Jacob’s Hope and Joy the Curious

Unless you have been living on your own planet you have no doubt heard the story about Jacob Wetterling.  Jacob was a brother, a son, relative, teammate and friend who at just 11 years-old was kidnapped at gunpoint in St. Joseph, Minnesota on October 22, 1989.  I grew up in St. Cloud, just a few minutes from St. Joe and I attended St. Ben’s College from 1988-1990. While I was studying in Spain on that awful day Mike was attending St. John’s University, just a few miles from St. Ben’s. He along with countless other people searched for Jacob in the days following his abduction.

Now, 27 years later, the mystery of his disappearance has been solved. The killer confessed to this dreadful act after having kept the truth from everyone for all of those years. What a terrible tragedy this was. Yes, some good has come from it because his parents worked hard to change laws that would possibly prevent something like this from happening again. But Jacob is gone.

I’ve followed the story for years. I’ve read countless articles and theories about Jacob and I believe one person made a big difference in solving this murder.  If you are interested in the entire story then you should check out the blog Joy the Curious.  Read her story and when she is allowed to put all of her research back online then read that too.  There’s quite a bit of attention on the police and how they never gave up but if it weren’t for Joy I wonder if we would still be wondering where Jacob was.

There’s a podcast series about the search too, if you’re interested in listening to it.

This story has touched the lives of many, mine included. May the Wetterlings and all of those involved find peace.