joseph, minnesota, 11-year-old jacob wetterling was kidnapped. the case remained unsolved for nearly 27 years until a local man, danny heinrich, confessed in 2016. the jacob wetterling case was one of those moments that redefined how minnesotans saw their small town. before jacob disappeared, people in rural minnesota believed they were set apart, special somehow. isolated from all the crime and evil endemic in the cities. so when jacob went missing, no one felt safe, not ever again. i heard about the jacob wetterling case when i moved from south dakota to minnesota in january 2000. a girl in my high school english class told me the story as a parable after i told her how i often went for walks on the path behind my house. i heard other participants pass the name -- parents pass the name of jacob. if it could happen in st. joe, then no place was safe. i often hear my friends now who would be about the same age as jacob, had he been allowed to live, invoking the time before, that remembered time of innocence when, you know, kids were allowed to be