“The Jacob Wetterling Documentary” Holds Trailer Party to Raise Money for the Film

For the past three and a half years, Chris Newberry and his team have been working closely with Jacob's parents, Patty and Jerry, to help tell their son's story

FARGO, N.D.– Nearly 30 years ago, 11–year–old Jacob Wetterling was abducted from his Minnesota hometown and killed.

Filmmaker Chris Newberry is telling Jacob’s story.

For the past three and a half years, Chris Newberry and his team have been working closely with Jacob’s parents, Patty and Jerry, to help tell their son’s story.

Chris grew up in Minnesota, an hour away from where the abduction took place.

He was 14 at the time of the incident and the case had a real impact on him because he was so close in age to Jacob.

Twenty four years later, a billboard with Jacobs face and the words ‘still missing’ gave him the idea to make a documentary about the cold case.

A week after the Wetterling’s agreed to the film, the police had a suspect in custody.

“For the family, everything changed,” says director of the documentary, Chris Newberry. “Their world had been turned on its side one more time. And all of a sudden there was this suspect, this person of interest, but we still didn’t have answers.”

Ten months later that suspect confessed and was charged with the kidnapping and murder of Jacob Wetterling.

“How did this one unassuming night in this small town in Minnesota, this one event tragic as it was, was still just this moment in time? It had this huge ripple effect. Changes in Law,” added Newberry.

In 1994 the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Program was made law.

Jacobs’s parents wanted the public to know about the good that came from this tragedy, protection for kids that Jacob did not have.

“My kids’ childhood is very different from mine. Just like Jacob, I would ride my bike around the neighborhood unsupervised after dark. In most parts of the country, most neighborhoods that’s way more uncommon now,” Newberry explained.

A trailer tour stopping in 5 cities and a go fund me has been set up to help hire an editing team that can put together a capturing story about the case.

Fargo is the last stop, but the trailer parties have had high demand to hit more cities.

Two more stops will be added: one in Minneapolis and one in Jacob’s hometown of St. Joseph.

To donate to the film project, click here.