,
cool and like move on, moved on, right, because it's
not their problem, right, Like it's it's you know, like
most of these guys, you know, we're kids when when
this investigation even started, so like it's really not their problem.
But like but respect to the point of like because
a lot of times they, like investigators mess up and
like we're screaming into our microphones saying how how how

(54:22):
messy this investigation is, and no one ever admits it,
and like it's a lot of times they'll double down
on it and we're just like what the heck are
you talking about? And so and like so respect to them,
because like we never really see this really like very
often of like you know, of going back and acknowledging
your mistakes and like your your you know, predecessor's mistakes
and like talking about how you could have done differently,

(54:44):
and there was it's kind of interesting. Again, we're gonna
we're gonna link to this story in our in our
show notes and on our website to you. But there's
also this kind of like odd you know, like dynamic
here where like the sheriff gets up and like makes
this like scathing report, and then an FBI investigator gets
up there and kind of like rebukes him a little
bit and like says like like no, like you know,

(55:04):
like he went a little bit too far, like in
the same press conference. And so it's kind of like
there's like some weird dynamics there. And so point being
as I'm sure there was like a lot of pressure
on the sheriff to like you know, to to not
say what he did, and he did it anyways, and
so respect there.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
Yeah, I'm rth there with you.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
It sounds like we both were like that's kind of
I guess the thing about this case in particular that
this stands out to me the last two cases.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
That we've done, because you know, I'm a third timer
and I've got a jacket.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
I think that's there's a lesson learned here, and I
actually really appreciate the way that the twenty eighteen group
of law enforcement went about this.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
I agree, yeah, respect him well. I do always like
to end these kinds of cases with something kind of
like remotely good, if there is anything good here, despite
the horror that Jacob's parents went through and trying to
bring their son home and his abductor to justice. The
Weatherlings did what they could to bring some light from
this whole situation. As I said, they founded the Jacob

(56:07):
Weddling Foundation, which does great work around preventing child abductions
and advocating for victims' family members. But just a few
years after Jacob's disappearance, Jacob's mom became one of the
founding board members of the National Center for Missing the
Exploited Children, which does the Lord's work as far as
I'm concerned and advocating for children and bringing light to

(56:27):
some of the most horrific crimes imaginable. Jacob's mom also
advocated for the Jacob Wedterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually
Violent Offender Registration Act of nineteen eighty four, which requires
any person convicted of a criminal offense against a minor
or who is convicted of a sexually violent felony to
register with police for ten years after they are released

(56:48):
from prison.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
You know what Jacob's mom Goodness, Yeah, Like, God bless her,
you know she That's just the I feel like I
can't even imagine, Like perspective doesn't I can't.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
I can't imagine being the mother of the victim in
this story.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
And it sounds like she really did the best the
decision she made with the cards she was dealt, like,
it sounds like she did the best she could to
make sure that things like this don't happen again, or
that that it's just harder for it to happen.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Yeah. Well, and and like again like keep like putting
this on context here, like we're talking about this at
the end of this story. But all this was happening,
like this law, this, you know, her joining the National
Center for Mixings and Missing and Exploded Children, like her,
you know, starting the foundation. All happened within like a
year or two or or you know, up to five
years after Jacob's disappearance. And so like all of this

(57:43):
is like happening while she's very much like a like
basically aggrieving mom in all this situation, like she's still
fighting for this. And then also like that national law,
that Jacob Wedterling law, you know, just like it like
puts it into perspective for me of that like like
today it's like yeah, like obviously, like you're a sex defender,
you register with police, and it just like puts into

(58:03):
a perspective for me that like that wasn't always the case,
you know, and like that that this was you know
somebody who you know, Jacob was the person who who
made this happen, right like even though he like wasn't
around to see it all happen. Like he he you know,
his life, his name, Yeah, his I guess he lives
in a.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
Very positive way. Yeah, absolutely, here we are talking about him.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Yeah right, exactly, there you go, love that drinking wine
talking about Jacob appreciated, Like that's incredible as far as
I'm concerned.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
So that's a good way. That's a good note.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Yeah, well there you go. Yeah, talking about notes and stuff.
Yeah well, Amanda, that is all that we have for
you this week. Thank you so much for coming on.
It's been great happening you for to impart. Your wine
wasdomb on us.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
So oh well, thank you so much for inviting me.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
And I've I've.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Genuinely enjoyed these like this story in particular, I feel
like there was I really liked the way that you
found a positive at the end. The other ones that
we've done live are like very much like these are drama.
This one is like, here's how things you know, how
to take the horrible situation.

Speaker 3 (59:11):
And bring good out of it. So hudos see you
if you're.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Finding this one, oh well, thank you. Well tell everyone
where they can find you and your amazing restaurant online
if they would like to.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
So, yeah, I got a four point nine on Google.
It's called Amata Tapas and Wine. We're located at fourteen
thirteen Chestnut Street, Downtown Southside.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
Chat Nigga.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
And yeah, we're Tapa's restaurant, so that is an emphasis
on the tapas and not a topless restaurant, which people
think I'm saying that all the time.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
So God.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
And yeah, we've got a bunch of Spanish wines, other
wines from around the world as well, and we do
small plates. Menus comprised of about twenty five small plates.
We're on Instagram and Facebook at Amata Tapas and my
name's Amanda Jrnor and I was very very happy to be.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
A part of us.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Excellent. Well there, your food is absolutely incredible, as I
will never.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Thank you for doing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
I to tell you, but thank you again so much
for coming on, Amanda, and thank you all so much
for listening. We are going to put all of our
sources on our website so you can read everything for
yourself and probably come up with a few theories too.
And if you were just loving this podcast and you're
just looking for a way to tell everyone and anyone
about it, the best way to help people discover this
podcast is by leaving us a five star rating and

(01:00:29):
a review wherever you are listening right now, so make
sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And
if you're wondering what we have in store for you
next week, here's a quick sneak peek. Hello everyone, It's
Liam and.

Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
I'm Amanda Denise, host of Code and Untold. I am
joining the Crime Vineyard this week, but the case of
a missing young girl from North Carolina in the investigator's
tireless mission to find her. How close are we to
finding out what happened to Asia degree.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Closer than you may think, Amanda. We will tell you
all about it and how you can help next wine Wednesday,
on another episode of Crime over Win. Proud member of
the Podnugan Network,