In the Dark Podcast Transcript: Seizoen 1, Aflevering 1

In the Dark: S1 E1 The Crime

: A quick note before we start the first episode of In the Dark, we were planning to put this out next week, but just today, there was a big development in the case that’s at the center of this podcast. So, we’re getting started early.

: Today, October 12th, I’m five feet tall. My whole name is Jacob Erwin Wetterling. My favorite food is steak. My favorite color is blue. My favorite … I don’t really have a favorite song. My favorite game is clue. My favorite thing to do most is watch football. My favorite sport is football.

: Op 12 oktober 1989 maakte de zesdeklasser Jacob Wetterling deze opname als onderdeel van een schoolproject. Tien dagen later werd hij ontvoerd terwijl hij op zijn fiets reed op een landweg in een klein stadje in Centraal Minnesota.

It’s a case that defied logic then and now.

Het is een misdaad die Minnesotans de afgelopen 25 jaar heeft geboeid en gefrustreerd.

On the outskirts of his hometown of St. Joseph, a young boy’s missing.

It’s the most feared type of abduction, one by a complete stranger. No ransom note, no contact.

Wat is er gebeurd met Jacob Wetterling?

: I’ve been hearing the name Jacob Wetterling ever since I moved to Minnesota 12 years ago. Jacob’s kidnapping was a huge deal here. It changed the way people parented their children. It made kids afraid to go outside at night. And it even led to a federal law that requires all states to maintain registries of sex offenders.

: This one case, this kidnapping of one 11-year-old boy changed the lives of millions of Americans. The case went unsolved for almost 27 years, until today when authorities announced that a man named Danny Heinrich had confessed to the crime, and had led officers to Jacob’s remains.

: Eindelijk weten we het. We weten wat de familie Wetterling en heel Minnesota hebben willen weten sinds die vreselijke nacht in 1989. We weten de waarheid.

: I went to the press conference this afternoon. The back of the room was a forest of cameras. And up in front behind the podium and wrapping all the way around to the sides of the room, there were more than 20 men and women in suits and uniforms. The US Attorney, the Stearns County Sheriff, agents from the FBI, and the State Crime Bureau, they took turns at the microphone, and offered their condolences to Jacob’s parents, who are sitting a few feet away. And then, they thanked each other and praised each other for never giving up.

27 jaar is een zeer lange tijd voor een onderzoek om open en actief te blijven. We staan hier vandaag dankzij het doorzettingsvermogen van het onderzoeksteam; de inzet om elk spoor, hoe klein of schijnbaar onbeduidend ook, agressief op te volgen; en het absolute geloof dat als we blijven aandringen, we deze zaak uiteindelijk zouden oplossen.

We got the truth. The Wetterling family can bring him home. And it’s time for all of us to have closure and the peace that we’re hoping can come next. Thank you.

: But when a case takes 27 years to solve, we should stop and ask some tough questions of law enforcement, especially in a case like Jacob’s, a case that’s had devastating consequences far beyond the small town where this 11-year-old boy disappeared.

: I’m Madeleine Baran, and I’m an investigative reporter at American Public Media, and I spent the past nine months looking into the Jacob Wetterling case. And from the beginning, there are things about this case that stood out to me. Jacob was kidnapped on a dead-end road in a town of just 3000 people. There were witnesses. Law enforcement got there right away. It seemed like the kind of case that could have been solved that night, while there was still a chance to find Jacob alive. So, what went wrong?

: This is In the Dark, a new podcast from APM Reports. And over the next eight episodes, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to look at the Jacob Wetterling case in a way that it hasn’t been looked at before. We’re going to find out why it took law enforcement 27 years to find the man who took Jacob; when all along, he was right in front of them. We’re going to look at what law enforcement did and, also, what they didn’t do. And we’re going to see how those decisions would come to damage the lives of so many people in ways that no one talks about.

: But before we get into what went wrong in this case, we need to talk about what happened that night. So, let’s go back to where it all began, St. Joseph, Minnesota.

: Goedemorgen. Goedemorgen.

: Hoi.

: Gerookte ochtend, denk ik.

: I went out to meet Jacob’s parents, Patty and Jerry, earlier this year, months before they knew what had happened to their son. They’re in their 60s now. They still live on the outskirts of St. Joseph. It’s a small town, mostly Catholic, mostly white, and mostly surrounded by farmland. Patty and Jerry still live in the same cozy brown house on the edge of town. On the front of the house, there was a string of lights that spelled out the word “hope.”

: There’s so many people in and out of this house.

: Patty is een kleine vrouw, amper 1,80 m, blond haar, blauwe ogen. Jerry is lang, met een korte witte baard, en hij ziet eruit als een universiteitsprofessor of misschien een therapeut.

: Wil je koffie?

: I’m good.

: Oké.

: Jerry is a chiropractor. He works out of an old house downtown that’s been converted into an office. Back when Jacob was kidnapped, Patty was a stay-at-home mom to their four children: Amy, Trevor, Carmen, and Jacob.

: Ik vraag me af of we, je weet wel, een beetje kunnen praten over Jacob.

: Jacob was ons tweede kind, en hij was een zeer grote baby. Ik begreep de bevalling toen hij werd geboren. Hij was groot. Hij was een gelukkig kind.

: Jacob was very passionate. What he would do, he would do 100 percent, and really be into it. That’s really cool.

: He wanted to be a veterinarian. He loved animals. He loved … We got Marcus, our puppy when Jacob broke his arm, and he just knew it wouldn’t hurt if he had a puppy. I was a pushover. So, we got Marcus. And he would lay on the floor and, you know, and drink water out of the bowl to show this dog how to do it. He was … He loved animals. Yeah. He was a good spirit.

: Dat was Jacob zoals zijn ouders zich hem herinnerden de laatste keer dat ze hem zagen, 22 oktober 1989, toen hij 11 was.

: Moeten we ... Kunnen we gewoon beginnen met die dag?

: I don’t know. I can’t seem to forget that day.

: Natuurlijk.

: Ja, het was een hockey weekend. Onze kinderen waren in ... De jongens waren in hockey.

: It was a Sunday, but the kids had off school the next day. By late October, this part of Minnesota is usually well on its way to winter. But this Sunday was warmer, in the ’70s even. And there are lots of kids out, running around, wearing shorts, and tossing footballs. There was a polka festival in town. That morning, Jacob and his dad, Jerry, went fishing. They came back home, and everyone gathered around the TV to watch the Minnesota Vikings play the Detroit Lions. Later that afternoon, they went skating at an indoor ice rink.

: That night, Jacob’s parents headed out to a gathering at a friend’s house. Jacob stayed home with his brother, Trevor, and his sister, Carmen. His best friend, Aaron Larson came over for a sleepover. They ate a pizza for dinner, hung out for a while. And at some point, the boys decide they want to rent a movie from a nearby store called Tom Thumb. Specifically and please stand by for quintessential ’80s moment, they wanted to rent Major League, this goofy baseball comedy.

We’d love for you to come to spring training for a shot at this year’s club.

: But Major League was rated R, so they called up a 14-year-old girl who lived next door,Rochelle Jerzak. And the boys asked Rochelle, for such a sixth grader in the ’80s, favor.

: Ze wilden dat ik Tom Thumb belde om een film te huren die R was omdat ze dachten dat mijn stem ouder klonk.

: En, heb je Tom Thumb gebeld?

: Dat deed ik niet.

: You’re like, “I’m not. No. Nice try.”

: No. Yeah, I don’t know. That kind of stuff makes me nervous, like I’m gonna get busted. I mean, thinking about it now, like “What would the worker at Tom Thumb do?” But, nonetheless, that was my mode of thinking at the time.

: So, a big no to Major League. So, they figured, “We’ll just rent a different movie.” So, they called their parents.

: Trevor called, and asked if they could ride their bikes to the store, and rent a video. And I said no. They hadn’t really done that before. It’s a mile just down the hill, but, you know, that’s cornfield. It’s dark. There’s nothing in between. They’ve never done it at night. And Trevor said, “Well, let me talk to dad.” And it was funny. And I remember calling him like, “Your son would like to talk to you.” Jerry went to the phone.

: Mijn enige zorg was dat de auto hen zou raken. En dus, gezien worden in het donker, dat was mijn enige zorg.

: Trevor vertelde zijn vader dat hij een zaklamp zou dragen en Jacob een reflecterend vest.

: En je zei dat het goed zou zijn?

: And so, the girl next door, Rochelle came over to watch Jacob’s youngest sister, Carmen.

: Ik bedoel, ik herinner me dat ze een reflecterend vest aantrokken. En dan, tenminste, één of misschien beide andere jongens hadden zaklampen.

: En dat was het dan?

: The boys head out. It’s about 8:30 at night. Jacob and Trevor are on bikes. Aaron’s on a scooter. The route the boys took that night was pretty simple. The Tom Thumb store was just a 15-minute or so bike ride into town, mostly on one street. This long dead-end country road that leads from the cul de sac, where the Wetterlings live, right into town. There’s not much in between, just some cornfields, some woods. And then closer to town, a few blocks of houses.

: As they biked up the road, the boys passed a long gravel driveway. And somewhere close to that driveway, Jacob’s younger brother, Trevor, heard a rustling sound in the corn, but he didn’t say anything. They kept on biking. They got to the Tom Thumb, and they rented a movie, The Naked Gun, and they bought some snacks. Then, they headed back home. They were just sort of taking their time, walking their bikes for a bit, just kind of messing around.

: They passed the few blocks of houses. The lights of the town faded away. They kept going. They went pass woods and fields. It got darker. There were no sidewalks, and no street lights, not even the moon was out. The only light came from a flashlight that Jacob’s brother, Trevor, flashed in front of them. They kept going.

: Ze naderden de lange grindweg, de plek waar eerder dat ritselende geluid was geweest. Ze waren bijna thuis. Plotseling verscheen er een man op de weg. Hij liep naar hen toe. Hij was helemaal in het zwart gekleed. Zijn gezicht was bedekt met iets donkers. Het was moeilijk te zeggen wat.

: Toen vertelde hij ons dat hij een pistool had, en hij zei ons om te draaien, en naar deze greppel te gaan, en onze fietsen te pakken, en dan te gaan liggen.

: Aaron sprak toen met een TV reporter.

: I thought it was some kid pulling a prank on us or something, but there wasn’t any. He looked at Trevor, and he told Trevor to turn off his flashlight.

: The man asked Trevor his age. “10,” Trevor said.

: He told Trevor to run as fast as he could into the woods, or else he’d shoot.

: Then, the man turned to Aaron. The man paused. He asked him as age. “11,” Aaron said. The man looked at Aaron, and the man grabbed him in the crotch.

: Then, he looked at me, and then he grabbed me. And told me to run as fast as I could in the woods or he’d shoot.

Heeft Jacob iets tegen de man gezegd?

: Uh-uh. Gewoon zijn leeftijd.

: “11,” Jacob said.

Toen je rende, keek je toen om?

: Ja, zodra we daar beneden zijn.

Wat heb je gezien?

: Nothing. He wasn’t there anymore.

: It was about 9:20 on the night of October 22nd, 1989. Here’s how I think about that first night. I think about the spot on the side of the road where Jacob was taken, and I draw a circle around it, around Jacob and the abductor. At that moment, the moment Jacob was kidnapped, the circle was still small. Jacob was right there. But then, I picture that circle, that circle of where Jacob and the man could be slowly expanding as the man and Jacob get farther and farther away, as the seconds and minutes tick by.

: If law enforcement was going to find Jacob, they needed to act quickly before the circle got too big. And here’s why. The best study on child abduction cases found that if a child is going to be killed, most of the time, it happens within the first five hours, 85% of the time, in fact. And by the end of the first 24 hours, in almost every case, the child has been killed.

: Rochelle was watching TV at the Wetterling house with Jacob’s younger sister when Jacob’s brother, Trevor, and his friend, Aaron, ran in screaming.

: “Rochelle, someone took Jacob. Someone took Jacob. There was a man with a gun, and he took Jacob.” And I was like, “What?”, you know, because it was so out of the realm of anything I could have ever imagined that it took me a minute to really understand it.

: Rochelle called her dad, Merle. He came over and called Jacob’s parents, Jerry and Patty Wetterling, right away.

: Jerry took it, and it was Rochelle’s dad, Merle, telling us that-

: He asked for me. He didn’t want to tell you. He asked for me, and said, “Come straight home. Aaron and Trevor came back, but Jacob didn’t come back. And you come straight home,” and he would call 911.

: 911, noodgeval.

: Dit is Merlyn Jerzak vanuit St. Jo.

: Mm-hmm.

: I’m right now next door at my neighbors, the Jerry Wetterling family.

: Het was 21.32 uur, ongeveer 15 minuten geleden dat Jacob was ontvoerd.

: Een paar van hun jongens gingen naar Tom Thumb om een film te halen. En op hun weg terug, hield iemand hen tegen. We geloven dat ze één van de jongens hebben omdat één van de jongens niet mee terugkwam.

: And they don’t know where the other friend is at?

: They don’t know where their brother and friend is at. I think that maybe my best bet is to let Trevor get on the phone, and he can describe to you-

: Oké.

: ...wat hij zag en dat soort dingen.

: Okay, I’m ready.

: Okay. I’ll put Trevor on.

: Oké.

: And he can answer your questions. We’ve got him pretty well calmed down here.

: Hallo?

: Trevor?

: Ja.

: This … you’re talking to the Sheriff’s Office. I want you to give me anything you can recall about this male party that approached you guys.

: Nou, hij was ... Hij was als een soort van ... Hij was als een man, soort van groot.

: Oké.

: Hij had een soort... Het leek...

: Here’s what Trevor told 911, a man had stepped out of the darkness. The boys didn’t recognize him, and they didn’t see or hear a car anywhere. The man’s face was covered with something dark, maybe black nylons. He sounded like he had a cold. In the dark, that was all the boys could make out.

: Meanwhile Jacob’s parents, Patty and Jerry Wetterling, were on their way back home.

: We were driving home absolutely confused. “What’s going on?” It seemed like we were going so slow. In my mind, he was driving like 10 miles an hour, and I’m like, “Speed. Hurry up.” And he said he didn’t want to get stopped by the police. And I said, “Well, we’d have a police escort. Just drive.”

: Hoe ver was je weg?

: We waren in de buurt van Clearwater. Dus, het was een goede 20-25 minuten.

: Okay. We’re you talking to each other?

: A little. We didn’t talk a lot. In my memory, it was just like, “What do you say? What’s going on?”

: Ja.

: I was so confused. And then, I said something really mean. It’s like, “Oh, who told them they could go to the store?” And Jerry said, “I did. So, if you want to be mad at somebody, be mad at me.”

: Stearns County Sheriff’s Deputy Bruce Bechtold was in a squad car just a few miles away when the dispatcher called him.

: It was over the squad radio. There was a call on the radio. When they called an abduction of a child, well, you don’t think that happens here. So, my initial thought was somebody panicked. It’s really not an abduction. Somebody’s kid ran away. Somebody’s playing a game. So, I started going that way. And the more information the dispatcher gave, the more serious I realized it was, and that there was a gun involved, and then it became real.

: Deputy Bechtold was the first to arrive at the Wetterling house. He got there at 9:38 p.m. It had only been 20 minutes or so since Jacob had been abducted. The man who took him couldn’t be very far away. Deputy Bechtold wanted Trevor and Aaron to show him the spot where Jacob was kidnapped. Rochelle, the babysitter, says the boys were still terrified. They didn’t want to go back out into the dark. So, her dad, Merle, offered to go with them. Rochelle says that left her and Jacob’s younger sister alone in the house.

: And I just remember them saying, “Okay, lock all the doors and don’t open the doors.” So, that’s what we did. And we sat in the corner huddled like this because in that corner, there’s no windows, so, no one could see us. But we were just terrified. I mean, we were terrified. And then, I remember a few minutes later, hearing a knock at the door. And I’m like, “I’m not answering that door.”

: Wat dacht je wel niet?

: I was thinking it’s the man that took Jacob, and that he was going to come take us. And then, a few more minutes went by, and maybe it was even seconds, but it felt like hours, the phone rang. And it was the sheriff saying, “We’re at the door. Open the door for us.”

: Stearns County Sheriff Charlie Grafft had just turned on the 10:00 news at his home that night when he saw a deputy’s car race down the street.

: Toen ik het kantoor belde om te vragen wat er aan de hand was, zeiden ze dat er een jongen was ontvoerd, ontvoerd door een man met een pistool in de buurt van St. Jo.

: Sheriff Grafft stierf in 2003. Dit is van een TV interview dat hij deed kort na de ontvoering.

: Dus, ik stapte onmiddellijk in mijn team, reed erheen, en begon de jongens te ondervragen over wat er gebeurd was, om te proberen iets op gang te krijgen.

: And they sat down here at the table, and they kept asking the boys, you know, first, “What happened?” And then, they asked some questions like, “Are you sure you guys weren’t, you know, playing with a gun, and Jacob got hurt, and you’re afraid to tell?”, or “Are you sure Jacob didn’t just run away, and you’re, you know, trying to buy him some time until he gets where he’s going or something?” And they’re like, “No,” you know. They were really, really clear.

: Rond 22.45 uur, ongeveer anderhalf uur nadat Jacob was ontvoerd, hadden onderzoekers met zaklantaarns het gebied bij de ontvoeringsplek afgezocht. De sheriff, Charlie Grafft, riep de hulp in van vrijwillige brandweerlieden.

: Charlie said they were going to comb the woods. And he said, “You know, it’s not a bad thing. Maybe he’s tied to a tree or something. We’re hoping that we’re going to find him. And then, that’s why we’re searching.” You know, he was trying to reassure. And I wanted to … There’s a part of me that wanted to go out and search. And then, he told me that we needed to stay here, “What if Jacob calls or comes home? You know you need to be home.”

: De sheriff belde de staatspatrouille en vroeg hen onmiddellijk te komen met een helikopter.

: I got up in a helicopter with them, and we searched the area with a spotlight they had underneath the helicopter. And we’re right down on top of the power line almost. And we searched for about an hour and a half up there in the air, and plus what we have on the ground.

: The helicopter search found nothing, but investigators searching on the ground did find something in the gravel driveway across the street from the abduction site, some tire tracks and some shoe prints. They didn’t know what to make of them. The boys hadn’t seen a car, and it’s not like it’s unusual to find tire tracks in a driveway. So, investigators weren’t sure whether the tire tracks even had anything to do with the abduction.

: I talked to another officer who was at the scene that night, Stearns County Detective Steve Mund. He’s since left the sheriff’s office. And he told me the way he saw it that night, there had to be a car. It was the only theory that made sense.

: I mean, it was not like you’re in the inner city with, you know, apartment buildings and something where you couldn’t take someone, and be gone in five blocks, and then have 5000 places to hide. How could you get away from there with someone and not have a car, you know, connected to it?

: Juist. Want anders zou hij daar gewoon moeten zijn, toch?

: Well, yeah. I mean, either … Yeah, you’re either going to have to be in a house that’s right there or something like that, but how would that occur, I’m not sure, so.

: De lange grindweg tegenover de plek waar Jacob werd ontvoerd, draait om en leidt naar een witte boerderij met een waslijn aan de voorkant, een kippenhok en een graansilo. In de boerderij was die avond een 34-jarige man genaamd Dan Rassier. Hij was alleen thuis.

: En rond 21.00 uur was Dan boven in zijn slaapkamer zijn platencollectie aan het ordenen toen zijn hond blafte. Dan keek naar buiten en zag een auto de oprit afrijden.

: Ik hoorde de auto de heuvel afkomen, en hij draait om.

: It was small and dark, and the headlights were close together. Dan didn’t get a good look at the driver. The car turned all the way around in front of the house, and then headed back out toward the road.

: And then, I go. I go to bed. I’m sleeping because I remember waking to the dog. The dog keeps barking.

: Het was rond 10:45 die avond toen Dan wakker werd.

: En ik keek uit een van de ramen, en ik zie allemaal zaklampen rond de houtstapel.

: Dan dacht dat een paar kerels zijn brandhout probeerden te stelen.

: And I stepped out the door. And at that point, I remember my heart rate going up, and realizing I can’t go out there. I can take care of maybe a couple of them, but not like 10 of them. And I just immediately called 911. They said a child was taken, and I go “Oh, okay.” So, I went right up there.

: Dan went outside. He saw the helicopter overhead. And as he walked up his driveway, he ran into Bruce Bechtold, the sheriff’s deputy. Dan and the deputy say they talked briefly, and that was pretty much it. No one paid any more attention to Dan that night.

: Dus, niemand kwam op je deur kloppen die nacht?

: Nee.

: En niemand kwam je huis doorzoeken die nacht?

: Nee.

: En niemand heeft, voor zover u weet, de gebouwen, de boerderijgebouwen rondom haar huis doorzocht?

: No. I remember saying, “I’m going to … I’ll look down here,” and that was a mistake.

: Waarom was het een vergissing?

: Because it’s like if only I would have just said, “You guys got to come down here now and look everywhere. Go through my room. Go anywhere you like.” That’s what I should have done.

: All the things that law enforcement didn’t do that night at the Rassier Farm would come to matter a great deal years later, and would change Dan’s life in a way that could never be undone. But we’ll get to that later.

: Patty heeft de hele nacht op Jacob gewacht. En ze herinnert zich dat ze daar zat en wilde dat de hele wereld naar haar zoon zocht.

: And I remember asking because we had turned the radio on, and there was a report that this child was lost in the woods. And I called WJON, and said, “He wasn’t lost. He was kidnapped.” And they said, “Well, we can only report what the police are telling us.” And so, I remember asking Charlie Grafft, the sheriff, “Would it hurt to get the right story out in the media?”

: What was it? It was … Nothing was done until Charlie said it was okay, and that was like 5:00 a.m. That’s when WJON was first called. And I don’t know what you’re talking about as far as a lost boy.

: Ik hoorde het op de radio.

: Okay. I don’t know. What were you doing listen to the radio at 3:00 in the morning?

: It’s been 27 years since Jacob was abducted. So, it’s not surprising that Patty and Jerry don’t agree on every last detail of what happened. But it’s not as simple as that. When something awful happens to your family, you assume you’ll never forget it, and that no one else in your family will either, that the story will remain the same. So, when you realize that your stories have changed, that you no longer agree on the most basic parts of what happened, that can be pretty unsettling.

: Veel dingen worden verward.

: Yeah, it’s-

: But I don’t know. I don’t know.

: It’s so-

: Well, where were you? Okay. And this is crazy. Where were you at 3:00 in the morning? I don’t remember. I was in shock. My-

: Ik probeerde een uur te slapen.

: Dat deed ik niet.

: Ik probeerde te ontsnappen.

: I didn’t sleep for days. I remember hearing it on the radio, and I remember calling WJON. So, you can tell me that that didn’t happen, and I’ll believe you, but that’s my memory of it.

: Time-out.

: Ja.

: Zie je, dit is stressvol om te doen.

: Ja.

: We’re fighting.

: We’re not fighting.

: I know, but it’s just to go back there, it’s very painful.

: De zoektocht die nacht was een mislukking. Geen Jacob, geen ontvoerder, geen achtergelaten kleding, geen auto. En om 3 uur 's nachts, minder dan zes uur nadat Jacob was ontvoerd, namen de onderzoekers een grote beslissing. Ze staakten de zoektocht. Eén van de rechercheurs ter plaatse, Steve Mund, vertelde me dat het geen zin had om in het donker verder te zoeken.

: Just that, you know, working under flashlights and stuff, you might miss certain trace evidence. So, it’s important that we did it in daylight hours.

: Terwijl de uren in de late, late avond en vroege ochtend voorbijtikten, breidde de cirkel die zo klein begon op de weg waar Jacob naartoe werd gebracht, zich vele malen uit. Uiteindelijk zou de cirkel zich uitbreiden tot het grootste deel van Centraal Minnesota, toen heel Minnesota, toen het Midwesten, Canada, de hele Verenigde Staten, de wereld.

: Zijn er dingen die hij anders zou hebben gedaan nu hij erop terugkijkt?

: You have done differently, I know, you always think about that, but no. I think, the people that worked on that case did truly 110% every day that we’re there. And I don’t know. I don’t know that there’s anything we could have done differently.

: What detective Mund just said that he doesn’t know that there is anything they could have done differently, I heard this so many times while reporting on this case. And every time, I was startled by it because here’s a case that had gone on for 27 years without being solved.

: The Jacob Wetterling case is, by any reasonable measure, a failure. But what went wrong is hard to figure out because for 27 years, the investigative file on the Jacob Wetterling case, that stack of documents that tell you what the crime scene looks like, what witnesses said, what physical evidence was found, and generally everything that law enforcement did and didn’t do, all of that has been closed to the public. It’s still closed.

: This is pretty standard for unsolved cases. It’s meant to protect the investigation and to protect the witnesses and the suspects, but it also protects law enforcement. It means we aren’t allowed to know what law enforcement is doing in some of the most serious criminal investigations in this country. We’re just supposed to trust them.

: De komende weken op In the Dark.

Stearns County Sheriff’s Office has quite a reputation for horrendous investigations, false accusations, leaving families in the dark. I mean, what’s going on down there? Why is everything such a secret?

Dit is wat er gebeurt als je praat. En hij zei het nu twee keer tegen me. Dit is wat er gebeurt als je praat.

Al deze bewijzen die mensen hebben, en er wordt niets aan gedaan. 50.000 aanwijzingen, en wat is er onderzocht?

Maar er moet een element zijn om verantwoording af te leggen. En als die er niet is, gebeuren er rampzalige dingen.

I’m not going to dwell on things that that could have been done, should have been done differently because that’s not helpful. Do I wish some things would have been done differently? Sure. Can I talk about that in this particular case? No.

By enacting this law, we’re sending a clear message across the country, those who prey on our children will be caught, prosecuted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Hoeveel van dit soort psychopathische pedofielen kunnen er bestaan in een straal van 15 tot 20 mijl?

Just like, “What? We lived here the whole time, and he’s just down the damn road all those years?”, you know. And it’s like, “What?”

I got to believe that authorities did their job. So, if it’s Danny, why would you allow him to be free the last 25 years?

: In the Dark is produced by Samara Freemark. The associate producer is Natalie Jablonski. It’s edited by Catherine Winter, with help from Hans Buetow. The editor in chief of APM Reports is Chris Worthington. Web editors are Dave Peters and Andy Kruse. The videographer is Jeff Thompson. Additional reporting by Curtis Gilbert, Jennifer Vogel, Will Craft, Tom Scheck, and Emily Haavik. Our theme music is composed by Gary Meister.

: Go to InTheDarkPodcast.org for a more detailed look at the night of the abduction and to hear the recording of the original 911 call. And keep checking in, we’ll be posting more information on our website each week.

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