By Patty Wetterling with Joy Baker. 2023. Twenty seven years, that is how long Jacob's family held out hope for his safe return. Jacob Wetterling was eleven when he was abducted in his neighborhood while riding his bike with his brother and friend. A man stopped them in the dark, telling the others to run away as fast as they could or they would be shot. When they looked back Jacob and the man were gone. Twenty seven years later DNA matched a man to another young boy 's abduction and sexual assault resulted in the arrest of Danny Heinrich on child pornography charges. In a plea margin with officials Heinrich led them to the burial site of Jacob and later shared the details of how he murdered Jacob at gunpoint the night of his abduction.
Patty Wetterling details the hope she and her family clung to for twenty seven years. She worked tirelessly to fight for missing and exploited children. She worked to get the registry of sexual offenders passed on the national level. A break in Jacob's case came when a blogger researching the Paynesville, Minnesota sexual abductions connected one survivor's story with Jacob. This is also the story of Patty's family, her husband, Jerry, their three younger children and their growing family. Their friends and neighbors rallied around them in their search for Jacob, including details of how local law enforcement, the FBI and the National Guard all searched close to St. Joe , Minnesota and surrounding areas. In the beginning officials kept in close contact with the family, but as the years went on Patty and her family felt they were being kept in the dark about the investigation. Ups and downs over the years kept testing Patty's faith, but she hung onto hope and tried to honor Jacob's life as only a mother can do. A Good read.
