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For Wetterlings, It's Been A Long Road To Answers

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Since his abduction, Jacob's family has been through a roller coaster of memories, anniversaries, and false hope.

Through their grief, the Wetterlings have worked to help other families of missing and exploited children.

Oct. 22, 1989 would be the night that would forever change a family, a city, an entire state. Jacob was abducted near his home while riding his bike with his brother and a friend, Aaron Larson, who described the attack to reporters at the time.

"He grabbed Jacob and told me to run as fast as I could or he'll shoot," Larson in 1989.

Related: Cold Case: Jacob Wetterling's Siblings Talk

"There's no explanation. I don't feel anger. I just want him home," Jacob's mother Patty Wetterling said the day after he was abducted.

That day his father Jerry urged Jacob to stay strong.

"I'm very optimistic," he said. :My son is very intelligent, and if he can pull through he'll do so."

Searches were conducted through the air and on foot. The slogan "Jacob's Hope" got national attention. But weeks, and then months went by with no sign of Jacob.

His family, however, has never given up hope. In 1990, they established the Jacob Wetterling Foundation -- a national database that helps families of missing children. Later, they helped create the Jacob Wetterling Act, which created a sex offender registry and helped launch the Amber Alert.

"I'm fighting for a world Jacob believed in," Patty told WCCO in a previous interview.

The years have brought hope for answers. In 2010, investigators used backhoes and searched the farm property of the Wetterling's neighbor Daniel Rassier, but found nothing.

They also interviewed convicted murderer Delbert Huber about Jacob's disappearance, before Huber died in prison.

"I never had nothing to do with the Jacob Wetterling kid," Huber said during an interview with WCCO's Esme Murphy.

Two and a half decades of searching with no answers. Years go by, but hope remains.

"I never want to look Jacob in the eye and say we got too tired," Patty Wetterling said. "We will never quit, ever."

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