Missing Children Minnesota Reflect On Wetterling’s Latest Discovery

There are still two cases from 1989 in Minnesota that are unresolved.

Carol Watson worked closely with the Wetterling family, and many other missing children’s cases.

Missing Children Minnesota says it’s not just teaching your children about stranger danger.

Strange behavior is what they should be looking out for.

“The person who took Jacob, he lived not far from Jacob,” says Carol Watson, Assistant Executive Director of Missing Children Minnesota.

She says the category of acquaintances is often overlooked when thinking about who could cause danger.

Carol Watson, remembers the alarming time in 1989.

“I was contacted shortly after, like a day after the abduction by a family friend who was putting together a poster and I met them at a print shop .No we need his full name, we need his birthday,” Watson says.

And she’ll never forget it.

“The Jacob Wetterling case was the most massive poster distribution that I’m aware of,” Watson reflects.

Anyone who was willing to help took Wetterling’s flyers and helped get the word out.

As large as the distribution was back then, there are now more tools to assist in finding children.

“Social media like Facebook has become a huge, huge tool. For searching for children, when my son went missing back in 1983 we didn’t even have call waiting,” says Watson.

Abductions are something Carol knows all too well.

“We started actually operating at the end of 1983, but we didn’t get incorporated until Feb 17 , 1984, which is Jacob Wetterling’s birthday, and it also happens to be the day my son was found. When there is nothing but an enormous question mark, you can’t ever really move on,” she says.

Watson says the discovery of the body provides a resolution, but not closure.

But it does bring something.

“Whenever a long term missing child is recovered, however they are recovered, when it’s a case like this, at least now they know what happened,” Watson explains.

Since 1983 Missing Children Minnesota has helped more than three thousand and five hundred families.

They have 24 hour support services and you can find their contact information on here.