Dan’s story covered on WCCO news

Posted by joy.the.curious on May 15, 2013 in Jacob | 6 comments

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO), May 14, 2013 – Reported by Esme Murphy – WCCO-TV has learned that a key piece of evidence in the Jacob Wetterling abduction—a 911 call—was never saved.

In October 1989, a masked gunman kidnapped Jacob Wetterling in St. Joseph. The 11-year-old was taken at the end of Dan Rassier’s ¼-mile long driveway. Rassier is the only person ever named a “person of interest” in the case, but he says he had nothing to do with it.

Wetterling is the boy who grew up only through computer enhancement. He was kidnapped by a man as he rode his bike with his brother and a friend, Aaron Larson.

“He grabbed Jacob and he told me to run as fast as I could into the woods or else he would shoot,” Larson said.

Rassier was 34 years old at the time of the abduction, and he worked as a band teacher at the Rocori School District. He lived as he still does, on a farm with his elderly parents, who were in Europe that night he was home alone.

In the past year, Rassier has begun working with a local blogger, Joy Baker, to put out information about what he really did and saw that night.

“How can I clear my name without getting the crime solved,” Rassier said.

He insists the key to the case is a tan car similar a Monte Carlo that he told police sped into his yard the afternoon of the abduction.

“I’m convinced 100 percent whoever was driving that afternoon car… you have your kidnapper. No one drives like that in broad daylight,” Rassier said. “That is what I told police from the beginning.”

Rassier says later that night, before he went to bed, he saw a second car come into his driveway and turn around – a car that does not match the description of a car investigators ruled out in 2004.

The abduction happened at about 9:15 p.m. Larson and Trevor Wetterling ran the ½-mile back to the Wetterling home. A neighbor and the boys called 911 at 9:32 p.m.

Law enforcement was on the scene in eight minutes.

For the first time, Rassier is talking about what investigators acknowledge is true: two hours after the abduction Rassier had two documented contacts with law enforcement. The first was a 911 call which WCCO has learned law enforcement never saved.

While it’s been widely reported that Rassier went to bed immediately after calling 911, WCCO has learned he had a second contact with law enforcement that night: a face-to-face conversation with a sheriff’s deputy.

Rassier says he called 911 when his dog woke him up and he saw flashlights by his woodpile. He thought someone was stealing wood.

“They told me it was a kidnapping, and I go, “Oh, really?” That was pretty much it, and I walked up the hill and talked to one of the sheriff’s people,” Rassier said.

Just months ago, Rassier found out the deputy he talked to was Bruce Bechtold, who is now the chief deputy for Stearns County.

Rassier says after he searched the buildings on the farm property and returned to the farmhouse, law enforcement was everywhere.

“They had a chopper up with a spotlight on,” Rassier said.

The Stearns County Sheriff Department says Rassier’s 911 call came at 11:23 p.m., but it was never saved.

Rassier says he is shocked that the audio was not saved.

He says investigators not only told him they had the audio but that in the call he sounded suspicious. He said a BCA agent told him, “they are saying you were way too nervous, way too upset to be concerned about some wood being stolen.”

Joe Tamburino, a Twin Cities Criminal Defense Attorney, says the 911 call is a key bit of evidence that could provide insight on Rassier’s reaction to news of the abduction.

“Now we will never know,” Tamburino said.

Tamburino added at a trial the fact that the 911 call was not saved would almost certainly lead to questions about what other evidence had not been preserved.

Rassier was not questioned until the morning after the abduction when he was pulled out of his class by detectives who searched his car and questioned him for 45 minutes. He said he did not feel as if investigators were looking at him.

Six days after the kidnapping, law enforcement searched the farm.

“They wanted me to do this lie detector test and I said sure.” Rassier said.

He took the lie detector test, but said he has never been told the results.

Rassier also agreed to be hypnotized. For the next month, he answered law enforcement questions under hypnosis.

For the next 14 years, investigators did not focus on Rassier. Instead, their priority was to find a car that had left a tire track on the Rassier’s driveway.

In 2004, investigators got their big break. A man came forward and said he had driven down the driveway that night. Investigators quickly ruled him out and the investigation took a dramatic turn: Investigators concluded Jacob’s kidnapper had been on foot.

Rassier was again called in for questioning. A BCA agent asked him to confess.

“He was basically saying, we don’t have anything on you but would you admit…we could end this and you admit that you did this,” Rassier said. “And I remember laughing, going “You’ve got to be kidding.”

In 2009, Rassier agreed to meet with Patty Wetterling where he said he repeatedly denied any involvement.

Rassier also told Wetterling where he thought a body could be hidden on his property.

“The person in the area who probably did this could have taken Jacob’s body and hidden it in our gravel pit,” Rassier told Patty Wetterling.

In 2010, law enforcement conducted a highly-publicized search of the Rassier farm, including the gravel pit, and found nothing.

In just the past year, Rassier, who is still a band teacher at the Rocori School District, has written 14 letters to law enforcement agencies, criticizing the investigation and asking that his name be cleared.

“We want to get this case solve,” Rassier said.

Rassier worries it may be too late, however.

“That is one big fear I have—that there is no one alive who knows what happened,” Rassier said.

The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on why the 911 call was never saved and said Bruce Bechtold, the chief deputy, was not available for an interview.

When WCCO shared the details of this story with Patty Wetterling, she said, “It’s time to bring Jacob home. We need our answers.”

If you have any tips about Jacob Wetterling’s whereabouts, please call 320-251-4240.

Next time

The suspicious cars

6 Comments

1. odyssey1492 | May 16, 2013 at 8:44 am

   This theory that the driver of the tan car was the abductor is flimsy, at best. There is nothing to support the theory other than the way the person was driving, which really tells us nothing other than the person was driving fast. Dan’s story seems to suggest that the smaller car he saw at night was the abductor because it does not match Kevin’s larger car. This is a huge hole in the this theory because if the driver of the tan car was the abductor, why would he drive in view of the house after the abduction and risk being seen; he knew the house was there.

   So to accept this theory, we must believe that the abductor drove a large tan car up Dan’s driveway, seeing the house, then returned later in a different, smaller car and drove in view of the house again after the abduction, taking a huge risk that he would be seen, which in fact he was if this story is true. Even Dan must admit this is a hugely flawed theory that is hard to believe.

   Does Dan remember what time the tan car turned around in his driveway?

2. Nancy | May 18, 2013 at 2:04 pm

   How could anyone have predicted the 3 boys (Aaron, Trevor and Jacob) would be on that road in the dark that night? Patty Wetterling has said the trip to Tom Thumb was a last minute plan and something her boys had never been permitted to do before. The theory that someone stashed a car on Rassier’s driveway and waited for the boys doesn’t make sense to me. If the abductor saw them at the Tom Thumb AND knew they’d be returning home along that road AND there is a back way to drive a car onto Rassier’s property allowing the abductor to get there before the boys returned, then maybe. The abductor HAD to have known they’d be coming along that road because it makes no sense for a person wanting to randomly abduct a child to wait there in the “hope” that kids would come along that road in the dark. I think your blog is fascinating, by the way. Keep it coming! Who knows how this case might finally get solved.

3. ELOCsoul | May 19, 2013 at 11:28 am

   Nancy – I think you are correct in your thinking that the abductor did not know ahead of time that the boys would be coming down that road that night. This was a crime of opportunity to be sure.

   There would appear to be 2 scenarios of how this opportunity arose:

   1. The abductor had been stalking Jacob and was planning to abduct him when the opportunity came about. This seems likely to me given the sequence of how Jacob was “selected” from amongst the three boys. My primary reason for saying that is by most accounts he released the other two boys without asking Jacob’s age and without looking at his face. To me, that implies a process of elimination to determine which boy was Jacob.

   2. The abductor was presented with an opportunity at the spur of the moment, not necessarily planned out – but somewhat of a “hunting” mission by the perp. Pardon my candor, but it seems likely to me that the perp was out prowling that night – either near the Tom Thumb store, or perhaps window peeping in the neighborhood. Remember that Aaron heard a “noise that shouldn’t be there” as they drove past the Rassier property. The noise was in the field to the west. I’ve long suspected that if that were the kidnapper making that “noise”, that the kidnapper was actually walking around in the Wetterling neighborhood that night. When the kids left the house, he followed them but not directly – he would have crossed the field diagonally and intersected with the boys near the Rassier driveway, where he waited for them to return.

   On a related note – people have commented that it would be difficult for anyone to see the boys coming down the road that night. While I disagree with that – I actually think as dark as it would have been, a flashlight would stand out pretty well – I do have to say, after visiting the area a few times that it would have been very difficult for Dan Rassier to see the boys from his house. Possibly highly unlikely that he could have seen them from his house because it is so isolated from the road. Dan Rassier would have had to have been outside, and likely between the woods and road, to even see the boys come by the first time.

4. Jim Gibson | June 6, 2013 at 3:15 pm

   Did the police really decide that Jacob was taken on foot after the other car driver came forward? Didn’t Jacob’s foot prints end abruptly? I find it hard to believe that someone walked away with Jacob. That would be too risky. Also, I never got the impression that Dan Rassler is a stupid person; i.e., why would he abduct someone at the end of his driveway and walk him up to the house or some out buildings knowing that the cops would be there shortly? I don’t think Rassler did this and I think someone else drove off with Jacob that night.

5. elm | May 21, 2014 at 1:31 am

   Thank you for your patience with me as I get caught up on all of this. It still affects me deeply, having grown up about an hour northwest of St. Joe. I do not think I have read anything straight out like this yet, but what if the abductor knew what he was doing. What if he in some way ‘framed’ Dan? Crazy, crazy thought…and it’s a little late at night. …but if I were ever [falsely] accused of something like this, I think I would likely commit suicide. (just being honest) I just think it is one of the most icky feelings in the world to be falsely accused of something. What if the abductor was intentional about where he took Jacob?–from the end of a loner-guy’s driveway. (adnd just for the record–if anyone is even reading my comments 🙂 –I grew up around farms where at least one of the adult children lived at home with the aging parents. They helped around the house and farm, though they may have also had an outside job to contribute to the farm financially. I do not think it is weird at all that he lives at home with his parents…this is normal for many people. If he is innocent, then it is really too bad that he has been accused and blamed for such a horrendous act.) Okay, thank you again for letting me process this through commenting 🙂

6. Mark | April 7, 2015 at 8:59 am

   i disagree with a few theories here.

   I don’t think he was on foot. What guy looking to abduct would risk grabbing a kid and then strolling off. Especially after letting the other two go. It’s an absurd theory. They might be lunatics for grabbing a kid, but wearing a MASK indicates they don’t want to be known or caught. Which means they have given thought to being caught or recognized. It’s possible it was someone local, someone who thought they might be recognized. Either way I don’t believe they left on foot with Jacob. They had a vehicle, and close by.

   As let’s think about it like this. Let’s say he jumped out and the kids turned and bolted ( risking being shot from behind ) He would have wanted to get away fast. This is what leads me to believe he was not on foot.

   Also bear in mind. If the old guy near the forest ( party place ) who had been seen earlier was the guy. Even then he had a car close by.