Jacob Wetterling, Jacob Wetterling Case, Jacob Wetterling Abduction, Jacob Wetterling Foundation, Jacob Wetterling Story

Jacob Wetterling, Jacob Wetterling Case, Jacob Wetterling Abduction, Jacob Wetterling Foundation, Jacob Wetterling Story

The Stearns County sheriff’s office has converged on a property with earth-moving equipment near the site where Jacob Wetterling was abducted in 1989, Patty Wetterling said today.

“I was notified this morning,” she said while attending a worksh Minnesota this afternoon onsexual violence. “I was told about the search, but other than that I don’t know anything else.”

Neighbors reported seeing several unmarked law enforcement vehicles Wednesday morning at theproperty. Aerial photos taken by the St. Cloud Times revealed as many as 17 vehicles, all-terrain vehicles and trailers on the property.

Chief Deputy Bruce Bechtold of the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department said he was restricted by court order from commenting on the investigation. The order, he said, was issued by a Stearns County judge on Tuesday or today.

“All I can tell you is we’re conducting an investigation in the St. Joseph’s area, and the details of that investigation are restricted by a court order,” Bechtold said.

He provided no further details.

The FBI is “supporting search warrant operations in that area,” said E.K. Wilson, FBI spokesman. At about 5:45 p.m., he said he didn’t know if the area had been secured for the day and said he expected the FBI’s support of operations to continue Thursday.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited has “some people on the ground” in St. Joseph today, “working in support of the sheriff and

the FBI,” said Bob Lowery, executive director of the missing children’s division. He said the center has had people “in and out of St. Joseph regularly over the last many years.”

“We’re always encouraged by any new leads, but we don’t want to provide false hopes,” Lowery said.

Jerry Wetterling, Jacob’s father, said late this afternoon: “I really don’t want to get into any particular suspects or people, because I really don’t know what’s going on over there. I just know there’s lots of activity.

“When I drove to work this morning, there were five or six squad cars on that driveway, and I was extremely surprised.”

Jerry Wetterling said previous leads have never panned out.

“There’s been leads that have been pursued aggressively for months at a time,” he said. “There’s been over 30,000 leads in this case. … I just know when there have been leads in the past, law enforcement will do whatever they think is necessary to pursue that particular lead. We’ve just been so grateful for all the interest and support, in people helping out and trying to find out what actually happened to Jacob.