Jacob Wetterling's mom speaks out on son's case, advocacy work ahead of new book
As the years passed with no answers about what happened to her son, Patty Wetterling found hope in the stories of other missing children who had made it back home.
"I would do anything to protect my children and all of these children," Patty told ABC News as she thumbed through old newspaper clippings.
Jacob Wetterling, an 11-year-old boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota, was kidnapped by a masked man at gunpoint about a half-mile from his home one evening in October 1989. The abduction remained unsolved until 2016, when Danny Heinrich, a man from a nearby town, confessed to assaulting and killing Jacob and led investigators to the boy's remains.
During that time, Patty's unwavering hope would fuel the search for answers about what happened to her son. The ordeal would also inspire her to become a nationally recognized advocate for other missing and exploited children.
Jacob Wetterling's case is examined in a new "20/20" airing Friday, Oct. 13 at 9 p.m. ET.
MORE: Parents, investigators recall long quest for answers after Jacob Wetterling's 1989 abduction
Patty recalled the heartbreaking moment she took out a photo of Jacob from the frame on the wall to give to police as they launched their search for the boy.
"It was so hard, 'cause I had, you know, three of the kids' school pictures on the wall, and then there's this blank frame," Patty said.
The hunt for Jacob Wetterling quickly became one of the biggest search missions in Minnesota history and the case made national headlines, with Patty front and center pleading to the public for answers.
Meanwhile, Patty began to write letters to her son as a way of connecting with him.
"If he came home tomorrow, I wanted him to know exactly what we had tried, everything that we'd tried, 'cause I kept thinking he was wondering why did it take so long?" Patty said.
In one letter, she wrote, "Dear Jacob, my heart hurts as days pass by without you. I wrestle over the details again and again. Who could have done this? Where are you Jacob?"
"I love you Jacob and I promise, I will never stop searching for you. Love mom," the letter also said.
MORE: Minnesota Man Confesses to 1989 Killing of 11-Year-Old Jacob Wetterling
With Jacob's case still unsolved, Patty got involved with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children with the hope of preventing other children from experiencing what happened to her son.
It was Patty's activism that led to the passage of a 1994 federal law named for Jacob that require states to establish sex offender registries.
"Jacob spurred Patty into being a bulldog, you know, for keeping kids safe," Jacob's father, Jerry Wetterling, told ABC News.
"I am a believer in children," Patty told ABC News.
In a new book, "Dear Jacob: A Mother's Journey of Hope" that is out Oct. 17, Patty shares the untold story of the search for her son and details of the investigation, along with blogger Joy Baker, who took a special interest in Jacob's case and joined forces with Patty in 2013.
"Everybody has stuff going on in their lives and they're trying to figure out, ‘How do you, how do you get through this?’" Patty told ABC News, adding that “part of me wanted to write to -- share some of what kept us going if it could help another family.”
After Jacob’s remains were found nearly three decades after his kidnapping, Patty still found ways to keep Jacob’s hope alive.
"And I didn't want our own kids to live fearful, afraid of the world, afraid to go out and to play and to have fun. So we fought for the way the world that Jacob knew. I refused to let the man who took Jacob take away anything more. You can't have my marriage. You can't have my kids. You can't have the world --that of innocence-- believing in dreams and going after your full potential. That's really what I have fought for and I still will -- is the kids," she added.