By Terry James
NORMAL – It was one of the biggest and longest missing child cases in the country.
The 1989 disappearance of Jacob Wetterling in Minnesota.
Wetterling’s killer came forward with the details of the 11 year old’s death in the past week.
Mother Patty Wetterling came to Normal last year to talk about keeping children safe. She was invited by Judy Brucker of the Child Protection Network in Bloomington.
Her heart is breaking for the family.
“On one hand I’m sure it does bring some closure,” said Brucker. “I know that in my conversations with Patty and what she has talked about publicly is just the never knowing for sure whether Jacob was still alive and out there.”
Patty Wetterling agreed to the let the murder charge be dropped in exchange for the location of her son’s remains.
While in Normal Wetterling talked about the need at the time to connect cases of child abduction in case they were committed by the same person. The Child Sex Offender Registration law of 1994 was also inspired by Jacob Wetterling.
Terry James can be reached at terry@wjbc.com.
