News @ Noon: New Book Investigates the Abduction of Jacob Wetterling

ST. CLOUD - A new book about the abduction of Jacob Wetterling is set to be released later this year. Author Robert M. Dudley is writing "It Can't Happen Here: The Search for Jacob Wetterling".

He's from Wisconsin, and while he's always known about the case, he wasn't clear on the facts. Then, in 2010 he heard a news story about Jacob Wetterling on the radio, which led him to doing a lot of research just out of his own curiosity. He says, "I did that for about three years, and then about a year ago it occurred to me that I could write a book about this. There's just a lot of information there. It's a solvable case. There's a lot more information that's been presented and forgotten than what's on the front of people's minds".

Dudley says he has over 300 different sources in the book. He hasn't met the Wetterling family, but he wants to be respectful of them. He says, "the book is not so much about them. It's about the history of the case, the history of the media attention, and how the town and the state came together to search for Jacob. It's really a very detailed accounting from the day of the abduction to the present."

Dudley says when he uncovers what he believes to be a new clue in the case, he turns it over to both the FBI and the Stearns County Sheriff's Office.

He says he believes the case can still be solved. He says, "somebody has to know something. And somebody holds the answers, and they may-or-may not know it. I hope this inspires somebody to make that phone call."

Wetterling was abducted at about 9:15 p.m. on October 22nd, 1989 in St. Joseph.

Dudley will be talking more about his book next Wednesday at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud. He has a release date scheduled for March 1st.

The Jacob Wetterling Resource Center says "This book was written without the knowledge of the Wetterling family. No member of the Wetterling family was interviewed for this book and it was published after the family requested that the Author not go forward. One Wetterling family member has read the book and noted factual errors therein."

Click on the audio player to hear the full interview: