Patty Wetterling and Joy Baker visit Alexandria to discuss the “Dear Jacob” kidnapping case – Alexandria Echo Press

ALEXANDRIA – When Patty Wetterling first met Joy Baker, it occurred to her that she wasn't very nice.

Baker, a blogger who had written several posts about the kidnapping of Wetterling's son Jacob on October 22, 1989, approached Wetterling after a presentation and introduced herself.

Wetterling said she walked away thinking, “No one can write our history.”

She gave Baker's card to her husband, Jerry, who read the blog, and Wetterling spoke to Baker on the phone for two hours.

“I was afraid that something she might do would mess up our case, so I really wasn't very nice,” Wetterling said. “At all.”

“But I didn’t know that,” Baker said. “I thought she seemed perfectly pleasant on the phone, so I just carried on.”

Both Wetterling and Baker were in Alexandria last week to discuss the process that ultimately led them to co-author the book “Dear Jacob: A Mother's Journey of Hope.”

The book was published on October 17, 2023, one year to the day that the couple spoke at a program sponsored by the Douglas County Library at Alexandria Area High School's Performing Arts Center.

Jacob Wetterling, 11, was kidnapped on his way home from the store. He was with his younger brother and one of his friends, but the other boys were not taken.

Travis Gulbrandson/Alexandria Echo Press

Patty Wetterling recalled that police arrived at the scene within six minutes of the 911 call.

“This is a phenomenal response, and it started … the largest manhunt that Minnesota has ever seen, and it lasted a really long time,” Wetterling said.

Jacob's kidnapping brought the community – and the nation – together to help the Wetterling family.

“When Jacob was kidnapped, the entire community came together and the entire state and nation came together,” Wetterling said. “It was like everyone in Minnesota came together to help us find him. And I love the networking and coming together in the community, and that has sustained our family. …

“We appreciated everything and all of your efforts kept our family together and alive and functioning,” she said.

The way Jacob was kidnapped was extremely rare, his mother said.

“A lot of times a child is just missing,” she said. “They didn’t come home from school or make it to their friend’s house, and no one really knows. But we knew exactly what we were dealing with the first night and that got us a lot of attention, and I believe in the community's reaction too.”

Wetterling said she began writing letters to Jacob right at the beginning of the ordeal.

“It was just a matter of letting him know what we did to find him,” she said. “I wanted to know because it was difficult to keep track of everything that was going on. …That’s how this whole journey started. And it helped me.”

She was also helped by a message she received from a little boy whose dog had died. The note said that Jacob could play with the dog in heaven if he wasn't feeling well.

“That gave me an image I could live with,” Wetterling said. “I was interviewed by the FBI and we learned about child molesters, sex offenders, pedophiles and kidnappings, and it was like a whole foreign world that I hated. I died before dark, but (the boy) gave me this picture…of Jacob playing with (his) dog, and it was such a gift to me.”

Wetterling asked law enforcement officials what they would need to find missing children, and they said a central information repository where they could view each other's materials and a sex offender registry.

Wetterling helped realize both projects.

Since Baker had no idea that Wetterling was less than enthusiastic about the idea of ​​writing about Jacob, she continued her research and discovered that about ten months before Jacob's abduction, a boy from Cold Spring had been attacked by an unknown man.

Baker eventually found the now-grown boy and stayed in touch with him.

Then, while searching old area newspapers for a picture of a sex offender, she came across a report from May 1987 that said five separate Paynesville-area teenagers had been attacked while walking home or while riding their bikes.

Baker said the attacker would simply step out of the shadows, just like in Jacob's case.

She told the man who was attacked in Cold Spring, and he told the person who worked on his case, which was never solved.

Meanwhile, Baker and the man worked to identify all the similar cases they could find, ultimately bringing the total to 13.

“It must be really alarming,” Baker said.

Wetterling said people need to remember that in 1987, sexual abuse wasn't talked about the way it is today.

As the 25th anniversary of Jacob's kidnapping approached, the Wetterlings had a meeting with the FBI, local agents and the BCA where they were told that a cold case review team would be invited.

Jacob's case was reopened, as was the Cold Spring case. During that investigation, some old clothing items from the Cold Spring case were reanalyzed for DNA samples that led to a man named Danny Heinrich, Wetterling said.

“It was enough for them to issue a search warrant,” she said. “So they executed a search warrant and found nothing on Jacob or (the other boy), but they did find tons of pornographic images of children.”

After ten months in prison, Henrich agreed to plead to possession of child pornography, but also had to admit his role in the other cases.

“(Jacob's remains were found) on that beautiful farm in Paynesville that I've driven past a million times in my life, and knowing that it all came down to Paynesville was absolutely more than I could comprehend – any of us, really, “said Baker. “And the fact that it was just one miracle after another.

“The fact that this small team of us had come together, that all the stars had aligned to make this happen, there were no words for it. No words could explain it. “All I can say is it was only God in the universe and Jacob, in my opinion, that were the driving force in solving this case,” she said.

Wetterling and Baker had already begun working together at this point, but the solution to the case and its impact on the Wetterling family led to a two-year break from writing.

File photo of Forum Communications Company

Most of the book was completed through COVID, Baker said.

After the case was closed, a movement called “11 for Jacob” was created to honor his memory and live his life in a way that honored him, with an emphasis on his way of life.

When he played sports, Jacobs was number 11, and now individual athletes and entire teams wear the number to remember and celebrate him.

One of his sports was ice hockey, in which he played as a goalkeeper.

“I asked him if it ever bothered him that someone scored against him and he said, 'Not really. When it went in, it was a great shot. If I stopped him, it was a great save.' And he had that kind of balance in his life,” Wetterling said.

Baker said: “I think in Minnesota, Jacob was everyone's cup of tea, and I think as Minnesotans we can be really proud of that 11 movement because that was the one thing we could do to show the Wetterlings how much “We loved Jacob and how.” We love them very much and thank them for everything they have done to make our world safer for our children.