‘20/20’ investigates Jacob Wetterling’s abduction and his mother’s activism

In 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted while riding his bike home with his younger brother and a friend. The case went unsolved until 2016, when a man in police custody for possession of child pornography admitted to kidnapping and murdering Wetterling.

In a new episode on the Wetterling case, ABC’s “20/20” tells Jacob’s story in detail, looking at how his family dealt with the tragedy.

The “20/20” episode focuses specifically on his mother, Patty Wetterling, who became an advocate for abducted and exploited children.

Patty recently wrote a book on her experience, “Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope,” which will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 17.

What happened to Jacob Wetterling?

Jacob Wetterling was abducted near his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota, on Oct. 22, 1989, according to ABC News.

He was riding his bike with his brother, Trevor, and his best friend, Aaron Larson, when a masked man holding a gun stopped them and made them lie facedown on the ground. “The man took Jacob and told Larson and Trevor Wetterling to run away and not look back or else he would shoot them,” per ABC.

When Larson and Trevor Wetterling made it home, they called 911. Police soon arrived and began to comb the area. Despite finding tire tracks and footprints, per ABC, law enforcement officers were unable to locate Jacob.

Patty Wetterling’s campaign for justice

After her son’s abduction, Patty Wetterling dedicated herself to finding Jacob and fighting for children like him. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, Patty Wetterling served on the board of directors for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and co-founded Team HOPE, the organization’s support group for people with missing children.

One of Patty Wetterling’s most notable accomplishments is her successful campaign for the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which was passed in 1994. Also called the Jacob Wetterling Act, it instituted the first statewide sex-offender registry.

Tom Hauser, a reporter for KSTP-TV in St. Paul, said in the “20/20” episode that Patty Wetterling became an advocate for all children after Jacob’s disappearance.

“It wasn’t just about Jacob,” Hauser told ABC. “It was about all children.”

When was Jacob Wetterling’s case solved?

The FBI reexamined Jacob Wetterling’s disappearance in 2014 and began investigating a man who had been a person of interest in the case for years: Danny Heinrich. After carrying out a warrant to search Heinrich’s property, police found child pornography on Heinrich’s computer and arrested him in 2016.

Heinrich was interrogated and confessed to the murder of Jacob Wetterling. As part of a plea deal, he led investigators to the location of Wetterling’s body but was not charged for the murder, per ABC.

Heinrich is now serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison for the child pornography charges and will likely remain behind bars after the completion of his sentence, per NBC.

The “20/20” episode is now available to stream on Hulu.