David Unze

St. Cloud (Minn.) Times

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Investigators in the Jacob Wetterling case had his mother wear a recording device in 2009 to try to get a "person of interest" who lived near the abduction site to disclose information about the abduction of the 11-year-old St. Joseph boy in 1989.

That and other details about why authorities named Dan Rassier a "person of interest" in Jacob's abduction are contained in search warrants that were unsealed Friday. Those warrants were sealed in 2010 when investigators searched the Rassier property and dug up parts of his family farm, looking for evidence.

The case was solved and Rassier's status as a person of interest ended when Danny Heinrich admitted in court Tuesday that he sexually assaulted Jacob before shooting him twice and burying his body in rural Paynesville, all within hours of the Oct. 22, 1989, abduction.

Rassier lived with his parents at the farm near where Danny Heinrich abducted Jacob in October 1989. Although Heinrich was an early suspect in the case, investigators in 2009 had turned their attention to Rassier.

Suspect gives chilling details about 1989 killing of Jacob Wetterling

Patty Wetterling, Jacob's mother, confronted Rassier at a health club in St. Cloud while wearing a wire.

She asked Rassier about a vehicle he said had been down his driveway that night, a vehicle he repeatedly told investigators must have been involved in the abduction. But investigators had by that time ruled out the use of a vehicle in the abduction, and they were accusing him of abducting Jacob at the end of the Rassier driveway.

Heinrich this week admitted that he drove a blue car, just as Rassier had told investigators, into the Rassier driveway that night to wait for Jacob, his brother and a friend to return home from the Tom Thumb store.

The search warrants show that investigators relied on statements Rassier made under hypnosis, on things he said to Patty Wetterling when she was wearing that wire and on comments Rassier made to investigators, who he thought had bungled the case, to get warrants to search the Rassier farm.

Another warrant, obtained to search the Paynesville farm where Jacob's remains were found, indicates that an unnamed "source of information," who had access to Heinrich since he was taken into federal custody last year on child pornography charges, told investigators that Heinrich had confessed to killing Jacob. That information was the catalyst for plea negotiations that led to the recovery of Jacob's remains. That "source of information" was not identified in the search warrants.

When reached by phone earlier this week, Rassier said he knew the search warrants would soon be released. He declined to comment about them.

Rassier's parents were in Europe at the time of the abduction, meaning he was alone in the home near the abduction site. The Rassier property was searched six days after the abduction, and investigators didn't take any evidence.

When he was interviewed in 1989, Rassier described seeing a smaller, dark blue car come into his driveway that evening, turn around and leave. He said he might have seen Jacob in that vehicle. Heinrich was driving a blue car around the time he abducted Jacob.

Rasssier said it was the second vehicle that had come into his driveway that day, turned around and left. He said the vehicle caused his dog to bark. Neither Aaron Larson nor Trevor Wetterling, the boys who were with Jacob when he was abducted, said they heard a dog barking during the abduction.

The search warrants indicate that a man named Kevin Hamilton told a St. Joseph police officer in 1989 that he heard about the abduction on a police radio scanner that he owned. He told the officer that he went to the abduction scene, drove up the Rassier driveway, turned around and left.

Remains of Minnesota boy missing since 1989 found

That statement apparently "did not get into the investigative file at that time," according to the warrants.

Hamilton came forward again in 2003 and told investigators the same information. That changed the course of the investigation.

"It is believed that the Hamilton vehicle is the one described by Rassier as being in his driveway between 9 and 10 p.m.on October 22, 1989," the warrant reads.

Investigators in 2004 came to believe that the abductor likely hadn't used a vehicle. Rassier soon became a person of interest in the abduction.

Rassier agreed to be hypnotized and interviewed in late November 1989, in an effort for investigators to learn more about the vehicles that had been at his farm on the night of the abduction. That interview was video recorded.

Investigators in 2004 again watched that video, but from the new perspective that no vehicle had been used in the abduction.

"From this perspective, there were comments and reactions that Rassier made throughout the hypnotic interview that raised new questions as to Rassier being the suspect/abductor," the warrants read.

For example, Rassier could provide a detailed timeline of events and his activities before and after the time of the abduction. When he was asked under hypnosis about the time of the abduction, he told investigators that he "lost track of time," the warrants reads.

When discussing the vehicles that came up his driveway that night, Rassier began to cry and shake. He said that if a perpetrator wanted to get Jacob he "would have gotten him eventually," according to the warrant documents.

Still under hypnosis, Rassier also said that when he saw investigators' flashlights at his wood pile after the abduction had been reported, he commented that he "was very nervous and could not get dressed and that he was very scared and in big trouble."

During the hypnotic interview, Rassier was asked if he knew Jacob and he said no, began crying and said he "didn't think he would do this." Investigators reported that Rassier would cry and shake when the abduction was mentioned during that interview, but that he would regain his composure when other subjects were discussed.

Jacob Wetterling abduction tied to child porn suspect

After viewing the videotape, investigators in 2004 interviewed Rassier again. They confronted him, accusing him of kidnapping Wetterling, according to the search warrants. They told him there was no vehicle used in the abduction. Rassier repeatedly told investigators that there was a vehicle in his driveway that night and it must have been involved in the abduction.

Rassier admitted that, if he had taken Jacob, he would have had "plenty of time and locations to dispose of him on his farm," according to the warrants.

According to the warrant documents, investigators believed he mocked them, accusing them of botching the case, in part by not searching his residence until four or five days after the abduction.

"Rassier seemed to be enjoying this part of the conversation, smirking at times, also noting that investigators had one problem, they had no physical evidence," the warrant reads.

Investigators interviewed Rassier's parents in February 2004. His parents said that Rassier had mocked the investigators and told his father that "even if I did do it, I had all kinds of time to get away with it."

Timeline of the Wetterling investigation

Patty Wetterling wore a wire in 2009 to talk to Rassier.

She asked him what happened to Jacob, and Rassier told her that the driver of the car must have been the person who did it. He told her he had a fear that law enforcement had made him feel guilty and that if someone else knew that, they could come onto his property and bury Jacob's body in an attempt to frame him.

He also told Patty that he had dug around in a "known sunken part" of his property and found a dog.

"I dug it up because I actually thought it was Jacob," Rassier is quoted as saying in the warrants.

When Patty Wetterling mentioned that the person who kidnapped Jacob has had a life of hell, Rassier replied that the person who kidnapped Jacob is "probably dead."

Former neighbors share reactions to Wetterling news

Investigators believed Rassier thought he had a "double personality" and would refer to things that his other personality had done.

The warrants also seem to rely on the investigator's perception that Rassier lacked a social life, the fact that he taught kids of Jacob's age and on a comment he made in a newspaper article. Rassier is an avid runner, and he commented to a newspaper reporter that he runs "to suppress pain."

Investigators believed that Rassier was either running from a painful experience or that the pain "may be associated" with the Wetterling abduction.

One of the search warrants unsealed Friday was requested after the digging and search of the Rassier property had begun. Specially trained dogs had alerted on items at the farm, indicating the presence of possible human remains. That led to investigators requesting a search of the Rassier house.

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Follow David Unze on Twitter: @sctimesunze.