The trailer alone, forcing buried memories to the surface: "My whole name is Jacob Erwin Wetterling, my favorite food is steak, my favorite color is blue, my best friend is Aaron Larson."
An innocent home video of Jacob Wetterling before he was abducted near St. Joseph in 1989 at the age of 11, while riding his bike home from the store.
Now a new film is documenting the nearly 27-year journey to finding him. The premiere of a documentary film on the search for Wetterling highlights the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival this weekend.
Jacob's remains were found in 2016 after a longtime person of interest confessed to taking him. His mother, Patty Wetterling recalling the case coming to a painful close.
"The front row of the courtroom, when this guy was sentenced, the front two rows on the other side of the aisle from us were victims of his," Patty Wetterling said.
Yet, to this day, she prefers not to name the man who was convicted. Wetterling tells WCCO's Adam and Jordana she also didn't want to make this film at first, but felt they owed it to the community.
"It touched so many lives in so many ways, that it's important to wrap your arms around it," Wetterling explains. "And just sort of face things head on."
The story captured Minnesota and the nation in 1989, and still sticks as a painful memory in the state over three decades later. So much of that has been due to Patty Wetterling herself, sharing her family struggle and pain as the search went on. And advocating for other missing children across the nation.
"It's hard to live through something like that and know what to do with it," she says. "So this kind of wraps it all together and it's like, yeah, that was a lot. And here we are now, we're better, we're stronger, and we're all together."
Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked gunman while riding his bike home from the store in October of 1989. The film is directed by Chris Newberry who begins the film as the perpetrator is finally caught and the entire investigation into Jacob’s disappearance is re-examined. It then goes on to focus on the family’s search for answers, the work they’ve done in Jacob’s memory to change the way missing children cases are investigated and resolved.
"Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling"
Showing Saturday night and Sunday as part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival at The Main Cinema, with one more showing next week.
Main Cinema
115 SE Main Street
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Showtimes
Theater 1 - Saturday, April 18th, 6:45 p.m.
Theater 1 - Sunday, April 19th, 11:15 a.m.
Theater 1 - Wednesday, April 22nd, 7:00 p.m.
"Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling" premiers at this weekend's Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival
"Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling" premiers at this weekend's Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival
