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NANCY GRACE

11-Year-Old Minnesota Boy Snatched by Masked Gunman

Aired February 28, 2011 - 21:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NANCY GRACE show was out there for us.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Found alive.

Fifty people, 50 days, 50 nights.

Let`s don`t give up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY WETTERLING, JACOB`S MOTHER: It is that nightmare that everybody describes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s haunting. And people everywhere are waiting for answers. We want to know what happened to Jacob.

WETTERLING: We got a phone call, and he said, "You`ve got to come home."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): On October 22, 1989, it was Patty Wetterling`s son Jacob who disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody took Jacob.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s getting late, and three boys are just a half a mile from home. On their bikes they see a man step out from a darkened driveway. He`s wearing a mask and he has a gun.

WETTERLING: It always seems to happen in a community where they`ve never had a case before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eleven-year-old Jacob, his 10-year-old brother and their friend are forced to lie on the ground. Their bikes, dumped in the ditch. The man asked their ages, then let`s Jacob`s younger brother and friend go. "Look back," he says, "and you`ll be shot."

Twenty-two years of mystery and a lifetime of questions.

WETTERLING: Most missing kids come home. It`s usually right away. And a small percent, somewhere like two percent, end up to be long-term kidnapping. And as a searching parent, you`re going to hold on to that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Wetterlings hold on to that hope, just as they do the very same phone number Jacob had memorized all those years ago.

WETTERLING: You want to be the ones who make up the small percent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Every day 2,300 people go missing in America. Disappear. Vanish. Families left behind waiting, hoping, but never forgetting.

And neither have we. Fifty people, 50 nights, we go live, spotlighting America`s missing, girls, boys, mothers, fathers, grandparents, gone, but where?

Tonight, three boys ride their bikes home from renting a video and buying candy at the local Tom Thumb. Then, out of nowhere, a man with a gun, his face covered, orders the boys off their bikes. He takes 11-year- old Jacob Wetterling, who is never seen again.

Tonight, 21 years and 50,000 leads later, the case remains unsolved.

Jean, let`s go back to square one. What happened?

JEAN CASAREZ, CO-HOST: You know, Nancy, what happened is that this case in 1989 and in the years since rocked this country to its soul because it showed what could happen to a little boy.

Three little boys suddenly, in 1989, were staring straight to a gun. A masked gunman was holding them hostage with a gun. Two of the little boys got away.

One, Jacob Wetterling, was not so lucky.

I want to go out to Mary Divine, reporter from "The St. Paul Pioneer Press."

Mary, it was October 22, 1989. And these three little boys out at night on their bicycles and a scooter. But it wasn`t planned. It was a sort of a spur of the moment trip to the store, right?

MARY DIVINE, REPORTER, "ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS": That`s right. It was a Sunday night, and the kids didn`t have school the next day, so it was a three-day weekend.

Patty and Jerry Wetterling, just at the last minute, had decided to go to a party in Clearwater, Minnesota. It`s a nearby town.

Jamie, their oldest daughter, was at a sleepover. So the couple had asked Jacob if he would mind baby sitting Trevor, who was 10, and then his little sister, Carmen, who was 8.

Jacob asked if his friend, Aaron Larson could come over. And then Trevor later called Patty and Jerry at the parties and asked if the boys could bike and scooter up to the Tom Thumb, the convenience store there, which was just two miles away, and rent a video.

Carmen didn`t want to go, so the kids, with their parents` OK, arranged for a neighbor girl to come over and baby-sit while they made the trip. The boys wanted to watch a movie called "Major League," but it wasn`t available, so they ended up renting "Naked Gun."

CASAREZ: So they made it to the store.

Natisha Lance, they made it to that store about two miles away, and they`re on their way back. What happened?

NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, they`re on their way back, Jean. They`re about a half-mile away from home, and a man comes out of nowhere.

This is a man who is masked, he has a gun. He says to them, "Stop. I have a gun."

He then directs the boys to get into a ditch, to lay down with their heads facing away from the road. Then he asks them one by one, "What is your age?"

He starts with Trevor. Trevor is 10. He tells him to run, "Don`t look back or I`ll shoot you."

Then he goes to Aaron, the best friend. Same thing, tells him to run.

But Jacob is the one who is left behind. The boys make it into the woods. They look back and there`s no Jacob and there`s no more masked man.

CASAREZ: To Mary Divine, reporter, "St. Paul Pioneer Press."

The masked man, what did he have over his face?

DIVINE: You know, it was very dark. There was no moon. It`s just been described as a mask, a dark mask covering his face.

CASAREZ: All right.

Let`s go out to Sheriff John Sanner, joining us tonight from the Stearns County Sheriff`s Office in St. Joseph, Minnesota.

Sheriff, thank you so much for joining us.

And we know this is an extremely active investigation. You have publicly said that you are not going to stop until you solve this case. But I want to go to back to 1989 right now.

What kind of a mask did this gunman have over his face?

SHERIFF JOHN SANNER, STEARNS COUNTY: It was described as a dark- colored ski mask.

CASAREZ: OK. How much of a description did you get of the body type of this person that was aiming this gun at these three young boys?

SANNER: You know, the description was fairly consistent, a man, a little bit older. And, of course, you`re talking with small children, so everything is relevant when you`re doing that. And just a normal body style, nothing that would be conspicuous one way or another.

CASAREZ: Now, what were the lighting -- what was this area like? I mean, it was urban -- it was rural rather than urban. How were the lighting conditions that night around the area?

SANNER: Extremely dark. There would have been no street lights. Very rural.

CASAREZ: But there was a home very close to where they were abducted.

SANNER: About a quarter of a mile from the abduction site, itself -- the actual abduction took place at a private driveway entrance.

CASAREZ: To a home?

SANNER: That`s correct.

CASAREZ: And the home was a fourth of a mile away from the driveway?

SANNER: That`s correct. About.

CASAREZ: Now, the little boys were told to go face down into a ditch, right?

SANNER: That`s right.

CASAREZ: So without any lighting, my common sense tells me someone must have known where there was a ditch.

SANNER: Of course. Yes. That makes sense.

CASAREZ: All right.

To Mary Divine, reporter, "St. Paul Pioneer Press."

Although conditions were rural, it would seem one would have to know the area. The search that ensued became massive all over the country. Right?

DIVINE: It did. It was national attention. It dominated headlines. Still, to this day, if there`s a mention of Jacob Wetterling, satellite trucks are out at that site within minutes, hours.

I think it attracted such national attention because it was so unusual to have an armed abductor of a child. That`s just not the way it usually happens.

Abductions usually happen when a person gains the trust of a child or a person takes a child or kidnaps a child. But to have a case where somebody at gunpoint actually abducts a child, it was a very unusual crime.

CASAREZ: I think you are exactly right.

We are taking your calls live tonight.

And with us, someone that has lived since 1989 with this case. We have the mother of Jacob Wetterling.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

How did you find out that night that something was very, very wrong?

WETTERLING: Well, we had called our kids to give them a phone number where we were, and they called and asked permission. Then they called with information, that they were going to ask the neighbor to baby-sit.

And then the next call we got was from the neighbor`s dad. And it was really only a mile. It`s a 10-minute bike ride. It`s one mile, and they were stopped a half a mile from our home. So we heard from the neighbor that two of the boys returned, but somebody had taken Jacob.

CASAREZ: How did it impact you that one of your little boys escaped? He was safe. He was there with you at your home. But your other little boy was gone.

WETTERLING: It was so confusing, all of it. You know, it`s like, what happened? What -- who would do this? Where is he?

And we really expected that Jacob would be home later that evening, that some joke or something -- you know, somebody`s playing a joke or something. We honestly couldn`t comprehend what we were about to embark on.

CASAREZ: I am sure. I am very sure.

But law enforcement -- you know, so many of these cases, Ms. Wetterling, we hear law enforcement takes their time because they think the person will come back. They wasted no time in your case, right?

WETTERLING: Absolutely. We couldn`t have asked for a better response.

I mean, they had questions of the boys because this had never happened before, and they challenged them -- "Are you sure you weren`t playing with a gun and Jacob got hurt?" "Are you sure he didn`t just run away?"

I mean, they asked those really hard questions right off, and these two boys saw what they saw, and they were very clear about it. And law enforcement responded in a phenomenal fashion.

CASAREZ: To Natisha Lance, NANCY GRACE producer.

One of the focuses that law enforcement really honed in on close to the beginning were tire tracks that allegedly were from a vehicle that may have abducted Jacob.

LANCE: Right. For 14 years they honed in on these tire tracks that were at the end of this driveway.

And then in 2003 a man who was having a casual conversation with a U.S. marshal said, "You know what? I was listening to the scanner, to the radio, and I heard about this abduction that took place. I went down to the scene, I saw the bicycles that were in that ditch, and I think those were my tire tracks." And then police went in a different direction, and then they then believed that the abductor probably was on foot rather than in a vehicle.

CASAREZ: So, to Pat Brown, criminal profiler, joining us tonight out of Washington, D.C., originally these tire tracks were believed to be the car of an abductor because an interstate was pretty close by this rural area. But when a man suddenly comes forward and says, no, I made the tire tracks because I had a police scanner and I drove in the area, they realized, wow, maybe it`s somebody much closer to home.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Right, Jean. And that was really brave of that man to even talk to anybody at that point. I mean, he could easily be considered a suspect right away.

But, yes, I believe he was a local. There`s no reason a man would come off the highway searching for children at that time of night. I think he saw the boys go by and he knew they would be coming back his way.

He wore a mask because he didn`t want to be recognized by them. I think he`s very, very local.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: When you put your head to your pillow at night, do you believe Jacob is still alive somewhere?

WETTERLING: I believe that he hears my voice, and I don`t know. I honestly believe there`s a possibility. Somebody makes up that very small percentage, and I believe that there`s the possibility Jacob`s still alive. Until I have proof, I will continue to fight so that we can bring him home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling went missing years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On October 22, 1989 --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jacob Wetterling, his brother Trevor, and their friend Aaron had gone up to a convenience store, rented a video.

WETTERLING: No child should have to live through what these kids lived through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were on their way back home, and they were confronted by a man who had a pistol.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wore a mask.

GRACE: It changed forever not only a community, but an entire state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He confronted the three boys and told them to get in a ditch.

GRACE: You never expect something like this to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then, after that, he ordered two of the boys, Trevor and Aaron, to run out to the field and not look back or else he would shoot.

WETTERLING: Most of the time there is no witness. We knew he had been taken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trevor told me that he did look back and he didn`t see Jacob.

GRACE: The case still unsolved.

WETTERLING: Nobody`s quit. You know, we`re not giving up.

GRACE: Can you help us?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez.

Three little boys get permission to go to the store on their scooters and on their bicycles. And on their way back, in this very, very rural area that people -- where people are families and have their homes and have their loved ones, old-time America, they were staring in the face of a gunman who let two go but abducted Jacob Wetterling.

I want to go out to Renee in Virginia right now.

Renee, hi.

RENEE, VIRGINIA: Hey. How are you?

CASAREZ: Fine, thank you. What`s your question?

RENEE: My question is, they`re always saying that criminals go back to the scene of the crime. And the guy that pulled in the driveway and then showed up out of the blue to say they were her tire marks, did they investigate him thoroughly enough?

CASAREZ: You know, they did, but Jacob Wetterling being abducted, they really have focused in on someone else.

I want to go out to Natisha Lance.

There is a person of interest in this case. Tell us about him, Natisha.

LANCE: Well, his name is Daniel Rassier. He lived at this farm with his parents, the one that was at the end of the driveway. And he called police that night, Jean.

He called police and reported a car that was turning around in his driveway. His parents were out of town that night that Jacob was abducted. He was home alone.

And his farm was actually just recently searched back in the summer of 2010. Police took six truckloads of dirt away from that farm.

They also did some other investigating there. They said that there were some items of interest that they took from the farm. They were later on taken to labs to be further investigated. There was nothing of evidentiary value that came from that search, but he still remains a person of interest.

CASAREZ: Right.

And everybody, this search was just last year at this farm. Daniel Rassier, he lived with his parents at the time this all happened in 1989. He still lives with his parents, who are now quite elderly.

We called. We wanted to get his side of the story. And we were met with them hanging up the phone on us. His parents say that they`ve been harassed enough with all of this.

But I want to two out to the sheriff of Stearns County, Sheriff John Sanner.

Talk to us about this search that was done on this property last year. A lot of it is public.

SANNER: Sure. Last summer, the sheriff`s office, in coordination with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI, executed a search warrant on the property near the abduction site. And we did seize a number of items that were taken to our crime lab for analysis. And some of the items that I`m talking about are still undergoing additional testing.

CASAREZ: Did you do a search inside the home or just on the grounds?

SANNER: Both.

CASAREZ: Was this the first time you had searched inside the home?

SANNER: It had been -- the inside of the residence had been looked at very early on in 1989, 1990. But I can`t talk to what extent that that search was conducted.

CASAREZ: To Mary Divine, reporter, "St. Paul Pioneer Press."

Do you know at all what was seized inside the home during that search?

DIVINE: This past summer, a couple of the things taken was a box of newspaper clippings about Jacob`s abduction. And they were excerpts from a journal with Daniel Rassier`s thoughts about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Patty, for other victims that are listening tonight, could you tell us how you managed to get through the days and the weeks and the months following his disappearance?

WETTERLING: It`s about reclaiming your life. Your whole life is turned upside-down, and you have to gain control, as the psychologist said, and you know what`s inside. It`s in every fiber of your being, what you`re fighting for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: October 22, 1989 --

WETTERLING: He was an athlete. He was engaged in school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling, his 10-year-old brother, Trevor, and best friend, Aaron, were at a local store renting a video.

WETTERLING: Just an all around good kid.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Around 9:15 p.m., they began heading home, when they were suddenly stopped by a masked man holding a gun.

WETTERLING: He had this keen sense of fairness.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The men told Trevor and Aaron to run or he would shoot.

WETTERLING: He would stick up for kids and he would complain when things weren`t fair.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They ran about 100 yards before looking back. When they did, they saw nothing.

WETTERLING: I find that just very ironic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: Just this last year, law enforcement conducted a massive search at the home that was closest to where Jacob was abducted.

I want to go back out to Mary divine from "The St. Paul Pioneer Press."

What were you telling us right before we went to commercial? And let`s tell everybody that the search warrant, affidavits, returns, inventories, they were never even filed at the courthouse because it was believed that it could leak out about this search.

But what are your sources telling you that they actually found inside the home?

DIVINE: Well, he had told a reporter from The Associated Press at the time that officials took a box of newspaper clippings about Jacob`s abduction and excerpts from his journal with his thoughts about the case.

CASAREZ: And you`re talking about the person of interest in this case, Daniel Rassier.

DIVINE: Correct.

CASAREZ: To Lillian Glass, psychologist, body language expert out of Los Angeles, joining us tonight.

Your thoughts on that discovery inside the home closest to the abduction?

LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, that makes a lot of sense, because who else would have such an unusual interest in the case? That speaks volumes.

But what`s so sad is today, the boy would be -- the man would be 32 years old, about. And it`s just so devastating, that a whole life has gone by without him being a son to his parents.

CASAREZ: So true.

But we have the mother of Jacob with us tonight, Patty Wetterling.

What you have done since your son disappeared, just in the few moments we have before commercial, talk about the changes that you have been instrumental in, in this country for missing children.

WETTERLING: I think I -- we tapped into a lot of energy that was pulled by a lot of parents in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. So I think, clearly, the responses is better for other families. There`s a lot more law enforcement training.

There`s some more tools. The AMBER alert is a great tool, and in Minnesota we`re batting a thousand. All those kids are home. So there`s a lot of progress that`s been made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The reality is, nothing could have stopped this. There`s no way you could have stopped this.

WETTERLING: Right. You do kick yourself a little bit, but I remember having a conversation with Jacob. It was, like, "Hold on, Jacob. We will find you, but you have to stay strong."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Vanished into thin air.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.

GRACE: So many cases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.

GRACE: So few leads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.

GRACE: Missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness seen the suspect on Nancy Grace.

GRACE: There is a God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy Grace show was out there for us.

GRACE: Found. Alive. 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights. Let`s don`t give up.

PATTY WETTERLING, MOM OF MISSING 11-YR-OLD, JACOB WETTERLING: It is that nightmare that everybody describes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s haunting, and people everywhere are waiting for answers. We want to know what happened to Jacob.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got a phone call and said you got to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On October 22nd, 1989, it was Patty Wetterling`s son, Jacob, who disappeared.

WETTERLING: Somebody took Jacob.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s getting late and three boys are just a half a mile from home. On their bikes, they see a man step out from a darkened driveway. He`s wearing a mask and he has a gun.

WETTERLING: It always seems to happen in a community where they`ve never had a case before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eleven-year-old Jacob, his 10-year-old brother, and their friend are forced to lie on the ground. Their bikes dumped in a ditch. The man asked their ages and let Jacob`s younger brother and friend go. Look back, he says, and you`ll be shot. Twenty-two years of mystery and a lifetime of questions.

WETTERLING: Most missing kids come home. It`s usually right away, and a small percent, it`s somewhere like 2 percent end up to be long-term kidnapping. And as a searching parent, you`re going to hold on to that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Wetterlings hold on to that hope. Just as they do, the very same phone number Jacob had memorized all those years ago.

WETTERLING: You want to be the ones who make up the small percent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Every day, 2,300 people go missing in America, disappear, vanish. Families left behind waiting, hoping, but never forgetting, and neither have we. Fifty people, 50 nights, we go live, spotlighting America`s missing, girls, boys, mothers, fathers, grandparents, gone, but where?

Tonight, three boys ride their bikes home from renting a video and buying candy at the local Tom Thumb. Then out of nowhere, a man with a gun, his face covered, orders the boys off their bikes. He takes 11-year- old Jacob Wetterling, who is never seen again. Tonight, 21 years and 50,000 leads later, the case remains unsolved. Jean, what`s the timeline?

JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Well, the timeline, it was a Sunday, October 22nd, 1989. There was going to be no school the next day, and Jacob and his brother, Trevor, were staying with a neighbor because their parents had gone to a party, and all of a sudden, they wanted to go to the store. They wanted to go so bad. So, they called their mother and dad actually three times at the party because they wanted to ride their bikes, and Aaron had a scooter to go to the store.

So, they got their good friend, Aaron, and the three of them went to the store. It`s not just one little boy going to the store. All three went. And on the ride back, they`re about a half a mile away from their home, and all of a sudden, a man with a dark ski mask and a gun stopped them in their tracks.

I want to go to Mary Divine, reporter from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, what do we know at this point from the little boys that got away? What did the gunman say to them?

VOICE OF MARY DIVINE, REPORTER, ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS: It was terrifying. He said, stop, I have a gun. He ordered the boys to turn off their flashlights and lie in the ditch facing away from the road. He told each boy to look at him and state their age. Trevor was first. Aaron was next. Jacob was last. He told Trevor to run as fast as he could in the woods and said don`t look back or I`ll shoot you, and then, he said the exact same thing to Aaron.

CASAREZ: To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaaskids Foundation joining us from San Francisco. How horrifying must this have been for Jacob and the two little boys to get away, to at such tender years, have a gun. And do you think this is why this case gained such a national significance?

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I think this case has maintained its national significance for one reason, and that`s Patty Wetterling. I`ve known Patty for years and years. I`ve always admired her greatly. In fact, I`ve always looked upon Patty as a mentor of mine. I don`t believe that you can come up with more of a nightmarish situation or scenario than the scenario that these three boys found themselves in.

I think the mistake they made was stopping. If they had kept running, at that point, when this guy came out, this probably would have ended very differently. Of course, that`s all in hindsight, but I believe -- and that`s what I would counsel children. Never go with the suspect. Always put distance between yourself and the suspect as quickly as you possibly can.

CASAREZ: To Sheriff John Sanner from Sterns County Sheriffs Office joining us from St. Joseph, Missouri. I assume that their bikes and the scooter was taken into evidence at that time. Were there any footprints that were preserved from the area?

VOICE OF JOHN SANNER, STEARNS COUNTY SHERIFF: Yes. We were able to capture at least one footprint that we believe belonged to Jacob Wetterling.

CASAREZ: From what the boys told you of the description of this suspect, was a composite sketch put out at the time?

SANNER: We put a number of composite sketches based on the descriptions that they gave, the boys and from other similar type incidents that had happened around the state.

CASAREZ: To Patty Wetterling, Jacob`s mother, so kind to join us tonight. What are your thoughts when you -- you obviously knew about the search that was done last year at the home that was closest to where your little boy, Jacob, was abducted. Had you known that a box of articles from this case was found in the home along with journal entries from the person of interest?

WETTERLING: Yes. I think that Dan shared that on an interview, so I found out through his own words telling us that that was taken.

CASAREZ: What did that do to you? When you hear that the house closest to where it happened had all these souvenirs?

WETTERLING: Well, it didn`t shock me because we`ve encountered people along the way who`ve been just obsessed with it. And I, frankly, don`t know if this man is guilty or innocent, but what I do know is, in most cases, somebody has a piece of information. So, if somewhere in that family they know something or suspect something, that, you know, our prayer has always been that somebody will be brave enough to come forward. I don`t know. I`m very confused about who did this.

CASAREZ: A day doesn`t go by that you don`t think about your son, right?

WETTERLING: Right.

CASAREZ: You know, you have devoted your life, and I think you`re very modest, so I`m going to let Marc Klaas talk about it. Patty has devoted her life to this cause. And Marc, talk to us about the legislation that was passed in Minnesota that has really been landmarked in this country.

KLAAS: Well, the Jacob Wetterling Act established or mandated that the states had to register sex offenders. So, without The Jacob Wetterling Act first, we would not have Meagan`s Law now. What Meagan`s Law did to expand on that was mandate community notification so we can now go to our iPhone apps and find out who the registered offenders are around us, but Patty has been an activist and an advocate for as long as I`ve known her, for longer than I`ve been involved in this.

And any time there`s a big legislative fight out there, she`s in the middle of it. Every time somebody comes up with a new idea that requires legislation to be passed, she`s there. When there`s law enforcement training to be done on missing children, she`s involved in that.

So, she`s a soft and quiet woman in many ways, but she`s an absolute dynamo as far as the -- as far as efforts to recover missing children go. And I can`t tell you how many kids there may have been returned as a result of the efforts that she`s been involved in.

CASAREZ: It`s huge. It is huge what she has done. No question. Daniel Horowitz, we`ve got three victims here. Two survived. One is still missing. Now, there may be some statue of limitations involved with some attempted kidnapping charges, but there`s no statue of limitations on a charge of murder.

DAN HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. And you know, I called the Rassier Home today, and I spoke to his mother. He wasn`t taking calls. And she seems just dumbfounded as to what is going on, but he on the other hand, Daniel, seems very, very odd. You know, when he was asked about those news articles in a press interview, why do you have all those articles about this young boy missing?

His answer wasn`t, well, I`m concerned, he was a neighbor. His answer was, well, I`m a pack rat. And he`s given a lot of odd answers. He could be a very strange man, but it does -- it`s highly suspicious.

CASAREZ: To Sheriff John Sanner, Stearns County Sheriffs Department, how active of an investigation is this? You are still testing items. You are still talking to people. Are you going to solve this case?

SANNER: Well, I can`t promise you that we`ll ever resolve the case, but I will promise you that we`ll never stop trying. We work on this case, I`m sure, at least a little every single week. We talk about it probably more often than that. We work with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI. So, we still have a very strong partnership with those agencies going (ph). We`re not going to stop.

CASAREZ: Tonight, everybody, please help us find missing woman, Kay Reed, 62 years old. She vanishes February 14th, 2008, Tucson, Arizona, white female, 5`2", 125 pounds, gray and blond hair, hazel eyes. If you have any information, call 520-882-7463.

If your loved one is missing and you need help, go to CNN.com/nancygrace and send us your story. We want to help you find your loved ones.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eleven -year-old Jacob Wetterling --

WETTERLING: Most children return home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was with his 10-year-old brother, Trevor, and best friend, Aaron --

WETTERLING: Jacob was this fun loving, carefree, great sense of humor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At a convenience store on the night of October 22nd, 1989.

GRACE: Patty, what happened that day when Jacob went missing?

WETTERLING: Oh, it is that nightmare that everybody describes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As the trio headed home, a masked man with a gun asked their ages and then told Trevor and Aaron to run and not look back.

WETTERLING: We got a call from the baby-sitter`s dad who lived next door and he said, you got to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trevor and Aaron ran, and when they finally did look back, Jacob and the gunman were gone.

WETTERLING: He said, you got to come home. Somebody took Jacob.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has been over 21 years since Patty Wetterling has seen her son.

WETTERLING: You hope that one day, we`ll get our answers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But she has never given up the fight to find him and neither have Minnesota investigators.

WETTERLING: I really believe that the entire state of Minnesota needs to know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: Two little boys got away, but one was not so lucky. Jacob Wetterling was abducted at gunpoint from a masked gunman. He had to stare at the -- a gun. I want to go out to his mother, Patty Wetterling, joining us tonight. Do you believe your son is alive because how many young people in the last few years have been alive? Elizabeth Smart comes to mind, and several young men are alive.

WETTERLING: Well, absolutely, I have a collection of those stories. You can never give up the hope that your child will be one that returns home. Jaycee Dugard was, after 18 years, returned home, and there is that hope. I talk to him still every day, you know, as I`m doing routine things. It`s like, where are you, Jacob? What happened? You know, we won`t ever give up. And you know, I`m fighting, it`s beyond -- it`s beyond what happened.

It`s fighting for the life that he believed in, the world that he knew where people were good and kind and would care for you. You know, this is a foreign world to us, somebody who would violate a child, and we have to hang on to the goodness of the way the world can be. And that`s what I fight for as well.

CASAREZ: What was he like?

WETTERLING: Jacob was fun. He had a great sense of humor. He was athletic. He was -- he was given a citizens award at school. He got along well. He had a keen sense of fairness. He really didn`t like it when things weren`t fair. I just -- that`s one thing I heard so much from his friends after he was taken as well. He got along great. He was a great older brother and younger brother. And he -- he was just a good, good, fun person to know.

CASAREZ: Natisha Lance --

WETTERLING: We miss him terribly.

CASAREZ: I`m sure you do. Natisha Lance, you grew up 60 miles away from this. How did it impact your growing up, what your parents said to you, what you could do, what you couldn`t do?

NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, I can`t think of anybody who does not remember this story. I was about seven or eight years old when this happened, and things changed in my household. My parents became a lot more protective. There was no more riding our bikes to the store unsupervised. There was no more staying out past a certain time. It was traveling in larger groups a lot more often.

And I can speak to -- there was a statement that was made earlier that the entire state of Minnesota needs to know. I think the story is on everyone`s mind. Everybody thinks of Jacob Wetterling. It raises a red flag for so many different parents, and it has also taught them so many different things about how to protect their children.

CASAREZ: To Pat Brown, where do you think the investigation needs to keep going at this point?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Oh, I think, Jean, that they are going in the right direction. As I said before, I don`t believe this person had a vehicle because if he did, it would be much easier just to drive by and just grab one of them and keep going. He didn`t have to go through all that sticking them in a ditch stuff and don`t look back. I think he had his little own special ops thing going and his little fantasy.

He`s out there like in Vietnam doing special ops. He saw the boys coming by, said, here`s a good victim, he waited for them to return. He stood there. He got rid of the two of them because he couldn`t handle all three, brought one back to wherever, and kept them there for as long as he wanted to continue what he was doing, until perhaps, some other people would be around and would find him there. So, I think they`re looking exactly the right place. We don`t know if that man on the farm is guilty of anything, but it`s the top place to look.

CASAREZ: To Deborah in Missouri. Hi, Deborah. Thanks for joining us.

DEBORAH, MISSOURI: Hi.

CASAREZ: Your question?

DEBORAH: My question is, has anybody thought about the two boys that were released going back now and having them hypnotized and seeing what, if anything, that they may have subconsciously put in the past and maybe they could get a new lead that way?

CASAREZ: To Sheriff John Sanner, Stearns County Sheriffs Department, joining us out of Minnesota. Have you done anything like that? Have you re-interviewed the surviving victims?

SANNER: Yes, and the hypnotic interview, like she spoke about, was conducted with the surviving children or the children that did return home.

CASAREZ: Were you able to gain evidence from that?

SANNER: Well, we were able to get some insight based on that. One of the -- one of the questions that we wanted to have answered was, did you see or remember seeing a vehicle? And none of the kids ever remembered seeing or hearing a vehicle during that type of an interview.

CASAREZ: Very interesting. What about polygraphs? Any polygraphs ever given in this case?

SANNER: There was probably, literally, hundreds of polygraph examinations given in this investigation.

CASAREZ: What words do you want to say to somebody that`s out there? Because it`s been a long time, and the time is right to find justice in this case.

SANNER: Well, absolutely. And I truly believe that law enforcement agencies are the frontline for advocates for crime victims and their families and the communities that we live in. And that`s the responsibility that we take very seriously. And if we have to continue to turn rocks over and repeat things that we`ve done in the past, that`s exactly what we`re going to do.

CASAREZ: When are you going to get the results of the evidence you are still testing from the search of the home?

SANNER: You know, I don`t know that answer. Hopefully, it will come soon, but that`s up to the lab, itself, and we`re not trying to push them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Patty, what happened that day when Jacob went missing?

WETTERLING: Oh, it is that nightmare that everybody describes. We got a phone call. We`d already talked to our kids three times to make sure everybody was OK. And the next time we got a call from the baby-sitter`s dad who lived next door and he said, you got to come home, somebody took Jacob.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, a sister, a brother, a father, a mother, disappears. Families left behind wondering, hoping. We have not forgotten.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shannon Sherrill was playing in the yard with other children when she vanished in 1986. She was wearing a white dress with blue trim. Shannon has a four-inch scar on her abdomen. Her ears are pierced, and her father says she was extremely shy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was out playing with five or six of her friends. They were playing hide and seek, and when everybody came, was found and everything, she was still missing. She was real shy and timid, and if I was talking to you and she didn`t know who you were, we were in a strange place or something, she would be right with me or behind me or she wouldn`t even go next door, unless, I knew she was going. A woman called and said that she was Shannon. She called several times. A thorough investigation of that found out that it was a hoax. It tore me apart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jerry Hawkins disappeared in 2003 in Highland Park, Michigan. He was last seen at the home of an acquaintance. He is now 48.

Shantelle Bogard was allegedly abducted by her father, and a felony warrant has been issued for him. Shantelle`s mother --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had gotten from the judge permanent full custodial rights to her. I think the last thing that I remember saying to her was I love her and I would see her later, see her in the morning. She just said she loved me and that was it. She`s a very, very happy, very go lucky kind of attitude. I mean, she loved to be outside to play. She`s a good kid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When she went missing last March, Shantelle was 3 feet tall and 45 pounds. She is now 4 years old.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: I`m Nancy Grace. See you tomorrow night, 9 o`clock sharp eastern. And until then, we will be looking. Keep the faith, friend.

END