The suspicious cars

Jun 08, 2013

Posted by joy.the.curious on Jun 8, 2013 in Jacob | 4 comments

Sorry for the lapse between blog posts lately. We have a son who just graduated from high school, so things have been a bit crazy here. However, I…m back in the groove and ready to kick things back into high gear.

Another reason this post has taken so long to publish is that it has gone through several revisions. I have worked very hard to build trust with the people whose stories I’m sharing here. That means, before I publish anything, I always encourage them to preview my posts to make sure I have all my facts straight. And, as I’m sure you can imagine, this can be a laborious, time-intensive process that involves several rounds of writing, rewriting, and proofing. In the end though, I think the time and effort are worth it. There is good information here… much of which I had never heard before.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to one of the neighbors who used to live near the Tom Thumb in St. Joseph. Though she wasn’t an eyewitness herself, she remembers hearing about several suspicious cars that were seen in her neighborhood in the days and weeks prior to Jacob’s abduction.

As you can see from the screen shot below, the Tom Thumb (which is now a vet clinic) was located just to the east of a residential neighborhood. At the time, it wouldn’t have been uncommon to see several kids buzzing around on any given night. It was a quiet, family-friendly neighborhood where everyone felt safe.

That is, until October 22, 1989… the night Jacob was abducted.

The Tom Thumb was located in the building where the St. Joseph Veterinary Clinic is now located. Click photo to see a larger view.

If you have followed this case from the beginning, you may remember there were early reports of a small, red “Chevette” that was seen in the area (and at the Tom Thumb) just prior to Jacob’s abduction. It was also seen over by the Del-Win, where the National Guard Armory is now. When this information was made public, an art student came forward to say he was most likely the person seen driving around the neighborhood in a red car. He had been in the area looking for things to sketch. Police verified his story, then quickly moved on to cover new leads.

However, the neighbor I spoke to wonders if police may have moved on too quickly. If the art student drove a small, red car, then what about the other car (or cars) neighbors had reported seeing? There was one in particular that was darker and larger… possibly maroon… with distinctive tail lights. What ever became of that lead?

Again, I was reminded that, in the days immediately following Jacob’s abduction, all information related to any unfamiliar vehicles in the area was shared with the FBI and police. A few neighbors even gave eyewitness statements, which are included in the official case file.

I wondered if I could take a look at those official statements. So, I contacted Captain Pam Jensen of the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department, the lead investigator on the Wetterling case since 1999. She told me that anyone who made an official statement in this case could request a copy of it through the records department at (320) 259-3700. However, for those whose information was included as part of a report but not an official statement, they may be out of luck. However, Captain Jensen said they were welcome to check.

So, without direct access to any official eyewitness statements, I was a bit stuck. I wasn’t willing to put any wrong information out there about these cars, so I decided to do a little digging. I went back and searched a bunch of old newspapers to see if I could find any information about the suspicious cars that had been spotted in the neighborhood near the Tom Thumb.

Lucky for me, I found a fantastic article published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on November 25, 1989 (about one month after the abduction). In the article, authorities are asking for the public’s help in identifying three different cars that were seen around St. Joseph in the days and weeks prior to the abduction.

St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
November 25, 1989 Section: Metro
Edition: AM Metro Final Page: 8A
3 CARS, DRIVERS SOUGHT IN WETTERLING CASE Wayne Wangstad, Staff Writer
The task force investigating the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping is seeking public assistance in locating and identifying three vehicles and their drivers who were seen at or near the abduction scene before and on Oct. 22, the day Jacob was taken from his St. Joseph, Minn., neighborhood.
Several vehicles drove past Jacob, his brother and a friend while they were going to or returning from a Tom Thumb store near their home.
“We’ve been able to verify the existence of all the vehicles in the area except these three,” FBI spokesman Byron Gigler said. “It’s the type of neighborhood where you don’t get much through traffic because it is, basically, a dead end street.”
The three vehicles all had one item in common – their rear ends apparently had been jacked up. Sightings by witnesses all occurred in the early evening or at night.
“We’re not saying this is our man and this is our car; we’re just saying we need to locate and identify them,” Gigler said.
The task force, composed of the FBI, Stearns County deputies and Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents, also released composite drawings of the drivers of two of the three vehicles. An artist’s drawing of the third driver was not available.
The first car is older. It is maroon – the color of a Minnesota State Trooper’s uniform – and has rectangular or square tail lights, and appears similar to a 1976 Pontiac Catalina. Like the other cars, its rear end was jacked up.
FBI agents said the car was seen on 90th Avenue near the Wetterling home about six weeks before Jacob’s abduction and again a week before he was kidnapped at gunpoint. On two occasions, the car was seen parked at night on 90th Avenue, but it left when a resident approached. The driver was seen once during daylight and a composite drawing was made based on that sighting.
The second car is an older smaller car that is about the size of an American Motors Pacer or Gremlin. The car is red with white trim and has large rear tires and a jacked-up rear end. Dealer or logo-style license plates – they may have had red and blue letters on a white background – were mounted on the rear of the car. It was seen a week before the abduction in an area west of the abduction scene.
The third car is a red-orange station wagon with a rear end that may have been jacked up. The car was seen during the day on Oct. 21 or Oct. 22 in the area of Kiwi Court in St. Joseph. A similar car was seen after dark near the abduction scene on Oct. 22, about the time the boys would have been going to and from the store.
Stearns County authorities and the FBI said people with information on the vehicles should call the task force’s 24-hour phone at 612-259-3981. Callers should provide as much information as possible, authorities said.
Illustration:2 Drawings
These are composite drawings of drivers of two of the three cars investigators seek more information about in the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping case.
Copyright (c) 1989 St. Paul Pioneer Press

So, if you’re like me, you’re probably wondering what a 1976 Pontiac Catalina looks like. I was also curious what kind of tail lights a 1976 Pontiac Catalina had. I Googled it and found the following images:

You probably also latched on to the fact that all three of these suspicious cars may have been “jacked up” in the back. What are the chances of that? The year was 1989 after all, not 1979. I wondered what kind of person drove a jacked-up car in 1989. It seems to me it would be a younger “gear-head type”… 20s to 30s vs. 40s to 50s.

Of the three cars described in the article, I also wondered which one had belonged to the art student who was eventually cleared. I may be wrong, but I believe it was the smaller red Geo Metro or AMC Pacer that was driven by the art student. Not sure about this though. I will try and find out. I’m also not sure which of the men in the composite sketches above goes with which car. I’ll try and find that out, as well.

So now… I have to admit… after learning all this information about the suspicious cars that were lurking around the area just prior to Jacob’s abduction, my theory about the case has changed a bit. I was always “of the camp” that believed this was a crime of opportunity, not a carefully thought-out plan carried out by a seasoned stalker. However, now I’m not so sure. I’ll discuss this more in my next blog post.

In the mean time, feel free to share your own thoughts about these cars. Also, if you happened to live in St. Joe at the time and witnessed one or more of these suspicious cars, I’d be especially interested in talking to you.

Next time

A few answers

4 Comments

Beast that Feeds the Beast | June 23, 2013 at 11:38 am
Charlie Grafft, Stearns County Sheriff: “We have nothing to go on.” “We just have no evidence.” [October 23, 1989, St. Paul Pioneer Press]
St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 25, 1989: “We think he’s a sex offender, no doubt about it,” Grafft said.
Police believe the kidnapper stalked the boys, possibly over several days, to choose the site of the abduction. The road where Jacob was kidnapped is dark and not well traveled, the sheriff said. “He knew the best place to pick them up,” Grafft said.
St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 26, 1989: The boys with Jacob described the kidnapper as a white man in his mid-20s to mid-30s, 5…9″ and weighing about 190 pounds.
John Sanner, Stearns County Sheriff: Very early on in this investigation . . . We lost the local piece pretty quickly . . . I look at this case as a huge failure both for the entire law-enforcement community and for this agency. [10/09 Minnesota Monthly: http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/October-2009/Without-a-Trace%5D
Patty Wetterling: “What do you need?” I asked law enforcement. “What would help you find Jacob?” The police responded, “It would have helped to know who was in the area at the time of Jacob’s abduction.” [U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Conference on Sex Offender Registries, Proceedings of a BJS/SEARCH conference, April 1998, NCJ-168965, Paper presented by Patty Wetterling, “The Jacob Wetterling story,” at page 15.]
Jim Kostreba, retired Stearns County Sheriff: “I don’t know if you’d call it a gut instinct . . . But I always have had a feeling that this [case] could be cleared.” [2/29/04 St. Cloud Times A1]
Patrick | July 30, 2013 at 6:39 pm
What are the odds of 3 cars no one has seen before in the same small town in Minnesota on the same night? I’m guessing that all 3 people saw the same car but remembered in a different way yet all 3 remember seeing the “jacked up back” as thats hard to forget…the make model and color and shade of the color is harder to remember.
Katja | September 1, 2014 at 9:40 pm
Does anyone know the types of cars the first suspects in this case drove? Also, it hit me right away this person had military background- Do any of these guys? Has Jared been able to identify any of these or other suspects in the case? (I’m assuming “no” unless he can’t comment on it..)
Joy, it’s admirable how hard you work at helping this family. You’re the embodiment of all that’s good in people. Kudos!
My heart goes out to the family…Praying for answers and peace <3
J. Dee | December 1, 2014 at 1:34 am
Thank you for all your work. In 1989 I was married to a man that grew up in Saint Cloud and had moved to Minneapolis. We lived in Saint Cloud from 1972 to 1974, moving back to the city due to a lack of jobs. We had always worked at manual labor type jobs, neither of us had any college education. I still remember my dis-belief that day. I hope someone will eventually put that last piece in this puzzle and find Jacob’s remains.

The suspicious cars

Next time

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