The Jacob Wetterling case left the country and the small Minnesota town terrified. The child was kidnapped back in 1989 and his body would only be found years later. Now a new ABC 20/20 episode is bringing the case back into the spotlight and focus has gone to Aaron Larson, Wetterling’s best friend, who along with the victim’s brother was present when he was taken by a masked man all those years back.
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Patty Wetterling, Jacob’s mother, bravely spoke shortly after Danny Heinrich’s confession, saying, “He has taught us all how to live, how to love, how to be fair, how to be kind. He speaks to the world that he knew, that we all believe it and it is a world worth fighting for. Jacob, I’m so sorry.”
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Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped and murdered when he was just eleven years old. Wetterling and his brother, Trevor, and friend, Aaron Larson, were biking when a stranger stopped them and asked them to put their bikes down in the ditch and lie face down.
At the time Trevor was ten and Aaron was eleven. He asked them to run and not look back, threatening to shoot them otherwise. When the were united and finally looked back they could not find Jacob. He was gone. They quickly tried to get help, but it was too late Jacob was murdered after being kidnapped.
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Aaron Larson reportedly lives in southwest Minnesota with two children of his own. Larson’s said “He grabbed Jacob and told us to go into the woods or he’d shoot,” when he appeared for a TV interview after the abduction. As per reports, he was still reliving the night he said shaped who he is as a person.
Patty and Jerry Wetterling, Jacob’s parents, called Aaron to tell him Danny Heinrich’s arrest would be announced the next day, back in 2015. Larson explained how he felt when he saw Heinrich’s photo for the first time, “I will say it’s a feeling I hadn’t had from looking at any pictures of other people,” he said.
It was also reported that Larson was sexually assaulted by the man prior to being asked to run into the woods. The perpetrator grabbed his groin area before asking him to leave.
(By Harini Oviya)
