Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
They Caught His Kidnapper - The Jacob Wetterling story
Mon, 03 Feb 2025
This is the story of the kidnapping of Jacob Wetterling and how his murderer finally got caught
Chapter 1: What happened on the night of Jacob Wetterling's kidnapping?
So one night in a small town in Minnesota, three boys are out riding their bikes. They're riding home from the video store. And they're almost home when suddenly, bam, a masked man steps out into the road in front of them. And he's got a pew-pew pointed right at them. And he orders them to throw their bikes down and lay down in this ditch. And the boys, they're scared. So they do.
Chapter 2: How did the masked man abduct Jacob?
Now, one of the boys, we'll call him 11 because he's 11. And so the masked man, he grabs Eleven and then he sends the other two boys running into the woods and he tells them, if you look back, I'll shoot you. Then this masked man, he handcuffs Eleven and he puts him in the front seat of his car and he drives him about 23 miles away near a gravel pit.
And then he does horrible things to him, things that I won't go into detail about. And then he gets his pew-pew and he shoots Eleven. unaliving him. Then he goes and he randomly finds a skid steer loader, a bobcat, at a nearby construction site and he digs a hole and he buries Eleven there. Meanwhile, the other two boys, they've run all the way back to the house and they get someone to call 911.
Chapter 3: What were the immediate actions taken by law enforcement?
Six minutes later, the sheriff's department is on the scene and they're looking for Eleven But fortunately, there's no sign of him anywhere. So then bam, the FBI gets involved and there's this huge manhunt with a police helicopter and it's a big deal in this small town. And while all of this is going on, Eleven's family hears about this other unsolved case from nine months before.
Chapter 4: Were there any similar unsolved cases nearby?
In a nearby town, this other kid, he's 12, so we'll call him 12, he was also abducted and essayed by some weird guy. But then he was actually let go and 12 told the police that the man had instructed him to run into the woods and he said, if you look back, I'll shoot you. Sounds familiar.
So they bring in a sketch artist and 12 tells her everything he can remember about that night and they come up with this police sketch of the perpetrator. And they're thinking maybe this perpetrator and the masked man are the same guy. So they sort of have a lead on this, but they're still not really any closer to solving this murder. And unfortunately, over time, the case just goes cold.
Chapter 5: How did the case go cold and who reignited interest?
Until 21 years later, this story has caught the interest of this woman, who we'll call Curious Joy. And Curious Joy is a blogger, and she's sort of an amateur investigative journalist, and she decides to dig deeper into this story.
And she researches everything she can about it, and she drives by the exact spot where Eleven was kidnapped, and she retraces his steps, she starts blogging about all of it, she personally interviews two persons of interest, but then... Joy discovers an article from 1987, which was two years before Eleven was kidnapped.
And this article talks about a string of essays and attempted essays in a nearby town, all involving young boys. So she brings this information to Twelve, who is an adult now. And Curious Joy's like, do you think that this is the same guy that was involved in your assault? And Twelve's like, probably yeah. So they then take this info to Eleven's parents,
Now Eleven's parents, even after all these years, they still want answers. Like what happened to Eleven? So they go to police and they start demanding that they reopen the case and they are relentless about it. Meanwhile, Twelve and Curious Joy, they're tracking down leads left and right and they're trying to learn more about how all these essays might be connected.
And they start calling the police three times a week, sometimes three times a day, trying to get them to re-examine Eleven's case. But allegedly, police are telling them that they're wrong, that none of these essays are connected at all. But Joy and Twelve, they know they're right.
And eventually, Curious Joy and 12, they get featured on an episode of this unsolved crime show on CNN called The Hunt. And when it finally airs and the FBI sees the episode and all the attention it's getting, they're like, okay, we gotta do something about this. So they request a cold case review of 11's case.
And they notice there are a handful of suspects from back in the day that were never fully cleared. Particularly, there's this one suspect, Danny. And Danny, he's actually not only a suspect in 11's case, but in 12's case and in the string of essays in the nearby town. But back in the day, there just wasn't enough evidence to indict him. So he was let go.
But now we have better technology, specifically DNA technology. So the FBI, they go and they analyze all the old evidence and they put it up against DNA collected from the uncleared suspects. And of course they find a match, Danny. So then kapow, they get a search warrant and they raid Danny's house and they find a bunch of CP. And then bam, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot.
And he spends about a year in custody and after that he takes a plea deal and he admits to the crimes against both 11 and 12 and he tells police exactly where to find 11's buried body. And he ultimately gets sentenced to 20 years in prison. Good. Shout out to Minnesota.
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