"20/20" Examines Decades Old Kidnapping Case and the Victim Who Helped Solve the Shocking Crime

A new edition of 20/20 is ready to look at a decades-old case that was solved after a stunning confession over a quarter-century after it happened.

What's Happening:

• In 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was biking home with his brother and best friend when a masked, armed man abducted him just a half mile from his home.
• This Friday, 20/20 reports on Minnesota’s most notorious kidnapping case and speaks to Jared Scheierl, who at age 12 was abducted by the same man who would kidnap Jacob Wetterling months later.
• DNA found on Scheierl’s clothing led authorities to a suspect who made a stunning confession 27 years later.
• Co-Anchor Deborah Roberts sits down with Jacob’s parents, Patty and Jerry Wetterling, as well as blogger Joy Baker, whose research helped push for a new review of the case.
• The program features interviews with Jacob’s friends, law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as scenes from the new documentary Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling, directed by Chris Newberry.
• 20/20 also documents Patty Wetterling and Baker as they co-write a book about the disappearance, Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope.
• 20/20: Where Are You Jacob? airs tonight, Friday, July 17 at 9:00 PM on ABC and streams next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

The Case:

• Jacob Wetterling was an 11-year-old boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota. On the evening of October 22, 1989, he and his younger brother, Trevor, were riding their bicycles home with a friend after renting a movie from a local convenience store.
• Around 9:00 p.m., a masked man wearing a stocking cap stepped into the road and pointed a revolver at the boys. He ordered them to lie face down in a ditch.
• The gunman asked each boy his age before selecting Jacob. He told Trevor and the other boy to run into the woods and not look back. When they eventually returned with help, Jacob and the kidnapper were gone.
• Over nearly three decades, investigators examined numerous suspects and theories, which will likely be explored in the 20/20 episode, including the already mentioned advances in DNA testing that that helped connect a suspect in 2015.