http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...tterling_N.htm
20 years spent keeping vigil for abducted son
Updated 10/22/2009 1:56 PM
ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — The single road that connects Jerry and Patty Wetterling's quiet cul-de-sac home to the rest of the world looks a lot like it did 20 years ago today, when their son Jacob, 11, was abducted from the road by a masked gunman as he, his brother and a friend returned on their bikes from a convenience store.
Every time the Wetterlings take 91st Avenue — whether for days at a time or to get a gallon of milk — they pass the spot of the unsolved abduction, which led, five years later, to the first law requiring states to maintain sex offender registries.
"I say a prayer every time I go past it," Patty said.
"We call it 'The Site,' " Jerry said. "Sometimes we say we're going to take a walk to 'The Site.' It's kind of an eerie feeling."
Stearns County, Minn. Sheriff John Sanner says he believes a local man likely abducted Jacob after chasing away Jacob's brother Trevor and friend Aaron Larson. Despite a massive effort that he says included about 18,000 leads the first two months, police have not solved the case.
The Wetterlings have spent the past 20 years keeping hope alive and working to help protect others from the fate that befell the second of their four children.
"Jacob's Hope" became a slogan for those efforts, which helped lead to the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act.
Enacted in 1994 and modified several times — most prominently in 1996 as Megan's Law, prompted by the 1994 kidnapping of New Jersey youth Megan Kanka — the Wetterling Act was the first federal law requiring all 50 states, the five principal U.S. territories and the District of Columbia to maintain a registration system, according to Dawn Doran, deputy director of the Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking Office at the Department of Justice.
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