The next day – October 23, 1989

Posted by joy.the.curious on Mar 20, 2013 in Jacob | 6 comments

New here? Start from the beginning…

Before I get started again, a few questions have come up that I thought I should take the time to answer.

First, people have wondered why Dan Rassier and Kevin-the-tire-track-guy are talking to ME, JoyTheCurious. Who am I, after all?

Well, it goes like this. Back in January, Dan Rassier contacted me through my blog. For nearly a year, he has been on a quest to clear his name and expose the way law enforcement and the media have mishandled this case and their coverage of it. In August of 2012, Dan sent a letter to 14 state officials and agencies, complaining about how he has been treated by law enforcement. He wrote that law officers violated his civil rights and his family’s rights and “abused the privileges of their power” in relation to the Jacob Wetterling case. Rassier also criticized the way the investigation has been handled over the years.

He contacted me after Googling his own name and finding it listed several times on my blog. (In 2010, I began writing about the Jacob Wetterling abduction, just after law enforcement had begun digging in Rassiers’ yard.) After emailing back and forth a few times, I agreed to meet with Dan. We met in St. Cloud on January 30, and I learned he had quite a story to tell. Since 2004, just after Kevin came forward and announced that he had been the one to leave his tire tracks in Rassiers’ driveway the night Jacob was abducted, Dan’s life has been turned upside down. According to law enforcement, they had a new theory. There was no getaway car, and Jacob had probably been led away on foot. Their new focus was on local residents.

In particular, they focused on Dan Rassier. He has been questioned multiple times about the case. His home and property have been searched multiple times. He has answered questions from the police, the FBI, the BCA, and even Patty Wetterling herself. He has taken a lie detector test. Agreed to be hypnotized. Submitted a DNA sample. He has cooperated every step of the way… until now. Now, he’s angry.

For the most part, he has stayed quiet about the two cars he witnessed that day. He figured it was important eye-witness testimony, and he didn’t want to compromise the investigation by sharing it with the media. Now, however, he just wants answers. And he’s lost faith that law enforcement will ever solve this crime.

I asked him what I could do to help. He asked if I would be willing to call Kevin, the tire-track-guy, and find out what kind of car he had been driving that night. He also wanted to know whether Kevin had just pulled in and backed out of the driveway like the media had reported, or if he had driven all the way into the farmyard and turned around up by the house. He remembered the car being small and dark. If Kevin had been driving a small, dark car that night, he was willing to believe what law enforcement was telling him… that it was Kevin and his girlfriend he had seen that night. But if Kevin hadn’t been driving a small, dark car, Dan is convinced he may have witnessed the kidnapper… either with Jacob in the passenger seat, or with a female accomplice.

After listening to Dan’s story, I was also angry. Why had we, the public, never been told about the amber-colored Monte Carlo (or whatever) from earlier in the day? Why were we all busy looking for a white work van with no windows? If this information had come out earlier, maybe we could have made a difference. Maybe even now, someone can explain who that was driving like a bat out of hell in Rassiers’ driveway that afternoon. Maybe someone knows someone who owned a car like that in 1989. And maybe that someone also owned a small, dark car (or knew someone that did). And maybe that someone had been acting strangely on October 22, 1989. As well as the next day, and the day after that.

But still… why would Dan and Kevin agree to talk to me, a wanna-be writer/investigator… a throwback from the Charlie’s Angels era? Well, maybe for just one reason… because I agreed to tell their stories in their own words, and to tell them honestly. No time or space constraints. No deadlines. No ratings wars. No promises of financial gain. No editors who would splice and dice their answers and put them to different questions. I was in it for the right reasons, and they could tell. I guess it’s as simple as that. They trust me.

So, then… on to the rest of the questions.

Someone asked if Kevin could give a physical description of the man he saw at the Tom Thumb that night. Yes, he can. In fact, after seeing the recent media coverage of Matt Feeney (the Minneapolis talent agent and accused child molestor who was an EMT, drove a “cop-like” car, and had been in Wetterlings’ neighborhood within an hour of the abduction) I was anxious to find out as well. I sent several photos to Kevin, but he couldn’t tell for sure. For one thing, Matt Feeney would only have been 21 at the time, and Kevin is pretty sure the “medical cop” was in his early 30s. He also said the guy he saw was clean-shaven and did not wear glasses, however, most pictures of a younger Feeney show him with a full beard and glasses. Very curious.

[UPDATE: It has been confirmed that Matti Feeney WAS the person Kevin talked to at the Tom Thumb that night.]

Someone else had a question about Rassier’s yard light (i.e., why would someone sleep with a big yard light on all night)? I was a little surprised by the question, since most farmsteads I know have big yard lights just like that, but I asked Dan anyway.

“Yes….the farm light is common in farmyards. It goes on automatically for darkness. We’ve had a yard light all my life”

There have been other questions regarding theories we haven’t discussed yet. However, at this point, we are focusing on the facts. “Just the facts, ma’am.” I am laying out the information as I have been told from the two lead witnesses in this case. Our only hope is that someone, somewhere, can add to the story.

Now, then. Let’s talk about the next day, October 23, 1989.

Dan got up and got ready for work, as usual. Although Jacob and his friends had the day off because of conferences, Dan taught for a different school district, which did not have the day off. He admits that at that time in his life, he wouldn’t have considered missing a day of teaching, so staying home to help search for Jacob just wasn’t a consideration. After all, no one had knocked on his door… he figured his help wasn’t needed.

He was driving up the hill toward the road when he noticed the police had blocked off the end of his driveway with crime tape. He got out of his car, ran up the driveway, and ducked under the tape so he could ask how to get out. The police yelled at him for crossing the crime tape. He was then told to drive out using the ditch.

The view down Dan’s driveway, from the road. Photo credit: Stearns County Sheriff’s Office.

Police tape surrounds the boys’ bikes and scooter on the left; Rassiers’ driveway is on the right. Photo credit: Stearns County Sherriff’s Office.

According to Trish Van Pilsum’s news story from 2004 (the one where she ambushed Dan Rassier in the school parking lot where he teaches, and recorded/taped him using a hidden camera and concealed microphone), she reports:

The Man: “That morning when I left, I had a car full of …”
Trish Van Pilsum: “Boxes. Big boxes.”
The Man: “… and they never looked in my car. I mean it was that bad.”

You can see where the splicing and dicing occurs. I asked Dan what he really had in his car that day. “Instrument cases,” he replied. (He’s a music/band teacher.)

“Beginning Band was getting up-and-running, and being Monday, I had many band instruments at home that I had repaired or practiced on. I remember my car was filled with them as I drove up the hill to find the yellow crime tape across the road.”

Later, two investigators showed up at the school and searched his car. They opened the trunk, looked at the tires, and then talked to him in the principal’s office for about an hour. He was happy to do so. He wanted to help. (Yet, he finds it odd that if he was really considered a suspect at that point, why the investigators didn’t search the band room or use a police dog to search his car.)

When Dan returned home that evening (sometime around 5pm he figures), he had to park in a neighbor’s yard because a police dog was searching the road and ditch areas. He was stopped by a reporter from the St. Cloud Times, who questioned him about what he had witnessed. He told her about the two cars, but she only reported on one of them… the small dark car.

Still, all the while, Dan assumed he was just being a helpful witness. He had no idea the police were considering him a “person of interest” in the case. At least not until the following Saturday…

Next time

The big search, Kevin’s chilling encounter, and more answers to your questions…

6 Comments

1. Jbrown | March 21, 2013 at 12:17 pm

   I distictly remember Dan said “boxes” were in his car. “Boxes” are not the same thing as instrument cases. Being a band teacher hereally should have the vernacular down- not an ideal time to misspeak. also, why would the reporter not report him seeing two cars unless he happened to forget to mention one. Yes, reporters do take stuff out of context frequently (I had a Duluth paper butcher a large crime story from my family), but when they are reporting on something as serious as a child kidnapping, they usually get all the witness details correct.
   Also, beginning band starts in late October? When my kids and I had band, we started right away in September to prepare for the first concert in December. I know it differs from district to district though.

   I am sorry, but I am not sure if I am buying all of his explanations. From what I have read over the years,(newspapers, internet, news interviews) each story gets a little different each time he tells it, then he has to backtrack. It’s kind of odd.
   Does DR have any friends at SJU? If so, whom? Was he alone the whole day?

   Thanks Joy for doing this. It’s obvious that Stearns County doesn’t want to find the truth of what happened.

2. ELOCsoul | March 22, 2013 at 5:55 am

   Keep going Joy! Your blog is the best thing to happen to Jacob’s case in years, if not decades!

   I have a few questions at this time. Why did Kevin decide to go all the way into the Rassier’s driveway, why wouldn’t he just back out of the driveway? Where did he turn around in relation to the light pole – did he go all the way around it, or did you do a 180 on the house side only, or the outbuilding side only? Media reports suggest there was a woman attendant at the Tom Thumb at the time of Jacob’s abduction. Kevin is saying it was a man. Was there also a woman working at the Tom Thumb when Kevin stopped by?

   Why did Dan not hear his dog barking to alert him to the car (Kevin) turning around in his driveway? The dog alerted him to the small car – why not the “big” car? On what day did Dan’s parents leave for their trip to Russia? Was Dan ever questioned about the Cold Spring abduction in Jan 1989 (Jared)?

   Thanks!

3. Patrick | March 24, 2013 at 12:36 pm

   I am convinced that DR had nothing to do with this. Lived at the wrong place at the wrong time. Never had a run with the law prior to this or post this. My heart goes out to him for what he has been through.
   Why no one has ever written a book or news report on how incompetent and unorganized the police and FBI were and how they blew there chances the night it occured surprised me. My only guess is that they can’t get a FOI to have things unsealed because its still an “open case”
   I’ve heard many people say that the Law Enforcement “doesn’t want this crime solved” As someone above posted. I’m curious as to why they say that…wouldn’t it be best for everyone? Or would it expose there cover up to an opportunity they blew?

4. Jbrown | March 26, 2013 at 2:53 pm

   BIG cover up. Stearns County is covering up for St Johns and the predator monks that live there. Sherriff Sanner’s son graduated there and apparently Sanner graduated there. The Stearns County DA’s husband works there. They covered up a death on Campus (monk BW) and ruled it an accident when it was clearly a violent attack. They prevented Josh Guimond’s parents from searching for their son on campus and complied with SJU’s request not to search certain buildings right after he went missing. One monk has even raped children at knifepoint. Nothing was done. Please see behindthepinecurtain.com

5. elm | May 20, 2014 at 10:00 pm

   I realize I am over a year late in getting caught up on this post, so for my own sanity, I would like to respond to the first Jbrown comment which hypothesizes that media tends to keep abduction details correct. I am not so sure about that. Something I am having to do while reading about Jacob (and the craziness of the investigation), is to continually remind myself that this was at a different time in America’s history…though it was only about 25 years ago. As the author said in a previous post, we are living in a post-Jacob world, so what law-enforcement did at the time would have seemed appropriate for the ‘culture’ at that time. Our expectations for law enforcement, investigators, search teams and the like, has evolved because of cases like Jacob’s.

6. anonymous | September 26, 2015 at 12:49 pm

   The puzzle piece is dans dark car, but we know kevin went through so either he saw kevin or somehow missed him, but the tracks are gone now, who saw boys biking at night before and decided to take one? Someone who knew that area and road traffic.