As a child growing up in MN we all knew about the abduction of Jacob Wetterling. We all knew his name. We all knew his story.

Today, after 26 years, his remains have been found.

Jacob was kidnapped on the night of October 22, 1989 in St. Joseph, MN. He was an 11 year old boy just a little younger than me. His mother’s pleas for his return was all over our news broadcasts and, as a child, I had hopes that someone would eventually return him to his parents arms and life would be perfect again. Obviously, as an adult, there is a sense of reality.  Jacob would never come home to a perfect life, if he would ever return alive.

As a mother, I can’t even imagine what his parents went through. I cry at the thought of what happened to him when he was taken by a monster. My fears of my own children in Jacob’s shoes haunt me. I’ve always been overprotective of my children based on his abduction. My kids know his story. They know what can happen and why I always say “if you can’t see me, I can’t see you.”