Kevin’s Story

Mar 15, 2013

Posted by joy.the.curious on Mar 14, 2013 in Jacob | 12 comments

Twenty three years ago, on October 22, 1989, Kevin was 21 years old and had been invited for dinner at his girlfriend’s house. She was a year older than him and living with her mother at their home in St. Joseph. He remembers that their backyard butted-up to Minnesota Street and was just a few blocks off County Road 75 (the main drag through St. Joe).

Kevin’s girlfriend had an older brother, and he and his wife were also there that evening. After dinner, the five of them started playing cards until about 9:45 or 10pm. It was getting late, so they got their jackets on and were standing in the entryway ready to go when they heard something come across the police scanner. (The girlfriend’s mom always kept the scanner on in the background.) They hadn’t been listening closely, but thought they had heard something about kids, some bikes, Tom Thumb, and possibly a mask.

Suddenly, they see three police cars go flying past on County 75, lights on, and heading east. (Kevin can’t remember if he heard any sirens, but he remembers the lights.) Since there were only three cops in town at the time (Lorenz, Young/Punky, and a new guy they didn’t know), the group realizes something big must be happening. They decide to follow the cop cars and see what’s going on.

Kevin and his girlfriend jump into her car (a mid-sized silver/tan Grand Prix with a removable t-top and/or vinyl roof). The brother and sister-in-law jump into another vehicle (a big, black, jacked-up Ford pickup). They figure something must be going down at the Del-Win Ballroom, so they head in that direction.

For reference, this is a gold 1985 Grand Prix with T-top

Once they get to the Del-Win, they can’t see any squad cars… no lights… nothing. It’s like they’ve all just disappeared. They take a back road that goes behind the Del-Win and come out to 16th Avenue/91st Avenue (the road where Jacob was abducted). At that point, the brother decides to head home because he has to work in the morning, so he and his wife turn right (north) and head back toward town.

Kevin, on the other hand, decides to turn left (south) and see if there are any flashing lights down that direction. He gets as far as Rassiers… driveway and knows it’s a dead end after that, so he decides to pull in and turn around. He pulls ALL THE WAY INTO THE DRIVEWAY and turns around by the light pole which is down by the house.

(Note, Kevin is driving at this point and his girlfriend is in the passenger seat. However, Dan Rassier is sure it wasn…t her car he saw turn around in his driveway that night. The big yard light was on, so even though it was a dark night, he could still make out the general size/shape of the car. He insists it was a small, dark car, not a big silver/tan Oldsmobile Grand Prix. I did ask Kevin if he and his girlfriend had been whipping U-ies in Dan Rassier’s driveway earlier that day, but he said no, that definitely wasn’t them.)

As they come back out to the road, they notice the kids’ bikes lying in the ditch across the street. There are no police there yet. They sit and discuss what to do about the bikes. Should they put them in the trunk and take them to the police? At this point, they still have no idea that a child has been abducted, so they just assumed the bikes had been stolen. They decide just to leave them there and go see what’s happening at the Tom Thumb (since they had heard something about that on the scanner.)

When Kevin and his girlfriend arrive at the Tom Thumb, they notice an unmarked police car in the parking lot. It’s large, brownish-grayish, with a spotlight hanging off the driver’s side door. He said he could also tell it was a cop car because of the tire rims. (I asked Kevin if he remembers seeing a divider gate between the front and back seat, and he said no, he didn’t remember seeing one.)

When they walk in, Kevin and his girlfriend notice a man in his early 30s wearing a brown leather bomber jacket with a shearling collar just standing around doing nothing. Kevin asks him if he’s a cop and the guys replies, “I’m a medical cop.” Then Kevin asks him if he had called the cops. The guy says, “No, I didn’t call the cops.” Then the guy turns to the store clerk and asks him, “Did you call the cops?” The store clerk responds, “No, I didn’t call the cops, but I can. Do you want me to?”

At this point, Kevin feels like he’s entered the Twilight Zone. The “medical cop” doesn’t ask him his name, doesn’t ask him any questions, and certainly doesn’t try to detain him any way. (According to Kevin, no one seems to know who this “medical cop” was, including the police.)

Kevin and his girlfriend leave the Tom Thumb and happen to notice a St. Joseph cop car sitting at Cotton’s dentist office on the corner (no lights on, engine off). They pull up and see that it’s the new guy… the one they don’t know. They tell him about the bikes they found down by Rassiers’ farm, but the cop just tells them, “Yeah, we already know all about that.” He doesn’t bother taking down their names, asking them any further questions… nothing. It’s like they’re bothering him or wasting his time, so they just decide to go back home to Kevin’s place. (Kevin had his own place behind Kay’s Kitchen.)

They go to bed and still have no idea a child has been abducted.

Sometime around 1am, Kevin and his girlfriend are awakened by a phone call. It’s the brother asking them where they’d gone after he and his wife left them earlier in the evening. Kevin tells him they went down 16th Avenue and turned around in Rassiers’ driveway.

The brother is a volunteer firefighter and has been manning the fire station all night while the rest of the crew is helping with the search. This is the first Kevin and his girlfriend have heard about Jacob’s abduction. The brother also tells them there are FBI agents there making plaster casts of the tire tracks they found in the driveway.

Kevin realizes he’s the one who made the tracks and is sure they’ll trace them back to his girlfriend’s car since the tires were brand new and had just been installed at a St. Cloud tire dealer one week earlier. After much debate, they decide just to wait it out and do nothing. After all, they’d driven into the driveway after the crime had already happened, they didn’t have any more information to contribute, and they were worried about becoming suspects themselves.

They went on with their lives and assumed the police would eventually call them to make a statement. That call never came.

Next time

Dan’s and Kevin’s stories continue – The next day, the next week, the next month, the next 14 years…

12 Comments

Patrick | March 14, 2013 at 10:40 pm
Great investigating and research, Joy! Only logical solution I conclude is that whomever did this stashed the getaway car on the Rassier driveway. Stopped the boys and took jacob and then crossed the street with him, got in the car (which is why his scent was lost there by the K-9) and drove off with him. Anyone agree with that theory or disagree? Please feel free to share your opinions. We are all in this together and all want the same thing.
Jbrown | March 19, 2013 at 9:01 am
what if the so-called “medical cop” was the perpetrator and had Jacob in the trunk? Can Kevin give us a physical description of him? Kevin’s story fluctuates- first he met the “cop” in the driveway and now he met him at the store?
Beast that Feeds the Beast | March 20, 2013 at 11:24 am
RE: what if the so-called “medical cop” was the perpetrator and had Jacob in the trunk?
BINGO!
Patrick | March 20, 2013 at 8:25 pm
That theory seems unlikely as he would have to return the vehicle to the station at some point and it would be tough to conceal the sound. I do agree that the who “medical cop” theory seems far fetched. I’ve never heard of a “medical cop” and it just seems unlikely.
jbrown | March 20, 2013 at 10:12 pm
a youth counselor for St Joseph’s church at the time Jacob went missing who molested several students used to be an EMT. He also rode around in a cop- type car with a baton according to one of his alleged victims.
jbrown | March 20, 2013 at 10:16 pm
apparently he did drive a former police car http://voices.yahoo.com/mathew-feeney-slipped-through-their-fingers-will-11461654.html?cat=9
Patrick | March 27, 2013 at 10:24 pm
JBrown,
WOW! You might be on to something there! This monk place seems like an orgy of pedophilia. Worth taking a closer look at’sadly..so many according to the website that you almost don’t know where to start.
Jbrown | April 1, 2013 at 2:46 pm
Patrick, you have no idea the extent of it that is/was going on in St Joseph’s area. It almost seems like it was a club or group that men with similar interests. I wish people would not look the other way and think that this stuff couldn’t happen, but it does.
Jenny | September 1, 2014 at 12:54 am
This case reminds me a lot of the Des Moines 3 cases. It seems there is a large group of these freaks that just go around stealing kids.
lei | September 21, 2014 at 5:10 am
question.
why would the police cease the belief of a vehicle if the k-9 trace went right to the tire tracks and stopped. wouldn’t it have continued if there hadn’t been a vehicle? that seems kind of like a no brainer. also it is highly unlikely that only one set of tracks were on the driveway.
Julie Tremp | October 2, 2014 at 8:09 pm
JBrown, What you posted is very interesting: “It almost seems like it was a club or group that men with similar interests.”
I wonder is investigators have thought about this. I wonder if the predator could be someone from another state who communicates with these pedophiles. Does anyone know if there’s been any mention of this in the media, or by investigators?
It seems like there’s always a lot of cover-up when it comes to child molesters, and this is how abductions happen!
natedog | November 5, 2015 at 11:33 am
How did Kevin arrive before the cops at the farm? If it was already on the scanner don’t you think he would have arrived after.. Maybe I am not reading this correct.

Kevin’s Story

Next time

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